Xone of Contention

by Piers Anthony

  "Wira can't see you," Breanna said. "But she can hear you."

  "You're blind?" Edsel asked before he thought. "I mean, aren't there healing springs—" He broke off. afraid he was being crude.

  "I am naturally blind," Wira said. "So can't be healed. But I am happy here, and Humfrey and his designated wives arc nice "

  "Designated what’s?" Pia asked sharply.

  Wira smiled. "The Good Magician has had a long life. He married and lost five and a half wives, then got them all back together. Now they take turns being with him. and the current one. Rose of Roogna, is here this month."

  "Rose of Roogna?" Edsel asked. "Isn't that the name of the capital Castle?"

  "Yes. She lived there for a long time, until she married Humfrey. She grows magic roses. She is especially nice." Wira turned and led the way through the castle.

  A comfortable gray haired woman met them. Her hair was coifed to resemble a rose flower. "Hello. I am Rose. Let me feed you before you see Humfrey."

  They sat down to a meal of rose hips and rose wine, along with rose potatoes and red gravy. There was rose scented bread with rose petal jelly. It wasn't the most conventional food, but it was good. Rose was a good hostess who seemed genuinely to enjoy their company though they were strangers to her; that was an air not every person had.

  "The next step you two must take alone," Breanna said. "Justin and I would only be in the way."

  Then Wira conducted Edsel and Pia up coiling stairs to a dingy cubbyhole. A gnomish man hunched over a monstrous tome.

  Edsel let Pia talk, as this was really her mission

  She stepped forward. "Good Magician—how can we get rid of the Demon CoTwo?"

  The little man looked up. His set features softened as he oriented on Pia; she had that effect on men of any age. "My dear, you can't. Ask another Question."

  "But this is the one I need!" she protested, her lower lip beginning to tremble. "I've got to have it."

  "Please," Wira murmured nervously. "Don't argue with him. It makes him grumpy "

  "I don't care if if makes him explode," Pia said, sounding hysterical. "The trees are drowning, and we've got to save them."

  Edsel stepped in. "Maybe I can finesse this," he said quietly to Pia. This came under the heading of supporting her completely. Then, to Humfrey "What she means is, there is a crisis we want very much to alleviate, and we hope you will be able to provide us a means. Is there some way we can accomplish our objective?"

  The Good Magician oriented on him. The gnome's direct gaze was disconcertingly savvy. "Well put. What you require is the magic locket, which is one of the stray artifacts with imbued talents from the ancient city of Hinge. Hitherto only bracelets have shown up, but now so has the locket. Put the Demon CoTwo therein, and it will lessen his power sufficiently to eliminate the melting, without putting all Xanth into deep freeze."

  "Magic locket?" Pia asked.

  "You have seen it," Humfrey informed her gently. "The half demon children have it. Borrow it from them for your purpose. Now consult with my assistant to arrange your Service."

  "That may be complicated," Edsel said. "You see, we—"

  But the weathered old eyes had already returned to the tome. The Good Magician had tuned them out.

  "This way," Wira murmured. They followed her out of the cramped study and down the stairs to another chamber. A man and woman, each in the neighborhood of thirty, stood to meet them as they entered.

  "This is the Good Magician's assistant. Magician Grey Murphy, and his wife, Princess Ivy." Wira said. Then, to the others: "Edsel and Pia of Mundania, here as exchange visitors."

  "Glad to meet you." Grey said, advancing to shake hands. He was a nondescript person, who would have been unremarkable except for his magic. "I was raised in Mundania myself. I was frankly glad to get away from it, not just because of Ivy."

  The princess smiled. She had long greenish yellow hair and blue eyes. "I visited it, but do prefer it here in Xanth. Sit down; we must talk."

  They took seats on the large toadstools in the room. "We are supposed to see about our Service for our Answer," Edsel said. "But we can't stay in Xanth for a year, much as we might like to."

  "Humfrey knows that," Ivy said. "He always knows, and things always come out well. Your service can be performed in as little as a day, but it is vitally important."

  Pia began to relax. "A day we can handle. But why would anything important be left to Mundanes? We hardly know anything about Xanth, really. We depend on our Companions to keep us out of trouble."

  "Breanna and Justin have not deserted you." Ivy said. "This just happens to be something rather special and private."

  "And especially suitable for Mundanes," Grey said "Because you have so little direct connection to Xanth."

  "This is a peculiar qualification." Edsel said.

  "It is a peculiar mission," Grey said earnestly. "Are you familiar with the concept of temporal paradox?"

  "You mean traveling back in lime and murdering your grandfather?" Edsel asked.

  "Yes. Any change to a person's own present status would be as difficult. But here in Xanth the rules are different. We can, in our fashion, travel in time, and we don't necessarily honor the laws of paradox. That's what makes this mission so awkward."

  "You want us to travel in time?" Pia asked, alarmed.

  "Not you." Grey said. "Me. But I am concerned that I may do something that changes Xanth's present situation, and might not know it."

  "How would you know it?" Edsel asked. "To you in the present, whatever existed would seem to have always been the case."

  "Exactly. I might retain a memory of the other situation, but no one else would believe me. And if I did something that caused Ivy not to exist—" He shuddered.

  "Whatever would possess you to take such a risk?" Pia asked. "Assuming it's possible, which I doubt."

  "I must bore you with a bit of spot personal history," Grey said. "My father is Magician Murphy, who makes things go wrong. My mother is Sorceress Vadne, whose talent is topology. Several centuries ago Murphy tried to wrest the throne of Xanth from the legitimate king, for which he was retired to the Brain Coral's Pool for indefinite storage. Vadne resented Millie the Maid's appeal to the Zombie Master, and topologically converted her to a book. For this she too was banished to the Pool. During the Time of No Magic the two escaped Pool confinement and made a deal with Com Pewter: he enabled them to go to Mundania. where they could not be apprehended. But there was a price: they had to give their future child to Pewter, lor lifelong service. I am that child."

  "But how could you be committed to such a thing?" Edsel asked. "You didn't even exist "

  "People of honor fulfill their deals," Grey said. "Pewter performed a real service for my parents, that enabled them to live good live in Mundania, and enabled me to exist. We recognize that debt."

  "But people can't he traded for favors," Pia said.

  Grey shrugged. "Those who feel that way should of course refuse to make such deals. But if they do make them, they should honor them."

  "So you serve Pewter?" Pia asked, unpleased.

  "No. My service was pre-empted by that to the Good Magician. Since this is a permanent position, the matter has become moot."

  "So you found a way to wiggle out of it." Pia said.

  "Technically, yes. But I do feel I owe Pewter something. Hence our present agreement. I will perform a significant service for him, that only I can do, to make up for the service he lost. Because of the delicate nature of it, he is amenable to this, and will consider the deal my parents made to be complete."

  "Plea bargaining," Pia said.

  "Or accepting reality." Ivy said. "Pewter knows he's never going to get Grey full time, and this is a lot better than nothing. Grey's good will is essential."

  "And the Good Magician goes along with this?" she asked.

  "He prefers to have me free of potentially awkward obligation. This will free me."

  Edsel was getting quite curi
ous. "Just what is this significant, critical thing you will do? That maybe involves paradox."

  "I will conduct a creature of Pewter's creation to Xanth's past, so she can learn something Pewter wishes to know. The journey would be extremely difficult to accomplish without my assistance, because my talent of nullifying magic is necessary at some points. However—"

  "You could change Pewter's past—and therefore his present," Edsel said, catching on. "You might even cause him not to exist."

  Grey nodded. "This is not a mission a person would send an enemy on. As it is. I do feel I owe him a favor, and I am amenable to acquitting it in this manner. He knows he can trust me to do my best to accomplish it, without trying to nullify him. I have my own reasons to see that the present situation is maintained " He glanced at Ivy. who smiled back.

  "How do we fit in?" Pia asked.

  "We need to provide more background first," Ivy said.

  "The danger of inadvertently changing the present is unavoidable," Grey said "I will not do so intentionally, but the effect could be just as severe if I made a mistake. But it will be very difficult to avoid that risk, because not only will I be in the past, where the consequences of my actions will not be immediately apparent, but when I return to the present, others may not believe that any change has occurred. So it probably will not be possible to correct it."

  "I'd be extremely nervous," Pia said

  "I am. But this is a necessary risk, if I am to acquit my obligation. So we hope to establish a safeguard. We believe that though regular Xanthians will not be in a position to know whether any change has occurred, Mundanes who have no historical connection to Xanth may be more objective. They should be able to see any changes, because they are not affected."

  "That's us!" Pia said.

  "How?" Edsel asked.

  "Com Pewter can set up a liaison, a mental connection between us, so that the two of you will be able to tune in on what the two of us in the past are doing. Then if you see Xanth changing around you, you can notify Pewter, who will send in another person to go to the past to try to change it back, or get me to change it back. If you see no change, we will know that I have succeeded in avoiding incidental mischief."

  "And that reassurance is just as important," Edsel said. "To know you have succeeded cleanly."

  "Yes. The consequences of failure would be no less horrendous for being unknown. Without that assurance, we couldn't risk the mission."

  Edsel whistled. "I wouldn't care to risk it in any event."

  "Pewter has assessed the risk, and believes that it is minimal, with these precautions. We have to assume he is correct."

  "And I guess we'd better go along with it." Edsel said. "Because there aren't many Mundanes traveling in Xanth at the moment."

  "And we do owe for our Answer,” Pia agreed.

  "So how does this work?" Edsel asked.

  "We will go to Pewter's cave, where he will use his power of reality alteration to establish a connection between the two of us and the two of you. You will be comfortable; in fact you will be able to walk around and talk with each other, as long as you remain with Pewter's sphere of influence. You will know whatever we do, as if you are seeing it yourselves "

  "Even when you—have natural functions?" Pia asked distastefully.

  "The other person, with whom you will identify, will not have natural functions," Grey said.

  Edsel shut his mouth, sure that no comment on Pia's own nature was intended.

  "Not have—?" Pia asked.

  "She's a golem," Ivy said "Made of metal and cloth. Animated for a purpose, alive, conscious, but not fleshly. Her name is Robot A. We call her Robota."

  "And what will she be doing in the past?"

  "Com Pewter is studying the processes of weather," Grey said. "He is vulnerable to electrical effects, such as lightning, and wishes to learn how to control them. Robota has been crafted to have the capacity to comprehend magical weather, but needs to observe it in action. There-fore she is to be sent to observe the Storm King, who governed Xanth before King Trent took over in the year 1042. He had great power over the weather, and she can learn more from him than perhaps any other person. Because talents do not repeat in exactly the same form, this is the only person who can show her this. So she will go there to study weather."

  "You are risking Xanth's very history so that Pewter's golem can study weather?" Edsel asked.

  "Weather is important to us all." Ivy said. "Now that Pewter is a nice machine, he will use the information for beneficial purposes "

  "We could use some more information about hurricanes," Pia said. "They do millions of dollars worth of damage every year."

  "Less so when there's an El Nino," Edsel said. "But that does other damage, and we understand it even less."

  "Since our weather has magic components, it's more complicated." Ivy said. "So we do feel it's a worthy mission."

  Edsel nodded. "The weather affects history too. Sometimes drastically."

  "Now we realize that much of this observation will be dull." Grey said. "But you will be able to skip over parts. It will be like—" He paused, evidently searching his distant memory of Mundania for a suitable analogy.

  "Fast-forwarding a video recording past the commercials," Pia said.

  "Exactly." he agreed, smiling at her. "I haven't seen a video in— in thirteen years." He shook his head. "How time flies!"

  "When you're having fun?" Ivy inquired.

  "Of course." he agreed quickly.

  Edsel and Pia laughed "Those two ate definitely married," Pia said

  "Indeed we are," Ivy said. "And here come our children. They are three years old now."

  Three little energy balls burst into the room. One was in a green dress. She ran into Ivy's embrace, and Edsel saw that her greenish blond hair and blue eyes matched those of her mother. Another was in a brown dress; she ran to hug her father, and her brown hair and brown eyes matched his. The third wore a red dress: her red hair and green eyes matched neither. She paused to gaze at the visitors, then went to hug Pia, and that was where her green eyes matched.

  Pia accepted the hug: she couldn't do much else. But she seemed uncertain. She had never had much to do with children: they were by her definition incompatible with sex appeal.

  "This is Melody." Ivy said, setting her child on her lap. “The three have a joint talent."

  Melody began to hum. A vague disturbance appeared in the center of the room.

  "This is Harmony," Grey said, setting his child on his lap. "Whatever they sing and play together—"

  Harmony produced a little harmonica and began tootling on it, in harmony with her sibling's humming. The disturbance became an opaque cloud with projections, in the shape of a model castle.

  "And you have Rhythm," Ivy said to Pia. "She resembles her cousin Dawn, physically. The three together make things real."

  Rhythm produced a little drum and beat on it with her fingers, providing a cadence. The music became better defined, though hardly expert.

  The shape in the center became a castle made of candy. It was rather like a child's drawing, with the walls somewhat askew and the gates uneven, but there was no doubting the cookies and pastries and the gum-drops that formed its substance.

  "Of course this is illusion," Grey said. "They aren't up to solids yet. But in time they will be able to make a real castle of candy."

  "But there's no chocolate," Pia said.

  All three girls focused. The castle melted a bit, then firmed up as solid chocolate.

  "Oh. you little darlings!" Pia exclaimed, hugging Rhythm. But that broke the child's concentration: she lost the beat, and the castle collapsed into a pile of chocolate rubble. Then it dissipated as the rest of the illusion crashed.

  "Nevertheless impressive." Edsel said. "Congratulations, girls."

  All three little princesses tried to blush. All they achieved was patches of red on their foreheads, but surely that too would improve as they matured in body and talent.
r />   "But now we must go to see Com Pewter," Grey said "I'm afraid we shall have to leave the children here with Wira."

  The three looked unhappy. Then they began to hum, play, and beat, and a dark thundercloud formed.

  "We have transportation." Edsel said quickly. "Para. the duck tooted boat. Plenty of room for them."

  Ivy considered. "Well, in that case—"

  The cloud dissipated and sunlight replaced it. The room was closed, without a skylight, the beam appeared from nowhere. The three girls jumped down and ran for the door.

  "They will be a handful as they age," Edsel murmured to Pia as they followed.

  "For sure," she agreed faintly, looking bemused.

  They went outside. There were Justin and Breanna with Para. "Boat!" "Duck!" "Foots!" cried the three children respectively, running to overwhelm the boat with attention. Para seemed to like it.

  There was just room for the six adults, with the children scrambling around the edges. "To Com Pewter's cave, please." Grey said. The boat started moving, but it was somewhat slow and clumsy. There was too much weight for the ten feet to handle comfortably

  "I will Enhance you," Ivy said. She put a hand on the side of the boat.

  The craft steadied, and the motion became smooth and swift.

  "That's her talent," Breanna explained. "Enhancement. She can make anything do better."

  Edsel was interested. "If I may ask. what's your talent?" he asked Grey.

  "I nullify magic. Of course I don't use it unless there is a magical threat."

  "Danger ahead." Pia said tersely.

  "Her talent is to know what's inimical," Edsel said. "Just as mine is to modify or deflect other talents. We'd better check."

  "There appears to be a break in the path ahead," Justin said.

  They looked. It seemed that a recent storm had washed out the magic markers, and part of the enchanted path had been erased. A fire dragon was lurking there. waiting tlo pounce on whoever entered the unprotected section.

  Para halted, Grey got out of the boat and walked to the bad section. The dragon pounced, seeming about to devour him. Then the dragon fell over, whimpering, its tail twitching like that of a wounded snake