Faun and Games by Piers Anthony

Author:Piers Anthony
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Xanth (Imaginary place), Fantasy - General, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Fantasy fiction, Fiction - Fantasy, Fiction, Science Fiction, American, Fantasy, Fantasy - Series, General
ISBN: 0812555112
Publisher: Tor Fantasy
Published: 2008-12-07T05:00:00+00:00

Imbri seemed to know, so they followed her horse form. She headed first for the center of the hole, then to the inner surface. The world was variegated, which was a relief; that meant that they would not be confined to shades of a single color.

"I am orienting on Ida's identity," Imbri said in a dreamlet. "It is an ability of night mares, to locate the sleepers who need their dreams.

It's not very accurate when folk are awake, so it didn't help on Pyramid, but I think we'll be reasonably close to her when we land."

They were drifting toward a forest. In the forest was a glade, and in the center of the glade was a single large tree. That did seem like the best place to land, as their navigation was a bit unsteady and a clear spot was best.

Indeed, they came down somewhat hard, having misjudged the oddly contoured terrain of Torus, which curved away to east and west and upward to north and south. Imbri landed solidly on her four hoofs, but Forrest fell on his back, and the two girls tumbled in spread limbed disarray that would have been embarrassing if they hadn't been in blue jeans.

As they got to their assorted feet, they discovered that the glade was not nearly as nice as it had seemed from afar. It was bare of grass, and littered with bones. "What kind of place is this?" Dawn asked nervously.

Eve touched a bone. "Uh-oh," she said. "This bone belonged to an animal that was eaten by a tangle tree."

"But that means-" Dawn said, looking quickly around.

Now they all saw it: the single tree in the center was the largest, awfullest tangle tree Forrest had ever seen. It had an enormous number of tentacles, and these were now quivering as the tree realized that prey was near.

"We have about half an instant to get out of here," Forrest said, starting to run.

But a tentacle lashed out and struck his knapsack. There was a dragon claw on the end that hooked right in. In only a quarter of an instant Forrest was hauled into the air.

Imbri galloped over. "I'll rescue you," she cried in a dreamlet. "I'll bite through the vine before it hauls you into the maw."

"You can't!" Dawn cried. "That tentacle is armored with dragon scales!"

She was correct. Imbri reared up on her hind feet and clamped her teeth on the tentacle just over For-rest's head. There was a clang as enamel ground against metal. Then Imbri dropped down, unsuccessful.

"Get away from here, the rest of you!" Forrest cried.

"Not while you're in trouble," Eve said. "We'll stop it somehow."

"You can't stop an armored tangle tree!"

But the two girls, heedless of their own safety, drew two sharp little knives he hadn't known they carried, and reached up to stab at the tentacle from either side. One must have gotten a point past the armor, because suddenly the tree squealed in pain or outrage, and the tentacle hauled Forrest up twice as high.

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