“Oh, at last!” Gayle cried. “Now we can do it.”
“Now we can do it,” Gary agreed. There was no need to discuss what it was; some things were inherent. “Thank you. Magician Trent!”
“Have a nice time,” the Magician said, as a female hand emerged from the water to haul him back under. “I'm sure I will.”
Gary and Gayle made their way to Castle Roogna, a place neither of them had seen before. On the way they encountered a militant woman. “You! Gargoyle!” the woman cried. “I have a score to settle with you!”
It was Hannah Barbarian. Was it possible that—?
“I had the weirdest wildest dream, surely brought by a night mare with the croup,” Hannah said. “You were in manform, and I—ugh!”
It was possible. “I'm sure you could never be a seductive handmaiden,” Gary said.
“You had better believe it! Nothing like that could ever happen.” She marched off. Then she paused, as if thinking of something, but Gary and Gayle were already bounding on their way.
In due course they reached Castle Roogna. There was Princess Electra coming out to meet them. Gary knew it was her, because she wore blue jeans and braids and looked innocently unprincessly. “You'll never believe what I dreamed!” she said.
“We believe,” Gary and Gayle said together.
“But I would never do that in real life. I don't even have a battery to charge.”
“Of course not.”
“And according to the magic tapestry, Xanth has been saved from madness and the geis of the gargoyle has been abated.”
“Yes,” Gary agreed.
“And Wira sent a message from the Good Magician,”
Electra continued. “We have your places ready.” She paused. “But do you really—I mean it seems like such inadequate repayment for such heroic service.”
“It's what we want,” Gary reassured her.
And so Gary Gar and Gayle Goyle took their places, and settled blissfully in for the next century. On parallel corners of the roof of Castle Roogna, spouting pure rainwater to the ground. The position of ultimate honor for gargoyles.
Geis of the Gargoyle Page 34