Geis of the Gargoyle (19 page)

"The wind, mostly," Richard said.
 
"A storm will blow it across, and then the wind from the opposite direction can clear it.
 
So we're very careful about the weather."

"Sometimes we wish we could control the weather," Janet said.
 
"But of course no one can do that."

"Weather!" Surprise said.
 
Suddenly there was a swirl of cloud above her head.
 
It expanded into a tiny storm, with little lightning jags that struck the ground and made stray dry leaves jump.
 
Then it rained over a small area.

"I see I still have things to learn about Xanth," Richard said.
 
"I had somehow gotten the notion that each person had only a single talent."

Iris smiled, somewhat wanly.
 
"That's a notion quite a number of us had.
 
It seems to be a general rule but not an absolute one, as is the case with the non-repetition of talents.
 
Talents do repeat on occasion, and now it seems that they can also come in bunches.
 
Surprise seems to have just one talent at a time, but that can be almost anything she chooses.
 
We are trying to encourage her to use her magic wisely, rather than for mere fun and mischief, but so far with imperfect success."

Gary had a notion.
 
"Suppose Surprise made a storm to blow the madness away from Desiree's tree?"

"I'm not sure that would be wise," Richard said.
 
"Storms are unpredictable.
 
It could bring more madness in, or get you trapped in it when you thought it was clear.
 
And the effect wouldn't last."

"Unless she could exert a more thorough control of the elements of the weather," Hiatus said.
 
'To change the actual climate here, so that the madness would stay away."

Iris shook her head as she glanced at the child, who was inspecting the irises.
 
Sure enough, one of them had sprouted an eye, making it an eye-ris.
 
It was not wise to let the child get bored.
 
"She would never have the patience.
 
Her attention span is very brief.
 
She's a little tomboy."

"Boy!" Surprise exclaimed, overhearing part of it.
 
And suddenly she was a cross-eyed little boy.

Richard whistled soundlessly.
 
"That is one remarkable child!"

"Understatement of the month," Iris muttered.
 
"I think we had better move on before she causes more mischief here.
 
We'll have to brave the madness.
 
What direction is Desiree's tree?"

"That way," Richard said, pointing.
 
"But I wish you would reconsider about going into the madness."

"I know what you mean," Hiatus said.
 
"But we seem not to have much choice.
 
I'll grow some noses on the trees to point the way."

From each nearby trunk sprouted a human nose, or other projection, pointing the direction Richard had indicated.
 
Gary had seen Hiatus' talent in operation before, but was impressed.

They looked around for their zombie steeds, but those had wandered away.
 
"They wouldn't care to enter the madness anyway," Hiatus said.
 
"Best just to let them go home."

"Come, child," Iris said briskly to the Surprise boy, who was searching out slugs and snails.
 
When he ignored her, she put out a hand to catch his arm-but her hand passed right through his body.
 
He had become intangible, in the manner of a demon.

"Oh, for pity's sake," Iris said.
 
Suddenly a gargoyle appeared before the boy, opening its mouth as if to spew out clean water.

"I'm coming!" Surprise cried, back in her natural gender and solidity.
 
Iris' illusion had frightened her into compliance.
 
But Gary wondered how long that would be effective.
 
They needed to find a better way to control the child.

They bid good-bye to Richard and Janet, and followed the noses.
 
Surprise soon got bored with walking, and adapted her arms into wings.
 
She flapped them vigorously until she lifted into the air, but then she was unsteady, so she tried to sprout a tail.
 
Her clothing got in the way, so she landed, reverted her arms to normal, then stretched them far ahead so they could grab on to a sapling.
 
After that she let them spring elastically short again, hauling her rapidly forward.
 
But then she stumbled and fell, scraping her little knees, and let out a wail.
 
It shaped itself into the cloudy image of a huge sea creature and swam away, jetting a gaseous fountain into the air.

"We need some healing elixir," Iris said in a matter-offact tone.

"I don't have any," Hiatus said.

Gary found a puddle of water.
 
He scooped up a double handful.
 
This was one thing his natural body couldn't do.
 
"Please change this to healing elixir," he said to Surprise.

The child only glanced at it.
 
But he felt a change in his hands; all their little abrasions had suddenly faded.
 
He splashed some of the elixir onto the child's scraped knees, and they instantly healed.

"After this, just make yourself stronger," Iris suggested without any great store of sympathy.

"Gee, yes," Surprise agreed.
 
She jumped up, her muscles suddenly stronger.
 
"I see a funny bug," she said, looking ahead.

The others looked, but all they saw was a small tree some distance away.
 
"Where?" Gary asked.

"On the top branch of that tree."

They walked to the tree.
 
There on the top branch was a tiny bug.

"I hear a funny bird!"

"Where?" Gary asked again.

"Way up in the sky," she said, pointing.

They looked.
 
After a moment a shape appeared, winging toward them.
 
It was a bird, and as it passed overhead it fluted pleasantly, making an unusual melody.

"She strengthened her sight and hearing along with her muscles," Iris said, as if this were ordinary.
 
Gary knew why; she was afraid that if she made anything of it, the child would do something even wilder.

They came to the edge of the madness.
 
They could tell by the line of weirdness ahead.
 
The trees had regular noses, mouths, or ears on them, but at the fringe of madness the projection looked like some kind of machine.
 
There were even little wheels and pistons on it, moving.
 
"What is that?" Gary inquired.

"It was supposed to be an ear," Hiatus said.
 
"Now it's an engine."

"So it's an engine ear," Iris said impatiently.
 
"Now are we plunging into this madness, or are we hesitating some more?"

Mentia appeared.
 
"Are you actually going to do it?" she asked.
 
"This should really be interesting."

"You lead the way, demoness," Iris said grimly.
 
"We'll follow."

"No, you lead, and I'll follow," Mentia said.
 
"I'm a little crazy, not a lot crazy."

"We'll go together," Gary said, suffering a fit of decision.
 
He grabbed Mentia's hand with one of his, and Iris' hand with the other.
 
After an additional flicker of hesitation, Mentia took Hiatus' hand, and Iris took Surprise's hand.
 
The five of them stepped forward, linked.

Gary's breath caught.
 
There was air, but it seemed different, the wrong color or sound.
 
It was as if he were looking down from the bottom of a pool, or up from the top of a mountain.
 
The landscape had a bulgy, curving shape, as if he were looking through the eye of a fish.
 
When he took a step forward, it was as if he were zooming a long way, while hardly moving at all.

He turned to look at Mentia on his left.
 
She looked composed.
 
Since a person would have to be slightly crazy to be at ease in this madness, that made sense.
 
He looked at Iris to his right.
 
She was clothed in illusion, looking middle-aged, perhaps in the confusion forgetting that her physical form was now much younger.

They let go of each other's hands and looked at each other.
 
"This is different than it was before," Hiatus said.

"Not as bad."

"Maybe it's the luck of the draw," Iris said uncertainly.

"Draw!" Surprise said, crossing her eyes.
 
She picked up a thin stick and drew a figure in the dirt.
 
It was of course a stick figure, with a balloon head.

"I wouldn't-" Hiatus began.
 
But of course he was too late.

The stick figure jumped off the dirt, leaving the ground bare behind it.

Surprise drew a simple house, in the manner of her age: just a square with a door and windows and a peaked roof.
 
She put her free hand to it and lifted it up.
 
It was like a wire figure, two dimensional but firm.
 
She drew an animal, with a boxlike body, four stick legs, a curl of a tail, and a round head with two ears sticking up.
 
It bounded out of the picture and away, having height and length but no depth.

"Has her talent changed?" Hiatus asked.

"It's hard to tell," Gary said.
 
"We didn't see that particular talent outside of the madness."

"We had better move on," Iris said.
 
"Hiatus, grow some more noses so we can follow the direction."

Hiatus concentrated.
 
Things appeared on the trees.
 
"Those aren't noses!" Hiatus said.

"I had noticed," Iris said.
 
"Nose hairs, perhaps?"

Hiatus went to inspect the nearest one.
 
"This looks more like a root," he said.
 
"I'll try again."

This time round flat green things appeared on the trunks.

"I think those are leaves," Gary said.

"Leave!" Surprise cried.

"Oh, no you don't!" Iris said, snatching the little girl's hand.
 
But Gary saw that she would have been too late, if Surprise had used magic to depart; her eyes had already crossed.
 
Instead of leaving, the girl had stayed.
 
That suggested that her magic was fouled up, just as Hiatus' magic was.

"But I can't grow leaves on things," Hiatus said, dismayed.

"It seems you can now, in the madness," Mentia said.
 
"It seems like a reasonable talent."

"But I've always grown ears, noses, mouths, and eyes," Hiatus said.
 
"What will I do with leaves?"

"Leaves, leaves, leaves, who cares!" Iris snapped.

"Fleas fleas fleas!" Surprise cried.
 
Suddenly there were cracks all through the ground where they stood.

"Those aren't fleas," Hiatus pointed out.
 
"They're flaws."

"So her talent is changed," Gary said.
 
"She tried for fleas and got flaws.
 
The madness has changed our talents."