Geis of the Gargoyle (28 page)

But he knew he could not afford to relax mentally.
 
There were strange things here that could be dangerous, and he had a quest to pursue.
 
He did not know how long this dreamlike illusion would persist, so he wanted to take advantage of it to locate the philter as soon as feasible.

"Hanna, exactly what is our relationship?" he inquired.

"Why my lord Gar, I am your ever-loyal and obedient servant," she replied as her competent hands moved on down his body.
 
"I do anything you require of me."

"Why did you call me Gar the Good?"

"This is your description.
 
Everyone knows that you are the best intentioned of all the few remaining humans in Xanth, and that you have only the very most noble aspirations.
 
That is why you were selected to tutor Supi the Super, that she not abuse her great magic powers and bring our cause to ruin."

"The others aren't well intentioned?"

"Oh, some are, but they lack discretion or temper or competence.
 
Princess Supi is a wild child, and Queen Iri notorious for her angry outbursts.
 
Menti does her best to pacify them both, but she is merely a demon nanny without authority.
 
As for Lord Hiat the Hedonist-if there is any way of selfish indulgence he has not discovered, it is not for lack of trying." She paused as her hands kneaded his legs.
 
"Though recently he has become sinister, which makes me nervous."

An illusion could be nervous? "How so?"

"He still supports the cause, but somehow his support seems measured, as if it springs less from the heart than from a schooled aspect of the mind.
 
I do not trust him-or the dire effect he has on the Princess."

This was getting more interesting-and alarming.
 
"What dire effect?"

"He keeps trying to tempt her with notions of pleasure for its own sake, and suggesting that she employ her power to gratify her appetites, such as for endless cake and eye scream, instead of saving them for the benefit of the cause.
 
She, being but a child, is prone to pay attention.
 
So far you have managed to counter that, my lord, but I fear you are losing ground."

"What is this cause?"

She laughed as she did his feet.
 
"You have not teased me like this in ages, my lord! Playing the ignorant, when in fact you are our most knowledgeable remaining purebreed.
 
It is the cause of preserving the nature and sanctity of Xanth, that it be neither overrun by brutish barbarians from Mundania nor depleted entirely of mankind.
 
Surely there can be no more noble enterprise than this- yet success hangs by a thread.
 
We need to be fully united in this ultimate endeavor, yet we are not-because of Lord Hiat's subtle malignity.
 
Was ever there a sadder state?" She finished his feet.
 
"Now I am done, my lord, and shall garb you anew, that you be ready for the final effort."

Gary got off the table, feeling wonderfully refreshed.
 
"Final effort?"

She brought him a fine cloth robe.
 
"It is time to assemble the masterspell, securing Xanth for all future existence.
 
After that it will not matter if our pitiful remnant of humankind is extinguished; Xanth as we knew it will endure."

Gary donned the robe.
 
It fit him as if it had been made for him and worn to his contours.
 
"There is a threat of extinction of our kind?" He did not think it expedient to mention that he was not actually a man.

She laughed, somewhat wanly.
 
"As if you had not noticed that only this palace remains inhabited by full humans, in all the vasty city.
 
When we are gone there will be only crossbreeds remaining, and they will not remain long, for they prefer concourse with the growing populations of their own kind.
 
Xanth will have to be resettled by Mundanes-but at least they will not destroy it, once the masterspell is made."

"But what threat is there against us?" he asked.
 
"Aren't we secure in this fine city?"

"Secure from all but ourselves," she said sadly.
 
"Every time one of us is tempted to drink from the unprotected spring, that one is lost.
 
After the masterspell is established it will not matter, but too many have not seen fit to wait."

"Unprotected spring?"

"The gargoyle must travel from spring to spring, there being no other willing to brave the madness.
 
We must confine our drinking to the times she is present, lest we be ensorceled and forfeit our species' future."

Gary fixed on one word.
 
"Gargoyle?"

"And now you claim not to remember gentle Gayle Goyle, who alone among her kind still serves the welfare of the city of Hinge? We could not endure without her."

Gary was so surprised and thrilled that he did not speak for a moment.
 
In that moment Hanna proceeded to a new mission.
 
"I must go help the staff prepare the homecoming banquet, my lord.
 
May you rest refreshed." Before he could protest, she opened the door and was gone.

The moment he was alone, he was not alone.
 
Demoness Mentia appeared.
 
"I thought she'd never go," she muttered.
 
"Do you realize when this is?"

"There's a gargoyle in the city," he said, dazed.

"This is the year minus one thousand," she said.
 
"This is before known human history.
 
This is the last remnant of a twelve-hundred-year prehistoric human colony."

That got his attention.
 
"The dawn of time? The unknown period of Xanth?"

"Exactly.
 
When the stage was set for what we thought was the settlement of Xanth-the First Wave of human colonization.
 
Which won't occur for another thousand years, but hey, who's counting? This is when it was all made possible."

"But there can't have been history before the dawn of history!" he protested.

"There was fantastic history.
 
It merely was lost to later knowledge.
 
Now we can discover it all."

"From an illusion replica? We are merely imagining it."

"I don't think so, Gary.
 
If Iris knows illusion, I know reality, being a creature who is seldom bound by it.
 
This city is not drawn from imagination, it is drawn from reality.
 
It existed, and what we are experiencing now is how it was.
 
We must learn all we can about it, because when we return to our own time, we will be the only ones who can tell this story."

"We aren't here to leam lost history," Gary protested.
 
"We are here to find the philter."

"That, too," she agreed.
 
"But there's one other thing one of those illusions let slip.
 
Did you hear how Surprise can invoke a particular variant of magic only once?"

"Yes, I wondered about that," he agreed.
 
"Can it be true? If so, we need have no concern about bringing her under control; she will soon enough have no magic requiring control."

"That may require some time, because it seems that she doesn't lose whole disciplines of magic, merely the spot variants.
 
She has conjured many things, though we have seen her conjure no one thing twice.
 
Still, it will definitely limit her.
 
What I wonder is how can it be mere illusions who tell us this? If they're not real, they should not know anything.
 
If they're animations of the distant past, they shouldn't know about the present.
 
Yet I have the feeling that they do know, and that this is what limits Surprise.
 
But I don't know whether to discuss it with her mother."

"You don't mean Rapunzel? She's not in this scene."

"Queen In." Mentia paused, then knocked her head with the heel of her hand, and some dottle flew out her opposite ear.
 
"I mean Iris.
 
I'm getting into the part despite myself.
 
I was thinking that a mother would not want to hear about such a liability in her child.
 
But I suppose Ids can handle it."

"But we don't know that it's true.
 
We should find out."

"Yes." Mentia hovered in place for a stretched-out moment, evidently ill at ease.
 
"But I'm her governess.
 
I don't want to break the poor child's heart by establishing such a thing."

"You want me to do it?" Gary asked, disturbed for no good reason.

"You're her tutor.
 
It's your job to teach her things."

He realized that in the framework of this episode, that was true.
 
It was his job to educate the child.
 
In fact it was true in the present, too, because he had agreed to be her tutor.
 
He had not done a very good job of it so far.
 
'Then I had better do it," he agreed.

"Great! Go to their room and do it." Mentia faded out, clearly relieved even when her image was fuzzy.

Gary gathered up his gumption and stepped out of the room.
 
He walked down the hall to the Queen & Princess suite.
 
He knocked on the door.

After a moment Iris opened it.
 
She too had changed clothing, and was in a gown that revealed about as much of her upper torso as when she had tried to tempt him.
 
He found the flesh more interesting now than he had before.
 
"Yes, Gar the Good," she said, smiling.

"I come on serious business," he said.
 
"I fear that Surprise can invoke particular magic only once."

"That's what the local folk claim," she agreed.
 
"We had better verify it, though." She opened the door wider to admit him.
 
"I'm not sure how she will react."

Gary realized that a severely disappointed or disturbed child could evoke wild magic indeed, if she tried to deny such a limitation.
 
He needed to find a circumspect way to address the matter.

Surprise was sleeping.
 
She was on a princess-sized bed and looking angelic.
 
Gary felt guilty for what he was about to do.
 
But it did have to be done.

He didn't want to wake her, but he suspected that her sleep was lighter than it seemed.
 
So he addressed the bed:

"So can you repeat magic?" he inquired conversationally.

An eye opened in the footboard and stared at him.
 
Then it formed into a mouth.
 
"Can't you see the Princess is sleeping?" the mouth asked irritably.

Gary glanced at Iris, who shook her head No.
 
It wasn't her illusion.
 
"I shall be happy to talk to you instead.
 
Eyesore," he said.
 
"All I want to know is whether what the foolish illusion maiden said is true.
 
All you have to do to put her in her place is re-form your eye."

The mouth became an ear.
 
"Eh?" the ear said.
 
"I'm hardwood of hearing."

"Form the eye again."

The ear shifted into the eye, which gazed placidly at him.
 
Then it pursed its lids into a kind of mouth.
 
"Like this, you mean," it observed.

Gary exchanged half a glance with Iris.
 
"That's very good," he said.
 
But it occurred to him that any magic had a certain duration, and this might be part of a single magic series rather than a repetition.
 
"Can you erase yourself entirely, then reappear?"