Heaven Cent (11 page)

But where was Dolph? He was nowhere to be seen. How could he be rescued, if—?

“The gourd!” Grace’l exclaimed, peeking in from beyond. “He is the gourd!”

Of course! How clever of the boy! He had nullified the merwoman by immobilizing her with a gourd.

All they had to do was haul the gourd up to the surface in the net, and it would be done. This was turning out much better than anticipated.

Marrow picked up the gourd, which was halfway floating anyway. But in so doing he made a fatal mistake. His action broke the contact of the merwoman's eye with the peephole.

Suddenly she was alert again. “What's this?” she demanded.

The gourd changed to Dolph. “Mela, meet Marrow Bones.” he said. ”Marrow, meet Mela Merwoman. Marrow is here to rescue me."

“But I never saw him come in!” Mela exclaimed. “How did he do that?”

“I did it,” Dolph said. “I assumed the form of a hypnogourd, so that you could not stop him.”

“But you promised not to harm me!”

“I didn't harm you. I only held you for a while, so that I could escape. That's fair, isn't it?”

“No, that isn't fair!” she retorted. “Sure as fire melts sand, it isn't!”

“But I never touched you! I am only escaping.”

“All my hopes of having a family again depend on you,” she said tearfully. Marrow was not sure how a person could have tears underwater, but she was doing it. That filled him with alarm, for tears were a notorious device used by women against men. Was Dolph young enough to withstand it?

“But you can have a family with someone else,” Dolph protested.

“No I can't,” she insisted. “It was sheer, sheer luck mat I captured you, and it will never happen again in a hundred years! And I can't marry a merman either, I told you about that. All I can do is keep you until you grow up, and then I can have a nice family. You are hurting me by escaping!”

“What does that matter?” Marrow asked. “Prince Dolph has other business. He has a Quest.”

“All my hopes, so cruelly dashed to pieces!” she wailed, the tears flowing more copiously.

Dolph looked increasingly uncomfortable. “I am hurting her,” he muttered. “I promised not to do that.”

“But she is hurting you by holding you captive!” Marrow argued. Chex's warning was fresh in his mind: that he might have to persuade the boy to leave. How true, how true!

“She has been very nice to me, really,” Dolph said.

“She has promised me all the pretty stones I want, and said I could ride her sea horse, and when I get old enough she'll even tell me the secret of summoning the stork. It's pretty nice down here, and she's really pretty, too. I don't want to hurt her.”

“Thank you,” Mela said, looking pained.

Marrow realized that he was losing the contest. The merwoman had already made too much of an impression on the boy, despite feeding him nutritious food. He would have to make some kind of deal with her. But what could it be, when all she wanted was a man to make a family with, in due course?

“Why can't she marry a merman?” Grace’l asked, stepping in. There really was no further point in her remaining hidden.

“Because she has no firewater opal,” Dolph explained.

“No what?” Marrow asked.

“Her husband had a precious gem, but a dragon killed him and took it, and without it her estate isn't worth enough to interest another merman,” Dolph explained. "So she needs me instead, and I guess it would be wrong for me to leave her.”

Mela smiled at Dolph, and he smiled back. Marrow knew that he had to do something right away, for the merwoman's magic was taking hold already. There seemed to be a spell that fleshly females cast over fleshly males, despite the males' best efforts to escape. He had hoped Dolph was young enough to be immune, but it seemed he was only partially immune. That was unfortunate.

“Maybe if she got that gem back . . .” Grace’l suggested.

The merwoman's gaze snapped up. “Back?”

Marrow grasped that opening. “Suppose you recovered the firewater opal?” he asked. “Then you would not have to keep Dolph, for you could catch a merman.”

“Why, yes, mat is true,” Mela said. “But I can not go that far on land. I am not used to using legs that much.” Her tail became a pair of quite-well-formed bare human legs.

“Yes, you can't,” Dolph agreed, staring at the legs as they scissored smoothly in the water.

“But we could,” Marrow said. “We could fetch it back for you, because we are comfortable on land.”

Mela's mouth watered. “Would you? Oh, how wonderful that would be! But the dragon is so fierce—”

“Prince Dolph is a form changer. He can become a larger dragon and make the other dragon give it up. Then we can return it to you, and you won't need Dolph anymore.”

“But—” Dolph said, still watching the legs.

“But it would be a challenge for a hero,” Marrow said quickly. “A real adventure! Everyone would be impressed.”

“Say, yeah,” Dolph agreed.

“And then you could continue on your Quest to find the Good Magician Humfrey,” Marrow added.

“Yes!” Dolph agreed, remembering his adventure. Then his eye caught another flexing of the merwoman's legs. “Still—”

“By all means, you must follow up your Quest!” Mela said, her legs converting back into the tail. “If you can't recover the firewater opal, then you can return to me.” It was evident that she really preferred the gem, if she could have it.

“But how could you be sure I would return?” Dolph asked. “I mean, I might just keep the opal and go home.”

“This is not the princely way,” Marrow said quickly. “A prince has honor. He always does what he says he will do.”

“Oh,” Dolph said. Marrow realized that he was not totally committed to the notion of escaping the clutches of the merwoman. "But I haven't learned about honor yet, so—“

“You haven't?” Mela said, frowning. “You mean your word not to hurt me was not good? Had I but known—”

“Oh, no, I wouldn't hurt you!” Dolph protested, glancing where he seemed to hope her legs would reappear. “But—”

“Then it seems I do need a guarantee. Maybe this is not such a good idea!”

Ouch! It was falling apart, just when he had it put together! Marrow struggled to get another good notion in his skull.

“A hostage,” Grace’l said. “You must leave a hostage, to guarantee your return.”

“But we have no one to do that!” Marrow protested.

“Yes we do,” Grace’l said. “I will serve as hostage. You won't need me on the visit to the dragon.”

“But would Dolph come back for you?” Mela asked doubtfully.

“Not Dolph, perhaps,” Grace’l said. “But—” she glanced at Marrow.

“Of course I would come back for you!” Marrow said, more vehemently than he would have thought

"I thought you might,'  Grace’l said.

The merwoman considered. “Yes, he might. Certainly it's worth the gamble. Very well; I'll accept you as a hostage. But if you try to escape, I'll turn loose my pack of dogfish.”

“I won't try to escape. I don't know my way around this realm.”

So it was agreed. Mela told them where the dragon was reported to reside. They agreed to leave the magic mirror with Grace’l so that she and the merwoman could watch their progress. The mirror could not locate an unknown thing, but it could follow a particular person if tuned to that person at the outset. Marrow took the air plant and guided Dolph out to where the weighted net came down. They emptied out its cargo of stones and climbed in. It rose through the water, being lifted as Chex flew higher in the sky.

They emerged from the choppy waves and swung into the air. Marrow knew that it was hard for Chex to carry their weight, for Dolph was more solid than Grace’l despite his youth, but she could not get low enough to flick them with her tail. Marrow could have jumped out and walked to land on the bottom, but this would have taken time, and Dolph would have been left alone for that period. So they swung just over the water, their arcs just brushing the waves.

They swung to shore and climbed out of the net. Chex came down, her bosom heaving. “That was—(pant)—a job!” she said. “But where's Grace’l?”

Marrow explained about the deal and the hostage. She arched an eyebrow but did not object. She turned over the mirror, so that they could drop it in the sea for Grace’l and Mela. “I would stay with you longer, but I really must get to that ceremony,” she said. “Just be very careful when dealing with that dragon; they aren't all ignorant brutes, you know. In fact, some winged monsters can be quite intelligent. I'm one myself.”

Dolph laughed, thinking that a joke; obviously he did not think of the lovely flying centaur filly as a monster.

“We shall exercise due caution,” Marrow assured her. He did not relish the prospect of confronting a dragon, regardless of the creature's intellect, but it was better than leaving Dolph to the wiles of the merwoman. Even now, the boy was casting glances back toward the sea, as if regretting leaving it. That had been too close a call; he could only hope that they did not encounter any more predatory females on this Quest!

“Well, I wish you the best,” Chex said. She spread her wings, flicked herself, and took off, leaving the net behind. Marrow wondered what ceremony it was that she was so eager to attend there at Mount Rushmost with the winged monsters. Well, it really was not his business. His business was to get Prince Dolph through this Quest unscathed.

Mela showed up soon thereafter, sitting in the bubbling surf. Marrow gave her the mirror and talked to her, getting the details straight.

Dolph watched Chex Centaur disappear in the distant sky. He had known that she was Marrow's friend, but had not realized that she would come to help him. She had enabled Marrow to rescue Dolph, which was lucky for him.

He turned his gaze to the sea as the merwoman swam away. It was true that he needed to get on with his Quest; yet Mela had been sort of nice. If—

“We must plan our campaign,” Marrow said briskly, interrupting Dolph's thought. “According to the merwoman, it was Draco Dragon who killed her husband and stole the firewater opal, and he resides at Mount Etamin, which is one of a constellation of peaks in dragon country, near the Region of Air. Chex inherited some knowledge of geography from her dam, Chem, and says we should be able to recognize it from above; the range is in the form of a giant dragon.”

Dolph had not been paying very good attention to the skeleton's discussions with Mela or Chex, having been distracted by the merwoman's legs. He had never really noticed legs before, but each time he saw these he found them oddly interesting. In fact—

“So you must assume the form of a roc and carry me northeast to the Region of Air, where we shall survey the situation. The sooner we get there, the sooner we can recover the opal and exchange it for Grace’l.”

“I wonder what it is about her limbs,” Dolph mused.

“Well, she does have nice bones,”  Marrow said. ”Very nice bones, in fact. But this is not the time to think about Grace’l; it is the time to get moving."

Dolph had not been thinking about Grace’l’s limbs, but he decided not to clarify that. He became the roc, picked up the skeleton, and took off for the northwest. Marrow hastily grabbed Dolph's knapsack; the skeleton was good at remembering such details. Perhaps it was because there was extra room for memories in that hollow skull.

This time he flew more strongly, because of the practice he had had in this form before. He could assume any living form, and assume the attributes of that form, including its language and special talents, but it did take practice to use them effectively. He knew that each time he became the roc he would be better at it, though he would never be as good at it as the natural rocs were. He tended to specialize for this reason; it was no use being bad at a hundred kinds of creature, when he could be adequate at a dozen or good at three. It was part of his talent that he also retained his human awareness, no matter what sized creature he became, or what type—even a plant, even a hypnogourd!—or how long he held that form. But he had not yet decided which forms were best for specialization He liked the ogre for land, because no creature in its right mind bothered an ogre, and the roc for the air, for similar reason, but he hadn't figured out a good water form. Maybe a merman; then he could—

“There's the Gap Chasm!” Marrow exclaimed.

Dolph restrained a shiver of annoyance. How did the skeleton manage to interrupt a line of thought every time it got interesting? He peered down. Sure enough, there was the great jagged cleft that traversed the Land of Xanth, separating the top half from the bottom half. Dolph understood that for many years it had appeared on no maps— and still appeared on no Mundane maps, not that that mattered—because there had been a powerful Forget Spell on it. His father Dor had detonated that spell some eight hundred and twenty-seven years ago, give or take a few decades, and since that time no one had been able to remember the chasm when away from it, until the Time of No Magic had severely weakened the Forget Spell. Then it had begun breaking up, and little whorls of it had spun off and made mischief, because anyone caught by one forgot everything. Finally the whorls had cleared, and the only remaining effect was Ivy's pet dragon, Stanley Steamer, who had once been the dread Gap Dragon, and would be again when he got ready. How did Ivy rate? Dolph had never had a pet dragon! Girls got all the good things, because folk thought they were cute and sweet. They ought to ask brothers about that! Girls were neither cute nor sweet, they were pains. Except maybe for some of the nonhuman ones, like—

“Keep alert,” Marrow warned. “We are now passing over dragon country.”

Dolph grabbed for the fleeting thought but missed it, and it was gone. Once again the skeleton had interrupted something that promised to get interesting. Adults had a definite talent for that. It seemed to be part of the Adult Conspiracy. What was the big secret about summoning the stork? If only he could figure that out, and be free of adult restrictions—

“Dragon at three o'clock,” Marrow announced.

He was right. Dolph took evasive action, climbing above dragon altitude. The best way to handle dragons was to avoid them. If Dolph had had a choice, he would have avoided Draco too. But responsibilities had a way of cropping up and taking over, when adults were involved. It was too bad.

Soon they spied the mountains. A roc flying at cruising velocity covered territory in a hurry! The range looked like a huge mundane bear.

“No, that's the wrong range,” Marrow said. “That's a bear named Ursa, who is chasing the dragon range. Just ahead of it we should see the tail of—there it is, at eleven o'clock!”

Dolph really didn't know what the skeleton meant by the o'clocks; there was a huge time-keeping mechanism in the gourd that enabled the night mares to deliver their bad dreams precisely when required, but as far as he knew that had nothing to do with mountains. But ahead and slightly to the left he saw the tail of the mountain range. He swerved to follow it.

It went for several peaks, then curved to the right for several more. At peak number eight it made an abrupt turn left, and then another, heading up into the raised head of the dragon, formed by four peaks. “The tip of the nose is Mount Etamin ...” Marrow began.

Mount Eat-amin, Dolph thought. But it didn't look very tasty. In fact it looked quite unfriendly.

“But we had better land a bit apart from it, so the dragon won't know we're coming,” the skeleton concluded.

Good idea! Dolph made a descending spiral, and touched ground in a field some distance beyond the mountain. There was a cross wind, but he was improving at landings, too, and did not bump too badly.

He returned to his normal form and stood naked. It was cool here, but he didn't grab for his knapsack that Marrow now wore because he expected to assume his ogre form in a moment. “How should I tackle him?” he asked. ”He can't be too big, since he's a flying dragon."

“But he's a firedrake,” Marrow said. “That suggests two difficulties: he breathes fire, and he lives in a cave. If you brace him in the air, he'll be more maneuverable than you, and may scorch you before you get started. But if you brace him in the cave, your size will be limited, and the terrain will be familiar to him and not to you. That could be bad.”

Dolph nodded. Suddenly it came home to him that this was serious business! He had never actually fought a dragon before, and he knew they were dangerous. “But maybe I can bluff him out,” he said.

“I hope so. But it will be better if he is absent from the nest, so that we don't have to face him at all.”

“That's right,” Dolph said, realizing. “I don't have to fight him, I just have to get the firewater opal. But how do we know whether's he's in the nest?”

“We may have to wait and watch, and if we see him leave, then we'll know. The accounts say he is a solitary dragon, which means there should be no nestmate to guard the nest during his absence.”

“Good idea!” Dolph exclaimed, relieved.

They walked quietly toward Mt. Etamin, guided by its icy pinnacle, which sparkled like a star above the forest. They watched the sky constantly to see whether the dragon either departed or arrived. All was quiet; even the birds avoided this region. No large animals were in evidence; here and there scorched foliage suggested where one might have been toasted by the dragon. Small animals were abundant, because they were not hunted by the dragon, and those who did hunt them had been eaten by the dragon. Draco was evidently an efficient hunter, and that did not make Dolph feel easy.

They came to the base of the mountain. This was a steep slope, scorched bare of vegetation, clifflike in its extent; Some distance up Dolph saw the cave that was the entrance to the dragon's lair. It was not as large as he had expected; was this the wrong cave, belonging to a smaller dragon?

But Marrow seemed certain this was it, so Dolph did not ask. He became a small bird of uncertain species and perched on Marrow's shoulder, watching that cave. They waited silently for an hour, as the sun dropped slowly in the sky. It was important that they keep quiet, for if they made noise and the dragon heard it, the element of surprise would be gone.

In the second hour Dolph's attention weakened, and he snoozed. He knew, however, that the skeleton would maintain the watch, since he needed no sleep and had little imagination. This was a time when it was a great advantage to be boneheaded.

Marrow moved his shoulder slightly, waking Dolph. For a moment Dolph could not remember where he was. Then he saw the dragon sailing up from the cave. Draco was leaving!

They had waited and won! It was now dusk, and evidently the dragon was going out to hunt for his supper. Dolph would have been getting sleepy by this time, but his snooze invigorated him; he was ready to act now.

“We must try to get in, get the firewater opal, and get away before Draco returns,” Marrow said. “It will be dark in there, so perhaps you should assume a lighted form that I can carry in.”

That made so much sense that Dolph changed immediately to a glowworm. Marrow picked him up and set him in his left eye socket where his tender body was protected.

Then the skeleton stashed the knapsack in the esthetic crook of a small symme tree and walked swiftly to the base of the cliff.

“Uh, I fear . . .” Marrow began.

Dolph couldn't speak human language in this form, so he waited. What was Marrow's problem?

“... I will need your help for a moment,” the skeleton concluded. “This wall is sheer, and too steep for me to climb. Perhaps if you assume bird form—” He paused, reconsidering. “No, you could not be large enough to carry me up, yet small enough to land within that aperture.”

Dolph realized that a living human brain was needed. He crawled out of Marrow's socket, dropped to the ground, and converted to human form on the way. “Maybe I could turn ogre, and throw you up there.”

“Excellent notion!” Marrow exclaimed.

In a moment it was done. The ogre hurled the skeleton up, then became a small bird and flew up, then turned glowworm again and got back into the eye socket. They were navigating hurdles more readily than before!

Marrow crawled on knucklebones and kneecaps into the cave, Dolph's green light shining ahead. There was just room to pass this way. The walls of the cave were fairly smooth; the dragon must have polished them to prevent any sharp edge from scraping a scale.

Before long the tunnel widened into a regular cave, with stalactites pointing down from the ceiling like—naturally!— dragon's teeth. Some of them even dripped saliva. But stone saliva was not poisonous, Dolph trusted.

Then the cave ended in a black pool.

“This is odd,” Marrow said. “Dragons normally have comfortable nests lined with jewels. A water dragon might sleep in a pool, but Draco is a flying dragon, and a fire-breather. This does not seem right. Yet we saw him departing from this cave, and I found no alternate passage. I can not explain this.”

It was time for a living human brain again. Dolph retained his human consciousness in the worm form, but heavy thinking was beyond it. He crawled out and changed.

There was room for them both, here, though their toes were in the water and they could not stand.

It was completely black in the cave, and Dolph could not see a thing. But there really was little to see; just the water below and the stalactites above. He could remember those readily enough. At the moment all he needed was his brain.

“If Draco came from this cave, I can think of three reasons,” he said, as that brain began to operate. “Maybe he was just visiting, looking for something to eat in here.”

“This cave is empty; he would know that,“ Marrow responded. ”In any event, he would not have waited several hours before emerging, unless he was eating something—and there are no bones here."

“They might be at the bottom of the pool,” Dolph pointed out.

“True,” Marrow agreed, this notion new to him. “So maybe this is the wrong cave.”

“Maybe not,” Dolph said, his brain percolating. “It could be that he has a spell to let him rest on the water without getting wet. Then he can bring his food in here and eat it, and let the bones sink down below.”

“But then where is the firewater opal?”

That was a good question. “Then maybe the third reason is the right one,” Dolph said, his brain getting really warmed up. “Maybe this is not the end of the tunnel. Maybe it goes through the water.”

“But firedrakes don't go through water!” Marrow protested.

“How do we know that? Maybe they can, only not when we're watching.”

“That is true; we should see whether the tunnel continues under the water.”

Dolph did not want to be the glowworm for underwater travel; the water would quickly put out the glow. “Maybe lean be a fish.”

“I suspect—” Marrow began.

“Or whatever you suggest.”

“—that an armored fish would be better,” the skeleton concluded.

“Urn. Yes. No telling what might be in that water.” He considered, but could not think of an armored fish. “An there such things?”

“There are in the gourd. They are fossils, like me and Grace*!. We know them only in their skeletal form, of course, but you could become a living one. Or maybe an armored arthropod.”

“Who?”

“A lobster or horseshoe crab, or—try a trilobite. Maybe you'll like it.”

“A trilobyte?”

“I suppose that would be satisfactory. That species might have more memory or intelligence than the original.”

So Dolph put his feet in the water and became a trilobyte. This turned out to be a flat armored thing like a fish with trailing spines on its head, and two mouth tentacles. It was a pretty interesting creature, and seemed able to take care of itself. It had no trouble swimming in the dark water.