Man From Mundania (25 page)

foul-ups don't happen next time." He saw Ivy trying to

signal him to be quiet, but his dander was up and he was

sick of authorities who pushed regular folk around. He had

had more than enough of that in college! This horse was

the mouthpiece of whoever ran this carnival, so he was

telling him a thing or three.

It seems I must come to terms with you, though you

know not what you are, the stallion said, annoyed. He

turned to Girard. The figment can exist only here, not in

Xanth. Would you come here physically to be with her?

"Sure!" Girard said.

Then so shall it be. The eyes nickered, and the ground

shuddered.

A shape loomed from over the hill. Some huge creature

was approaching.

It was the giantess. "Gina!" Girard boomed as her tow-

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ering head came into sight. He lurched to his feet, and

lumbered across to meet her.

"Girard!" she boomed back. "I was afraid you would

forget me and I would cease to exist, for no one but you

believed in me!"

"Never!" Girard cried passionately. They came to-

gether with a crash that shook the whole setting.

Satisfied? the Night Stallion inquired.

"You'll find work for him—for them both—here?" Grey

asked. "No more tie downs?"

Work for them both, the stallion agreed.

"But Grey can't stay here!" Ivy protested.

The stallion turned to her. Obviously not.

"But you said he would share the giant's fate, if he took

his part!"

The stallion paused, as if figuring something out. And

so shall it be. The two shall be linked by exchanging set-

tings. Girard here. Grey there. Do you accept the ex-

change?

"Exchange?" Grey asked.

His body for yours.

"Now wait—" Grey protested.

"He means he'll bring Girard's body into the gourd,

and move ours out of it,'' Ivy explained. ' 'It's a fair deal.''

"Oh. Okay." That was a kind of sharing, he realized.

Once more the stallion's eyes nickered in the unmoving

figure. Then the scene changed.

Chapter 7. Sharing

I

Ivy breathed a sigh of relief. They were in Xanth

proper at last! She wanted to hug the familiar acom and

birch bark trees she saw around them, and kiss the familiar

turf.

Grey stood beside her. He looked around. "Oh—another

setting," he said.

"It's not another setting," she said. "This is Xanth!"

"How can we tell?"

"I've lived in Xanth all my life! I know it when I see

it," she said defensively.

He shrugged as if it didn't make much difference. "It

does seem to be where the giant was. See, there is the

indentation where he lay."

"And there is the gourd, right beyond the holes where

his elbows were propped," she agreed. "The Night Stal-

lion brought his body in and put ours out. Now if I can

just figure out where we are."

"I thought you said you know Xanth. Haven't you been

here before?"

"I know the general way of Xanth," she said. "The

types of trees, for example. But I stay mostly on the en-

chanted paths, and this must be way off those, because the

giants don't use them. We'll just have to find our way to

a path, and then walk down it to Castle Roogna."

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"If this is a magic land, why don't you just enchant us

there?"

"Are you making fun of me?" she demanded.

He raised his hands in the Mundane surrender signal.

"I guess I don't know the rules."

"Well, it's because that isn't my kind of magic," she

said, cooling. "My talent is Intensification, not Transpor-

tation. I could make us walk there faster, but that's about

all."

"I don't mind walking," he said. "It looks like a nice

place."

She was relieved that he hadn't thought to inquire about

the magic mirror. Of course she could use it to contact

her mother again, and she knew that she should do just

that. It was right in her knapsack, along with the sign

language book. But the episode with the giant had shown

her more about Grey, and she wanted to work things out

with him before turning up at the castle. The long walk

should take several days, and that might be enough.

"But first we had better eat," she said.

"We had plenty of Girard's crackers and cheese."

"I'm not sure it's the same, in the gourd. I'm hungry

again; aren't you?" That was one thing that was not in

her knapsack: food!

He rubbed his stomach. "Yes, come to think of it.

But—"

"There's a pie plant over there," she said, spying it.

She walked over to it. It was young, with small pot pies

in the budding stage, but she was able to enhance these

into ripeness so she could pluck them. They were only

warm, not hot, but that was the best this immature plant

could do, even enhanced. She gave one to Grey and took

another for herself.

"That's a nice trick," he remarked as he ate. Ivy didn't

comment, because she knew it wasn't exactly a compli-

ment. He thought she had found food provided by the

Mundane management.

The thing about Grey was that he had acted forthrightly

in the gourd even though he didn't believe in its magic.

He had figured out a way to get the across the river, then

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117

had sought the source of all that blood and found the suf-

fering giant. She would never have thought of that, be-

cause she took magic for granted. Then he had insisted on

helping the giant, and had succeeded in freeing him. She

liked that; it showed how Grey cared about people, even

strange ones. Then he had faced down the Night Stallion,

and that had to have taken sheer courage. Even if Grey

didn't believe in magic, he knew that the stallion had power

of that realm. Yet he had stood his ground and finally

made his point.

"What did the horse mean when he said I would share

the giant's fate?" Grey asked as he finished his pie.

"He meant that whatever he did to Girard, he would

also do to you," she answered. "My little brother, Dolph,

ran up against that when he helped Grace'1 Ossian. But he

didn't flinch, and in the end the stallion let him go, and

her too. So when you didn't flinch either, he let you go."

"But he took the giant in! So I didn't share his fate. In

the dream it seemed to make sense, about exchanging

places, but now I'm not so sure."

"Maybe he interpreted it in another way."

Grey looked perplexed. "What other way?"

"Well, Girard got his girlfriend."

He looked at her, startled. "Are you my, uh—?"

Ivy felt herself blushing. "Yes."

"I—but I thought you were mad because I don't, uh,

you know, believe."

"Not mad. Frustrated. But now we're in Xanth, I can

show you how magic works, and it will be all right."

"Ivy, I don't care about magic! But I think you're, uh,

great. You're just the sort of girl I always wanted, without

really knowing it until I met you."

"I feel the same about you, even though you're Mun-

dane."

"You mean you'd like me better, if I believed in

magic?"

"Not exactly. You don't believe I am a princess, ei-

ther."

"Well, I suppose you don't have to be magic to be a

princess."

"I am both, and I want to convince you. But I like you

because you don't believe in either."

Grey shook his head. "I don't understand."

Ivy decided that this was at last the time for candor on

this subject. "Let's assume that I am what I say I am,

even if you don't believe: a Princess who can work magic.

How would a man react, who believes?"

"Well, he'd figure you were a pretty good catch, I think.

I mean, he could maybe marry you and be a king or some-

thing, and even if not, it could still be a pretty good life.

And you're pretty, which doesn't exactly hurt."

"So you believe he would seek my hand for reasons

other than my personality?"

"I didn't mean to say there was anything wrong with

your personality! But yes, I think maybe he would."

"So how could I be sure that a man liked me for my-

self?"

"Well, you couldn't, really, if you didn't hide what you

were. I mean, men don't always tell women the truth about

things."

"Suppose he didn't believe what I was?"

He looked at her appraisingly. "Then, maybe, uh—"

"So when you tell me you like me, I can believe you—

even if I am a princess."

He nodded. "I think I understand, now."

"And if you find out that I really am a princess?"

"I told you, I don't care about that! You can be anything

you want to be, it doesn't matter to me. I just want to be

with you, and have you want to be with me too."

"I am not sure I can believe you."

"I'm not lying!" he protested.