Authors: Piers Anthony
Tags: #Fiction, #Fantasy, #General, #Fantasy fiction, #Xanth (Imaginary place), #Xanth (Imaginary place) - Fiction
"Invoke' while holding it before you.
It is a blanket of obscurity."
"scurity?" Imbri asked.
"What effect does that have?"
"It makes you unlikely to be noticed," the centaur explained.
"It wears
off after an hour, but you can invoke it again thereafter.
It takes the
same time to recharge: an hour.
So don't try to invoke two blankets at
once.
I realize that this isn't much, but I have nothing better to give
you.
Please accept it with my thanks for your assistance to me." I
"Of course," Forrest said, moved by her gesture.
"I'm sure it will be
useful if we have to pass by a monster.
Thank you."
"You are most welcome." Cathryn's old eyes were bright.
It seemed she
had appreciated their association.
Then he and Imbri turned to the west for the next leg of their journey.
It was bound to be an adventure of its own.
o either side they could see nice solid land, but straight west was a
bog.
It was tempting to deviate, but then they might lose the line to
Castle Roogna.
So they went straight ahead, splashing into the shallow
water.
Forrest hoped that the puns would not be too bad this time.
Fortunately the land soon rose up, restoring their firm footing.
But no
sooner had they set foot and hoof on it when two odd birds marched up.
"Who are you?" the birds demanded in unison.
"We are visitors from afar, in search of Castle Roogna," Forrest
answered.
"We are named Forrest and Imbrium."
"We are a pair o' keets," the birds answered.
"Peet and Deet. Welcome
to Canary Island."
They didn't look much like canaries to Forrest, being more like small
parrots, but he didn't comment on that.
"Thank you.
We hope just to
cross it quickly and go on our way."
"Do that.
We don't like landbound folk to stay long." With that the two
birds marched on.
They came to a tree.
It was huge and globular, with feathery leaves,
and it was right in their way.
The trouble was, it was also astride the
only feasible path leading due west.
To the south was a section of what
looked a lot like slow sand, which would take forever to cross, and to
the north was a similar patch of what looked like quicksand, which had
risks of its own.
"I wish we could just go right through this tree,"
Forrest said.
"Maybe we can climb over it," Imbri said.
Then the tree opened a huge round eye.
That was followed by a second
eye, and a beak just below it, that they had taken for a broken off
limb.
"Hooo!" it hooted.
"It's an owl!" Forrest exclaimed.
"A huge owl!"
"An owl tree," Imbri agreed.
Then the owl spread its wings and took off.
"Well, this is Canary
Island," Forrest said, bemused.
"We have to expect birds, even if they
aren't all canaries."
Several white birds flew overhead.
Their bodies were in the shape of
the letter C.
"C-gulls," Imbri said, identifying them.
A ball of blackness approached.
Forrest paused, not sure whether it was
dangerous, but then he saw it was in the shape of a bird of prey.
"Oh,
it's just a night hawk," he said.
He stepped aside to let it pass, then
stepped back onto the path when the light returned.
But another bird flew up.
"What a weird set of characters," it said,
eyeing them.
"You are absolutely laughable.
Haw haw haw!"
"And a mockingbird," Imbri said.
"One of the more obnoxious avians, but
harmless."
They ignored the mockingbird, and of course that discomfited it so that
it flew away.
But another bird flew in to perch before them. "What are
you fools doing here?" it demanded harshly.
"You don't belong here!
Go
away!
Go away!"
"We are only crossing the island," Forrest explained.
"You are polluting it with your foul presence!" the bird raved.
"Get off our land!
Go away!
Go away!" The bird continued to shout at
them, going on and on.
"Now I recognize it," Imbri said.
"It's a rave-on."
Then a harpy appeared, dripping wet.
She smelled terrible.
"You're one
of the canaries?" Forrest asked, surprised.
"I'm a waterfoul," she answered.
"I should have known," he said, hurrying by.
They passed a large trunk.
A bird was pecking a big hole in it.
The
moment it spied them, it flew to a branch above them and pecked a shower
of sawdust and bits of bark, so that they were dirtied.
"Hey, what are
you doing?" Forrest demanded, annoyed.
For answer, a smelly bird dropping came down, just missing his head.
"That's a peccadillo," Imbri said.
"A bad mannered pecker."
Then there was the melodious cry of a lady bird to the north, and the
peccadillo flew off to have something to do with her.
"They especially
like the ladies," Imbri explained, with what might possibly have been
the hint of a smirk.
At last they got off Canary Island, and the edge of the comic strip was
there, so that they returned to regular land.
"I can see why not many
folk care to cross the boundaries," Forrest said.
"Those puns don't
really hurt you, but they're annoying as anything."
"I understand that some folk like them," Imbri said.
"Who would like anything like that?
Mundanes?"
"Maybe.
Mundania is a strange, repressed place."
"It must be, to have folk who like such junk."
The new region was hilly, and it was impossible to keep to a straight
line west.
But they oriented as well as they could, returning to the
correct direction and compensating for their deviations, hoping they
were close enough to find the castle.
They were rewarded: they crested a ridge, and there in a colorful valley
below was a picturesque castle.
"There it is," Forrest said, relieved.
Imbri wasn't so sure.
"That doesn't look like Castle Roogna."
"Things are different, here on Ptero.
Maybe the castles are different
too."
"Maybe," she agreed doubtfully.
They trekked on down the slope and reached the bowl-shaped valley where
the castle stood.
The trees closed in around them, each a distinct
color: brown, including the leaves; green, including the trunk; yellow,
blue, or white.
They were pretty, but so thick that the castle was now
hidden, with no clear path.
Then Forrest noticed that one white tree had a brown trunk.
It was
comparatively normal.
He went to that tree, and spied a blue tree with
a brown trunk.
Between them ran a straight brown path.
"This must be
the route," he said.
S.o they followed the path.
It turned at right angles, then turned
again, refusing to be rounded.
But it stayed between the brown trunked
trees.
So they followed it, despite its constant square turns, and in
due course it brought them to the bank of the square moat around the
castle.
From this vantage, the castle was much larger than it had seemed from
afar.
It had massive white stone walls, red roofs, and three squared
towers rising above the second story.
The drawbridge was up, and the
moat was deep.
There seemed to be no way in.
"This seems less like Castle Roogna," Forrest admitted.
"The landscape
is different, and there's no princess in blue jeans to greet us."
"It's the Good Magician's castle!" Imbri exclaimed.
"It's always
different, and always a Challenge to get into."
"Three Challenges," he agreed, remembering.
"So we did go astray, and
came to the wrong castle."
"I'm not surprised.
The path across Canary Island was somewhat crooked,
and there were distractions.
Then we had to guess at the direction when
we passed the hills."
"I suppose we'll just have to retrace our steps and try to find the
right direction."
They turned-but now the magic path was gone.
The forest had closed in
solidly behind them.
Forrest had experience with trees, and could see
immediately that these ones had no intention of allowing them to pass
back through; brambles, thorns, stickers, nettles, and sharp pointed
plants festooned the region between trees.
"It was a one way path," lmbri said.
"I should have thought of that.
I'm not used to being solid."
"I should have thought of it too," Forrest said ruefully.
"I'm supposed
to relate well to trees."
"Well, we'll just have to ask the Good Magician the way to Castle
Roogna."
Forrest eyed the moat.
"Does that mean we'll have to get through three
Challenges, and pay a year's Service?"
She nodded.
"I'm afraid it does.
Unless we can talk him into letting
us through without all that."
"Well, he didn't charge me before.
I'm still not sure why."
Imbri looked thoughtful, but didn't comment.