Golem in the Gears by Piers Anthony

Author:Piers Anthony
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9780345454386
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2012-01-11T10:00:00+00:00

12

Ever-Glades

They slept a good deal more than an hour; it was afternoon when Grundy woke. Jordan was just stirring; that was what had alerted him. The girls were nearby, putting the finishing touches on a pretty fancy repast.

Jordan sat up, and Grundy simply climbed to his shoulder. The man’s head was entirely better now; his hair had regrown completely, and his eyes and ears were whole. There weren’t even any scars; it was just as if he had never suffered injury. Grundy had known about the man’s talent, but this still impressed him. Any other man would have been in very sad state, after such a battle with a chimaera.

“I’m hungry,” Jordan exclaimed, stretching. “Let’s eat.”

They went to join the girls. There were fruits and nuts of many descriptions, and milk and bread and cookies and assorted other delicacies. “Where did you find all this?” Grundy demanded.

Threnody shrugged. “Oh, here and there,” she said. “There are always good things to be found in Xanth, if you know where to look.”

Evidently so. “But the Hag—”

“Never showed,” Rapunzel said brightly. She was golem-size, and she had done something with her wild, shorn hair, because now it was pleasantly curly. Her clothing had been ragged and sweat-soaked after the trudge, but now it was neat and clean. She had been the prettiest young woman he had encountered; now she was more so.

“Maybe she was tired, after getting killed so many times,” he said uncertainly.

“Come, sit down, eat,” Rapunzel said, leading him to a chair fashioned from a fragment of wood and some straw. “What will you have?”

“We really should be under cover, in case she comes as a big bird, or a dragon—”

Rapunzel shook her head. “See those chips in a big circle around us, Grundy?” she asked, pointing.

He looked. “Yes, but—”

“That’s reverse-wood. If she tries to pass that circle, it will reverse her magic.”

“Reverse-wood!” he exclaimed. “I didn’t realize that was here!”

“Threnody found it,” she said. “She and Jordan have been traveling through the area, and they found a cache on the other side of Lake Ogre-Chobee, near the region of madness, so they brought some along. She carried it in her purse. Of course she couldn’t stay too close to him when he fought, or when he was healing, but—”

“I’ll say!” he agreed. “Reverse-wood reverses any magic in its vicinity! I remember when the Good Magician was near some, and his information became disinformation. But—”

“Its range is very short,” she reassured him. “It doesn’t affect us, as long as we don’t go too close to the circle. But it kept Mother Swe—the Sea Hag away. She may be watching us now, but she doesn’t dare come in, because, even if she flew over the circle, we could toss a chip at her.”

“That’s terrific!” he cried. “You’re very smart!”

“Oh, no, Threnody figured it out. She’s been in the wilderness a long time and is jungle-wise. She told me a lot.”

Surely so! “So now you can see what the human state is like,” he said, glad for her, but sad for himself.

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