Indeed it was the ghost horse, who was eternal as long as he wore his chains and avoided getting killed. Pook galloped up, gave a startled neigh when he saw Jordan, and practically knocked him down in greeting. “Yes, I’m alive again!” Jordan said. “Did you miss me?”
Pook shrugged. Then he turned and neighed. There was an answering neigh—and in a moment Peek, the female ghost horse, trotted up. Trailing her was a little colt, wearing cute little chains.
“I guess you found a way to pass the time,” Jordan remarked. “But four hundred years—just when did the stork deliver that colt?”
“Ooo, nice!” Ivy exclaimed, fascinated by the little ghost horse. The feeling seemed mutual.
“Of course, these things do take time,” Jordan decided. “When you’re a ghost. I’ve had some experience that way myself. That colt could be a century old.” And Pook nodded.
“I’ll call you Puck!” Ivy told the ghost colt, patting his pretty little mane.
Jordan checked Pook’s chains. There were the tattered remains of the bag of spells. He pulled it free, and two unused white spells dropped out: a shield and a stone. “One of these must be the reanimation spell,” he exclaimed. “And the other—” He paused to tally them up in his mind. “The monster-banishing-spell.”
“But which is which?” Ivy asked.
“We’ll just have to try them both. But first we have to find Renee’s bones.”
“No,” Renee said timidly. “I really don’t deserve—”
“Either you join me in life, or I’ll rejoin you in death.” And Jordan’s barbarian jaw was set so hard it was evident he meant it.
“You don’t understand,” Renee demurred. “You wouldn’t like me alive. I never intended to live again.”
“Well, I never intended to die for four hundred years,” Jordan retorted. “That was the mischief of Threnody’s cruel lie, may she be forever damned! But now I’m glad I did, because that’s how I met you. I love you; I’ll either live with you or die with you.”
“Come on, Renee,” Ivy said persuasively. She loved a good romance, even if there were aspects of it she had been unable to fathom yet. “Don’t be shy. I know my father will make a place for you at Castle Roogna—”
“No! Never!” the ghost cried.
“But after all, you’ve been here for centuries!”
“That’s different. Ghosts don’t count. I could never stay, in life,” Renee protested, wringing her diaphanous hands.
“Then we can live somewhere else,” Jordan said. “Anywhere you want. Just so long as we’re together. You want that, don’t you?”
“Oh, yes! But—”
“Then it’s decided,” Ivy said decisively. “Show us your bones.”
Reluctantly, Renee led them to one more site—a sophis-tree. This looked like a solid, regular tree, but on closer examination, it turned out to be a clever deception—an animal masquerading as a tree by standing on its thick tail and spreading its limbs out, covered with bits of green to emulate branches and leaves. Obviously it was an intruder in the orchard, a weed-creature, but the effort was so ingenious that no one had noticed for centuries, until now. Ivy decided to pretend not to notice; if the creature tried that hard and long to look and act like a tree, it deserved to succeed. After all, it wasn’t doing any harm.
Stanley sniffed out the bones and dug them up. They were very shapely bones; obviously Renee had been a beautiful woman, so her appearance wasn’t the reason for her reluctance to reanimate. That was fine, for, as Jordan continued to pluck and eat fruit, he was filling out into a muscular and handsome man. Ivy just knew they would make a lovely couple and she was thrilled to be able to reunite them in life. She liked the ghosts of Castle Roogna and would be sorry to lose these two as ghosts—but life was even better.
Jordan reached into the bag and brought out the little white stone and shield. “These stand for life and monster-banishment,” he said. “But there’s no way to tell which is which, short of invoking one. I’ll just have to guess. At least neither one will hurt anyone.”
“But—” Renee protested. “I really think you shouldn’t—”
Jordan held up the white stone. “Invoke!” he said.
There was a flash from the stone—and a pop behind them. They glanced around. “Stanley’s gone!” Ivy cried, appalled.
Jordan looked abashed. “I forgot he was a monster,” he said. “He was so helpful during the night. But I guess a little monster is still a monster.”
“But where is he?” Ivy demanded, peering around the orchard.
“Don’t worry—I’m sure he’s all right,” Jordan said. “He must have been sent to wherever monsters live when they’re not monstering. I mean, when I ran into the black monster-summoning-spell, it was a pretty healthy tarasque that appeared, and this spell is just the reverse. I’m sure Stanley will find his way home.”
“He’d better!” Ivy said, poking out her lower lip. “Or I’ll give him holy whatfor!”
Jordan held up the little white shield. “This has to be it, by elimination. Invoke!”
Renee’s bones quivered. Then the ghost was drawn to them—and as she settled onto the pattern of bones, her ghostly outline clarified, thickened, and became solid. In a moment she was a bare, beautiful woman with flowing black hair.
Jordan stared at her, stumbling back as if struck. “Threnody!” he cried.
“Who?” Ivy asked, bewildered.
The woman got to her feet. She had gone through none of the agonizing stages of restoration that Jordan had; this spell had been quick and strong. She gazed sadly at Jordan. “I tried to dissuade you, barbarian,” she said. “I warned you that you wouldn’t like me alive.”
“You—you substituted your bones for Renee’s!” Jordan cried. “You tricked me into reviving you instead of the one I love!” Behind him, Pook snorted agreement. Pook had never liked Threnody.
“Now how could a dead person change bones with another?” Threnody asked with the same air of regret. “I was always Renee—THreneeDY. I just simplified my name, so you wouldn’t know.”
It was obviously true. “You deceived me—even in death!” Jordan said. “Even as a ghost!”
“Even as a ghost,” she agreed, walking to a clothing tree and making tasteful selections from it. Ivy had never seen a better-formed woman, not excepting her mother Irene. Even as a female child, Ivy could appreciate how such a figure could dazzle a man’s mind. Threnody spoke again. “That was the cruelest lie of all.”
Jordan’s prospective joy had changed abruptly to bewildered horror. “But—why? You had gotten what you wanted! Why torture me even in death?”
She sighed. “I don’t suppose you could believe that I have always loved you?”
Jordan’s big fist clenched so hard the knuckle cracked. “Don’t give me any more of your lies! For once in your foul life, tell the simple truth! Why?”
She nodded as if she had expected this. “No more lies, Jordan. I’ll just do you the favor of getting out of your life. You’re alive now; you can make a new life for yourself. I’m sure any decent and lovely maiden would be glad to comfort a handsome barbarian like you. You certainly don’t need anything from demon-spawn.” She completed her dressing and walked out of the orchard, away from the castle.
Jordan’s hurt bafflement turned to outrage. “Oh, no, you don’t! You can’t destroy my love twice over and just walk away! I promised to deliver you to Castle Roogna, and now I will! King Dor will decide what to do with you!” And he ran after her, grabbed her by her slender waist, and picked her up. He had not yet recovered his full mass and strength, but he was already a powerful man.
“Stop that!” Threnody cried. “Put me down! I can’t go to Castle Roogna!”
“We’ll see about that!” he gritted. “There’s no Evil Magician now to kill me on the way. Once my mission is done, I’m through with you—but not before!”
She kicked and fought, but he carried her through the orchard toward the castle, w
hile Ivy and the three ghost horses followed. Pook snorted approval; this was at least a fitting conclusion to Jordan’s mission. Threnody would at last pay the penalty for her many treacheries.
But as they approached the drawbridge, there was dust rising from the zombie graveyard to the side. The zombies were dragging themselves out of their graves, trying to protect the castle. But they were too slow. Jordan reached the bridge first and started boldly across it, despite the woman’s struggles.
Castle Roogna began to shake. There were cries from within it as startled people reacted. Still Jordan marched forward. The moat monster forged through the water toward them, but it, too, was too late. All the castle’s defenses had been caught off guard by this sudden occurrence.
The shaking got worse. The water of the moat rippled. A stone fell from a turret and crashed to the ground.
“The castle’s falling, you idiot!” Threnody screamed. “It will kill everyone!”
Jordan stopped, amazed. “It really is!” he exclaimed. “I thought that was just a threat!”
Threnody managed to squirm out of his grasp and get back on her feet. “You never did know the truth from a lie!” she said and ran back across the bridge. “You were always a fool!” She brushed past Ivy and the horses, tears on her cheeks. No one tried to stop her.
The shuddering diminished as Threnody got away from the castle. The threat was easing. The disinterred zombies paused, and so did the moat monster, watching her depart.
“She sure didn’t lie about that part,” Ivy said, shaken by more than the castle. “But I don’t understand. Why did she pretend to be Renee?”
“To trick me into reanimating her!” Jordan said bitterly. “I would never have done it if I’d known she was the evil Threnody.”
“But Renee told you not to do it,” Ivy pointed out.
“She knew I’d do it anyway.”
“But when she came here to die, four hundred years ago, you had no spell. She thought you were dead to stay, didn’t she? Why did she choose to become a ghost—or if not a ghost, why did she come here to die?”
Jordan shook his head, bewildered. “I guess I can’t make sense of it at all. If she had had any change of heart, she could have dug up my bones herself; she knew where they were. But she’s demon-spawn; I never truly understood her nature. Her mother destroyed her father, and she destroyed me. Now she’s taken Renee from me, and left me not only desolate but branded as big a fool as a ghost as I was in life. The cruelty of her lies just goes on and on!” And he sat on the edge of the bridge and put his head in his hands.
Pook approached from one side, not knowing how to comfort the man who had loved so unwisely, and even the moat monster looked sad. The tragedy of Jordan’s first life had seemed to be beyond redemption, yet he had redeemed it in death—only to have it eclipsed by the tragedy of his second life.
Ivy had some idea how he felt. After all, she had just lost Stanley Steamer. But somehow it didn’t make enough sense to satisfy her. “I’m going to ask Hugo,” she announced.
Jordan did not answer. He just sat silently, gazing into the water of the moat, his new life turned to ashes.
Ivy had been grounded for getting into some perfectly innocent trouble on the way to the North Village several days ago. This time, she knew, the trouble was not innocent. Lives had been restored—and ruined. Castle Roogna had nearly fallen. What explanation could Hugo offer that would make any of this right? But she had to ask.
She left the little group on the drawbridge, returned to the castle, and hurried through the halls. No one noticed her; they were all too upset about the mysterious shaking of the castle. Once they realized what her part in this had been—she quailed before a mental picture of the giant flying hairbrush she had encountered at the Good Magician’s castle. Yet that could hardly be the worst of it. What would the other ghosts say to her after what she had done to two of their number?
She reached the mirror and called Hugo again. “You’re the only one smart enough to figure this out, Hugo,” she said tearfully when his face appeared in the glass. “I’m in a big awful lot of trouble!”
“But I’m not smart!” he protested, none too eager to get involved in her trouble. It took no genius to know that what Ivy considered little trouble was big trouble to anyone else, and what she called big trouble was apt to be downright dangerous.
“Yes, you are!” she insisted. Hugo was stuck for it; he changed his mind for a smarter one.
Ivy told him what had happened, and Hugo listened intelligently. “Why, the answer is obvious,” he said as she concluded; he explained it to her.
Ivy brightened phenomenally. “That’s it!” she exclaimed happily. “That solves everything! Oh, thank you, Hugo!” And she dashed out of the still-confused castle.
She returned to Jordan, who remained seated forlornly on the bridge, in the gloomy company of the ghost horses, the moat monster, and a stray zombie. “I know why!” she cried.
“Because she hated me and wanted to humiliate me yet again,” Jordan mumbled.
“No! Because she truly loved you, Jordan!”
Jordan looked up. “Some love!” he growled.
“Now listen, you dumb barbarian,” Ivy told him severely. “You don’t know a thing about women!”
“On target,” he agreed morosely.
“Threnody knew about Yin and Yang, right? That they were just different sides of the same Magician?”
“She had to know,” he said lugubriously.
“So she knew that all the evil that was in Yang was in Yin, too, only it didn’t show. Because the whole man is the sum of his parts. If she married Yin, she was marrying Yang, too—and Castle Roogna would fall before she even got to Yin, since she had to return there in order for him to win. And since they were the same Magician, she knew that all those bad spells that were trying to kill you were really from Yin as well as Yang; in fact, maybe Yin mixed up the white spells, himself, to be quite sure you’d be killed, without King Gromden knowing why. Because that Magician liked his evil side better, but had to do the contest to get Good King Gromden’s approval. So the contest really was fixed with no way Yin could win. Threnody knew that.” “Yes,” Jordan agreed, seeing it. “And she helped them get rid of me. Was that love?”
“Yes! Because she knew Yin-Yang would kill you all the way dead if he realized she loved you. And he was a Magician, a strong one, and he was going to be King no matter how the contest turned out, so no one could stop him. He would burn your body to ashes and scatter them in the sea, or seal them in stones, or something, so there’d be no chance at all for you ever to recover. And because she loved you, she had to pretend she hated you, because he was already suspicious and probably would have killed you anyway; there was a lot of evil in him.”
Jordan nodded, becoming interested. “Yin-Yang was evil; surely he had nothing good for me in mind. I was just a tool for his ambition, to be used and thrown away. Even without Threnody, he would have had to get rid of me so no one would know how he cheated. But Threnody didn’t have to—to make me love her, then kill me herself!”
“She didn’t, not exactly,” Ivy said. “She didn’t know you before you came for her, and then she tried to kill you, but gradually, as she got to know you, she got to love you, too. She told the truth when she said she loved you. She had never loved any man other than her father before, but you proved to her she was, after all, human. Then she really had to kill you!”
“Huh?” Even the ghost horses and the moat monster and the zombie looked perplexed at this.
Ivy realized that Hugo’s clear explanation was getting a bit garbled in translation. She concentrated her mind and tried again. “Actually, it was Yang’s evil death-spell that killed you. Then Threnody knew he’d finish the job if she didn’t act quickly. So she cut up your body and hid the pieces very carefully to be sure she could find them again. She knew she could bring you back to life—after the Magician had forgotten about you. That’s why she told that cruel lie??
?to save you from real death! She was lying to the Magician when she said she hated you. She told you the truth when she said she loved you.”
“I don’t know—” Jordan began doubtfully.
“Remember when you were in Threnody’s body, holding the evil sword, and you couldn’t tell Pook the truth?” Ivy asked. “You lied—to fool the sword, not Pook! Well, Threnody was in a similar situation, because Yin-Yang was more dangerous than that black sword ever had been.”
Jordan brightened, then dulled again. “But she never did bring me back.”
“Because Yang remained suspicious. Evil people are like that; it’s the good people who are too trusting. Yang must have watched her all the time. Renee told you how unhappy her marriage was! It must have been truly terrible—because she really hated the Magician and had to pretend she loved him. Finally she couldn’t take it any more. She realized he would never give her a chance to return to you. Not while he lived. Not before she was an old hag. She could do nothing about him, because his Magician’s power was much more than hers could ever be, and also, he was the King. The moment she made any motion to dig up your bones, he would have known, and destroyed you both in terrible fashion. So she joined you the only way she could—in death. She loved you enough to die for you. She hadn’t known about the ghosts at Castle Roogna.”
“Yes …” Jordan said, wishing he could believe. “But why didn’t she tell me then?”
“Two reasons. Yin-Yang knew she was dead, but didn’t know she had become a ghost; only people with horrendously unresolved problems become ghosts. But when she said anything about her identity, the Magician would recognize her and know it wasn’t over and take steps to finish it, if only by digging up your bones and burning them. She couldn’t risk that! So, to protect you as a ghost, she lied to you again.”
“But Yin-Yang didn’t live forever!” Jordan protested. “After he died, she could have told me!”
“No. You hated Threnody for what you thought she had done to you. You would have thought it was just another lie. You were coming to love Renee; if she told you, all that she could expect was that you would hate her—as you did when her identity was revealed just now. She loved you and just wanted your love in return; her name didn’t matter to her. So she loved you as Renee, and you loved her, and that was enough. Until you messed it up by returning her to life. And then she couldn’t tell you, for the same reason, because you wouldn’t listen, so she just went away, heartbroken, and I guess she’ll turn herself into a skunk-cabbage or something and wilt away.”