Faun and Games (33 page)

The dragons were reorienting on their sounds.
 
But now Cathryn had to

draw in her last blanket, because she couldn't maintain it at a

distance, and the harpies were escaping too.
 
They were horrendously

furious.
 
"Wait till we catch up with you!" their fowl-mouthed leader

cried.
 
"We'll tear you to quivering stinking bits!"

A dragon, swooping down to spy out the fugitives, heard.
 
It roared. It

thought she was screeching at the dragons!
 
Soon several more dragons

came swooping down, ready to avenge their honor.
 
Dragons and harpies

didn't get along too well together at the best of times, and the dragons

were in no mood to be insulted.
 
So they shot fire first and saved the

questions for later.
 
But the harpies were in no mood to brook

interference either, and this was their forest.

Forrest and the others ran on, not staying to watch the developing fray.

But they heard the roars and curses as it worked its way into something

the forest would probably remember for a long time.

They emerged from the forest.
 
They were at this point a fair distance

west, and Contrary was a stallion in his twenties, readily taking the

lead.
 
Cathryn followed, now coming into her teens.
 
Her wings had

grown, and she was using them to add to her forward velocity. Then came

Forrest and Imbri.
 
They had been running for some time, but Forrest

didn't feel really tired; apparently soul-bodies didn't fatigue the same

way physical ones did.
 
So while the centaurs had to hold back somewhat

to keep from leaving the two more human figures behind, it remained a

fast pace.

Contrary put on a spurt and came to a line marked 30, stepped across it,

and stopped.
 
He was now a fine mature figure of a centaur, muscular and

handsome.
 
"There is my mark," he said.
 
"I have crossed it.
 
Now I must

flee before I get trapped." He turned as the others were catching up.

Cathryn drew to a halt.
 
They knew this was the turning point in a

second way.
 
If the stallion passed her and escaped back to his

childhood, she would never see him again.
 
But how could she stop him?

Contrary took a step back.
 
Forrest saw that the centaur's eyes were

closed.
 
He was refusing to look at the filly.
 
So that was how he

proposed to avoid the dread confrontation!
 
If he never saw her in her

mature aspect, he couldn't be impressed by her.

"Look at me," Cathryn cried.
 
"You owe me that much, I think."

"No I don't," Contrary retorted.
 
"I made a deal to cross my thirtieth

year.
 
That was all." He took another step.

"What can I do?" the filly asked, defeat looming.

"Kiss him," Imbri said succinctly.

Cathryn smiled.
 
"I'll give him fair warning." Then she called to the

stallion: "If you don't open your eyes and look at me, I'll intercept

you and kiss you."

Contrary took another step.
 
Cathryn took two steps.
 
She could travel

faster with her eyes open than he could do safely with his eyes closed.

The stallion heard her hoofbeats, which she was taking pains to make

loud.
 
His fine centaur mind processed that information, and he realized

that he would have to compromise.
 
"Very well.
 
One look. Then I'm gone,

and you can't inter--ept me."

"Agreed.
 
But I will throw one blanket at you."

He laughed.
 
"A blanket of silence?
 
Do your worst, foal."

Forrest realized that the stallion had not gotten a good.
 
look at her

Since the forest, and retained a mental picture of her as six or seven.

That was an understandable but foolish error.

Contrary faced Cathryn and opened his eyes.
 
His jaw dropped slightly.

Forrest looked at the filly, to see what the stallion saw. She was now a

lovely full-breasted, long-maned, white-winged centaur filly with a deep

brown hide and flowing tail.
 
She was panting slightly with her recent

exertion.
 
If she had been a nymph, she would have been stunningly

attractive.
 
She was surely similar for a centaur'

Then she threw a blanket.
 
Again, Forrest didn't see it directly, but

the scintillation of the air indicated that there was something flying

toward the stallion.
 
It reached his head.

Contrary blinked.
 
His eyes lost focus.
 
"What's this?" he asked,

confused.

"A blanket stare," Cathryn said.

"A blank stare?
 
I don't understand."

"That is its effect.
 
Why are you fleeing me?"

He looked at her again.
 
"I'm drawing a blank on that.
 
Is there some

reason?"

"There may be.
 
Why don't you blow this horn?" She stepped forward,

offering it to him.

He looked puzzled.
 
"What horn is this?"

 
It will show you by its sound where your True Love is."

He frowned.
 
"Is that a challenge?"

"Is it?"

He took the horn and blew it hard.
 
There was no sound-but then he

stared at Cathryn in a new way.
 
"You are the one," he said in wonder.

"You really are the one!
 
I will sacrifice anything for you."

But now it was Cathryn who wasn't sure.
 
"If only you could fly,"

she said regretfully.

"Who said I can't fly?" And suddenly from his body two massive black

wings unfolded.
 
What they had taken for his body color was actually the

hue of the flattened wings.
 
"I never had use for them before, for they

would only have taken me where I didn't want to go, but now I want to

fly with you, you fantastic creature, forsaking my prior childishness."

Now it was Cathryn's jaw that dropped.
 
"The dear horn did know," she

breathed.
 
"It really did!"

Contrary dropped the horn.
 
"Come fly with me, my sudden love. We have

more than geography to explore."

"Oh, yes!
 
But first I must guide my friends to the territory of the

fauns, or as close as I can get to it."

"We will do it together," he said graciously.
 
"And to hurry it up, we

had better give them a ride there."

"Yes," Cathryn agreed.
 
Little hearts were forming around her head; she

was falling in love.

Forrest picked up the dear horn and put it in his knapsack.
 
Then he

climbed onto Contrary, behind the huge wings, and Imbri mounted Cathryn.

"It's funny to ride an equine," she said.
 
"I'm equine myself."

"The faun region is To," Cathryn said.
 
"I don't know whether it's

within my range, but I'll do my best to give you good directions if it

isn't."

The two centaurs galloped west.
 
Then they spread their wings and leaped

into the air, surprising Forrest.
 
This was indeed faster; he saw the

ground passing rapidly behind.
 
But as they gained elevation, the ground

became smaller and passed behind more slowly, as if annoyed at being

neglected.
 
The mixed fields and forests gave way to mixed mountains and

valleys, and then to mixed ponds and islands.
 
The landscape seemed to

be just as varied here as it was on Xanth.

After a time the two centaurs glided back to land.
 
"We're getting a bit

old for this," Contrary explained.
 
Then Forrest saw that the creatures'

hide had become mottled with age.
 
He was now nearing the old end of his

life, and was slowing down.
 
Forrest looked across at Cathryn and saw

she had aged too.
 
They had come a long way in a short time.

Then the centaurs stopped.
 
"This appears to be my limit," Contrary

said.
 
"I don't want to become so feeble that I fall."

Forrest hastily dismounted, and so did Imbri.
 
They were in rolling

country, and ahead, oh dread, was a comic strip.

"The faun territory is farther away than I thought," Cathryn said with

regret.
 
"But I can tell you who can take you farther: the human

princess twins, Dawn & Eve.
 
Continue straight To until you come to

Castle Roogna, and seek them out."

"But we are already in Castle Roogna," Imbri said.
 
"Ptero is a moon

circling Princess Ida's head."

"Perhaps in that larger frame.
 
But it is here, too, and this is the one

you need.
 
We have set you due From it, so you can't miss it if you stay

on course.
 
And if you return this way, send a signal and we will come

to pick you up again."

"Thank you," Forrest said.
 
He realized that Cathryn really had been a

big help; they had learned a whole lot about Ptero in her company.

"Oh-one more thing," she said.
 
"You have been more than accommodating

in our exchange of services, and I have not been able to complete my

exchange service adequately, so I feel I should provide you with

something extra.
 
Here is one of my blankets that a passing Magician

obligingly canned for me." She held out a small tin can.

"But I thought you had to invoke your spells yourself, and that they

fade after a while."

"True.
 
But this canned spell is special, thanks to the preservative

properties of the can.
 
You may invoke it at any time simply by saying