Chapter 12
HARNESS
Gary and Gayle rode the train of thought back to the station at Hinge. When they got off they found Hiatus and Mentia waiting for them. A train was arriving from the other direction, and soon Iris and Surprise joined them. They all walked slowly back to the palace, comparing notes. It seemed that one couple had gone to the past, but this had been merely a matter of reminiscing. Another had gone into the dream realm. Gary and Gayle had of course visited the future. None had found the philter.
“But the philter seemed determined to kill Gayle,” Gary said. “We finally turned our ship around and came back, because it was too dangerous and we weren't learning anything.”
The demoness Mentia nodded. “It is clear that Gayle knows something we need.”
“I don't know what that would be,” Gayle protested. “I have been nowhere for three thousand years.”
“And Desi tried to seduce me from the mission,” Hiatus said. “Physically and emotionally. She offered me everything—Desiree, the kingship of Xanth, whatever I might desire. She even showed me her—” He stopped, overcome by delicacy. Actually, Gary had a fair suspicion what Desi might have shown him, based on what Hanna had done.
The philter seemed to be getting desperate.
“So you, too, must know something important,” Iris said.
“Or have been about to find it out,” Mentia said. “As I believe we did.”
“We, too, may have learned something,” Iris said. “But not enough.”
They entered the palace. “Let's discuss this,” Mentia said. “I think we may have learned more than we thought.”
Desi appeared. “Oh, you must be very tired after your long journeys,” she said solicitously. “And hungry. We have beds and banquet waiting.”
“Now I'm sure of it,” Mentia said with satisfaction. “Ignore her and proceed with the discussion. What do you know. Iris?”
“I think I have figured out where the philter is,” Iris said.
“That won't do you any good,” Desi said. “It is only an object physically, and won't do a thing for you.”
“Where is it?” Gary asked.
“In the center of the magic,” Iris said. “The very center. That's why the trains of thought all circle around; they can't go beyond the philter's range. And I think it needs the very strongest magic to craft its powerful illusions and effects. It's not inherently strong; it is buoyed by that intense field, making it a super demon. It must be in the center of the focus circle.”
“But that's where I was,” Gayle protested. “Surely you don't think that I—”
“No, dear,” Iris said. “You are no demon; Mentia would have known if you were. And you are no illusion; I would have known. And you are a gargoyle: Gary knows. As a group we are uniquely qualified to assess your nature, perhaps by no coincidence. You are beautifully innocent. But your location is also that of the philter. I strongly suspect it has been hiding in the tiles beneath you for three thousand years.”
“Beneath me!” Gayle cried, amazed. “I suppose it could be true, for I talked with its illusions often. But I never suspected it could be that close!”
“This is ludicrous,” Desi said. “Even if you found the philter, you wouldn't be able to affect it. You don't have the—”
“The what?” Mentia asked alertly.
“Nothing.”
“What did you find out, Mentia?” Gary asked.
“That we can conjure the philter,” the demoness said evenly. “It's a demon.”
“You can't summon the philter,” Desi said. “The philter can't move.”
“I said conjure, not summon,” Mentia said. “That is, to exert power over it. We can conjure it into the Interface.
We merely need to be close enough to it for our conjuration to have full effect—and we need to know its real name.”
“Why, I know that,” Gayle said. “It's—”
There was a deafening blast of sound, drowning her out.
Then Mentia assumed the shape of a great golden blob, and the noise faded.
“What did you do?” Gary asked, surprised.
“She became a blob of golden silence,” Iris said. “She's neutralizing Desi, who had become an obstructive noise. Gayle, you were saying—?”
“Its name is Fil,” Gayle said. “Fil Philter. I remember that from when they were first working on the Interface. I didn't realize that was important.”
“But the philter knew it was important!” Gary said.
“That's why it was trying to kill you, when you started associating with me.”
“So now we have the whole of it,” Iris said. “We know how to right the wrong of three thousand years ago, and reverse the spread of madness, and free the gargoyles. We have simply to go to the center of the magic circle, and conjure Fil into the Interface, and our quest will be done.”
“Then let's do it!” Gary said.
Mentia reappeared in her usual form. “That may not be easy,” she said. “Desi is gone for the moment, and so is her noise, but the philter as it is presently enhanced by the madness magic is one powerful demon, much stronger than I am, and it is determined not to let us conjure it into the Interface. It tried to distract us from learning its secrets, and now it will distract us from acting.”
“But now that we know where it is and what to do, it won't be able to stop us,” Gary said.
Iris shook her head. “The philter has powerful illusions. Those will be difficult to get past.”
“But we'll know they are illusions,” Gary said. “So we'll just have to feel our way forward, and not fall in any holes.”
“Illusions supported by demon powers,” Mentia said soberly. “I agree: that's a potent combination. We had better organize carefully.”
“Now I can recognize and perhaps counter some of the illusions,” Iris said. “Surprise may be able to lend me support when I need it. But the demonic aspects—”
“I will be able to identify,” Mentia said, “And to counter to a degree, if I don't face the full brunt. Hiatus can help me. That means that the gargoyles will have to be our guides when we get preoccupied with illusions and demonies.”
“We can do that,” Gayle agreed. “I know the way.”
“But—” Gary said, still not seeing what all the fuss was about.
“Let's go,” Iris said grimly. “Before the philter has any more time to organize its defense.”
“And there's still something missing,” Mentia added.
“Something we need. Desi's not the smartest of illusions, and she almost let it slip. But we don't know what it is.”
“Maybe we can find it,” Iris said. “By traveling in a zigzag pattern and keeping alert for anything out of the ordinary.”
“Everything's out of the ordinary, here in the madness!” Hiatus protested.
“True,” Mentia said. “But there may be something different, even so. If we can catch it, it may give us the final key to victory.”
This seemed nonsensical to Gary, but he realized that there was no point in arguing. Either they would find that mysterious thing, or they wouldn't.
So they left the palace. Gayle led the way, with Gary close beside her. And suddenly he realized why they were taking it so seriously.
The city of Hinge had completely changed. It was now a plain, covered by a ripple on the ground. It was pretty in its way. But he knew that if the philter could change the semblance of the city into that of a plain, it could do other visions too, and that could be real mischief.
Surprise screamed. Then Gary saw a terrible bug stalking her. It was a nickelpede—the insect whose pincers gouged out coin-sized chunks of flesh. There was another nickelpede behind it, and others coming toward the rest of them. In fact the entire ground was covered with them, that was what made the ripple effect. Gary realized that though his natural form was immune to them, his human form was vulnerable. It was impossible to cross this region.
“Illusion,” Iris said ters
ely. “Ignore them.”
“Nuh-uh,” Mentia said. “Some may be real, hidden among the illusions.”
Iris winced. “You're right. What a devious ploy! I'll burn them.”
Devious indeed! Suppose they had nerved themselves and waded through the illusion swarm, only to be chomped by the few real ones they hadn't recognized?
“You can't just wipe out the illusions?” he asked Iris with faint hope.
“No, I can't. I can abolish only my own illusions, not someone else's. That has never been a problem before, because all illusions were mine. This is a new and difficult situation.”
Then her fire started. An illusion lightning bolt came down, casting off several fiery washers and a nut, and flames spread out from the scorched region. The illusion nickelpedes squeaked and chittered as they caught fire.
They fled the blaze, and in the process spread it much faster than it spread itself.
“So illusion fire burns illusion insects,” Hiatus murmured, impressed.
“Yes,” Iris said. “I can't abolish the enemy effects, but the philter can't abolish mine either, and where they meet, nature takes its course.”
A clear path was opening, where the fire had cleared the nickelpedes. They started to walk along it. But then Gary saw a nickelpede that hadn't been scorched. That was one of the few real ones.
The creature scooted toward them. But Gayle bounded forward and stepped on it with her massive stone foot. The thing was flattened into the ground, and stirred no more.
But already a new menace was forming. There was a mountain in the distance, and down that mountain flowed a large river, and the river was spreading out and flooding the plain. That was depriving the fire of its base, and it was hissing and flickering out.
They moved on, cautiously, knowing that illusion could cover a pit in the ground. Gary banged into something, and realized it was one of the huge hinged stones, covered by the illusion of nothingness. He and Gayle tapped the ground ahead with their toes, making sure it was solid.
But the water kept rising. It came up around their ankles, so that their feet could not be seen under its brown swirl. There could be more nickelpedes concealed under that, ready to chomp them. It wasn't safe to proceed.
Then Iris made an illusion causeway. It seemed to rise up just above the level of the water, so that they could see their feet again. The river couldn't make the water rise faster than the causeway crossed it, because it required a lot more illusion water to fill the plain than illusion sand to make the causeway.
Until the storm started. “That looks like Fracto,” Iris muttered.
So it did. There was a huge fuzzy face on the surface of the cloud, with bulging cheeks and angry moist eyes. The mouth opened and lightning shot out, followed by a freezing gust of wind. “What's Fracto doing in an illusion?” Surprise asked.
“Wherever there is ill to be winded, Fracto is there,” Mentia explained. “He doesn't care where it is. He has a nose for mischief like none other.”
The wind struck the surface of the water and stirred up waves. The waves became huge, and reared up to pound against the causeway. In a moment they had breached it, knocking big holes in it. The water surged through, eating at the remaining edges, carrying the sand away.
“I can fix that,” Mentia said. She dissolved, and reformed into two towers girt by many thin cords, supporting a planking. It was a suspension bridge across the first big gap in the causeway.
Gary set foot on it, and it was solid because the demoness did not use illusion; she used her own substance, which could become as hard as she wished it to be, for a while. So he crossed, and the others after him. Gayle walked beside it, because her weight would be a special burden, and she had no fear of nickelpedes anyway.
There was a pained squeak. Gayle lifted a forefoot from the surging water. There was a nickelpede attached to a toe. It evidently had suffered a broken tooth. It fell limply into the water without a splash. Gary almost, but not quite, felt a bit of sympathy for it.
But while they were on the middle of the bridge span, something huge appeared in the water. It looked like the fabled Mundane creature, a whale, so big nobody could believe it. It forged onward ever onward toward the bridge, threatening to bash it down. It was illusion, of course, yet it looked so real that Gary spooked. He ran on to the solid section of causeway ahead, while cursing himself for his foolishness.
The whale crashed into the nearer bridge tower—and the tower began to tip over. The whale was real!
Surprise screamed. Gary reversed course and ran back onto the tipping bridge to save her. He caught her just as she slid off into the water. But then he fell into the water himself. There was no help for it; he just had to run through it as well as he could. It was only waist deep, and illusion, so he really was running, though it looked like deep wading.
There was pain in one foot. A nickelpede! No, in half an instant he realized that it was just an ordinary bruise; he had kicked a hidden rock. He made it to the island section of the causeway, carrying Surprise.
The moment they were safe, he set her down and turned back to see what else was happening. The bridge was down and dissolving, but part of it was forming into a giant rubber band whose end was around Iris. The band contracted, almost catapulting Iris to the island. Mentia had saved her.
But Hiatus was floundering in the water. “Oh, I want to use my magic to help him!” Surprise said.
“Don't you dare,” Iris told the child. “You need to save your magic for the conjuration.”
So that was why Surprise had been so meek, magically.
It made sense. She still had powerful and varied magic, but she might need all of it when they came to the final reckoning with the demon philter. So she was exercising painful restraint, and in the process learning the way of control. She would surely be a much better child when she returned to her family.
Then Hiatus rose in the water, looking startled. “It's got me!” he cried.
The rubber band opened a mouth. “You fool, that's Gayle Goyle!” it called.
Hiatus looked down at the sleek stone shoulder beneath him. “Oh. Thanks.” He looked somewhat sheepish.
Now the sun came out, huger and hotter than it ever was in regular Xanth. Gary realized that it, too, was probably illusion. It blasted down on the water, making it so hot it boiled and evaporated in a hurry. The intense radiation didn't bother Gary, but of course he wasn't illusion. They watched as their island grew, because of the receding water. Soon the plain was bare again. If there were any nickelpedes remaining, they were probably seasick by this time.
Now Gary thought of something. “How did an illusion whale knock over a real bridge?”
Mentia reappeared in her usual form. “The philter is a demon, remember. It has demonly powers. Not a lot of physical strength, because its real body is elsewhere, but it can become solid in some instances. So it made just the top of the whale solid, and it pushed against the top of the tower, and the magic of leverage made it fall.”
Gary was now satisfied: the philter was a formidable opponent, with its combination of illusion and substance.
A lot of one and a little of the other, but they did the job.
But as the plain reappeared, so did another threat. It looked as if a rug were sliding slowly across it. But the rug grew as it got closer, and Gary saw that it was actually an enormous herd of animals. They were stampeding directly toward the erstwhile island.
“Buff low,” Mentia said, looking at the oncoming mass.
“If they run over us, we'll all be buffed low.”
“No, they're illusion,” Iris said.
Then her counter illusion formed: another fire. It swept across the plain toward the buffs, looking very hot. The animals saw it and spooked. In a moment they were milling around, trying to reverse course. But the ones behind were still surging forward, not yet aware of the danger.
It didn't matter. The rampaging herd had been halted, and it was possible to make some pr
ogress toward the magic circle.
But now a new class of illusions formed. The surroundings became pleasant, with trees and a castle ahead. “Why that's Castle Roogna,” Iris remarked, surprised.
“The philter can read our minds,” Hiatus reminded her.
“Anything that any of us remembers, it can make appear.”
“And all of it is dangerous,” Mentia said. “Because of the real threats it covers.”
“I am well aware of that,” Iris said somewhat sharply.
“I'm just trying to figure out the nature of this ploy. Why should the philter present us with something unthreatening?”
“We were countering the threats,” Gary said. “So now it's trying another approach.”
“Or merely trying to guide us in the direction it wants,”
Mentia said. “And away from what it doesn't want us to find. Remember, there may be something we are looking for, besides the philter itself.”
A figure appeared before the castle. It walked toward them. It seemed to be a young woman, carrying something heavy. “And that's Electra, my grandson's wife,” Iris said.
“A wonderful girl.”
“What's she carrying?” Surprise asked.
“I am not clear on that,” Iris said. “It's all illusion, anyway.”
They waited while the woman approached. Gary saw that she was not especially imposing or beautiful, but she seemed like a nice person. Her hair was bound in a practical braid, and she wore blue jeans.
“She doesn't look like a princess,” Surprise said.
Iris smiled. “She never acted like one, either. She was always rather scrawny. Had I been in charge of things, I would have had Prince Dolph marry Princess Nada Naga, an outstanding creature. But Electra's doing the job, and now I know I was mistaken. Her magic talent of electricity is far from Sorceress level, but she makes up for it by being very nice and reliable. She gave me twin grandchildren, Dawn and Eve; the stork brought them NoRemember Two. I wouldn't change her for any other.”
Electra came to stand before them, bearing her object. It was black, with red and white knobs on the top. “Can someone help me carry my battery?” she asked. “I have charged it up, but it's very heavy.”
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