Tandy was silent. Of course her experience had been quite limited.
Smash at last essayed a remark. "You could visit a human village--"
"Shut up, ogre," Tandy snapped, "or I'll kiss you again!"
Smash shut up. She was not bluffing; she could do it. She still had her arms looped around his neck, since she lay half astride him, holding him down, as it were.
"You have to be realistic," Chem said. "The Good Magician sent you out with Smash so the ogre could protect you while you searched for a husband. What good will it
do
you to find the destined man, as John and the Siren and maybe Goldy did, if you foolishly waste your love on an inappropriate object? You would be undermining the very thing you seek."
"Oh, phooey!"
Tandy exclaimed. "You're right, centaur, I know you're right, centaurs are always right--but oh, it hurts!" A couple of hot raindrops fell on Smash's nose, burning him with an acid other than physical. She was crying, and he found that even more confusing than the kiss. "Ever since he rescued me from the gourd and got me back my soul--"
"I'm not denying he's a good creature," Chem said. "I'm just saying, realistically--"
Tandy turned ferociously on Smash.
"You monster!
Why couldn't you have been a man?"
"Because I'm an ogre," he said.
She wrenched one arm clear of him and made as if to strike his face. But her hand did not touch him.
The Void spun about him, dimming. Smash realized she had hit him with another tantrum. That, ironically, was more like ogre love. Why couldn't she have been an ogress?
An ogress.
Now, his mind shaken by the double whammy of kiss and tantrum.
Smash floated, half conscious, and realized what he had been missing. An ogress! He, like every member of his party, could not exist alone. He needed a mate. That was what had brought him to Good Magician Humfrey's castle. That had been his unasked Question. How could he find his ideal mate? Humfrey had known.
And of course there would be ogresses at the Ogre-fen. That was why the Good Magician had sent him to seek the Ancestral Ogres. He would be able to select one who was right for him, knock her about in ogre fashion, and live in brutal happiness ever after, exactly as his parents had. It all did make sense.
He drifted slowly to earth as the horrendous impact of the tantrum eased. "Now I understand--" he began.
"I warned you, oaf," Tandy said. She leaned over and plastered another big kiss on him.
Smash was so dazed that he almost grasped the nature of the kiss, this time. Perhaps it was the
effect of the Void, making things seem
other than they were. It was as if she were punching him in the snoot--and with that perception she became much more alluring.
Then she broke, and the odd perspective ended. She became a girl again, all soft and pretty and nice and wholly inappropriate for romance. It was too bad.
"Oh, what's the use," Tandy said. "I'm a fool and I know it. Come on, people; we have to get out of this place."
"That may not be readily accomplished," Chem said. "We can travel in deeper, or edge sideways, but we can't back out. I'm sure it's like a whirlpool, drawing us ever inward. What we shall find in the center, I hesitate to conjecture."
"Oblivion," Tandy said tightly. She, too, had caught on.
"A maw," Smash said, climbing unsteadily to his feet.
"This land is carnivorous. It gives us respite only because it doesn't need to consume us instantly. It has herds of grazing creatures to eat first. When it gets hungry, it will take us."
"I fear that is so," the centaur agreed. "Yet there must be some way for smart or creative people to escape it. There is so much illusion here, maybe we could fool it."
"So far, ifs been fooling us, not we it," Tandy said. "Unless we can wish away that wall--"
But Smash's Eye Queue had been cogitating on this problem, and now it regurgitated a notion--the one he had flirted with before. "If we could escape into another world, one with different rules--"
"Such as what?"
Chem asked, interested. "Have you got something on your hairy mind?"
"The hypnogourd."
"I don't like the gourd!" Tandy said instantly.
"And the fact is, even if we all entered the gourd, our bodies would remain right here," the centaur pointed out. "The gourd is a trap itself--but if we did get out of it, we'd still be in the Void.
A trap within a trap."
"But the nightmares can go anywhere," Smash said.
"Even to Mundania--and back."
"That's true," Tandy agreed. "They can go right through walls, and I think some can run on water. So I suppose they could run through the Void, and out again. They're not ordinary mares. But they're very hard to catch and hard to ride, and the cost--" She smiled ruefully. "I happen to know."
"They would help us if the Night Stallion told them to," Smash said.
"Oh, I forgot!" Tandy exclaimed. "You still have to fight the Night Stallion! You sacrificed your soul for me--" She clouded up. "Oh, Smash, I owe you so much!"
The centaur nodded thoughtfully. "Smash placed his soul in jeopardy for you, Tandy. I can appreciate how that would affect you. But I'm not sure you interpret your debt correctly."
"I was locked into that horror, deprived of my soul!" Tandy said. "I had no hope at all. The lights had gone out on my horizon. Then he came and fought the bones and smashed things about and brought out my soul, and I lived again. I owe
my everything
to him. I should give back my soul--"
"No!" Smash cried, knowing that she could endure no worse horror than the loss of her soul again. "I promised to protect you, and I should have protected you from the gourd, instead of splashing in the lake. I'll fight this through myself."
Chem shook her head. "I do see the problem--for each of you. I wish I perceived the answers as clearly."
"I have to meet the Stallion anyway," Smash said. "So when I have conquered him, I'll ask him for some mares."
"That's so crazy it just might work!" Chem said. "But there's one detail you may have overlooked. We have no hypnogourds here."
"We'll use your map again," he said.
The centaur considered. "I must admit it worked for your Eye Queue replacement vine, and our situation is desperate enough so that anything's worth trying. But--"
"Replacement?"
Tandy demanded.
"Chem will explain it to you while I'm in the gourd," Smash said. "Right now, let's use the map to locate a gourd patch."
The centaur projected her map and settled on a likely place for gourds while Tandy watched skeptically. Then the party went there, though the way took them deeper into the Void.
And there they were--several nice fat hypnogourds with ripe peepholes. Smash settled himself by the largest. "You girls get some rest," he advised. "This may take a while. Remember, I have to locate the Stallion first, then fight him, then round up the mares."
Tandy grabbed his hamhand in her two delicate little hands. "Oh, Smash--I wish I could help you, but I'm terrified to go into a gourd--"
"Don't go in a gourd!" Smash exclaimed. "Just stay close so you don't get walled off from me and can't bring me out in an emergency," he said gruffly.
"I will! I will!" Tandy's eyes were tear-bright. "Oh, Smash, are you strong enough? I shouldn't have hit you with that tantrum--"
"I like your tantrums. You just rest, and wait for the nightmares, by whatever route they come."
"I know I'll see nightmares," she said wanly.
Smash glanced at Chem. "Keep an eye on her," he said, disengaging his hand from Tandy's.
"I will," the centaur agreed.
Then
Smash
put his eye to the peephole.
He found himself emerging from the cakewalk onto a vast empty stage. He landed gently. There was no vomit. There was a new scene.
The floor was metal-hard and highly polished; his feet left smudge marks where they touched. The air was half lit by a glow that seemed inherent. There was nothing else.
Smash peered about. It occurred to him that if the Night Stallion were here, he could spend a long time looking, as this place seemed infinitely extensive. He had to narrow its compass, somehow.
Well, he knew how to do that. He started tromping,
unreeling
his string behind him. He would crisscross this region for as long and as far as it took him.
Smash advanced. The string became a long line, disappearing in the distance behind. It divided the plain into two sections.
This could take even more time than he had judged, he realized. Since the girls were waiting outside the gourd in the Void and would not be able to go in search of food or water, he wanted to get on with it quickly. So he needed some way to speed things up.
He cudgeled his Eye Queue again. How could he most efficiently locate a creature that didn't want to be located?
Answer: what about following its trail?
He applied his eye to the floor. Now that he concentrated, he saw the hoofprints. They crossed his projected line, coming from the right rear and proceeding to the left front. There would be no problem following that!
But his curse, in its annoying fashion, caused him to question the simplicity of this procedure. The hoofprints were suspiciously convenient, crossing his line just at the point he thought to look, almost as if they were intended to be seen. He knew that tracking a creature was not necessarily simple, even when the prints were clear. The trail could meander aimlessly, looping about, getting lost in bad terrain. It could become dangerous if the quarry knew it was being tracked--and the Dark Horse surely did know. There could be tricks and ambushes.
No, there was no sense playing the game of the Night Stallion. The trail was not to be trusted. It was something set up to delude an ordinary ogre. Better to force the Stallion to play Smash's game--and if the Horse did not know of Smash's hidden asset of intelligence, that could be a counter ambush. A smart ogre was quite different from a stupid one.
Smash stomped on, following his straight line, halving the territory. This should also restrict the range of the Stallion, since it could not go any place Smash had already looked--as he understood the rules of this quest--and therefore could not cross the line.
Yet the territory still seemed to be infinitely large. He might tromp forever and never come to the far side. For that matter, he hadn't started at the near side, either; he had simply appeared within the range and begun there. He also realized that halving the total territory did not necessarily cut the area remaining to be searched. Half of infinity remained infinity. Also, unless he knew which half the Stallion was in, he had gained nothing; he could spend all his time searching in the wrong half, his failure guaranteed.
Smash pondered. His Eye Queue was really straining now, and probably the eyeballs of it were getting hot in their effort to see the way through infinity. One thing he had to say for the curse: it certainly tried to help him. It never really opposed its will to his own; it sought instead to call his attention to new aspects of any situation encountered, and to provide more effective ways of dealing with problems. He had discovered how useful that was when he had tried to function without its aid. Now he needed it again. How could he figure out a sure, fast way to proceed?
The vine came up with a notion.
Smash put the ball of string into his mouth and bit it in half. He now had two balls, each smaller than the first but magically complete. He took the first and rolled it violently forward.
The ball zoomed straight on, unrolling, leaving its straight line of string. Since it had an infinite length, it would proceed to the infinite end of the plain. Infinity could be compassed by infinity; even an ordinary ogre might grasp that! This process would complete the halving of the Stallions range.
Now Smash set his ear to the floor and listened. Yes--his keen ogre hearing heard a faint hoofbeat in the distance, to the forward right. The Stallion was up there somewhere, moving clear of the rolling string. Now
Smash
had the creature partially located. He had done something unexpected, forced his opponent to react, and gained a small advantage.
Smash bit the remaining ball in half and shaped the halves into new balls. He hurled one to the east, establishing a pie-section configuration that trapped the Stallion inside. Then he listened again, determining in what quadrant the creature lurked, and pitched another half-ball in a curve. This wound grandly around behind the Stallion's estimated location, cutting off its retreat. For, though Smash had not tromped personally wherever the string went, the string remained his agent and surely counted. He was using a sort of leverage, and the Horse could not cross his demarcation, lest the animal break its own rule of being only in the last place
Smash
looked.
He put his ear to the floor again. The beat of hooves had ceased. The Stallion had either gotten away or stopped running. Since the former meant a loss for Smash, he did the expedient thing and decided on the latter. He had at last confined his target!
Smash stomped into the string-defined quadrant. If the Stallion were here, as he had to be, he would soon be found.
In due course
Smash
spied a blotch on the horizon. He stomped closer, alert for some ruse. The blotch grew as he approached it, in the manner that distant objects did, since they did not like to appear small from up close. It took the form of an animal, perhaps a lion.
A lion?
Smash didn't want that! He refused to have a mundane monster foisted off on him in lieu of his object. "If it's a lion, it's a Stallion!" he muttered--and of course as he said it, it was true. A single, timely word could make a big difference.
It was a huge, standing, wingless horse, midnight black of hide, with eyes that glinted black, too. This was surely the Night Stallion--the creature he had come to settle with, the ruler of the nightmare world.