He paced her on his. “It does seem slightly ridiculous, considering that we can’t fix it anyway. But I really would like to know.”
“Just as I would like to know why Pluto hasn’t claimed me. That suggests that the mission has not yet officially failed. That maybe there is still a chance.”
“If we can just figure it out,” he agreed. “Maybe when you touch the cable, you will learn how it can be fixed without our full group. Because I thought that was the definition of our failure: if any one member was lost, the mission was forfeit.”
“Apparently not.” She paused, glancing at him. “Maybe it is you, Jumper. You are the one who can’t be corrupted away from it. All the rest of us were just along to keep you on track.”
He shook his head. “I don’t see how I could be that important.”
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“These things aren’t necessarily determined by personal importance. You are the one equipped to splice the cable back together. That makes you transcendentally important to this par tic u lar mission.”
“Maybe so,” he agreed dubiously.
“We can’t reach the cable today. We’ll have to spend another night on the road.”
“There doesn’t seem to be a time limit. I don’t mind traveling with you.”
“And you find me, also, attractive.”
“I didn’t mean that!”
“Unattractive?”
“No! I mean—”
She smiled. “Be at ease, Jumper. I’m teasing you. Do you think my pan ties would have made you react if I were unattractive to you?”
“No,” he agreed, embarrassed.
“Let’s make a night of it.”
“That isn’t called for.”
“Let’s face it, Jumper. I anticipate an eternity of being a Demon’s plaything. I might as well have a session with someone I truly like and respect, before descending into that hell.”
“Oh.” What else could he say? “All right.”
Then Sharon appeared. “So you’re making out with her, you wretch!
Why do I bother with you?”
Jumper was taken aback only half a moment. “Look who’s talking!
You’re a De mon ess, with no scruples. You’ve been playing me along so that I will do your will, what ever it is.” He glared at her. “You can tell me now: what is your will?”
“I told you: I am mad at Pluto, so I want your mission to succeed.”
“So you will have to marry me and become decent? That doesn’t make sense to me.”
“I am so mad at him that I am prepared to make even that sacrifice.”
“If you really feel that way,” Eve said evenly, “why don’t you marry Jumper now? That will satisfy us that you truly are committed to our cause.”
“You’re impossible,” Sharon huffed, and vanished. 039-40892_ch01_4P.qxp 7/30/09 12:35 PM Page 291
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“I really can’t trust her,” Jumper said. “But she does tempt me.”
“Perhaps I can alleviate that. Kiss me.”
“No, you don’t!” Sharon said, reappearing.
Could Sharon actually be jealous of Eve? Or was she merely trying to wean him away from what ever remaining commitment to the mission he had? That suggested again that the mission was not yet completely lost, and that Eve’s commitment bolstered his to make it possible. Yet he was unable to see how.
“I am curious,” Eve said to Sharon. “If you are jealous of Pluto’s interest in me, why are you trying to break up what ever interest Jumper has in me? If I have a night with Jumper, wouldn’t that decrease my value to Pluto, and perhaps make it more likely that he would marry you after all?”
“You’re impossible too,” Sharon said, and vanished again.
“Something is operating here that we don’t properly understand,”
Jumper said. “Now we can’t be sure which of us she is trying to mess up. If she wants me, then she doesn’t want me with you. If she wants Pluto, then she should want you with me.”
“Which suggests that she wants you, not Pluto,” she agreed. “Or that this is what she is trying to make us believe.”
“So we still can’t trust her,” he said.
They came to a pathside campsite. They foraged for supper, then stripped and washed in the small lake. He had half forgotten how stunningly lovely Eve was, and seeing her bare again made him react.
“We could do it right here in the water,” she murmured. He was mightily tempted, but something stopped him. “No, with regret.”
“Because of Sharon?” she asked.
“Because of Eris.”
“Ah. I suspect you were ready to love Eris because she had the Demon qualities that attracted you to Sharon, and is more trustworthy.”
“That may be it,” he agreed. “I wish . . .” But he couldn’t finish, knowing that Eris would have no such interest in him.
“We share a situation,” she said. “We each want the Good Demon, 039-40892_ch01_4P.qxp 7/30/09 12:35 PM Page 292 292
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and don’t want the Bad Demon. Even though in my case the two overlap and your case seems hopeless.”
“Yes.”
“Yet it seems it is not yet finished, hopeless as it appears. There may be something we have overlooked. Maybe I’ll discover it when I touch the broken cable.”
“Maybe,” he agreed.
They waded out of the water and dried, then went into the shelter for the night. Eve lay beside him, as lovely in repose as in activity. He regretted his decision to pass up her offer. She opened an eye. “You sure?”
“No.”
She laughed. “Let’s compromise with a kiss.”
“Yes.”
They kissed, chastely, and she was wonderfully appealing.
“It’s a good thing I’m not my sister. I would know what you are thinking.”
“You know it anyway,” he said.
“We are teasing each other without meaning to,” she said. “So let’s conclude this appropriately.”
“I don’t understand.”
“The bleep you don’t.” She wrapped her arms about him, half rolled to be on top of him, pressed evocatively close, and kissed him again. This time there was nothing chaste about it. “Stop me when you’ve had enough.”
He was silent.
There followed a sequence much like the one with Phanta, only more so. Eve clearly knew what she was doing, and had no regrets. “Thank you!” he gasped as it concluded.
“And I hope this spoils you for Sharon, and me for Pluto,” she said, satisfied. “If we lose, they lose too.”
“That’s spiteful.”
“Do you disagree?”
“No.”
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She laughed, kissed him again, then got up to clean up again. When she returned she asked, “Was it only for spite?”
“No.”
“Agreed. Now we can sleep.”
They did. But this time they held hands.
In the morning Jumper was pensive. “Are you sorry?” Eve asked.
“About last night? No. About today, yes. I fear we are about to confirm our failure.”
“Which was one reason for last night.”
“There were other reasons?”
“I really do like you, Jumper, as do all the girls. You are a genuinely decent person. None of us have any romantic future with you, but last night was friendship intensified. No one else needs to know, other than the Demons. I don’t believe Eris would mind; she would understand. Accept it for what it was, and remember.”
“I do. I will.” It was all he could say, being overwhelmed by appreciation. They set out on the bicycles, following the path to the cable. At one point there was another crack in the ground severing the path. But this time no harpy was along to carry across Jumper’s silk cord.
“That
’s farther than I can jump,” he said. “We’ll have to climb down through it. I can make a web ladder. Or if a wind comes up, I can extend a kite thread and float us across.”
“There’s no wind. But I wonder . . . how far can you jump?”
“In my natural form, pretty far. That’s my specialty. But there are limits.”
“Try a practice jump.”
“Very well.” Jumper changed to spider form and jumped alongside the crevice.
And was amazed as he sailed high and far. “That’s farther than I ever jumped before.”
“I felt a certain vigor in my step,” Eve said. “We seem to be gaining strength. I don’t know why; I can’t touch strength and know about it the way I can an object.”
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“This makes the difference. Now I know I can hurdle that crack. I will carry a line across, and come back for you and the bikes.”
“I will need another cocoon.”
He had forgotten her fear of heights. “Gladly.” He spun one, she entered, and he sealed her in. Then he jumped across, toting a line, tacked it to a tree, returned, and carried Eve across. He let her out. She kissed him. “At times like this, I really need to be with someone I can trust,” she said shakily, kissing him on his mandibles.
“Welcome.” He fetched the bicycles across, took up his line, and changed back to manform.
“Maybe the air here is invigorating, so we have more energy.”
“Maybe,” he agreed. He did feel light on his feet. They continued on along the path. Around noon they reached the Xanth border. And paused, impressed.
For the forest and fields of Xanth abruptly quit. It was not a gulf or crevice; it was simply the end of it. Jumper was speechless.
“Xanth is its own world now,” Eve said. “It happened two years ago, when a party of folk traveled the entire circuit of Ida’s moons and corrected a glitch, separating Xanth from Mundania. So there is nowhere to go beyond Xanth.”
“But we haven’t found the broken cable!”
“We will.” She glanced right and left. “That way,” she said, pointing right.
They rode along the edge, beside the nothingness that was beyond the edge of the planet. Jumper hoped they wouldn’t accidentally fall off. He had not thought about the shape of Xanth before, and never realized that it was essentially flat. A flat peninsula.
“No water?” he asked. “I thought there was sea beyond Xanth.”
“There is around most of it. But the water has not yet filled in around the northern border, which once connected to the interface with Mundania. The sea will surely get here when it is ready.”
“Oh.” There didn’t seem to be much else to say. They came to a giant tree that spread half its foliage out beyond the edge. Its general outline was like a huge conical hat.
“Coven Tree,” Eve explained. “Mundane witches used to meet here, 039-40892_ch01_4P.qxp 7/30/09 12:35 PM Page 295
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absorbing some of the magic of Xanth. Now of course it is out of their reach.”
“But how can they be witches without magic?”
“They have to fake it. Probably no one believes that they used to have real magic.”
“That’s too bad,” Jumper said sympathetically. They rode on. Soon they encountered a boy and girl arguing. “Mine is better,” the boy said.
“No, mine is,” the girl retorted.
Then the two spied Jumper and Eve. “Hey, you decide,” the boy said. “My talent is conjuring things into bottles. My twin sister’s talent is conjuring them out again. Which is better?”
Jumper exchanged a glance with Eve. He was learning the art of this, and she had a beautiful eye, so it was pleasant.
“Let’s see a bottle,” Jumper said as the two of them stopped their bicycles and got off. The boy brought out a bottle. Inside it was a miniature woman screaming to get out. “You put living folk in?” Eve asked, concerned.
“Well, she annoyed me,” the boy said defensively.
“Take her out,” Eve said sternly to the girl. The woman disappeared from the bottle and appeared full size outside it. “That impertinent rascal!” she exclaimed.
“They are arguing which talent is better,” Jumper said. “Conjuring things in, or out. What do you say?”
“Out!” the woman said.
“There you are,” Jumper said to the boy.
“Oh, yeah?” he said rebelliously. “So how’s about I conjure you all into the bottle?”
Oops. Jumper grabbed the bottle and tossed it over the edge, into the void beyond Xanth. “You have the decision. Do not conjure any more people into bottles.”
“Or what?” the boy demanded.
“Or I will use my talent,” the woman said.
“Yeah? What’s that?”
“I can make myself sick.”
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“So what?”
The woman’s face turned greenish. “I’ll vomit all over you.” She heaved.
“Okay, okay!” the boy cried. “No more people.”
Jumper and Eve walked on with the woman. “You bluffed him out,”
Eve said.
“Just as well,” the woman said. “I could have made myself ill with a deadly contagious disease that would have taken him out. But then it might have spread.”
“Just as well,” Jumper agreed, relieved.
“Thank you for saving me from that bottle,” the woman said to Eve.
“You’re welcome,” Eve said.
They mounted their bikes again and rode on, leaving the woman behind. “Why don’t the people here seem to care about the edge of Xanth?”
Jumper asked.
“They’re used to it. They take it for granted.”
“I don’t think I could ever do that.”
“Well, you’re not human,” she said. “I think that’s part of what makes you so appealing.”
“Thank you.” He wasn’t sure whether she was joking. Finally they came to the cable.
The thick mass of wires descended from the sky beyond the edge of Xanth, and plunged into the ground, going where only it and perhaps Com Pewter knew. Up near a cloud it was torn, with a segment ripped out. The segment that had fallen into the possession of the talented children, who would not give it up. Eve stepped up and touched it with one finger. “Oh, my,” she breathed, clearly awed.
“Yes?”
“Now I know its purpose, and why it is so important that it be fixed.”
He waited a full moment, knowing that the explanation would be impressive.
“It is a conduit,” she said, “for an exchange with Mundania, which is now separated from Xanth by a virtually impassible gulf. A trading deal that both worlds need.”
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He waited another moment.
“We send Mundania magic for special effects,” she continued, “such as rainbows, that can be seen only from one side. Perspective, in which distant things hurry to keep up with near things despite looking smaller. The way Earth’s moon grows larger on romantic fall eve nings. And of course the randomness that accounts for free will. Mundanians will really miss these things.”
“But what is Mundania sending us?”
“Gravity.”
“I don’t understand.”
“The magic of Demon Earth is Gravity. It holds all things to the surface of the planet so they don’t float away and get lost. Without it, Mundanians would also float away. They wouldn’t much like that.”
“Of course. But what has that to do with us?”
“It is not our magic, so we import it from Mundania. It keeps our things, and us, from floating away. Now it is surely fading.”
“The jumping!” he exclaimed. “That’s why
we’re lighter. Less
gravity
.”
“That would be it,” she agreed. “Xanth really needs it.”
“No wonder the Good Magician didn’t tell us why the mission was so urgent. Xanth would panic if news leaked out.”
“And we well might have let it slip,” she agreed somberly.
“And if we don’t repair the cable, gravity will fade entirely, and we’ll all be lost,” he said. “Now at last I understand why this mission was important enough to warrant two Sorceresses.”
“As do I,” she agreed. “Yet we seem to have failed. Pluto must just be waiting for us to admit it. Then by the terms of the Demon deal, he can pounce on me.”
“And Sharon can pounce on me,” he agreed.
“And we can’t fix it,” she said, stepping into his consoling embrace. This time it was nothing but mutual commiseration. “Oh, Jumper, is this the end?”
“It can’t be,” he said. But he feared it was. 039-40892_ch01_4P.qxp 7/30/09 12:35 PM Page 298 15
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Yet though failure stares us in the face, they have not pounced,” Eve said. “What factor are we missing?”
“There must be a way to fix it, if only we can figure it out,” Jumper said.
She touched the cable again. “There is some slack, because it curves while wending its way between realms. Enough to pull the ends together, despite the missing section, if we just had the strength to do it.”
“I am strong, but not that strong,” he said. “We would need considerable help.”
“The other members of the mission,” she said. “Maybe that’s why all of them are needed. To pull it tight so you can splice it.”
“They are girls, no offense. Are they strong enough?”
“No. It would take twice as much strength as they have. Maybe more.”
“So there must be something else.”
“Something else,” she agreed. “But what?”
Jumper brought out the Prophecy. “Let no maiden fair, Yield to despair,” he read. “It will be nice, If you can splice.”
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