Geis of the Gargoyle (44 page)

"Because it can't get your soul or read your mind.
 
You are of no benefit to it, and may be a danger to it, now that you're looking for it instead of purifying water."

She nodded again.
 
"You are very smart, Gary.
 
But I have to say that I don't know anything about the philter that might help you find it or control it.
 
I never even saw it in all my time in Hinge."

"But it's pretty smart You must know something or be able to do something that makes you dangerous to it.
 
So even if we don't actually find it here, we have learned something important to the quest."

"Perhaps," she agreed dubiously.
 
"I shall walk very carefully from now on.
 
I hadn't realized how dangerous illusions could be."

"I have noticed another thing," he said.
 
"This is supposed to be the future, with all manner of wondrous things, but we really haven't seen a lot.
 
Just some fancy buildings, a plumbing shop, and this spaceship, which is pretty much like a bedroom chamber.
 
Surely there must be more than this."

"Not if it is limited to the imagination of the philter.
 
It must have drawn notions from your mind about what you thought the future would be like, and animated them.
 
Maybe some notions are from the minds of your companions.
 
So it's just a show to divert you for a while."

"A diversion," he said thoughtfully.
 
"Yes.
 
The philter doesn't want us to find it, so it is diverting us.
 
I think we won't find it on the centaur world, or any of the others."

"But it is concerned about something I might do," she said.
 
"I wish I knew what."

"Just keep yourself safe until we find out," he said.

"Also-"

"Also?"

But Gary was suddenly shy.
 
He couldn't say what was on his mind.
 
But perhaps she suspected.

They returned to their original places and relaxed, waiting for the illusion to get off autopilot.
 
It was comfortable just being quietly together.

Iris watched Gary Gargoyle go.
 
The poor creature was so eager to be with the female gargoyle it was pitiful.
 
But perhaps Gayle would help him, and they would leam something useful.
 
Meanwhile Iris intended to make a serious search, and try to wrap up this mission efficiently.
 
Because she knew how dangerous it could be to remain in the Region of Madness any longer than they had to.

If she could just decide where to look for the demon philter! That was the problem.
 
She knew that this was all illusion, much of it hers and much of it the demon's.
 
She could abolish her own illusion if she chose, but preferred to maintain it until their mission here was done.
 
She could recognize the philter's illusion, and penetrate it by stepping into it, but she couldn't abolish it.
 
But would the philter cover its location with concealing illusion-or have no illusion there, to fool her? She didn't know.
 
Consequently she didn't know where to start.
 
About all she was sure of was that the illusion wasn't lying out in plain sight, because they had done a fair job of checking through the ruins before any illusion was added, and there just hadn't been anything special there.
 
She was sure of that, because of her ability to recognize illusion, whether hers or the demon's.
 
There had been no illusion in the ruins of Hinge until she started it.

Then she reconsidered.
 
The gargoyle's pool-they had seen it, and drunk from its clean water, without being aware of Gayle Goyle on the island in the center.
 
The philter must have concealed it.
 
But how, if not with illusion? Maybe in the demon manner that Mentia had shown, forming a screen around the island.
 
That would not have been illusion, but a thin veil of demon substance masking it.
 
So she could have been fooled by that.
 
The philter hadn't wanted them to know about the gargoyle, though Gayle seemed innocent enough.

"Where are we going.
 
Mother Iris?" Surprise asked brightly.
 
The child had had a good nap, which had been a real relief to the rest of them, and now was ready for action.
 
Iris had long since accepted her designation as mother, because that was the role assigned in the replay of the past, and because she had raised a daughter of her own and remembered the ropes.
 
It was halfway pleasant revisiting the role, and Surprise was a sweet child, apart from her wild power.
 
That wildness had faded, once they realized the limit of her power.
 
Surprise was not a phenomenally powerful Sorceress, but rather a limited temporary Sorceress who would in time be less.
 
The rules of personal talents had not been broken, though they had been stretched somewhat.

"Do you happen to know where to find the philter?" Iris inquired.

"No, Mother," the child said.

"Can you do some magic that might locate it? Such as whirling around and pointing your finger in the correct direction?" That was the talent old Crombie the Soldier had.

"Sure." Surprise spun around and extended one hand.

Iris looked in that direction.
 
"This seems to be toward the pool.
 
We have already been there.
 
But it surely is a suitable place for such a device."

They walked in that direction.
 
They soon came to the edge of the pool.
 
"But it will be difficult to search under the water," Iris said.
 
"Can you move the water out of the way for a while?"

"Sure." Surprise concentrated, and the water humped, jiggled, and formed into a huge doughnut-shaped bubble that floated up out of the pool bed.
 
It hovered there, flexing gently.

Is it safe to go below it?" Iris asked.

"Oh, sure," the child said.
 
"I think."

Iris decided to take that on faith.
 
The child's magic was erratic, but was certainly powerful.
 
She was using it with greater caution and control now, which was also good.
 
If they found the philter, the slight depletion of the child's remaining talents would be justified.

They walked into the basin of the pool.
 
There were pebbles there, and chips of stone, and rock fragments, and pieces of mineral, and some rubble.
 
Also some Mundane coins.
 
How could they have gotten here? They wouldn't have moved themselves, and no one would have thrown them in the pool, because Mundanes were notoriously tightfisted with their money.
 
But no philter.
 
"Maybe it's on the island," Iris said.

They walked onto the island, and into the enclosure.
 
There was the pedestal on which the gargoyle rested, but Gayle Goyle was gone.
 
"She's with Gary," Surprise said.

"Well, at least that means that she's not the philter," Iris said, forcing a laugh.
 
She hadn't thought of that until this moment, but the realization was a relief.
 
She understood that the lady gargoyle was a nice creature.
 
It would have been horrible if Surprise had pointed her out as the demon.
 
It might have made sense, because a gargoyle was indeed a variety of filter, and Gayle had been doing that job here.

They kept looking, but the island was bare.
 
There was nothing that looked remotely like a filter.

Then Iris remembered the problem with Crombie's talent: it didn't show how far.
 
They had been wasting time here, when the philter was probably well beyond this place.

They walked on out the other side.
 
The water doughnut still hovered.
 
"You can let the water go now, dear," Iris said.

"Okay." SPLAT! The water sloshed down into its cavity.
 
The splash drenched them both.
 
"Oopsie," Surprise said.
 
"I'll dry us." A barred vent opened in the ground beneath them, and hot air wafted up, lifting their skirts.
 
Iris could feel the drying action.

"That's very nice, dear." Iris said, hastily pressing down her skirt with her hands.
 
Unfortunately the jet of air was so strong that this was mostly ineffective; it was all she could do to keep her panties from showing.
 
It was a good thing there were no men in the vicinity.
 
Then again, maybe that wouldn't be so bad, because she was back in her twenty-three-year-old body.
 
A lot could be accomplished in the way of male motivation by a supposedly accidental exposure of the right material.
 
"But you really should save your talents unless there is pressing need."

"Oh, yes," Surprise said, chagrined.

When they were dry, they walked on in the direction indicated.
 
They came to the train station.
 
There was a train of thought sitting there.
 
It bore a sign saying PAST.

Iris was surprised.
 
"Do you suppose you were pointing to this train?" she asked.

"I guess," the child said.

"I wonder whether the indication is literal or figurative."

"What?"

"Whether the philter is on this train, or whether thinking about the past can tell us where it is."

"Oh.
 
Let's ride the train.
 
It's fun."

Iris shrugged.
 
That seemed to be as good an approach as any.

They boarded the nearest coach and sat together on one of the seats.
 
They looked out the window as the train began to move.
 
Iris knew that this was the work of the philter demon, because it wasn't hers.
 
The train was illusion, of course; they had merely entered a stone enclosure and were now watching screen images beyond it.
 
But she didn't want to spoil the effect for Surprise, who still possessed the invaluable asset of childish wonder.
 
Iris remembered how that had been, eighty-seven years before when she had been that age.

The city of Hinge passed behind them, and they proceeded through attractive countryside.
 
This reminded Iris of the travels of her youth, and the nostalgia pressed in on her, bringing a tear to one eye.

Then they passed a lake with an island shrouded in mist.
 
That reminded her of the misty Isle of Illusion, where she had resided so long, alone.
 
She had had everything her own way, but it had been so lonely.
 
The past was painful.

"This is dull," Surprise said, tiring of the scenery.

"That is perhaps because you have less past than I do," Iris said with mixed emotions.

"Yes, I've been in Xanth only one year," the child agreed.
 
"You've been here for ever and ever.
 
What was it like way way back when you were really as young as you look?"

"Oh, you would not be interested in that."

"Well, it can't be duller than this."

Point made.
 
"I will tell you.
 
But you don't have to listen when you get bored."

"Okay.
 
Maybe I'll just fall asleep."

Iris started speaking, remembering an episode in her distant past: the first time she had been twenty-three years old, and possessed of a far greater store of innocence than she was ever to enjoy thereafter.
 
As she spoke, she seemed to live that life again, with all its early naive feeling.