Man From Mundania (37 page)

The centaur held the knife carefully and bent down to

reach his right forehoof, which he set on one of Ivy's

chairs. He carved at the edge of the hoof, which was in-

deed somewhat ragged.

The knife slid across the hoof without cutting in. Don-

key tried again, with greater pressure. This time the blade

dug in, but wouldn't cut; it was lodged in its niche. "No

magic I can fathom," Donkey said.

"Maybe it's not the blade, it's Grey," Dolph said ea-

geriy. "That's what we're trying to prove, you know. See

if Grey can cut your hoof.''

"Let a nonspecialist cut my hoof?" Donkey asked, ap-

palled.

"Just to see if he has magic, Don," Electra said cajol-

ingly.

The centaur yielded. It was evident that the two had

become very close, in the past day. Ivy realized that after

three years playing second to Nada, Electra was delighted

to have a new friend. This did not affect her betrothal to

Dolph, of course; she loved him and would die if she did

not marry him. But in other respects she was an ordinary

gid, with ordinary feelings. Ivy was not as close to her as

she was to Nada, but it was true that Electra brightened

Castle Roogna and was a lot of fun.

Grey took the knife. "You want me to cut a sliver off

your hoof?" he asked uncertainly. "My knife is sharp; it

should be able to do that."

"My hoof is magically hard," Donkey said. "That's

not my talent; my talent is to change the color of my

hooves." He demonstrated, and the brown became green,

then red.

"Oooo!" Ivy and Nada said together, delighted.

"But then how—?" Dolph asked.

"All centaurs have magically hard hooves," Donkey

explained. "It's part of being centaur, like having perfect

aim with the bow and superior intellectual abilities. It

doesn't count as a talent."

"Well, it seems to me that a sharp knife should cut a

hoof," Grey said. "Magic or not. That's the way of knives

and hooves." He put the knife to the hoof and carefully

carved.

A cud of hoof appeared.

"There!" Dolph exclaimed. "He did it! He's magic!"

"No I'm not," Grey said resolutely. "I just know what's

what. I knew this knife would cut that hoof."

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Man from Mundania

Man from Mundania

171

"But that knife wouldn't cut for me!" Donkey pro-

tested.

"Because you thought it wouldn't," Grey said. "It was

psychological. You could cut it if you really tried."

Donkey turned grim. Grey had insulted him. But Elec-

tra jumped in. She caught the centaur's arm, getting his

attention, and drew herself close to his ear. "He's Mun-

dane!" she reminded him. "They don't know about man-

ners."

Grey looked up. "Now wait—"

Nada interceded, approaching Grey in much the same

manner. "She means that different things bother different

people. Some of us don't like to be called reptilian; others

don't like to have their integrity questioned."

"Reptilian?" Grey asked, distracted. Indeed, Nada

hardly looked the part; she was wearing the kind of dress

that would have sagged on Ivy, showing contours that

tended to make men stop in their tracks and ponder na-

ture.

Ivy felt a tinge of possessiveness and jealousy. Then she

had another thought, and suppressed it. If Grey could be

distracted by someone like Nada, perhaps it was best that

it happen. It might be better than the present problem.

Donkey stepped back in. "I am sure I misunderstood.

I apologize for mistaking your meaning."

Grey looked at Ivy, alarmed. Ivy remembered the joke

she had played on him, using the brassie mode of apology.

She burst out laughing.

The others looked puzzled. Then Nada caught on.

"Brassies ..." she said. Then, with mischief: "Did I

embarrass you, Grey?"

"No you didn't!" Ivy cried.

After that, they all were laughing. Obviously Grey didn't

want to be hugged and kissed by the centaur, and Ivy

didn't want Nada doing it to him either.

"What I meant," Grey said determinedly when they

settled down again, "was not any questioning of your in-

tegrity, Donkey, but that we all are affected by what we

believe. I could not believe in magic for the longest time,

because it doesn't exist in Mundania. You can not believe

in the sharpness of my knife, because maybe you don't

have experience with Mundane steel. But now that you

have seen it work, you could do the same yourself."

"Let me try it again," Donkey said, a trifle tightly. He

took the knife and carved exactly the way Grey had, hold-

ing the blade more firmly to the hoof.

A similar curl of hoof appeared.

"You see?" Grey said. "No magic, just sharpness and

confidence. You now believe in my knife the way I believe

in magic: tentatively."

"I take your point," Donkey said, relaxing. "May I

borrow this knife? This is an opportunity I should not let

pass by to get my hooves in shape."

"Certainly," Grey said. "But we may have to find a

sharpening stone if it gets dull."

"There's one in the dungeon!" Electra said eagerly.

Dolph frowned. "Do you know what you've done,

Grey? You've just cherry-bombed my proof that you had

magic!"

Grey shrugged. "That's because I don't have magic. We

all know that."

"No we don't!" Dolph insisted. "Let's get on with the

viewing.'' -

The Tapestry resumed its animation. Ivy noted that with

a certain annoyance; her little brother was getting entirely

too good at controlling it. He had to have been watching

it a great deal during her absence.

"So your knife is sharp," Dolph said. "But look how

those curse burrs fall! They don't care about sharpness;

they stick you no matter what. So—"

"Well, I cowed them," Grey said. "They knew I had

the knife and was ready to use it, so they gave up. That

wasn't magic, that was intimidation."

"What?" Dolph asked.

"He scared them," Donkey said, translating as he

carved his hoof.

"Oh." Disgruntled, Dolph returned to the Tapestry.

They watched the episode of the two-lips tree. One

flower kissed Grey, but the others did not. "How about

that?" Dolph asked. "He turned them off!"

172 Man from Mundania

Grey smiled ruefully. "Sure. After the first one got a

taste of me, the others wanted nothing to do with me.

That's not magic, that's B.O."

"That's what?"

"He stunk," Donkey said, translating again.

Ivy and Nada managed to keep straight faces, but a titter

squeezed out through Electra's hands, clapped over her

mouth.

Dolph, oddly, did not find it funny. He returned grimly

to the Tapestry.

The figures in the scene proceeded to the sandy region.

The sandman rose up, assumed the forms of a small ogre,

a holy cow, and a nonenti-tree, then collapsed back into

a mound when Grey touched it.

"See? See?" Dolph cried. "He destroyed it! That's

magic!"

"It was an illusion," Grey said. "When I touched it, it

stopped, as illusions do, no credit to me."

"No credit to you," Dolph agreed, displeased.

The Tapestry figures went to the tangle tree. "It was

sated," Ivy said before Dolph could make a case about its

quiescence.

"Well, I can check that," Dolph said resolutely. The

picture focused on the tree, running backwards. The day

brightened and dimmed, and brightened again, and

dimmed again. "See—no captures," Dolph said. "That

tree hadn't eaten in days! So—"

"It could have been dormant—or sick," Ivy said. "Or

maybe the magic didn't work very well around Grey, be-

cause he was fresh from Mundania. No proof of magic."

Donkey nodded. "It does seem possible. Natives of

Xanth relate well to magic, having experienced it all their

lives, but Mundanes may have a depressive effect. That

won't remain, now that Grey accepts magic."

Dolph buzzed the scene forward until the two of them

were captured by the goblins. "There's Donkey!" Electra

exclaimed.

They watched as Ivy was put on the isle, and then as

Grey waded through the pool to reach her.

Man from Mundania
       
173

"Isn't that romantic!" Nada breathed as the two em-

braced on the isle.

"That's when we became betrothed," Ivy said, thrilled

again by the sight. "It was no hate spring after all, but I

was so relieved—"

"No hate spring?" Dolph asked. "Let me check."

"Oh, don't waste more time," Ivy said. But the scene

was already revving back. He was really making that old

Tapestry jump! The days and nights flickered by—and

abruptly stopped at a variant of the scene.

"What's that?" Ivy asked.

"Earlier captives," Dolph said. "I made it do a Seek

on that subject. This must be before Donkey was cap-

tured."

"It is," the centaur agreed.

The scene was of the goblins of the Golden Horde,

dragging two captives to the spring. They were elves, male