Xanth 20 - Yon Ill Wind by Piers Anthony

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

"Oh, of course!" Chena said. "We wouldn't cheat!

That leads to mischief."

"We know," Sean agreed, and Willow nodded.

Mary did not comment, but it struck her that for a random coupling of dissimilar species, the two were remarkably well matched. Sean had a wild side that needed taming, while Willow was quite realistic and sensible, yet they laughed at the same things. Sean could do a good deal worse in Mundania. In fact, some of the girls he had been interested in had had only one thing going for them, youth. That asset was all too fleeting, as Mary knew so

well from her own experience.

But all that was beside the point. She had to explain

YON ILL WIND 255

things to the centaur fillies. "We were looking for you, Chena," she said. "And perhaps for Crystal too. Because we need help to deal with this storm, before it blows Xanth away. Will you come with us?"

"What kind of help?" Chena asked. "We can't safely fly in this fierce wind."

"I'm not sure," Mary confessed. "But I am sure that we need you, and that the manner of it will become apparent in due course. As for flying—you should be able to do that in the ambiance of our traveling house, because Keaira is keeping the weather calm here." She glanced at Keaira, who nodded shyly.

"Why, certainly, then," Chena agreed. "We can fly

above it, or to the side. As long as the terrible wind is kept away. It isn't just the force of it, but the magic dust it carries. It makes us dizzy, and weird things attack."

"Like phantasms," Mary agreed. "Even when they are illusions, they are mischief enough. Very well, then, let's get moving again."

But Nimby was writing a note. Chlorine took it and read it aloud. "Why—why he says the house can fly! The fillies can make it fly."

Chena looked at the RV. "Well, we can make it light enough to float, but that's not the same as-—"

"But then we could haul it along by ropes," Crystal said. ' 'It could move through the air. It might be clumsy, but it could be done, in calm weather."

"Is this safe?" Mary asked, surprised.

Nimby nodded.

"And we can travel over the jungle, instead of through it?" The notion had definite appeal.

Nod.

This was evidently the way to go. "How do you make it light?" she asked the centaurs.

"We simply flick things with our tails," Chena said. "That's really our magic. To make things light enough to float or fly. When we flick bothersome flies, they become too light to sit, so must fly away. When we flick ourselves,

256 PIERS ANTHONY

we become similarly light." She looked at the RV. "However, that's pretty big. It would take a number of flicks to lighten it enough, and we'd have to flick each of you who

go inside it, too."

"And the effect fades with time," Crystal said. "With

each passing moment, you lose lightness."

"You lose moments of effect," Jim said. He was speaking technically, because this was in his specialty of physics, but it didn't matter here.

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