Man From Mundania

  They walked down to the beach and saw the heaving sea. This was a designated camping place, so the safety enchantment was on it; no monsters or evil plants could intrude here. But Grey started to walk down a path that crossed the magic line.

  “Grey! Where are you going?” Ivy called, alarmed.

  “I, uh, have to, you know,” he said, embarrassed.

  “But you're walking down a tangle tree path! If you cross the line and walk into the clutches of the tree—”

  He smiled. “I, uh, maybe you forgot my talent.”

  “Ooopsy! I did forget!” she said, embarrassed in her turn. “You have nothing to fear from tanglers!”

  “Uh, right,” he agreed. He walked on down the path.

  Curious, she watched. Sure enough, the tangler was quiescent until Grey came within reach. Then it grabbed.

  Its hanging green tentacles whipped around Grey's body—and abruptly fell away, limp. He brushed on through. After he was done there, he would restore the tree's magic—and if it was a smart tree, it would not bother him again.

  Ivy really hadn't thought about this aspect very much, but now she realized that she was as safe with Grey as it was possible to be, because nothing magic could hurt them. That included just about everything in Xanth. Grey could nullify magic partly, or not at all, or even enhance it by the rebound effect. Thus he could use or not use magic, as he chose, to the degree he chose. He really was a Magician, whose power matched her own.

  They were well matched in other respects, too. Grey had loved her though he did not believe that she had magic or that she was a princess. She had loved Grey though she thought him Mundane. Now each understood what the other was, and it was wonderful. Yet it was all a plot by Com-Pewter, and that made it awful. How near and yet how far!

  The waves rose up ahead of her, forming odd shapes.

  She realized that she had been unconsciously enhancing the magic of the sea as she stood there musing about Grey.

  Now the water was glowing, and the spume was forming faces.

  Curious, she enhanced it further. Soon a big wave took shape and held its position. Its frothy eyes stared out at her, and its little whirlpool of a mouth opened. “Beeewaare!” it splashed.

  Ivy's own mouth dropped open. It had spoken to her!

  Why would a wave try to do such a thing? Did it like being Enhanced?

  Electra and Donkey approached, quietly. “It's warning us about something,” Electra murmured. “We'd better find out what!”

  Ivy agreed. She concentrated, giving the wave her best Enhancement. “Beware of what?” she called, uncertain whether it could hear or understand her. She tried to enhance its hearing and understanding, but knew there were limits.

  “Paaath oooouut!” the wave replied. Then it collapsed back into mere water.

  “The path is out?” Electra asked. “Maybe a storm washed out the dirt?”

  “We should readily see that,” Donkey said. “It really did not require such a dramatic warning.

  “Maybe the wave isn't very smart,” Electra said.

  “Still, it meant well,” Ivy said. She had never talked to a wave before; that sort of thing was her father's talent.

  Could she now Enhance inanimate things too? Or had she always been able to without realizing it?

  She cupped her mouth with her hand. “Thank you, Wave,” she called. “We shall beware the path.”

  A surge of bubbly water washed up around her feet, as if licking them.

  Grey returned. They gathered breadfruit and butterballs, and even found an eye scream bush with several flavors of confection.

  They settled for the night. Ivy wanted to sleep beside Grey, but chaperone Electra was right there watching, eager to catch them at anything that smacked even faintly of stork. Ivy wasn't sure whether the girl was moved more strongly by duty or curiosity. She remembered how curious she herself had been about the business of stork summoning. In the last year or so she had finally succeeded in piecing together diverse bits of information and, aided by strong hints from Nada, had pretty much solved the riddle. She believed she would be able to summon the stork when the time came. But she had no intention of doing so before she got married. Now she was part of the Adult Conspiracy, obliged to hide the information from children—and Electra was still mostly a child, despite her love for Dolph and her betrothal to him.

  So she piled her pillows and blankets and bedded down by herself, and Grey did likewise, though she would so much rather have hugged him to sleep.

  In the morning the ghost horses returned, and they resumed their journey. Not far up the path. Peek lifted her nose and sniffed. Pook and Puck did likewise, evidently disturbed by something.

  “That warning,” Donkey said. “Do you think this is where the path is out?”

  “It looks firm to me,” Grey said. They had told him of the wave warning.

  They went on, cautiously. The path was whole, entirely normal. But the three ghost horses remained skittish, which was unusual for them.

  They rounded a turn—and there was a huge land dragon straddling the path. It was a smoker, with clouds of deep gray smoke wafting back from its nostrils.

  Grey, in the lead on Pook, came to a sudden halt. “I thought you said this path was enchanted!” he exclaimed.

  Ivy, next in line, stopped as suddenly. “It is! No predator is supposed to be able to intrude!”

  The dragon formed a toothsome grin. Obviously it had another opinion.

  “Well, I'll just null it,” Grey said.

  “Watch the smoke!” Ivy warned. “It can blind you and choke you before you get close!”

  “Pook can get me there before the dragon gets its smoke really up,” Grey said. “It won't be expecting us to charge it.” He patted the ghost horse. “You do believe in my power?” Pook nodded, though a trifle uncertainly. He had been told of it, but had not seen it demonstrated.

  There was a roar from the rear. Ivy looked back. There was another dragon, like the first but slightly smaller.

  Surely the smoker's mate! “It's a trap!” she cried. “They have boxed us in!”

  Electra, on Donkey, was third in line. “We'll take this one!” she cried.

  “No!” Ivy screamed. “You can't—”

  But now both dragons roared horrendously. Smoke billowed, for the moment masking them.

  “Now!” Grey called. “While they're drawing breath!”

  “But—” Ivy started, flustered.

  Pook charged forward, and Donkey charged back. Ivy was left in mid protest in the middle.

  Grey disappeared into the cloud of smoke. She knew he could null the dragon if he got close enough to touch it, and at the rate the ghost horse was going they would not just touch but collide. It was Electra who needed help.

  Peek, responding to Ivy's decision, whirled and galloped back. The smoke was thinning. She saw the fuzzy outline of Electra strike the dragon on the sooty snoot.

  The dragon blinked, shocked. But Ivy knew that Electra's charge could not knock out a dragon this size; it would only set it back a moment. Then there would be real trouble.

  As Ivy reached them. Donkey was kicking the dragon's head with his hind hooves. The dragon, still jolted by the electric shock, was not moving, but the hoof strikes were only rattling its head, not making it retreat.

  Still, it was an idea. “I'll Enhance you,” Ivy told Peek. “You turn about and deliver your hardest kick to its chin. Don't miss!”

  She concentrated on Enhancing Peek's power of kick. She imagined the hooves as having the same hardness as the metal chains, and the legs having enormous power. This would be some kick!

  Peek turned, threw down her head, and let go with a phenomenal two-hoof kick. It connected. Ivy felt the shock; it jolted her teeth. Was it enough?

  Peek's feet came down. She turned again. They both looked, and so did Electra and Donkey.

  The dragon was flat on its back, its tail twitching. Peek's double-hooved kick had flipped the monster all the
way over, and knocked it out. The kick had indeed been enough!

  Grey and Pook trotted up. “The front dragon is unconscious,” Grey reported. “And so is this one, by the look of it.”

  “But how did they get on the enchanted path?” Electra asked.

  “Now I think I understand,” Donkey said. “The wave's warning: the spell on the path is out! So it isn't safe, in this section.”

  All three ghost horses nodded. They had known it, but had been unable to speak their knowledge.

  “But the spell was set by Good Magician Humfrey,”

  Ivy said. “He wouldn't let anything happen to it!”

  “Not if he were still around,” Electra said. “But he's been gone for seven years.”

  Ivy felt stupid. Of course the Good Magician was gone, it was Dolph's Quest for him that had introduced him to Nada and Electra, and Ivy's Quest for him that had introduced her to Grey. Now other folk could tinker with his spells with impunity. “We've got to get him back!” she muttered.

  “There must be a counterspell here,” Electra said. “To cancel out the path enchantment. So the monsters can get in.”

  “Then maybe I can null it,” Grey said. “Except I don't know how to relate to it.”

  “I'll Enhance your ability to relate,” Ivy said. “Then maybe you can null it.”

  He shrugged. “It's worth a try.”

  They dismounted and took each other's hands. “You're Holding Hands!” Electra exclaimed. “I'm going to Report that!”

  “If you do, I'll report that time you sneaked into my little brother's room and held his hand while he was sleeping,” Ivy said darkly.

  Electra looked so abashed that Ivy, Grey, and Donkey burst out laughing. One of the charming things about Electra was that she retained so much of the innocence of childhood.

  Ivy concentrated on Grey's power of relation. She felt something happening, but wasn't sure what. Then there was a moment of vertigo.

  “Got it!” Grey said. “The source of the problem is over there.” He walked to the side of the path. “This, bit of wood?” he asked, picking it up.

  “That's reverse wood!” Ivy exclaimed. “It must have reversed the enchantment on the path, right here near it, so the dragons could get in!”

  “Well, I'll null it, then.”

  “Don't do that!” Ivy said quickly. “Suppose it reversed your talent?”

  “But we can't leave the path unprotected!”

  “Just throw the wood away,” Donkey suggested. “It won't do any harm if it's not in the path.”

  Grey wound up and hurled the wood far to the side.

  Immediately the three ghost horses reacted, relaxing. The two unconscious dragons stirred. Each dragged itself up and scrambled away from the path.

  “Problem solved,” Donkey said with satisfaction.

  “But there never would have been a problem if the Good Magician were still around,” Ivy said. “As soon as we settle our personal problem, we'll have to resume the Quest for him. We can't continue much longer without him.”

  “If we could find him, maybe he could settle all our personal questions,” Electra said.

  Ivy nodded. Electra had a problem that was just as serious as Ivy's own! When Dolph came of age to marry, and had to choose which of his betrothees actually to marry, he was very likely to choose Nada. Then Electra would die, having failed to marry the Prince who had rescued her from her enchanted sleep.

  Unless Grey could nullify the spell on her. Ivy pondered that. Could it represent the solution for Electra? She hesitated to mention it until she was sure. Magic did not always work the way expected, and mistakes could be disastrous.

  They reached the isthmus. This was as far as their steeds could go, for magical creatures would soon perish when out of the magic of Xanth. Donkey would keep watch for their return to this spot, and the ghost horses would come at his whistle. The final station on the enchanted path was a nice one, with useful plants of all kinds and an excellent view of the changing colors of the sea. Donkey said he expected to enjoy his stay here.

  The colors of the sea related to the times and places of Mundania that the folk of Xanth could go to. Scholars such as Ichabod, the Mundane archivist, and Arnolde Centaur had taken the trouble to study it and to issue voluminous reports that entirely defined it. Unfortunately, no one else was able to understand the reports. Most of what Ivy knew about the colors was that when the sea turned black, it led to the Black Sea of Mundania, where her parents had gone to rescue Grandpa Trent and Grandma Iris, ages ago.

  This time they were not going to mess with the colors at all. Grey simply nulled the magic of the border, and they walked through to what was called Contemporary Mundania, which was where Grey had lived. They knew it was right, because their entry through the gourd in No Name Key had also bypassed the magical barrier.

  Thus the three of them found themselves stumbling through drear brush in drear Mundania, and onto one of the paved regions called highways, though in truth they were low rather than high. Now Ivy and Electra could talk to each other, but not to Grey, because Grey had been raised with the nonsensical language of the Mundanes.

  Grey demonstrated the magic of the thumb signal, to make one of the cruising vehicles screech to a precipitous halt. It didn't work very well until Ivy enhanced it slightly by hiking up her skirt to show more leg. Then a monstrous truck squealed to a stop, providing their first ride.

  They let Grey do the talking, since they could not. Ivy exchanged hand signals with Grey when she needed to, and quietly pointed out the few interesting things to Electra, such as the odd boxlike buildings and colored lights that always flashed bright red when the vehicle approached.

  So it went, for an interminable journey along the assorted and confused roads of this dull realm. They found a public sleeping place called a bus station for the night; the seats were not at all suited to comfortable sleeping, but this was only another evidence of the craziness of Mundanes. Ivy had to show Electra how to use the facilities in the room for natural functions, and the girl was appropriately awed. “How can they use perfectly good drinking water for such a thing?” she demanded in a whisper. “Suppose somebody forgets and drinks it?” Ivy had no answer; there was simply no explaining much of what the Mundanes did.

  As they stood before one of the strange unmagic mirrors Ivy was surprised to notice how tall Electra had grown.

  She was now as tall as Ivy, and looked mature, too. Ivy realized that she had been too preoccupied with her own concerns to pay much attention; Electra would have been maturing all along. It had taken the stark mirror that showed them standing together to make Ivy appreciate the extent of it.

  Grey got bits of wrapped food from the lighted standing machines; he had saved some of their Mundane coins for this purpose. Apparently the machines liked the taste of metal better than real food and would give up their food for it. Ivy had seen this on her last trip here, but Electra was amazed. “When do the machines eat the food they trade for the metal?” she asked. “Why don't they just eat the metal to begin with, if they don't like the food?”

  Again, Ivy could not answer.

  They slept propped against Grey on either side, his arms around each. Ivy wondered whether this was at all like her brother's situation, with two betrothees. Innocent Dolph would be satisfied to marry them both, the one out of compassion, the other out of love. But the parents had said No, No Way, Definitely Not, Absolutely Out of the Question, and Never, so it seemed likely that they would oppose such a solution. Too bad, for Nada and Electra were both so nice.

  They finally reached Grey's apartment. It was hardly too soon, for Electra wasn't feeling well. She had been eating ravenously, never seeming to get enough, and had grown somewhat short tempered and absentminded. She was also quite dirty, so that she hardly looked herself.

  Ivy had not liked this place before, but now it was blessedly familiar. Her own room was unchanged, with plenty of Agenda's food still on the shelves. She encouraged Electra
to eat what she wanted, and to clean up and don one of the dresses in the closet, so she could be presentable again. Then she went across the hall with Grey.

  Com-Pewter's Sending remained; as soon as he turned the machine on, they were able to talk naturally again. It was a great relief.

  SO YOU BROUGHT SOMEONE ELSE FROM XANTH, the screen remarked.

  “Yes, this is Electra, our chaperone,” Grey said, as Electra appeared at the door, cleaned and changed.

  YES, IT IS PROPER TO HAVE AN OLDER PERSON IN THAT CAPACITY.

  “Oh, she's not older!” Ivy protested. But then she took another look at Electra, and was amazed: the girl did look older, like a woman of thirty or so. She had assumed that it was dirt and wear on the clothing that had changed her appearance, but now it was clear that those things had only masked the true extent of the change. How could this be?

  Grey, too, was surprised. “Electra, you're bigger and older and, uh, fuller,” he said. “Your new clothing makes you look so awfully old! What happened?”

  SHE IS YOUNG? the screen inquired. WHAT IS HER HISTORY?

  “She's actually from about nine hundred years ago,”

  Ivy said. “A spell fouled up, and she slept until the present, but she remained the same age until she woke. Until now.”

  IT WAS FOOLISH TO BRING HER TO MUNDANIA, the screen said. SHE IS NOW IN THE PROCESS OF ATTAINING HER MUNDANE AGE OF NINE HUNDRED YEARS.

  The three exchanged portions of a glance of sheer horror. “Oh, Electra, we never thought!” Ivy cried. “We knew the magic folk couldn't come here—”

  “It is of course my own fault,” Electra said with surprising maturity. “Naturally I should have realized that this would be the case. I shall try to handle it in an adult manner.”

  She was older emotionally, too! She was aging in every way.

  “How long before she, uh—?” Grey asked.

  AT THE PRESENT RATE OF PROGRESSION, SHE SHOULD HAVE ABOUT THREE MORE DAYS BEFORE BEGINNING TO FAIL FROM OLD AGE, the screen printed.