"I am the adult companion for Prince Dolph. I must see that he does not get into too much trouble, and help him find the Heaven Cent.”
She did not reply. They kept on searching, but as the sun dropped low, getting ready to set the distant trees on fire, they knew that neither gourd nor cent was to be found on the isle.
"It seems this was a false lead," Marrow said with regret.
"But the Good Magician would not make a mistake!" Dolph protested. "His note said—"
"But it is possible that we erred in interpreting his note. I understand that his Answers could be at times obscure."
"What was the message?" Grace’l asked.
"Skeleton Key to Heaven Cent, " Dolph said. "And it read this way, toward the Isle of Illusion, so I thought this must be the right key, made from the skeleton of a coral."
"That does seem to make sense. Are there other such keys?"
"A number," Marrow said.
"Where are they?"
"To the south, all around the peninsula of Xanth."
"So this is the end of a line of keys?"
"In a way," Marrow agreed.
"Then maybe the Magician meant you should start here, and keep going until you found the right one," she said.
"Say, maybe so!" Dolph agreed. He was getting to like Grace’l.
"But to search them all—" Marrow protested. "That could take a long time. I am not certain—"
"Perhaps there is another gourd on one of them," Grace’l said.
Marrow glanced at her. The notion of traveling with her did not seem to bother him unduly.
"We could go by boat," Dolph said. "Can you become a boat, Grace’l?"
"Of course," she said. "Anybody can do that!"
So it was decided: they would travel together for a while, looking now for two things: cent and gourd. They were bound to find one of them. Dolph liked this development, because he felt more secure with two companions than with one.
Chapter 5
Mela
In the morning they set off for the southern keys. There was a fairly brisk sea wind blowing in toward land, and that helped because Grace’l volunteered to become a sail. She said she could help them tack against that wind.
"Tacky?" Dolph asked.
"Tack. It is a way of sailing slantwise against the wind, even into the wind. I have done it on Castor Lake."
Dolph felt a bad taste in his mouth. Castor oil was the stuff that leaked from castors when they rolled too far, and it tasted absolutely awful, which was why adults made children eat it. "There's a whole lake of that stuff?"
"Indeed there is," she agreed. "It is used as the setting for the bad dreams of children."
"I've had those dreams," Dolph said grimly. "I don't think I'd like it in the gourd."
"You aren't supposed to. Bad dreams are no good if people like them. No reputable night mare would carry a good dream."
"Mare Imbri carried good dreams!" he said stoutly.
"You know Mare Imbri? She was a good mare, until she got half of someone's soul and kept it instead of turning it in. That ruined her, and she washed out of the business."
"She's a day mare now," Dolph said.
"Well, they don't have much substance. But I suppose if you like that type—"
"I sure like it better than what the night mares carry!"
"Kick me in the tailbone," she invited him.
"Gladly!" He delivered a perfect kick. She exploded and fell into the form of a triangular outline of bones, with her skull at the base.
"Now kick me," Marrow said.
Dolph did so. Marrow became the little craft he had been before. "Now lift the sail to the craft," his skull said.
Dolph heaved up Grace’l’s sail, staggered to the boat, and clunked it down. Her skull opened its jaws and grabbed onto a crossbone. This anchored her form upright. Now the sail was in place.
"Haul us to the water," Marrow's skull said. "Then jump in quickly, because when that wind catches us, we'll move well."
Dolph hauled. A single skeleton did not weigh much, but the two together were all he could handle. He managed to get the boat to the water, which wasn't far distant. Then, as it hobbled, he grabbed his paddle and jumped in.
Just in time! The sail swung about of its own volition and caught the wind, and suddenly they were moving swiftly across the water. Dolph did not have to paddle at all; he just hung on to the bone rim and enjoyed it. He removed his knapsack and set it on the floor of the boat between the skull-seat and the sail pole; it should be safe there.
For a while he reveled in the sensation of motion across the water without effort, and watched the passing scenery. The Isle of Illusion fell behind, and the beach to the west moved resolutely to the rear, its sands and trees marching at an even pace. Closer in, the surface of the sea rippled, forming fringes of bubbly white froth at the cutting edges of the waves. The water was greenish where the morning sunbeams lighted it, and deepening gray and black below. What, he wondered, was down under there, that could not be seen from here?
The wind shifted, so that now it was coming from the southeast. Grace’l’s sail changed orientation, and the Marrow boat continued south.
Dolph looked at the sail. He was used to the magic of the skeletons, that enabled them to form useful alternate shapes and to hold out the water or the air as if the porous networks of bones were solid. But this magic of tacking— how could that be? They were moving almost toward the wind, and that did not make sense. Unless the tackiness caused the boat to be drawn in toward the wind, instead of being pushed away from it. Yes, that had to be it!
But that would represent another kind of talent. Marrow had said that the seemingly different talents of Vida Vila were actually merely aspects of a single talent, and maybe that was so, but this new type of magic of the skeletons seemed different.
"Are you sure you don't have two magic talents?" he asked Marrow. "Shape change and tacking?"
"Tacking is not skeleton magic," the skull Dolph was sitting on responded. "Anyone can do it, if he knows how. I have heard that even the Mundanes can do it, though I confess I suspect that is an exaggeration. Certainly you could do it, with practice."
"But my talent is form changing!"
"Some magic is independent, available to anyone who invokes it properly. Indeed, I understand that the Good Magician Humfrey, for whom we search, has no evident talent except the ability to locate other types of magic that he can use. If some other person could locate the same types of magic, that person could hold the same office."
"He's the Magician of Information! No one else can do that!"
"Well, I am a creature of the gourd. Perhaps I have overlooked some aspect of the situation."
"But if someone else could do it, what would happen to Humfrey?"
“I wouldn't know. But we must face the possibility that we may not find him."
"Never!" Dolph said.
"But certainly we have not yet exhausted our options. We shall search every key until we find the Heaven Cent."
"The Heaven Cent?" a voice called from the side.
Dolph looked. There was a woman in the water, swimming beside them. He could see her face with its halo of hair, that was blinding yellow in the sunlight but seaweed green in the water. "Are you in trouble?" he called. "Do you need to get in the boat?"
She laughed merrily, and her shoulders rose out of the water, showing her breasts. Dolph really wasn't interested in such things, but he couldn't help staring; she was, as his mother would have put it, extremely well endowed. "I have no need of boats! Come join me in the water."
"That sounds like a merwoman," Marrow's skull remarked.
"It's sure a woman!" Dolph agreed.
"I would advise—"
"What's your name?" the woman called.
"Prince Dolph. What's yours?"
"—caution," the skull concluded.
"Mela. Melantha for long. You're a prince?"
Now Dolph remembered the problem he h
ad had with Vida Vila in the forest, who had been really taken with the notion of a prince. "Uh, well—"
"Let me get a look at you." She swam close, and now he saw that below the waist her body was that of a fish. This was indeed a merwoman! "Why so you are! What a fortunate day for me!"
Dolph hesitated to ask her what she meant, so he changed the subject. "Do you know something about the Heaven Cent?"
Now she was going through her hair with a bright coral comb in her right hand, and holding a small ornate mirror up with her left. Dolph had not seen where these devices came from; they just seemed to have appeared. "Why certainly! Who wants to know?"
"I do! I'm looking for it."
She gazed at him, cocking her head so that her golden hair fell lustrously to the side. Her mirror and comb sparkled; he thought for a moment that both were encrusted with jewels, but then saw that they were barnacles. "Perhaps if you join me in the water, I will tell you."
"Do not go in the water!" the skull warned.
Dolph had already decided that this was not the time to swim. "Why don't you come in the boat and tell me?"
She grimaced prettily. "If you insist, Prince. But you will have to help me, for I can't climb very well." Her comb and mirror disappeared. She flashed her flukes, sending up a considerable spray.
"Don't—" the skull began.
The merwoman swam close. "Is there someone in the boat with you?"
"Not exactly. It's—"
She lifted her arms. Her impressive breasts came out of the water too, causing him to gawk. "No matter. Take hold."
“—let her get hold of you," Marrow concluded. Too late. Mela put her arms around his neck and hauled. Dolph tried to help lift her up, but she weighed more than he, and her arms were surprisingly strong, and she was instead pulling him down. He was trying to hold on to the boat with his legs, but the position wasn't good. In a moment he knew he would be in the water.
"Tack!" the skull cried.
The sail swung around suddenly, and the boat lurched. Mela was drawing Dolph's head and shoulders into her bosom, almost smothering him. The bottom of the sail collided with the merwoman's back, giving her a hard smack. She made an exclamation of pain and let go.
Dolph got himself back in the boat, out of harm's way. "You tried to pull me into the water!" he cried.
Mela shook her head, her hair throwing off yellow glints. "I've been knocked before, but never quite that way," she said angrily.
"You wanted to drown me!" Dolph accused her.
She laughed, not as merrily as before. "Hardly that, Prince! I can enable you to breathe water. I want you with me. Come on in; your hair's all mussed. I'll comb it for you." The barnacled comb reappeared in her hand.
"You said you knew about the Heaven Cent!"
"I do. Enough. I just prefer to tell you in my own domain. It is not comfortable for me out of the water."
Dolph could believe that. He had not seen many fish that liked dry land, and she was a fish below.
"We must get away from her," Marrow's skull warned.
"Let's go!" Dolph agreed. He had had quite enough of the merwoman's deception.
The sail swung around again and caught the wind. The craft resumed speed.
"Prince Dolph, I’m sorry!" Mela called, swimming alongside. "I'll tell you about the Heaven Cent, if you'll only listen."
"I'll listen while I travel," Dolph said grimly. He was developing a healthy aversion to women of all types, to match the aversion for girls that his big bossy sister had inculcated in him.
"Very well," she agreed, having no trouble keeping up. Her tail was very good for swimming, so that she hardly needed to use her hands, and her pillowy breasts enabled her to float without effort. "The Heaven Cent in the past has cent folk to whomever it makes cents for them to meet, anywhere under the heavens. That's what it's for."
It was an illumination. "That does make cents!" Dolph cried. "We want to find the Good Magician!"
"The Good Magician is missing?" she asked, interested.
"Yes, that's why we're looking for him. We will find 'he Heaven Cent on the Skeleton Key."
"I doubt it."
"Why?"
"Because there is no Heaven Cent."
"But you just said—"
"Silly boy! I told you how it has been used in the past. The effort of its great magic melts it down, and so it no longer exists after it has performed its function."
"But—"
"So it has to be forged anew each time. That is the skeletal key to its use."
"The—"
She laughed again. "How little you have understood your mission! Did you really think the skeleton key was a place?”
"I—" Dolph felt very foolish.
"She may have a point," the skull said, disgruntled.
"But how can we make the Heaven Cent!" Dolph asked. "We don't know anything about that!"
"I do have one bit of information about that," Mela said.
"You do? Tell us!"
"Come down to my abode below, and I will tell you, sweet Prince."
"No!"
"I assure you I shall not mistreat you, Prince, I only want your company for a while."
Again Dolph remembered the vila, whose interest turned out to be mushy. "I'm not good company."
"Well, perhaps not right at the moment. But in time you will be excellent company, I'm sure. I'm willing to wait."
Now Dolph was sure he wanted to get away from her. "No!"
"I can't cajole you?" Mela asked, frowning.
"No! Go away!"
"I will even sing you a nice song."
"No!"
Now she frowned. "Then I will sing a song that is not so nice. You are making me unreasonable, Prince Dolph. That is not wise."
"I'm not a wise person!" he retorted. "I'm just a boy!"
"And I am a merwoman. You have something to learn about my type."
"I don't want to learn it!"
"I have set my sights on you, and I shall have you, delicious Prince."
Dolph wasn't certain how she meant that, but none of the interpretations he could think of were very appealing. "Can we move faster?" he asked Marrow.
"Only if the wind picks up," the skull replied.
But now the wind was dying. They were in a calm, at just the wrong time.
Melantha began to sing. Her voice was eerie. It sounded more like ghosts being blown by a gale than like music, yet it had a certain compelling quality. Dolph found himself wanting to be with her, despite his aversion to the notion.
But then the wind did pick up. In fact it became quite gusty. A shadow fell across the boat. Dolph looked up, and saw to his dismay that a storm was brewing.
"Of all the times for bad weather!" he exclaimed.
"It isn't exactly coincidence, you know," Mela called from the heightening waves to the side.
"That's right!" the skull muttered. "They can summon storms."
"We certainly can," Mela called over the rising roar of wind and sea. "We have a deal with King Fracto, a mutual assistance pact.”
"I've heard of him," the skull said. "He's the worst of clouds. Cumulo Fracto Nimbus. Always looking for mischief."
"I'll tell him to go away, if you come to me," Mela called.
"Don't deal with her!" the skull said. "We'll cut in to land, where we can escape her."
The boat turned, angling for the beach.
Mela resumed her song. Immediately the storm intensified. The wind caught the sail and whipped it about. The boat tilted scarily.
"I don't like this," the skull said. "We had better furl our sail."
"I don't like it either," Dolph said. "I'm getting seasick!"
"Not in my waters you don't!" Mela protested.
"I can't help it," Dolph said, leaning over the side.
"If you do, you'll clean it up!" she cried, swimming close.
Dolph jerked back. He didn't want her to grab him again.
"Kick the sail!" the skull said.
Dolph realized that this was the only way Grace’l could change form. He stood up.
A sudden gust caught them. The boat was blown over on its side. Dolph, rising precariously to his feet, was pitched into the heaving sea.
He opened his mouth to scream, but his stomach was roiling so violently that what came out was no scream. It was a retch.
Then the merwoman caught him. "Now you are mine, you precious boy!" she said. "Kiss me!" She put her face to his.
The contents of Dolph's stomach spewed out, splashing against her nose and soaking her hair.
"Yuck!" she exclaimed. "I thought you were house-broken!" But she did not let go of him. She hauled him under the water, and in a moment it was much calmer.
Dolph inhaled. He thought he would drown, but he took in a full breath of water and it was just like air. She was right: she had enabled him to breathe the water.
He watched the vomit being carried out of her green hair by the water as she swam. Her tail stroked back and forth, and her body undulated, and she moved with considerable grace. She hauled him along, her grip on his arm so strong that he knew he could not break free. And if he did, what would happen? The moment he broke contact with her, the sea might change back to water for him, and he would drown.
He was her captive, without doubt. What was going to happen to him?
Mela deposited him in a cave garden at the bottom of the ocean. Treelike seaweeds surrounded it, arching up overhead to form a canopy. He could breathe, but knew it was water, because he was able to swim in it.
The ground was covered with pretty colored stones. Some of them glowed, their gentle green, red, blue, and yellow radiance lighting the region so that he could see. Here and there, there were floating masses of fine seaweed that looked like cushions. Between the sea trees and the stones was a rough circle of shiny metals.
"Do not go beyond the canopy," Mela told him. "My enchantment extends only within it, and you will not be able to breathe the water beyond unless you are in contact with me. We are far down; you would surely drown."
Dolph swam over and poked his head beyond the sea trees. The water seemed thicker here, and the farmer he went, the worse it got, until he was choking. She was right: he could not swim away.
In the middle of the garden she had a fireplace. She put some waterlogs on it, and the fire blazed up warmly.