Heaven Cent

  The little girl burst into tears. Fulsome Fee looked angry, and Vida Vila almost jumped out of the jury box. Neither of them liked the abuse of children. "Your witness," Dolph said.

  "No questions," Ivy said quickly. She did not look comfortable.

  That was it; there were no further witnesses. It was time for the counsels for the prosecution and defense to make their summations, before the jury decided. This was where it all came together—or apart. Dolph's hands were sweating; he had no idea what to say.

  Fortunately, Ivy had to speak first. "All this business about nice skeletons or sorry trolls or sweet little girls is irrelevant," she said. "Skeletons are supposed to be scary, and trolls are supposed to be mean, and little girls aren't necessarily sweet." She whirled on Dolph. "Do you disagree?"

  Dolph, caught completely by surprise, choked. Ivy was her own best example!

  "You the jury have to consider just one thing," she continued savagely. "Did the defendant do what she was supposed to do? You know she didn't; therefore she is guilty. That is all there is to it, and you know it."

  Ouch! At one nasty stroke, she had negated all of Dolph's witnesses. How could he counter that? Grace’l had messed up the dream, and that was all that the denizens of the realm of dreams cared about.

  Then he remembered that he couldn't win if he accepted the gourd's definitions; it was a fixed game. He had not gotten anywhere he wanted to go when he kept opening doors with questions he didn't like; he had only escaped that trap when he rejected that whole business. He had to break out of those definitions. There might not be much of a chance, that way, but there was no chance at all the other way.

  He had to get through to each member of the jury, to make that person or creature vote his way. To make a really effective summation that would move them all.

  "Well, uh, er," he said, "You know it just isn't right to punish a person for being nice. The ends of making bad dreams don't justify the means of—" He stalled, confused. What point had he been trying to make? He couldn't, in this pressure situation, get it straight. Ends and means— but it was gone. "That's all I have to say." He returned to his table, chagrined.

  Ivy looked across at him. "Brother, you blew it," she said sneeringly.

  He was already aware of that.

  The jury consulted. Dolph looked at Grace’l. "I tried," he said, near to tears again. "I really tried."

  "I know you did, Dolph," she said. "It isn't your fault that no one can win a trial in the dream realm."

  The jury straightened. "Have you reached a decision?" the judge inquired.

  "We have, Your Honor," Draco said.

  "What is your decision?"

  "Guilty."

  Dolph had been discouraged, fearing just this result. But now that it had happened, he was outraged. "But it isn't fair!" he cried. "She's so nice, and this is all so mixed up!"

  Ivy turned toward him. He could tell by the mean set of her mouth that she was about to say something ungirl-like.

  Then, without warning or interim, he was in a courtyard. Grace’l was standing before a pocked brick wall. There was a blindfold around her skull.

  "Ready!"

  Dolph looked toward the voice. There was a squad of ten centaur archers, now lifting their bows and nocking their arrows in unison. The centaur commander stood to the side, where he could see both the squad and the target—which was Grace’l, across the court.

  "Aim!"

  Ten bows oriented, and ten strings drew back as ten terrible arrows were aimed at the condemned creature.

  "Wait!" Dolph cried, running out into the middle of the court, between Grace’l and the firing squad.

  "This is highly irregular," the centaur commander said, frowning.

  "But you can't execute her just because she messed up one bad dream!" Dolph protested.

  "Indeed we can, unless she recants and swears never to do it again and makes up for it by being twice as mean as the others in future dreams."

  "I can't do that!" Grace’l cried, appalled.

  "She can't do that!" Dolph echoed.

  "I thought so. She is recalcitrant. Move aside, or you will share her fate," the centaur commander said curtly.

  "She did what she did because the dream was wrong!" Dolph said. "She's a nice person, and she just couldn't participate in an unfair punishment. How can you, centaurs, known for their fairness, do this thing? How can you execute a person you know is right?"

  "We do not make the rules, we only implement them," the commander said. "For the final time: move, for we are about to fire."

  Dolph backed up until he touched Grace’l. He turned and put his arms around her. "I defended her, I share her fate!" he said. "I believe as she does: that dream was wrong!"

  "As you wish," the centaur said. He turned again to the squad, which had remained immobile during this exchange.

  "I'm sorry," Grace’l," Dolph said, his tears flowing. "I tried, I just wasn't good enough!"

  "You were good enough," she said. "It was a lost cause from the start. We know we are right, even if they don't accept it. At least you tried, and I thank you for—"

  "FIRE!"

  Ten arrows shot toward them, each one unerringly aimed. They struck together. There was an explosion of light.

  They stood in a tiny chamber, before the Night Stallion. "Are you satisfied?" the stallion asked.

  Dolph, dazed, couldn't answer. He seemed to be still alive. Grace’l seemed intact, the blindfold gone.

  "We are," a chorus of voices replied.

  Dolph looked. One of the walls had fuzzed out, and beyond it was the jury box, with the twelve creatures present.

  The stallion focused on the skeleton. "You have been found guilty of being too nice for work in the crafting of bad dreams, and your constancy under duress has been verified. You are therefore barred from this type of employment; henceforth you will work exclusively in good dreams. Since there is small call for your specialty in those, you are hereby granted leave in Xanth until a call arises for an animated skeleton in a good dream. Depart with our favor; you are indeed a good person."

  Grace’l was almost speechless. "But the trial—"

  "Was to ascertain the exact nature of your belief. You might have interfered with the dream because of laziness or carelessness or confusion. It was essential for us to know, if you were to resume work in the gourd. Had you remained beyond the dream realm, none of this would have been necessary."

  "But the execution—"

  "We had to ascertain whether your position was firm, rather than merely a pose to elicit sympathy. When you maintained it even at the end, we knew that you truly believed in goodness."

  "But Dolph—" she said.

  "Ah yes, Prince Dolph." The equine gaze oriented on Dolph. "You showed your values. You defended her as well as you were able, and, given your age and inexperience, this was creditable. You remained consistent even at the end, putting your life behind your belief when your words failed you. You will one day make an excellent King of Xanth. Meanwhile, you will be treated with due respect in the gourd. Whenever you enter, the first denizen of the dream realm to spy you will proffer any help you need to find your way around or to accomplish something. You have proved out, Prince Dolph, and we of the gourd salute you."

  Then the remaining walls dissolved, and the entire courtroom reappeared. The audience burst into applause, which was joined by the jury, and the witnesses, and the squad of centaurs, and even Ivy who no longer looked mean at all. She had done her best to provoke him, to make him say something he did not believe in, and she did not look unhappy that she had failed. In losing his case honorably, he had won it.

  Dumbfounded, Dolph tried to speak. But as he opened his mouth, the entire scene dissolved, and he was on the sand of the beach of the shore of Xanth, looking up from the peephole of the gourd. Grace’l was beside him, and Marrow across from him, and Nada and the new girl, Electra.

  He realized that he had saved Grace’l, and found the way to ge
t the Heaven Cent, but still had formidable problems to handle.

  Chapter 18

  Choice

  Next day they fashioned a huge basket of vine and driftwood; then Dolph became a roc and carried it the short (for a roc) distance to Castle Roogna. The folk there were expecting him, of course, for the Tapestry had remained tuned, and King Dor and Queen Irene and Ivy were all outside waving as he circled down. He made a good landing, and reverted to boy form.

  Then there was a happy chaos, as everybody met everybody whom he or she had only heard about or seen on the Tapestry before, and the rest of the day disappeared in whatever.

  Marrow and Grace’l and Nada and Electra were given rooms in the castle, and night shut things down. Dolph found it odd, trying to sleep alone in his room on his soft bed with only Handy his bed monster for company; he missed Marrow's bone home and the near presence of the others. He couldn't sleep; everything was too fresh.

  There was a quiet knock on his door. "Yeah?" he called, hoping that maybe Marrow was there.

  It was Ivy. Oh.

  "Dolph, I just wanted to tell you," she said. "I had the strangest dream yesterday. It wasn't even night time! All about this big strange trial, and—"

  "I know. I was there."

  "Well, my job was to—I mean, it seems awful mean, but I had to prove that your skeleton friend, Grace’l Ossian, was—"

  "I understand."

  "I really thought you did a pretty good job, but in the dream I couldn't say that. I had to—"

  "I know.""

  "I mean, she is a very nice person, and it was really bad what happened to her because of that dream. But now—"

  "Thank you." This was awkward, and he didn't like it.

  "But that isn't really what I came about," she said.

  Of course it wasn't. She was too devious for that. Dolph waited.

  "I know you have this problem about—about Nada Naga and Electra. You can't marry them both. I can see how awkward it is, Nada being so much older than you. For you, and for Nada too."

  "She's your age," Dolph agreed. Had she come to gloat about that?

  "But of course her folk need our help with the goblins, and she's a princess, so she's doing it. And you made a deal, so you're doing it. But the way it worked out—"

  "Yes." Now it was coming; he could see her working up to it. Certainly he had gotten himself into a picklement.

  "Well, I thought if you had a way to get out of it—"

  "A Prince does not break his word," Dolph snapped.

  "But if she didn't have to marry you, to make that liaison and get help, then—"

  "But she does. We both know it."

  "I think there is another way, Dolph."

  She was going hit him with something that would make it even worse. He knew it. That was her way. He just wanted to get it over with. "What?"

  "If another liaison was made, so the naga could get the help they need, then she wouldn't have to marry you, and you wouldn't have to marry her. The deal would not be broken, because it wouldn't matter anymore. Especially if we helped the naga sooner than it would have been with you."

  "That could only be done with another marriage," he pointed out. "And she's their only daughter, and I'm the only—"

  "I could marry her brother," Ivy said.

  "So," he continued. "So there isn't any other way to—" He did a double take. "What?"

  "Prince Naldo Nada," she said. "He was going to marry me, only you were the one the dragon brought, so she had to fill in. That's where the trouble started. It was probably that mean Magician Murphy's doing, somehow. She didn't want to deceive you, Dolph, any more than Grace’l wanted to get you in trouble in the gourd. It just happened that way, and she had to make the best of it. She's really a very nice girl, you know."

  "I know. But—"

  "So if I married Prince Naldo, then the liaison would be good, and your betrothal to Nada could be dissolved by mutual agreement. He's a handsome man, in his human guise, so it wouldn't be so bad, and—"

  Dolph saw that it was true. That would honorably eliminate the need for him to marry Nada. Yet he was still astonished. "But why would you—"

  "I told you: because it's a good way out. Nobody loses, and nobody gets embarrassed. And you won't be in that picklement anymore."

  "But do you love Naldo?"

  "Of course not! I don't even know him! But that doesn't matter; I'm sure that in time it would happen. Good things can come of arranged marriages. Our grandparents—"

  "I remember. But I mean why would you do something like that when you don't have to? It's my problem, not yours, and—"

  "Because I love you, you idiot!" she flared. Then, after a shocked pause: "Oops! I didn't mean to say that."

  Dolph felt a wash of heat like that of a dragon's breath, passing through his body without hurting it. "You can take it back, then." But now he remembered all the little things Ivy had done for him through the years, such as showing him how to get cookies from a high shelf by becoming a slug and climbing up to them, and covering for him when he accidentally broke something, and telling him secrets while not blabbing his own secrets. In a hundred little ways she had shown how she cared, if he had ever thought to notice. In the heat of their frequent arguments he had forgotten such things, but now he recognized them as tokens of the deeper reality. Love was not confined to adults, or to folk of different backgrounds; it had its family forms too.

  She sighed, and he saw with surprise that there were tears on her face. "No, I can't. Because it's true. You may be a brat and all that, and we fight all the time because that's the way it's supposed to be between siblings, but you are my brother, and I do love you, even if it isn't proper to show it. I'd die for you, Dolph, if I had to, and marriage isn't nearly as bad as that. So there's no need to make a big mushy thing of it. You've got a problem I can solve. I can help you, and—"

  "And I love you," he said. "I guess I just couldn't face it, so I pretended I hated you. But when I saw you applauding in that dream, at the end, I felt—"

  "That was the only part of it that was real, really," she said. "I hated being so mean to you, when it counted, but the Night Stallion said—"

  "I know. And I tried to believe that all fourteen-year-old girls were terrible, and men when Nada turned out to be—"

  "Her age really doesn't matter. I like her; she's a true princess. So now I can do you both a favor—"

  "I don't know. Let me think about it, Ivy."

  "But what's to think about? I told you I'd do it."

  "Just hug me," he said, unable to hold back his tears any longer.

  "Oh." She hugged him, and he hugged her, and they both cried, which was foolish, because they were not unhappy.

  In the morning he met privately with his parents, King Dor and Queen Irene. "As you know, we have been following your adventures," Dor said. "We have noted your problem with Princess Nada and the girl from the past, Electra. We can understand how you would wish neither to abridge your agreement with Nada, nor allow Electra to perish, even if she were not needed to fashion the Heaven Cent you seek. It is an honorable dilemma."

  "Yes," Dolph agreed.

  "Certainly they are both nice girls," Irene said. "We would not wish either of them to be hurt. But you are very young yet, and even when you are grown, you can not marry both. It is necessary to dissolve at least one betrothal."

  "Well—" Dolph began.

  "As it happens, we believe we can alleviate this problem," Dor said. "As we see it, Electra is the better match for you, because she is closer to your age and she loves you, and of course she is human, quite apart from the business aspect. We realize that this love is the result of magic, but that land is as valid as the other kind. It is also true that she will die if she does not marry you, and this spell is so deeply ingrained that we cannot alleviate it. The betrothal keeps her alive and well, but were it broken, she would fail rapidly. Certainly we would not want this to occur."

  "True," Dolph agreed. "
But—"

  "So we believe the betrothal best eliminated is the one with Nada Naga," Irene explained. "She is older than you, and does not love you, and is only partially human; it is a purely political liaison. We need only to discover a way to break it off without hurting any parties or causing any political repercussion."

  "I'm not sure—" Dolph began.

  "So we have decided to extend our help to the naga folk regardless," Dor continued. "We shall arrange to send magical weapons from the castle arsenal that they can use to hold back the goblins, and we will show them how to use these, and if that is not sufficient, your mother will go there and grow some plants that will have an effect. We shall do this without the requirement of any marriage. The marriage is only a means to an end; the end is the alliance between our folk, and that is the end we shall serve. This shall be accomplished well before you come of age to marry, so—"

  "No," Dolph said.

  Both looked at him, surprised. "This is not enough?" Irene asked, "In that case, you have only to say what you consider—"

  "No, I don't want to break the engagement. I want to marry Nada."

  "But Dolph," Dor said reasonably. "If you break off with Electra—"

  "I know. So I'd better keep that one too."

  "But you can't marry them both!" Irene exclaimed.

  "Why not?"

  Dor and Irene exchanged a parental glance. "Son, we've been trying to explain—" Dor began.

  "Yes, you have," Dolph said. "You have been explaining how you will organize my life for me, as you have always done. But you haven't been listening. Ivy wants to help too; she says she will marry Prince Naldo."

  Both parents jumped; evidently this was the first they had heard of this. "I really don't think—" Irene started.

  "In the gourd, in the course of the trial, I had to find out how to fight my own battle or a battle for another person," Dolph said. "To do that I had to get to know my own will and to understand the doctrine of ends and means. You are proposing means to the end of breaking my betrothal to Nada Naga, but that's no good, because I don't want to break it. I want to make my own decision, based on what I truly want and believe is best, even if it doesn't make much sense to you. When I become King I will have to do that, and pay for my mistakes. It is never too early to learn that kind of discipline: responsibility for my own situation."