“I suppose that is true. Perhaps Breanna would understand.”
“Sure she will.” Maybe too well, but Pia did not find it necessary to say that. She pulled off her blouse and stood in her bra.
Justin’s eyes bulged dangerously, but he managed to squeeze them back into shape. That didn’t bother her at all; she liked making an impression, especially when it was risk free. He visibly nerved himself and removed his own shirt.
Pia stepped out of her skirt.
Justin froze. He didn’t move at all. After a moment, she inquired. “Justin—are you all right?”
He didn’t answer. He just stood there, his eyes glazing over.
Then she realized: he had freaked out! She had overdone it, forgetting about the magic effect a girl’s panties had on men in Xanth.
What was she to do? They needed all their outer clothing to make the rope. But if he couldn’t function while her skirt was off, that wouldn’t work.
She remembered something Breanna had said: nymphs ran nude all the time, and didn’t freak out men, though they did attract considerable attention. So would Justin un-freak-out if she went all the way naked? Maybe so, but she did not care to risk it. Even if it worked, her purpose could be misunderstood. She did not want to make an enemy of Breanna. So what else was there?
Maybe she could hide her lower body under the illusion. Then he would be all right, until they were through. Once they were through, they could dress again. That seemed to be the best course.
She walked into the picture, centering on one of the mountains. The floor seemed level beneath the picture; her footing was firm. She could see the illusion up to her waist. Now she called again to him. “Justin!”
He blinked, and his eyes lost their glaze. “I beg pardon; I must have been thinking of something else. What were we doing?”
He had no awareness of the freakout. She would not enlighten him. “We were getting out of our clothing so we could knot it into a rope. I tried stepping in, and it seems okay. How about you take off your trousers?”
Justin got out of his trousers. He stood there somewhat blankly.
“Okay, now let’s tie them,” Pia said. She suspected that though her bra was not freaking him out, it was having some effect, so he needed to be guided. It would probably be best not to lean forward. She rather liked this aspect of Xanth, now that she was working through it; it gave a woman control of a situation.
He knotted the clothing together securely, and had a clumsy kind of rope. “Now give me one end,” she said. “And follow me through the illusion.”
Pia held on to one end and stepped deeper into the scene. Justin clung to the other end, bracing in case he had to take her weight suddenly.
Her face entered a higher mountain. It was like walking into peasoup fog. She could not see her free hand two feet before her eyes. But the footing remained firm, and that was what counted.
Suddenly she was out of the fog, and standing behind the illusion scene. She saw the backs of the mountains and glaciers.
Then the rope went slack, and Justin stepped out of the scene. Now it was his jaw that went slack as he froze in place.
Oh, that again. Well, they were safely through, and there had been no pitfall. Pia un-knotted the clothing and slipped her skirt back on.
“Justin,” she said.
He returned to animation. “Was I woolgathering again? I must be more tired than I thought.”
“No problem. We are through the illusion without trouble, so can put our things back on.” She handed him his trousers.
“To be sure.” He put on pants and shirt while Pia put on her rumpled shirt. She wondered idly why there was no similar effect on women. The sight of his underpants hadn’t freaked her out at all. Maybe women were simply more sensible, or maybe they had better assets. She could see it either way, preferably both ways.
Now they considered what next. There was another passage opening out to either side behind the picture. Probably an inner ring, servicing the six settings. But was that all?
They walked around the ring, seeing the settings from the rear. That was all. “I suspect that we have not yet fathomed the riddle,” Justin said.
“I agree. There must be more. But maybe we have established that this is a safe place to spend the night.”
“Should we return to the others?” Justin asked hopefully.
Pia was tempted, but uncertain. “How can we be sure this is safe without a rear guard, until we know more about who set it up and why?”
“Alas, I fear you are correct.”
“But maybe we should let them know we are working on it.”
“Yes,” he agreed eagerly.
They walked through the icy mountain scene, not making the rope now that they knew it was safe. Soon they mounted the steps. “It seems safe,” Pia said. “But there’s more to check. Can you folk hold on a while longer?”
“Sure,” Edsel said. “Breanna’s fascinating.”
“He’s just teasing,” Pia whispered to Justin. “He does that.”
“Oh. Of course.”
“Okay,” Pia called. “We should be done soon.”
They returned to the mountain image, and walked through it to the inner passage. Pia walked along it checking the outer wall, while Justin checked the inner wall, looking for illusion-masked passages. There were none.
“Maybe the ceiling?” Pia asked.
Justin looked up. “I fear it is just beyond my reach”
“And mine, certainly,” she said, for he was substantially taller than she. “But I could check it if you lifted me.”
“I suppose I could do that,” he said doubtfully.
She had a notion why. “You don’t want to pick up a girl who’s not Breanna. It would seem too friendly.”
“This is an accurate observation.”
“Well, you could carry me without picking me up.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Let me ride on your shoulders.”
“Oh.” He seemed not wholly relieved.
“We do have a job to do,” she reminded him.
He squatted down beside the wall, and she mounted his shoulders, putting her legs down in front. “You clasp my knees, so my hands are free to reach up.”
He rose to his feet, somewhat unsteadily, putting his hands on her knees. She in turn clasped his neck with her thighs. Her dread panties were now in contact with his head, but he couldn’t see them, so didn’t freak out. It was possible to get around some of Xanth’s magical effects, she realized.
He walked, and she reached, sliding her fingers along the smooth ceiling. It was solid throughout; no illusion covered it. When they completed the circuit, they knew that they had failed.
“Squat down so I can dismount,” she told him.
Justin just stood there.
“Or lean over so I can jump down,” she said.
He did not react.
What was the matter? Couldn’t he hear her? She realized that he hadn’t said a word since they started the ceiling search.
Then she caught on: her panties were against his ears, or close enough so that he could hear their faint rustling. They had freaked out his hearing.
She wedged her hands down to cover his ears, breaking the contact. “Get down,” she said, loudly enough to be heard through the barrier.
“Certainly.” He got down, and she climbed off.
“Well, we haven’t gotten far,” she said. “There just doesn’t seem to be any—wait a minute. We didn’t check the pictures. There could be a passage there.”
“Perhaps so,” he agreed, though he sounded weary.
They entered the mountain scene again, this time checking the side walls. There was nothing. They went to the next scene and checked similarly. Nothing.
“I’m getting depressed,” Pia said. “But we’d better check the rest.”
They checked the next three, and found nothing. One more failure, and they would be done.
Resigned, Pia e
ntered the flooded scene—and found a gap in her wall. “Justin!” she shrieked. “I’ve found it!”
He made his way to her, and felt the wall. “Dear girl, you are correct,” he said. “There is an aperture.”
It was about head height on her. Justin boosted her up and she crawled into it. In a moment she was beyond the illusion, and saw that she was in a short tunnel leading gradually down. The sides of it glowed faintly, so she wasn’t blind. “Give me a moment to get clear, then follow,” she called back. She needed that moment, because she was on her hands and knees, and he would freak out if she didn’t get her panties out of sight first.
“My hands seem to have gone numb,” he said.
They must have touched her panties during the boost. This was multimedia magic! “Flex your fingers,” she called. “They’ll recover in a moment.”
She reached the base of the curve, and the tunnel debouched into another full sized passage below. “Okay, come on,” she called.
Justin scrambled into the tunnel and crawled down toward her. Soon he stood beside her. “This certainly seems to be an avenue,” he agreed, looking around. “It must pass under the inner passage, going toward the center of the circles. That would seem to be where the answer to our question lies.”
“Yes. Let’s find it. Then we can tell the others, and maybe finally get our night’s rest.”
“That would be eminently satisfactory.”
The passage sloped downward, and at the base there was water. It wasn’t illusion; it seemed to be ground water that had seeped in and flooded the floor. It wasn’t deep; they sloshed through it and come out the other side.
They came to a large chamber, whose ceiling was supported by a number of thick columns. The columns were square, rather than round. The chamber seemed to be curved; in fact it was like the two passages, circling around a huge central pillar. This was the true center of the establishment.
“What is this place?” Pia asked, impressed by its magnitude.
“Why, I suspect these are square roots,” Justin said, awed. “Cube roots, more accurately. And that this must be a tree.”
“A tree?”
“A very large, very special tree. In fact, I believe this is the Coventree.”
“The what?”
“It is largely isolated from the regular forests, but has remarkable properties. I know of it only by reputation, but believe the identification is secure. This would be its root system.”
Pia looked around with a new appreciation. “All these columns—roots?”
“And the center is the main root.”
“So it’s a big tree. So what?”
“The Coventree has the power of illusion. Were it human, it would perhaps rival the Sorceress Iris in that respect. That explains why we did not see it in the light of day; it’s enormous upper girth was concealed by illusion. But because it is vegetable, it is not considered to be a Magician. Still, it is a plant well worthy of respect.”
“By other plants, maybe,” she agreed cynically. “Other trees. But—” Then she made a connection. “You were a tree for a long time. That’s why you relate.”
“True. I have learned appreciation for the way of trees. Yet by what coincidental chance I should find myself here escapes me.”
Another bulb flashed over her head. “That spook who called us this way—it was you it really wanted!”
“Me?”
“Maybe it couldn’t reach you directly, so it lured us instead, knowing you would follow. Because you understand trees. You relate.”
“Dear girl, I believe you are correct!”
“Everything was illusion, including the copy of Breanna. Except the path—and maybe the other plants cooperated to make that. To get us here—and you here. And now you’re here.”
“But why would an important tree like this want my presence?”
“Maybe you should ask it.”
“But I can’t just ask a tree something. Trees don’t speak. Not even this one.”
“That spook who lured us spoke.” But Pia reconsidered. “It didn’t say anything meaningful. Just about danger, and hurrying. Like a recording. No intelligence there.”
“Trees don’t really understand human dialogue. I was a man before I was a tree; it took me some time to learn the ways of trees, and I think it would take longer for a tree to learn the ways of people. So I doubt that the Coventree would be able to speak to me or anyone in intelligible terms. That is simply not its nature.”
“But you do understand its nature,” she said warmly. “Better than any other human being. So it must want to talk to you.”
Justin considered. “I think more likely it simply wants my understanding. But of what?”
“This is a puzzle,” Pia said. “Edsel could figure it out better than I could. But maybe I can get it. This whole place—the castle, the tunnel rings, the pictures—they must all be part of it. Something to understand. To figure out, just as we figured the way to get in here.”
“But why would a tree set riddles?”
“Because that’s the only way it can communicate. You said it can’t talk, it doesn’t understand dialogue. But it must have some reason to tell you something. You just have to figure out what it is.”
Justin considered. “You must be correct. That is the way a tree would do it. But what message could there be in a phantom castle?”
“That’s just to mark the place, so we couldn’t miss it. I thought that was obvious all along. But the pictures—it didn’t want us to get beyond them until we had truly figured them out. I think the pictures are the message.” She remembered how their Companions software, back in Mundania, wouldn’t let folk see the Pia guide without clothing until they had demonstrated mastery over the subject matter. This could be similar, in vegetable fashion.
“But they are, taken as a whole, revolting. That rising water—perhaps mobile animals like it, but it is not good for trees.”
“Rising water,” she echoed. “Justin—that could be it.”
“It can’t be it. No tree would want its roots flooded out.”
“The tunnel here—it’s flooded at the low point. It surely wasn’t that way when it was built. The water’s rising here too, just as it is in the pictures. And that’s not good.”
Justin stared at her. “This is it,” he agreed, amazed. “The water is rising, and drowning out the trees. And nobody cares but the trees.”
“And the leprechauns, who must have helped with the excavation of this gallery.”
“Yes, of course. And with the crafting of the pictures.”
Something shifted inside her, and the chamber seemed to change color. “Do you know, Justin, all my life I’ve been a selfish brat, and it’s never made me happy. Now, suddenly, I see a way to do something unselfish. I want to save those trees.”
“But no one can—”
“We know what’s happening. The snows in the mountains are melting, and flowing to the valley, and it’s flooding, and drowning out the trees. They can’t stop it, because they’re immobile. The leprechauns probably can’t go to the cold mountains. But maybe we can. That’s why Coventree wanted to bring you here. So you would understand, because you of all people relate to trees, and do something. Before it’s too late. And I want to help you. Maybe it will be the one truly decent thing I do in my life.”
“But you’re Mundane. You have to return to Mundania.”
“Yes. So I guess we’d better hurry, and get this done before I leave Xanth.”
“I suppose if you insist,” he said dubiously. “But this problem may have no ready resolution. The forces of nature may be intractable.”
“There must be a way to handle it, or the Coventree wouldn’t have asked for help. We just have to figure out how. Now let’s go tell the others.”
“But they may not agree.”
“Yes they will.”
“How can you be certain of that?”
“Because Edsel will do it if I ask him to, and with the tw
o of us in it, you two Companions have to tag along to make sure we don’t get in trouble we can’t handle.”
“You seem truly determined.”
“I truly am. This is my one chance.”
He nodded. “I that case, I feel free to say that I am very much in accord. The thought of trees suffering unnecessarily is intolerable to me, and I wish to do all that I can to alleviate their distress.”
“Why didn’t you say so before?”
“Because it was not my province to direct your tour of Xanth, only to facilitate it. A mission like this is well beyond the parameters of my assignment.”
“Let me see if I have it straight,” she said. “You couldn’t ask it, but you can support it.”
“Exactly.”
“You’re so archaically ethical that you couldn’t even hint at what you wanted.”
“True.”
“I think it’s a pleasure to know, you Justin. Maybe the decade will come when I’ll be able to be like that. But right now I’m simply not up to it. I have to go for what I want.”
“I would not presume to criticize your policy.”
“I can see what Breanna likes in you.”
He smiled abashedly. “Then you are able to perceive this more clearly than I can. She is such a wonderful girl, but I am ordinary. There are times when it is all I can do to avoid—” He hesitated. “Touching her.”
Pia considered. He evidently didn’t realize that she and Edsel knew about this. He hadn’t touched Breanna, technically; she had held his hands. “I think she’s more touchable than you think.”
“But she is too young!”
Pia, flush with the joy of her decision to do something truly decent for a change, realized that there was a bit more she could do. “Justin, things have changed in the last century, in Xanth as well as Mundania. Okay, so maybe the Adult Conspiracy stops you from going all the way. Yet. But there is an in-between stage, and you should pass through it before the Conspiracy ends. So you’re not caught flat footed, as it were, when the time comes. I mean, you don’t climb a mountain in one giant step, do you? You do it in easy stages.”
“I suppose that could be the case. I confess that Breanna surprised me phenomenally the other night. However—”
Xone of Contention Page 13