"That is convenient," Cube agreed. "I don't know how I would have come here without your help."
"That's why I am on this Quest. Now you have been rather busy, and had emotional experiences. Why don't you relax in the pouch while I follow the thread? I assure you I will notify you when your presence is required."
Cube remained slightly faint headed from the kiss. She had never had any romantic interest in women, yet that kiss had stunned her in much the way it had stunned Patxi. She needed to sort that out. "That would be nice," she agreed.
So Cube slid into the pouch, and Karia put it in her quiver. Cube was aware when she took off, then turned her thoughts inward. She had been in Silhouette's body, and used the power of that beauty herself, braced by her own gumption. Then she had met the woman, and seen how she affected others, including the old man and the young boy. Then she had experienced it herself. Beauty was power: that was all there was to it. The old man hadn't wanted to romance Silhouette, and neither had the young boy; it was merely a social effect. Now she understood that it worked on women too.
And that was the kind of power Cube craved for herself. She had seen it in action, and felt it. Now she wanted to wield it. And perhaps, once the Quest was done, she would.
Satisfied, she sank into sleep.
She woke when Karia landed. She slid herself out of the pouch. They were at one of the enchanted rest stops. She appreciated those twice as much as she had before meeting Patxi. "There is a problem?" she asked.
"Just that the thread seems to terminate here," the centaur replied. "So I thought it was time to stop for the night."
"The night! How long have I been sleeping?"
"All day. I flew across the strait separating Xanth from the keys, then across the Gold Coast and southern Xanth, past Lake OgreChobee, and within sight of Mount Pinatuba, as you can see." She gestured.
Cube looked. There in the sunset was a towering conical mountain. "Isn't that the bad-tempered one?"
"Yes. Once it blew its stack so hard that it cooled all Xanth by one degree. We all hope it won't blow again. I understand it is very sensitive to disparaging remarks."
"As are so many inanimate things," Cube agreed. "Well, I will have no problem. I think it's a magnificent peak."
"As do I. Nevertheless, I hope the thread does not take us there."
"Agreed. Though I am curious where the thread is taking us. It seems to have a mind of its own."
"Yes. It is a most remarkable effect."
They picked pies for supper, washed up at the local stream, and settled in for the night.
Then someone came. It was a flying creature. In fact it turned out to be a winged mermaid, innocent of clothing like all her kind.
"Now that's interesting," Karia murmured. "Another complicated crossbreed, like me."
"Hello," the mermaid called, hovering outside the shelter. "Is everything all right?"
"Of course it is, thank you," Karia said. "This is an enchanted campsite."
"It is, but it still requires upkeep," the mermaid said. "That's my job: to check it regularly and make sure everything is in place. I am Nepherina."
"I am Karia Centaur. We are both winged monsters."
"Yes," Nepherina said, giggling.
"I am Cube," Cube said.
"I see you have four wings," Karia said. "Like a dragonfly."
"Yes, it enables me to hover or fly backwards. But your feathery wings are prettier."
"That depends on whether the viewer is an insect or a bird. Any style of wing is fine as long as it does the job."
"There is one thing," Nepherina said. "This is an enchanted site, so it is protected. But there may be danger close by."
"We can handle ordinary dangers," Cube said. "We can repel aggressive creatures."
"This is not that type. The stream derives from Mount Pinatuba, and it can be as mean tempered as the mountain. There is a great lake that formed in the cone after the last eruption, and we fear that one day that lake will burst out and inundate everything below. So please don't dally long if you go outside the protected perimeter. If the lake burst right then--"
"We understand," Cube said. "Thank you for the warning. We will stay clear of the base of the cone if we possibly can."
"That's good. Have a good night." The mermaid flew toward the river, and in a moment they heard a splash as she plunged into it.
"I wonder what she does with her wings in the water?" Karia mused. "They seem very delicate."
"They probably fold down behind her," Cube said. "Maybe she even flies in the water."
"If that lake let go and a torrent came down, she'd probably have to take to the air to escape."
"Which perhaps makes it safe for her to use that river," Cube said. "She is not bound to it."
"So she can tend to this campsite," Karia agreed. "Which in turn suggests that the threat is real. They wouldn't assign someone who could be washed away by the flood."
"I wonder how the enchantment protects against a flood."
"It must divert it. I hope."
On that slightly nervous note they slept. Cube had no trouble sleeping despite her long nap of the day. Maybe she had been affected to some extent by the time-stopping effect the others experienced, so hadn't really been sleeping long.
In the morning the thread resumed. It left the enchanted path and plunged into the thickest brush. "I can't go there," Karia said.
"You have been on duty a long time, and done a lot of flying. It's time for you to rest. Go in the pouch, and I'll tackle this. It probably won't last long."
The centaur nodded. "It was a fair flight yesterday, and my wings have not yet fully rested. I kept myself light, but it still requires energy for the forward motion. Don't hesitate to call me out if you need me again."
"I won't hesitate to bring any or all of you out if I need you," Cube agreed. "But since I'm not supposed to make my Quest obvious, I hope to travel by myself as much as I can, between emergencies."
"By all means." Karia put her forefoot to the pouch, and slid in.
Cube was on her own. She plunged into the thicket, forging determinedly onward. The brush caught at her body, trying to hinder her, but she kept going. Then she paused, distrusting a bush just ahead. It didn't look quite right. But she had to pass it to get past the brush.
"Well, let's test it," she murmured to herself. She conjured several nickelpedes. "Go check," she told them.
The bugs scuttled to the bush, and under it. In a moment three bad boys leaped out, exclaiming. The nickelpedes had gouged them in the pants, just below their BAD BOYS shirts. They fled and soon disappeared.
Just as she had suspected: that had been an ambush. Her talent had broken it up, but common sense had been perhaps more important. She was able to make her talent work for her better than otherwise, by applying that sense.
She brushed by the bush, which was now harmless; it would take it a while to reset for the next victim. She passed a moderate cave, with a neatly printed label: COM. Suddenly something hurtled out from the dark hole: a plane, a bird, no, a bat. A very aggressive bat. It swooped at her, chittering.
"I'm not trying to invade your cave," she protested, ducking. "Just let me be, and I'll soon be far from it."
But the bat continued to attack. Finally she conjured a really big nickelpede and held it over her head, its claw waving menacingly. That made the bat keep its distance. But it did not give up; it circled, looking for an opening.
What made it so aggressive? Had she stepped on its child? She looked back at the cave, seeing nothing but the label.
Then she thought she heard Karia's groan. "A bat from the COM cave," she said. "Com-Bat. You like to fight."
"Aw, you figured it out," the bat chittered, disgusted. "Now where's the fun?"
"You can talk!"
"You figured that out too, genius?"
"I didn't know bats could talk human."
"Well, most can't, but we guardians of Mount 'Tuba are smarter than average
as well as fiercer. My pal Pete's just as smart as I am, and he's a serpent. Likes to race."
Cube looked at the cave again. It was almost perfectly round, as if fitted for a snake whose torso was as thick as the height of a man. "ComPete," she said.
"Right. And if you think I'm bad, you should see him. He'd gulp you in one bite."
"I'll pass up that pleasure," she said.
"Aw, I thought if I kept you talking long enough, Pete'd wake from his nap and come out."
"Some other time, thanks all the same."
"You have a sarcastic streak. I like that."
"You're welcome." She plunged on, holding the nickelpede aloft, and finally the combative bat left off, maybe getting too far from its cave. It was probably hard to be aggressive when half of your nature was out of sight.
Now she came to a small but deep and rushing stream. It was probably another section of the mean-tempered river the winged mermaid Nepherina had warned them about, that flowed from the lake that stopped up Mount Pinatuba. She would have to be careful of it.
The thread went right across the stream. The footing on the banks seemed good, so Cube made a good jump across.
Too good. Her effort caused the pouch to be dislodged from her waistband. She grabbed for it, but missed, and it fell into the water as she landed on the far bank. She turned around and threw herself down, reaching for it, but it was already being carried away by the swift current.
Cube scrambled to her feet and along the bank, trying to get in position to catch the pouch. But the thick brush held her back, and she couldn't quite keep pace. What a situation! She had to recover that pouch.
Then she saw something worse ahead. The river disappeared. It sucked down into the ground, looking like a reverse-flowing spring. The pouch was circling, descending into the small whirlpool. Cube flung herself down, making a final desperate grab. Her hand splashed in the chill water, but didn't catch the pouch. It vanished into the ground.
Cube sat there, for the moment stunned by the enormity of the disaster. She had lost the pouch! All her Companions were there. She couldn't summon any of them to help, because they were completely out of reach.
She thought about crying. But she was not the crying type. She knew she had fouled up. She might have forfeited her Quest by this blunder. But worse, she had put all her friends into oblivion. They could not get out unless she brought them out. Their fate was her fault.
She sat with her head in her hands, suffering for a good three moments. Then she summoned her gumption. What could she do? There had to be something.
Maybe the stream emerged from the ground farther along, and would carry the pouch there, so she could recover it. But if so, where? She had no idea. Karia might have carried her high enough so she could see where, but Karia was in the pouch. And even if the stream did emerge, there was no guarantee that the pouch would be with it; it could get stuck anywhere below, or simply sink to the bottom of some unknown and inaccessible underground pool.
Cube realized that she was not competent to recover the pouch by herself. She needed help. But who could--or would--help her, when she wasn't supposed to let the nature of her Quest be generally known? No one, she feared.
But there had to be something. She couldn't just give up. So she made her way back to where she had crossed the stream--and saw the thread, leading on. The thread didn't know she had lost the pouch! What point to follow it now?
Or did it? It had seemed remarkably savvy so far, even when it had led her to seemingly irrelevant places, like Mundania. Was it possible that it still had something for her?
Well, there was one way to find out. She would follow it. If it didn't lead anywhere, what would she lose? No more than she already had. And if by chance it took her to someone who could help, then maybe she could salvage this Quest after all.
She followed the thread around and about, o'er hill and dale, avoiding dragons, pitfalls, and tangle trees. As it skirted a village she saw a man wandering somewhat uncertainly, as if lost. She knew the feeling, so she paused, leaving the thread briefly to check on him. If he turned out to be a bad man, well, a few nickelpedes would distract him.
"Hello," she said. "You look confused."
"I am," he said. "My name is Bruce, and my talent is finger writing in stone."
"I'm Cube, and I can summon nickelpedes. You write in stone?"
"Yes." He demonstrated by lifting a rock and using one finger to make a smiley-face. The surface seemed to be like malleable clay. Then he handed it to her.
Cube touched the stone, expecting it to be soft, but it was rock-hard. "That's impressive. What's confusing?"
"That is just about all I remember. I don't know how I got here, or where I'm going."
Oh. "Did something happen to you?"
"I don't know," Bruce said. "I just suddenly found myself walking here."
"Maybe you live in that village."
"Maybe. I don't remember."
This was curious. "Maybe we can retrace your steps, and find out where it happened, whatever it was."
He turned around. "See, there are my footprints in the dirt."
They followed the prints back along the trail. In the distance Cube saw another person coming from the same direction. This was a young woman, small, dark-haired, and cute. Naturally she was cute; just about every woman Cube encountered looked much better than Cube did.
Then the woman paused, looking confused. Cube saw that Bruce's footprints hesitated there too; they had been going straight, then wavered as if the maker was distracted. Cube and Bruce paused as the woman came hesitantly up to them.
"Hello," the woman said. Her hair closed in under her chin, wreathing her cute face. "I am Angela, and my talent is conjuring Mundane objects. Do you happen to know why I am here?"
"We are Cube and Bruce," Cube said. "With talents of summoning nickelpedes and writing in stone. Bruce doesn't know why he is here either."
"Maybe you live in that village," Bruce suggested.
"I don't remember."
Then Cube caught on. "A forget whorl!" she said. "There must be one there, and you both walked through it. It took most of your memories, except what is most important: your names and talents."
The two looked at each other. "That must be it," Bruce said. "Maybe we do live at the village, because we were walking toward it."
"Maybe people there will know us," Angela said.
"Maybe we know each other," Bruce said, reacting to her the way men tended to in the presence of cute girls.
"You do now," Cube said. "Why don't you walk on to that village and inquire? And warn them of the forget whorl on the trail, so others don't pass through it. It must have drifted there today."
"All right," Angela said. "Thank you for your insight, Cube; that must be what happened."
"I know what it is like to feel lost," Cube said sincerely.
"Still, we'd like to thank you," Bruce said. "Here is a name stone for you." He picked up a small flat chip of stone and finger painted CUBE on it. He gave it to her.
"And here is a Mundane purse," Angela said as one appeared in her hand. "Since I see you don't have one." She glanced at it. "I think this is from the Philippines, home crafted." She presented it to Cube.
"Uh, thank you both," Cube said, not wanting to admit that she had no idea what part of Mundania that might be. "I don't suppose you want some nickelpedes?"
Both shook their heads no, laughing. Then they walked on toward the village, holding hands.
Cube considered the gifts, then put the name stone in the purse and tucked the purse in her waistband where the pouch had been. She would try not to lose this one.
She returned to the thread and began to follow it. Then she stopped. The thread led right to the forget whorl!
She sat on a small boulder, feeling perplexed, then frightened, then angry. If she had followed the thread any farther, she would have lost all memory of her mission, remembering only her name and talent. Then she would have been comple
tely unable to rescue her Companions in the pouch, or to complete her Quest. That thread had tried to wipe her out--and in such a way that no one else would know what happened. They might think she had wandered into a tangle tree and gotten eaten, or perhaps simply given up and gone home.
But the Princesses would never have set it up to do anything like that, and not just because it would cost them perpetual imprisonment in the pouch. So what had happened?
The Demoness Fornax, who didn't want Counter Xanth to be colonized: this could be her mischief. A series of seeming accidents that stopped the Quest. She must have jogged the pouch loose, so that it would be lost, then changed the thread to make Cube forget her mission. What a dastardly deed!
Well, if that was the way it was, Cube would just have to rescue her friends and complete her mission anyway. But how? She had avoided one trap, but still lost her Companions. What could she possibly do alone?
But if she was so helpless, why had the Demoness bothered to set another trap for her? There must be something she could do. Like return to the Good Magician and tell him what happened. Then he would send someone else on the Quest, trying to get it done, and maybe have a way to locate the lost pouch, so that it could be recovered and Cube could let the others out. So Fornax had tried to prevent that too.
She could hardly be faulted for being balked by a Demoness. Still, it galled Cube to fail. She wanted to succeed, and to become beautiful, and win Ryver for her man. Failure, even with her memory intact, would leave her as she was now: a woman no man noticed with favor, if at all. She had started out well enough, gathering her Companions, and must have been on the way to success, because otherwise the Demoness would not have bothered to interfere.
So was there any way to prevail despite the loss of the pouch? Yet if there was, she wouldn't want to do it while her Companions remained in limbo. First she had to rescue them, even at the expense of the Quest. She would rather save them than be beautiful, if that was her choice.
It was pretty clear that she wasn't able to save them on her own. She had to have help. But what help could there be, that wouldn't mess up the Quest by exposing its nature?
Then it came to her: What about that mysterious couple Kim Mundane had mentioned, Nimby and Chlorine? The donkey-headed dragon and the beautiful woman, who liked to do favors? Maybe they would do Cube a favor. At least she could ask.