Xanth 34 - Knot Gneiss by Piers Anthony

Author:Piers Anthony [Anthony, Piers]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Humorous, Fantasy, Fiction, General
ISBN: 9780765363374
Publisher: Macmillan
Published: 2010-11-23T05:00:00+00:00

ul. They have a reputation for honesty and hard work. It won’t be like dealing with trolls or goblins.”

“Actually the trolls of the trollway were all right,” Meryl said. “They did their business properly.”

“They did,” Ida agreed. “But I think goblins would not.”

“Wasn’t there a decent goblin?” Hilarion asked. “I believe I heard a story about one who married a goblin princess.”

“That was Goody Goblin,” Ida said. “He was an exception, because he drank a reverse-wood beverage when young and got reversed. So he was nice, and reviled by other goblins. Fortunately Gwenny Gobliness was looking for a nice male, and she made a play for him, and of course took him.”

“I have heard about goblin females too,” Hilarion said. “It is said that some are so beautiful that a man must wear protective glasses when looking at them, lest he suffer eye damage.”

Ida laughed. “Surely an exaggeration. But it is true that the females are both lovely and nice, in considerable contrast to the males. Gnomes are similar in such respects, but less so.”

Conversation lapsed as they moved on toward the root. Would they find the Door there? Wenda was not at all sure they would. But where else was there to look?

Then she became aware of an increasing nervousness among her fellow passengers. Oops—it had been more than a day since the last reverse-wood shell update. The Knot was making its nasty power felt.

Wenda got up and touched the net shell. “I wood knot dew that to yew,” she said. “That wood bee cruel.” Sure enough, the shield was almost gone. The words had meaning only as a test of the shield’s effect.

Quickly she got out new seeds to replace the old ones in the net. She felt the brooding anger of the Knot. It had perhaps hoped to drive the people off the roc, then make the roc himself panic and crash. Fortunately Wenda had been at least belatedly alert. The bad feeling faded as she completed the replacements.

Thank you, Jumper thought. It was becoming uncomfortable.

“You are welcome,” Wenda murmured, noting that the dialect spell was functioning again.

She settled back into her place and relaxed. She hoped the Door would be found soon, but knew she couldn’t count on it. They would simply have to keep slogging on until they somehow found it.

Hello, Wenda.

“Hello, Eris,” Wenda murmured. She was coming to like these occasional private dialogues with the Demoness.

Thank you. I believe I am making progress in my study of friendship. I discover that I like conversing with you. That is a pleasure I had not imagined before I came to know you. Now I would talk to you even if Jumper were not near. He has become irrelevant in this respect.

“Thank you,” Wenda said. “But I am nothing special. I’m just a wouldwife with a job to do.”

And you are doing it well. You have kept your mind on your mission, and maintained the organization necessary to accomplish it.

“I have just muddled along, unable to do anything else.

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