Faun and Games (44 page)

trapped?" Eve asked.
 
"So she can tell the others what happened?"

Forrest nodded.
 
"Good point.
 
Maybe Dawn should be last, so that both

of you aren't at ridk."

The twins exchanged another glance.
 
Forrest noticed that their glances

were identical, except that one was bright and the other dark, and met

exactly in the center of the space between them.
 
Then Dawn nodded.

"When there is something animate to check, I'll cross first," she said.

For-rest reached across the space over the line.
 
A faint shadow showed

on his arm, but there was no resistance.
 
He stepped across, and stood

on the other side.

Eve tried it next.
 
She reached to the invisible wall, and found

nothing, so she too stepped across.
 
She looked back at her sister. "Can

you hear me, Dawn?"

,,Yes," Dawn agreed.
 
"So we're doing it."

Imbri crossed.
 
"Now let's see if you can analyze it from this side,"

she said.

Eve squatted so that she could touch the line on the ground.
 
"It's

still not-wait, it's very faint, but I can feel something.
 
It's not the

thing, just the energy from it, which piles up at the ground.
 
It-it's

because it isn't projecting up from the ground, it's coming down from

above.

"Down from above!" Forrest echoed, surprised.
 
"But there's nothing up

there!

Imbri looked up.
 
"Nothing except Xanth.
 
Is this an idea coming from

Princess Ida in Xanth?"

"She wouldn't do anything mean like this," Dawn said.
 
"We know her;

she's nice."

"Then it must be from somewhere else," Forrest said.
 
"Can you trace

it?"

Eve moved her hand.
 
"Maybe.
 
It's energy, but I can feel the slightest

tingle.
 
It seems to go straight up from the shadow on the ground.

"If it comes from above, it must come from somewhere," Imbri said.

"Ptero is turning, so shouldn't the shadow be moving across the ground?"

The other three looked at her.
 
"It should," Dawn agreed.
 
"So maybe it

isn't coming from above."

"But it is," Eve said.
 
"I can tell."

"Maybe not from beyond Ptero," Forrest suggested.
 
"Could it curve or

bend?"

"That's it," Eve said.
 
"I can tell now; it turns a corner.
 
I can feel

that much from its nature.
 
A corner that way." She closed her eyes and

pointed.

"That's toward Castle Roogna!" Imbri said.

"The enemy menace is in Castle Roogna?" Dawn asked, appalled. "But

that's us."

"Could you have an enemy in your midst?" Forrest asked, feeling a chill.

"No," Dawn said.
 
"There's only King Ivy and Consort Grey; they would

never betray the human territory.
 
After all, they govern it. There's

mom-she'd never do it either.
 
And Aunt Ida is Ivy's twin sister; she'd

never do it.
 
It isn't the two of us, either.
 
And there's no one else

in the castle, now; we know."

Forrest got a weird notion.
 
"There could be others."

Eve looked at him.
 
"We have explored every cranny of the castle, with

our magic.
 
There's no one."

"Have you explored Pyramid?"

Both their mouths dropped open.
 
"Pyramid!" Dawn said.
 
"It's a whole

separate world in itself!
 
Anything could be there."

"Including even an evil Wizard," Eve agreed.
 
"We never thought of

that."

"It's Forrest's business to think of it," Imbri said.
 
"He must be

right.
 
We have seen how much there can be on a seemingly tiny moon.

Ptero is such a moon.
 
Pyramid is another, and there could be anything

at all there.
 
Including someone who wants to take over Ptero. Your evil

Wizard."

"It could be," Dawn breathed.
 
"That would explain everything. But what

can we do about it?"

"We can go to Pyramid," Forrest said.

"But can we?" Imbri asked.
 
"You and I came here by leaving our bodies

behind, and letting our souls become solid.
 
But our souls wouldn't fit

on Pyramid.
 
And what of Dawn & Eve?
 
Their souls are mostly tied up in

their living year in Xanth.
 
How could they go?"

Forrest pondered.
 
"Dawn & Eve must have small soul fragments here-maybe

about the same amount as we have, relative to Ptero. Enough to animate

their bodies on Pyramid."

"That's true," Dawn said.
 
"Souls are living, so I know.
 
We have just

that much.
 
But what of you two, who are all-soul here?"

"We'll just have to leave most of our souls behind," Forrest said. "And

use just enough for Ptero.
 
It should be similar to what we did in

Xanth, leaving our bodies lying in the Tapestry room."

The other three nodded.
 
"I think we shall have to go to Pyramid," Imbri

said.
 
"But first we'll have to tell the others."

"Mom's not going to like this much," Eve said darkly.

"But she'll get used to it," Dawn said brightly.
 
"She always does."

Forrest and Eve stepped back across the margin, and the four of them

walked back toward Castle Roogna.
 
Forrest was pleased with the progress

they had made, but nervous about what might be in store for them.
 
This

mission had just become more complicated than he had expected.

ou want to go where?" Electra demanded, appalled.

"Mother, we already explained," Dawn said, as if the woman were slow in

intellect.

"It's the only way to deal with the marginalization," Eve continued.

"The margins are coming from Pyramid, so we have to go there to stop

them."

"But it's just a decoration spinning around Princess Ida's head!

How could any of you fit there?" But the question was rhetorical,

because her next question was "Suppose you don't return?"

"I fear it is a risk they will have to take," King Ivy said.
 
"The

alternative is to allow ourselves to be marginalized out of existence.

Remember, they are going to succeed."

"Forrest Faun will succeed," Electra said.
 
"That says nothing about my

daughters."

"But his mission is to advise them how to accomplish it," Grey said. "So

if he succeeds, so do they."

"Yes, I'm sure they will," Ida agreed.
 
"And I confess to being curious

about who lives on Pyramid."

Electra seemed to have some continuing misgivings, but she knew that the

alternative was just as bad.
 
They went up to the Tapestry room with

Ida, and the four of them lay down on beds there.
 
"I will guide Dawn,"

Imbri said.
 
"And Forrest will guide Eve.
 
It will be somewhat strange

at first, but that will settle down once we are on Pyramid."

"It should be fun," Dawn said bravely, but she looked a smidgen

uncertain.

"If nothing goes wrong," Eve agreed, looking two smidgens uncertain.

Forrest was not at all certain that nothing would go wrong, but he

didn't care to say that.
 
He hoped that Ida's belief in their success

would make it true, but he had not seen her talent in action.
 
So he

proceeded with the program.
 
He sat up, dug out his bottle, and took it

to Dawn.
 
"Sniff this," he said, hoping that it worked the same way as

it did in Xanth.
 
He pulled out the stopper.

Dawn sniffed.
 
A strange look spread across her features.
 
She closed

her eyes and stopped breathing.

Forrest brought it to Eve.
 
She sniffed, and faded similarly out.
 
Then

he lay back on his own bed, the same one he had used in Xanth, and

sniffed it himself.

Soon he was floating, as before.
 
But this time it wasn't his soul

leaving his body, exactly; it was a tiny part of his soul detaching

itself from the main mass, and carrying his awareness with it.

"This way." It was Imbri's voice, directing Dawn.
 
She had not had to

use the elixir, perhaps because she was long accustomed to soul form.

Forrest concentrated, and formed his own eye and ear and mouth.

He oriented oti Eve, who was lying there with a haze drifting above her.

Rather, she was the haze, floating above her unused body.
 
The body was

dark and lovely, but looked dead.
 
"Form an eye," he told her.
 
"Pull

yourself together."

The mist quivered and coalesced.
 
A bulbous eye developed in its top.

"That's it," he said encouragingly.
 
"Now form a mouth and ear."

Slowly these things formed.
 
"This is weird," the mouth said.

"It will become familiar, once we land on Pyramid," he told her.

"See if you can form your own shape as we go.
 
In a moment we'll join

Imbri and Dawn, and fly to that world."

She shaped up, getting the hang of it, and became a somewhat tenuous

naked woman.

"You can use your substance to make clothing," he told her, realizing

that she was now going into what amounted to full-soul status. "Just