Xanth 19 - A Roc & a Hard Place by Piers Anthony

Author:Piers Anthony [Anthony, Piers]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2011-07-19T01:36:48+00:00

"How to get the stork's attention," she said. "I know the motions, but the stork has been ignoring me."

"Oh," he said, looking reasonably embarrassed. He was twenty-one, and married, and a father, but retained a certain fetching naivete. "Well, let's go get Sheriock and Marrow."

"Something's come up," she said. "I had a blank disk. Now it has a name. MPD, a Witness. To the north."

"Who's MPD?"

"I have no idea. But the token should lead us to him."

"Then let's go." He became the hummingbird, and she took him, and popped north.

She landed safely north of the Void—and now the token tugged south. Hmm—that could be bad news. Nothing left the Void except night mares. She was a demoness, but even she didn't dare risk passing the Void's event horizon, because then she would have to give half a soul to a mare to carry her out, and half a soul was all she had. She was not about to give it up.

But as she approached that dreadful line, the token tugged down. Down toward a gourd. That was almost as bad. Normal folk entered the gourd realm by looking in a peephole, and though their bodies remained outside, their souls 'were locked inside for as long as the eye contact remained—and they could not break it themselves. So anyone visiting the dream realm needed a friend to put a finger over the peephole at an agreed time, freeing the visitor. But this didn't work for demons, who had no permanent physical bodies; their whole selves entered, and they could not leave without the permission of the Night Stallion. Trojan, that Horse of An

254 PIERS ANTHONY

other Color, was not particularly partial to demons. So what was she to do?

Well, she was on business for the Simurgh, so she would just have to tell the horse that'. Meanwhile, it would be interesting exploring the dream realm.

"Dolph, it seems I have to enter the gourd," she said. "So maybe you had better go home, and I'll return for you when this is done."

"I don't know," he said, assuming his human form. "The gourd's a pretty tricky place, even for demons. Maybe I better go in with you."

"But your body would be left out here," she reminded him. "And you would be unable to break contact."

"Actually, I have a pass for the gourd; the Stallion lets me visit when I want to. But it's true I don't want to leave my body exposed." He looked around. "But maybe if I assumed a safe form, it would be all right."

"A safe form?" "Some creature no one will bother. Like maybe a snake."

"A what?"

"Serpent, viper, reptile—"

"I know what a snake is! But someone could step on

you."

"Not if I become the right kind of snake. Like maybe a

bushmaster."

"Oh. Yes, maybe so."

"I'll change; you orient the gourd for me." He became a bush with reptilian scales and poisonous foliage. No one would bother him in that state.

She turned the gourd around until its peephole faced one of the bush's eyes.

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