Chapter 10: Parnassus.

Grey was torn. He loved Ivy and wanted to stay in this magic land, but knew he didn't qualify. The decent thing to do was to call it off with Ivy and return to drear Mundania and the horror of Freshman English. He knew he didn't have any magic. But now, with Ivy holding him and Dolph so excited about proving he did have magic, he found it all too easy to go along. At least it would mean some more time with her.

What was this Parnassus? There had been some kind of assignment relating to that in school, but he had just skimmed over it without comprehension, as usual. Something Greek, a mountain in Greece, where people went to see the oracle. That was all he could dredge up.

Ivy set about organizing it. Dolph could not go, but his two fiancées would: the cute child Electra and the lovely Nada. That promised to be an interesting trip: Grey and the three girls.

Next day they started off. It was a good thing he now believed in magic, because he would have been in trouble otherwise. Ivy had somehow called in two winged centaurs and a horse with the head and wings of a giant bird, and these were to be their steeds for the trip.

"But there are four of us," Grey said. "I don't think it's smart to ride double—not if we're flying."

"We won't ride double, exactly," Ivy said. "Nada will be with me."

"But Nada weighs as much as you do!" he protested.

Indeed, Nada weighed more, and in all the right places.

Ivy just smiled. "Let me introduce you," she said, leading the way to the new arrivals.

The first was the handsome centaur male, like a muscular man from the waist up, and like a horse below and behind, with huge wings. This was Cheiron. The second was Cheiron's mate, Chex, whose long brown hair merged into her mane, and at whose ample bare breasts Grey tried not to stare. The third was Xap, a golden yellow hippogryph, Chex's sire, who spoke only in squawks that the others seemed to understand.

Grey was to ride Cheiron. Ivy rode Xap, and Electra rode Chex. Nada approached with Ivy—and abruptly became a small snake. Ivy put the snake in a pocket and mounted. So that was the secret! He had forgotten that Nada was a naga, a human-serpent crossbreed, able to assume either form. She had seemed so emphatically human! She had made herself small so that her weight did not become a burden, knowing that her friend Ivy would not let her fall.

Grey looked at Cheiron. "Uh, I've ridden a centaur before, but not a winged one. Your wings, uh—"

"Sit behind them," Cheiron said. "And hold on tightly. My magic enables me to fly not by powerful wingstrokes, but by lightness of body, and you will be lightened too. You could bounce off if not prepared."

"Uh, yes." He walked to the side, but Cheiron stood taller than Donkey, and there were no stirrups. How could he get on?

Chex came up. "I will help you." She reached down, put her hands under Grey's arms, and lifted him up. He flailed, surprised, and felt his back brush something soft. Then he was over Cheiron's back and settling into place.

He leaned forward and got a double handful of mane as the great wings spread. Suddenly he felt light-headed and light bodied; indeed it seemed he might bounce off!

Cheiron leaped and pumped his wings, and they were airborne. Grey felt as if he were floating. There was definitely magic operating, but it was good magic.

He looked to the side. There was Xap, flying strongly with Ivy, his bird's beak seeming to cut right through the air. Behind him Chex was lifting too, with Electra gleefully aboard. With each stroke of the centaur's wings, her breasts flexed. Now Grey knew what he had brushed as he was lifted.

Electra saw him looking, and waved. He took the risk of releasing one handful of mane in order to wave back. How could he be afraid when the child wasn't?

"It's hard to believe that she's two years older than Chex," Cheiron remarked, turning his head briefly so that his words were not lost in the wind.

"What?" Grey asked, confused.

"Ivy and Nada are seventeen. Electra is fifteen. Chex is thirteen. But our foal Che is now a year old, being tended by his granddam Chem. It can be awkward to judge by appearances."

Grey looked again at the pair. Electra remained a child, and Chex a very mature figure of both horse and woman.

"No offense, but I find that difficult to believe," Grey said. But now he was remembering something Ivy had said about that; it had faded from his memory because it was part of the magic he had not then accepted.

"I thought you would; that is why I mentioned it. Chem was part of the party that went to find Ivy when she was lost as a child of three. It was on that journey that Chem met Xap. There was no male centaur she found suitable, and Xap as you can see is a fine figure of a creature. So she bred with him, and in the following year Chex was birthed."

"I, uh, am surprised that you discuss it so openly," Grey said, somewhat at a loss.

"We centaurs are more advanced, and therefore more discriminating about proprieties than are human folk," Cheiron explained. "We treat natural functions as what they are: natural. We reserve our foibles for what counts: intellectual application."

"Uh, sure. But Chex—I thought centaurs aged at the same rate as human beings." Now he realized what his problem was: the same as the one with buxom Nada. Nada looked and acted too human to be credible as a serpent until she actually changed, and Chex looked and acted too mature to be credible as an adolescent. He was coming to accept magic, intellectually, but there were aspects of it that his deeper belief still resisted.

"Ordinarily they do. But animals age faster. Since Xap is an animal, Chex was blessed with the natural consequences of the crossbreeding: wings and faster maturity.

She grew at a rate between that of her two parents, and reached sexual maturity at age six, rather than age three or age twelve. Her dam, aware of this, tutored her intensively so that her intellect kept pace. Thus it was that she was a fit mate for me at age ten, though I was more than twice her chronological age. For that I am duly grateful, for winged centaurs are rare."

"Uh, how rare are they?"

"We two, and our foal, are the only ones in Xanth."

Grey had to laugh. "That is rare!" He looked once more at Chex. "She looks so, so human, uh, in front, it's still hard to believe she can be so young."

"You will find her young in no respect other than chronological," Cheiron assured him. "It may be more convenient for you to think of her as my age, ignoring the chronology."

"Uh, yes, that seems best." So he really wouldn't have to make the adjustment that was giving him trouble.

They flew southeast, down toward what on the Florida map would have been Lake Okeechobee. From this height he really would not have known this was Xanth instead of Florida; the trees and fields and lakes seemed similar.

Then he spied a cloud ahead. It did not resemble any Mundane cloud. It had a puny, angry face. "I've seen that cloud before!" Grey exclaimed.

"That is Fracto, the worst of clouds," Cheiron said.

"Wherever there is mischief to be done in the air, there he is to be found. Apparently he tunes in magically. We shall have to take evasive action before he gets up a charge."

"But he was—was in the gourd!" Grey said. "I thought there was no contact between there and here. I mean, that's the realm of bad dreams, isn't it?"

"Correct. That would have been the dream Fracto; this is the real one. Their natures are identical."

The trio angled down toward land. The cloud tried to extend himself below to intercept them, but was not fast enough. Fracto could not catch them in the air, and would have to settle for raining on them.

But the three flying figures did not actually land. They brushed by the treetops as if searching for a suitable region—and kept on going. Before the cloud realized it, they were beyond, and lifting once more into the sky. Fracto tried to turn about and go after them, but there was a fairly stiff wind that prevented him. He turned a deep mottled gray and skulked off, seeking other mischief.

"Serves you right, soggy-bottom!" Electra called back nastily.

"She has been associating with Grundy Golem," Cheiron said. "That is one of his old insults."

Maybe so. But Grey was satisfied with it. He didn't like Fracto.

By evening they were approaching a feature of the landscape that definitely was not part of the Mundane peninsula: a mountain. At its jagged peak grew a monstrous tree, and on the tree perched a mind-bogglingly monstrous bird.

"Mount Parnassus," Cheiron said unnecessarily. "We may not fly all the way to it, because the Simurgh does not appreciate clutter in her airspace. We shall set you down at the base of the mountain, and wait there for your return."

They glided to a camping site Xap knew about close to Parnassus. Ivy brought out the little snake and set it on the ground, and suddenly Nada was there again, just as lovely as before. She was nude, but Ivy had her clothes ready, and in a moment all was in order. There were blanket and pillow bushes nearby, and a beerbarrel tree that was filled with boot rear. "Oh, I love it!" Electra exclaimed.

Grey remembered Ivy's warning, in the mock Castle Roogna atop the dream mountain. Did the stuff really work? He could not resist trying some and finding out for himself. So while the others settled for water from the nearby stream, he and Electra drew foaming cups of boot rear from a spigot set in the bulging trunk.

"Bottom's up!" Electra said, and took a swig. Then she jumped into the air. "What a boot!"

Grey just didn't believe it. He sipped his own drink, while Electra waited expectantly.

Nothing happened.

"Maybe you didn't drink enough," she said, disappointed.

Grey tilted the cup and swallowed a big mouthful. There was no effect. It seemed just like root beer.

"Let me taste yours," Electra said suspiciously.

Grey gave her his cup. She sipped, then drank, and did not jump. "It's a dud!" she said. "Yours must have gone flat! Mine gave me a good boot!" Grey tried hers, but with no effect, and after that it didn't work for her either. "The whole tree's gone flat!" she said. "I must have gotten the only sip that was fresh enough." But she remained perplexed.

They returned to the camp, where the others had gathered a nice collection of fruits, nuts, and bolts. They had even found a gravy train and a hot potato collection, so had potatoes and gravy.

The more he experienced of Xanth, the better Grey liked it. Its ways really were better than those of Mundania, once he got used to them, even if some, like the boot rear, were overrated.

They slept individually, with the three four-footed creatures spaced around the outside of the camp, sleeping on their feet. Grey had a suspicion that Xap the hippogryph would be aware of any danger, and would deal with it swiftly. That beak looked wicked!

In the morning, after breakfasting on eggs from an eggplant, fried on a hotseat, along with green and orange juice from nearby greens and oranges, they set out afoot for the heights of Mount Parnassus. They had to cross a stream at its base; rather than risk wading through it, they located a narrow place and jumped across.

"Now we'll be all right if we can avoid the Python and the Maenads," Ivy said.

Grey could guess why a python might be awkward, but the other wasn't clear. "What—?"

"Wild Women," she clarified.

That sounded intriguing, but he knew better than to say so. "Suppose one of them comes upon us?"

"That depends. Electra can shock the first one, but then she has to recharge for a day. Nada could become a big serpent and bite one, but she would be no match for the Python. I can do a certain amount by judicious Enhancement. I could also use the magic mirror to call home, if there was time. But of course my snoopy little brother will be watching us on the Tapestry, and he'll alert someone if there's trouble. Xap has been here, and could run in to carry a couple of us away. But he really doesn't like being limited to the ground. It will probably be best if we get through without running into any of those creatures. Since Clio will know we're coming and why, that should be possible. She wouldn't wish any harm to us."

"Clio?"

"The Muse of History. Weren't you listening when we planned this trip?"

"Uh, I hadn't caught her name."

Ivy smiled. "I was teasing. Grey. I don't expect you to know everything about Xanth yet. Not today."

"But just wait till tomorrow!" Electra put in, laughing.

There was a clear path up the mountain. Electra led the way, full of juvenile energy. Ivy was next, and then Grey, with Nada bringing up the rear. They all had walking sticks they had found at the campsite, and these were a great help, because they walked briskly on their own, hauling the living folk along.

They came to a fork in the path. Electra halted. "I can't tell which one is right," she said.

"Let me check," Nada said. She became a long black snake and slithered up past them. She paused at the fork, putting her head to one side and then the other, her tongue flickering in and out. Then she became human again. "The right one. The left one smells of Maenad, fairly fresh. Let's move on quickly."

Grey would have liked to loiter, so as to catch a glimpse of one of the Wild Women. Did they wear clothing? But the others were evidently alarmed, so he moved along with them.

The path became steep. Even Electra was breathing hard. Nada gave her walking stick to Grey and assumed her natural form: a serpent with her human head, unchanged except that the hair was shorter. Obviously she didn't want her hair to drag on the ground. Just as he had tried without perfect success not to stare at Chex's bare bosom, and not to stare at Nada's barely clothed contours in the human state, he now tried not to stare at her incongruous juxtaposition of human and reptilian parts. It was a good thing he now believed in magic!

He offered the extra walking stick to Ivy, but she declined. "I have enhanced my own endurance," she explained. Indeed, she looked relatively cool and rested.

Electra was satisfied with her single stick, scrambling athletically over rocks and roots, evidently regarding the climb as a challenge. So he took a stick in each hand, and was propelled along by them. It was as if he had a second set of legs.

The slope of the mountain became almost sheer, but the path cut its ledge cleverly through it, and led them without mishap to the home of the Muses. This was an ornate building set into the steep slope, girt by stone columns and arches and guarded by carved stone creatures. Grey had learned enough of Xanth to realize that those statues just might come alive and attack, if intruders misbehaved.

A woman sat in a court in front of the building. She had a shelf of books beside her desk, and was writing with the point of a bright feather on the middle section of a scroll that rolled up above and below.

Ivy stepped forward. "Clio, I presume? May we speak with you?"

The woman looked up. She was in white, and her curly hair was verging on the same color at the fringes, but there was an ageless look of preservation about her. There was no telling how long she had lived or how much longer she would live, but a fair guess might be centuries, either way.

"I am. And you would be Ivy. I was aware of your impending visit; I had just not realized that this would be the day."

"This is Grey, my betrothed from Mundania," Ivy said, indicating Grey. "And Nada, Princess of the Naga, and Electra, from maybe nine hundred years ago, both betrothed to my little brother."

Clio smiled. "Ah yes, I remember. That's in—which volume is it? There are so many, I sometimes lose track."

Ivy stepped closer. "Are these the volumes? Maybe I'll see the title." She peered at the shelf of books. "Isle of View, Question Quest, The Color of Her—" She was overcome by a rogue giggle.

"No, dear, those are future volumes," Clio said. "I have written them, but they haven't yet happened, in your terms. Look farther to the left."

Ivy looked to the left. "Man From Mundania—hey, does that have anything to do with—?"

"Of course, dear," Clio replied. "And a fine volume it is, if I do say so myself. But that is not where—"

"Oh, yes." Ivy looked again. "Heaven Cent, Vale of the Vole, Golem in the—"

"That's it!" Clio exclaimed. "Now I remember! Heaven Cent, when Prince Dolph went in search of the Good Magician Humfrey and got betrothed to two excellent young women." She smiled at the two girls. "It is so nice to meet you at last! I've written so much about you!"

Grey, meanwhile, was amazed. Several future volumes of Xanth history had already been written? And what was the title that had so titillated Ivy? He sidled closer, so that he could read the words on the spines of the volumes.

"You mean you already know how it turns out with us?" Electra asked Clio. "Which one of us married Dolph?"

"Of course I know!" Clio said. "It is my business to know. That is certainly an interesting episode, and I envy the two of you the experience of its resolution."

Grey got his eyes lined up on the titles. It was awkward, because he was still a bit too far away, and the angle was bad, but he was just able to piece out the words. Geis of the Gargoyle, Harpy Thyme—but these weren't the ones Ivy had seen!

"Do you think you could—I mean—" Electra said.

"Naturally not, dear," Clio said in her kindly fashion. "If I told you the resolution, it would spoil it for you, and you wouldn't like that, now would you?"

Grey realized that he was too far to the right. He was reading titles even farther in the future! But he was heading leftward, and should soon intersect the ones Ivy had called out. Demons Don't Dream, The Color of Her—ah, there it was at last! "Panties!" he exclaimed aloud, laughing.

There was a sudden silence as all the others looked at him. He felt himself flushing. "Uh, I was just—"

"You really should not be peeking at future titles," Clio said firmly. "Suppose the news got out? There could be chaos!"

"I'm, uh, sorry," Grey said, abashed. "I won't tell, if that helps."

She gazed at him for an uncomfortably long moment.

"There is considerable irony in that statement, do you realize that?"

Grey spread his hands. "I, uh, no, not exactly."

Clio sighed. "My fault, perhaps; I should not have been careless with the volumes." She touched the top of the bookshelf, and the air before the tomes fuzzed and turned opaque. The open shelf had become a closed shelf, a wooden panel hiding the books. "Now, Ivy, why is it that you came? I seem to have lost the thread again."

Ivy seemed for a moment to have lost the thread herself, but she recovered it promptly. "I want to marry Grey, but I can't unless we find a magic talent for him, and we think there's just a chance he might somehow have one, and surely you know—"

"My dear, my dear!" Clio said. "I can no more tell you in advance about Grey's talent than I can tell Nada and Electra how their triangle with Dolph will turn out! It would not be ethical, quite apart from the complications of paradox."

"Oh, Clio!" Ivy said, looking woebegone. "It's so important to me! I love him, and if—"

Clio raised both hands in a stop gesture. "I understand, Ivy, believe me I do! But this is a matter of professional ethics. I can not compromise in this matter, no matter how much I may wish to. This is a situation you must see through in your own fashion."

Ivy was crying now. Grey was deeply touched to see her break down so quickly on this issue, though he understood the Muse's position. He stepped to her and enfolded her. "She's right Ivy! We have already seen too much. We have no right to put her in this position."

"You are a fine young man," Clio said. "Perhaps I can say this much: it will not be long, now."

"Thank you," Grey said, uncertain what she meant.

He guided Ivy back the way they had come. Nada and Electra followed, pausing only to thank the Muse individually for her attention. Soon they were on their way back down the mountain.

The descent was hardly less arduous than the ascent.

Ivy's tears in due course condensed to sniffles, and then to mere depression. She had evidently put more hope in this than she had let on. Grey's mood was hardly better.

To have come so close to an answer, only to have that hope dashed—

"Are we far enough away?" Electra asked.

Ivy stared at her dully. "For what?" Grey asked.

"To talk."

"Maybe we should get the rest of the way down, before we relax," Grey said, not certain what she had in mind.

She looked disappointed. "I suppose so. But I'm about ready to burst!"

Grey looked around. "Oh. Well, there're bushes around. We could wait while you—"

She laughed. "Not physically, dope! Mentally! With my news!"

"Tell us your news when we're clear of Parnassus," Nada said. She was in her girl-headed-serpent form, sliding fairly readily down the slope.

They resumed their motion. In due course they reached the fork in the path. But they had hardly gone beyond it before there was a clamor from below.

Ivy came to life. "The Maenads!" she exclaimed. "They're below us!"

"And the Python," Nada said, changing briefly to full snake form, then back. "I smell them both, now. They must have crossed the path and smelled our scent."

"We must run!" Ivy said, flustered.

"We're too tired," Nada pointed out. "Even fresh, we could not go faster than those, monsters."

"Maybe if we split up," Grey suggested. "That might confuse them, and they might go the wrong way—"

"Which wrong way?" Ivy asked. "If some of us are each way—"

"I'll decoy them!" Gray said. "You three go back up the path where your scent already is, and I'll run down the other and make a noise to attract them."

"But you don't know the first thing about this mountain!" Ivy protested.

"It's my responsibility," he replied. "I—"

The noise below grew abruptly louder. The Maenads were rounding a curve and would soon be upon them.

"Go!" Grey cried, pointing to the path they had just come down. He himself ran down the other.

Ivy and Electra turned and started up. Nada was on the other side of him; she assumed woman form and started to step across just as he began running. They collided.

At another time he might have found this event interesting, for Nada was contoured somewhat like soft pillows. But in this rush he was afraid he had hurt her.

"Nada! Are you—"

He broke off, for she had disappeared. Realizing that she had changed form to avoid falling to the ground, he ran on. She would join the others, in one form or another, and they would hide. All he had to do was decoy the monsters.

He slowed, and glanced back. There was a Wild Woman! She was indeed naked, with flaring tresses and a figure suggestive of an hourglass. She was gazing up the path the others had taken.

"Over here, nymph!" Grey called, waving his arms.

Her head turned, rotating on her shoulders as if mounted on ball bearings. Now he saw her eyes. They were insanely wild. He had not taken these Wild Women seriously, but those eyes sent a chill through him. This was no sweet young thing; this was a rabid tigress!

The Maenad launched herself in his direction, uttering a harsh shriek of hunger. Her legs were beautiful, her breasts were beautiful, her face was beautiful, but that shriek was spine-tingling. She opened her mouth, and he saw her pointed teeth, and saw her tongue flick out the way Nada's had when she was in serpent form. There seemed to be candle flames inside her eyeballs.

"YUM!" she screamed, reaching for him with hands whose nails were like blood-dipped talons.

Grey spun about and resumed his running. But the Wild Woman was fast; she kept pace. He couldn't draw far enough ahead of her to get off the path and hide; he had to keep going. He heard the screams of the other Maenads farther behind. They sounded just as bloodthirsty.

The path twisted as if trying to make him stumble, but he ran with the surefootedness of desperation and kept up speed. He began to leave the Maenad behind. But now his breath was puffing, and he was tiring rapidly; he had not been fresh when he started. He could have used a dose of Ivy's Enhancement!

He had had the bright idea to be the decoy. It had been the gallant thing to do. But now he was in trouble. How was he going to get out of this?

Something touched his chest at his breast pocket. He reached up, thinking it was a snag of a branch—and felt a tiny snake. Its head was poking out of the pocket.

For an instant he felt shock. Then his fevered mind put two and two together. "Nada!" he gasped.

Indeed it was she. Instead of falling to the ground, where she might have been trodden on, she had evidently clung to his shirt and slipped into his pocket. In his preoccupation with the Maenads, he had not noticed.

"Sorry I got you into this!" he puffed. "I don't know where I'm going, but I don't dare stop!"

The snake did not reply, which was perhaps just as well.

At least she understood that it had been an accident.

Despite his tiring, he was leaving the leading Maenad farther behind. Was she also tiring or merely hanging back to allow the others of her ilk to catch up? He might have turned and dealt with one, though he did not like the idea of striking a lovely bare woman. But he knew he would have no chance against the pack of them.

But if he got far enough ahead, he could dodge off the path and hide. They would charge on past, and then he would return to the path and run the other way. He hoped.

If he went off the path and they winded him, he would be in deep mud for sure!

He rounded a bend. Suddenly he was charging toward a pretty spring. Another hate spring? The others had concluded from the evidence of the Tapestry that that one had been valid, but had somehow lost its potency by the time he and Ivy reached it. Certainly it had not worked on them! But there was no guarantee that this one would be similarly powerless. In fact it might be a love spring. It glimmered with a pale reddish hue, as if potent with some kind of magic. Suppose he splashed through it, then saw a Maenad?

These thoughts flitted through his pulsing brain as he ran toward it. By the time they had run their course, he was almost at it. He veered to avoid it, but stumbled; only by frantic windmilling did he stop himself from pitching headfirst into the water.

Nada fell from his pocket and splashed into the spring.

Appalled, he watched the little snake thrashing. Should he reach in and pull her out? Then he would be affected too!

She changed to her human form. She shook the water from her eyes and looked directly at him. "Hey, hi, handsome!" she exclaimed.

Well, it wasn't a hate spring! "Nada, get out of there! The Wild Women are coming!"

She hiccupped. "No! You come in! It's nice!"

Was it a love spring? He didn't dare touch it! "Get out!" he repeated. "If they catch you they'll tear you apart!"

But she demurred. She sat in the shallow water, her breasts lifting clear and dripping. Even in this danger, he was struck by her sex appeal. She might be half serpent, but she was all woman! "Come in! You'll like it!" she invited. She hiccupped again. "This wine's wonderful!"

"You're intoxicated!" he exclaimed, catching on.

"No, I'm drunk!" she corrected him. "This must be the Maenad's wine spring. Pretty soon I'll be raving wild just like them! What fun!"

Now the Maenads came into sight. They spied Nada in the wine spring, and screamed with outrage.

There was no help for it. He had to haul her out of there before the wild woman got their claws on her. He would just have to resist the intoxicating effect of the water.

Grey waded in. The water was bathwater warm, and felt somehow soft against his legs as it soaked his trousers. He reached down to take hold of Nada.

"Oooo, goody!" she exclaimed, reaching up to embrace him.

"None of that!" he rapped. "Come on out! We have to run!" But she was slippery with the wine-water, and his hands merely slid over her marvelous flesh, stroking regions they should not.

"Oooo, fun!" she said, wrapping her arms around his neck and hauling his face in for a wet and sloppy kiss. He turned his face aside, but that was the least of his problems.

He couldn't get her out! She was too slippery and too affectionate. Meanwhile the Wild Women were charging in; already it was too late to escape them. He would have to try to fight them.

"Change into your snake form!" he told Nada. "Get back in my pocket! I'll need both hands free to shove them away; I can't hold on to you."

"Serpent form?" she asked, still trying to kiss him.

The Maenads came to the pool and circled it. Their eyes glowed and their teeth glistened and their claws quivered expectantly. Grey knew the two of them were done for. In a moment the Wild Women would plunge in from all sides and tear them apart.

Then he had another desperate notion. "Make it a big snake! Your biggest and fiercest ever!"

"Big?"

"Huge, gigantic, fierce!" he cried. "To fight the Wild Women!"

Finally she caught on. "Nasty women!"

"Terrible women! Do it!"

Nada changed. Suddenly he had his arms around a python that must weigh twice as much as he did. It was Nada, but horrendous.

She hissed at the Wild Women. They stared, for the moment startled from their madness. Then their blood lust returned in force, and they charged into the pool.

And paused. A look of dismay spread across their several faces. "Where's wine?" one asked, her words barely distinguishable.

Several of them scooped up handfuls of the water, tasting it. Their dismay intensified. "Wine gone!" one exclaimed in sheerest horror.

"Get out of here, Nada!" Grey said.

Nada undulated to the edge of the pool and out. The Maenads, distracted, seemed hardly to notice. They were busy sampling their pool, verifying that its magic was gone.

Grey waded out, struck by the similarity of this scene to that of the goblins with their hate spring. Something strange had happened again, but he couldn't pause to analyze it. He hurried after Nada.

She headed for the deepest forest, moving well despite her intoxication. Of course it was impossible for her to stagger or fall, in this form. He plowed into the foliage, fighting through the branches and leaves. At any moment the Maenads might recover from their shock and resume the pursuit!

Nada drew up beside a huge chestnut tree. She stopped under a large chest of nuts, and resumed human form.

"Now kish me," she invited, extending her arms to him again.

Grey straight-armed her, gently. "You can't be drunk," he said. "That water has lost its potency."

Her eyes widened. "Suddenly I'm sober!" she said. "How did you do that?"

"I didn't do it!" he protested. "You must have just thought it was wine, so—"

"Grey, look at me," she said sharply.

He looked into her face. Her eyes were completely clear, her mouth firm. "I am not drunk now, but believe me, I was a moment ago. I had lost all perspective. All I thought of was being with a handsome man. I had conveniently forgotten that you and I are betrothed to others. I would never do that, sober. That water intoxicated me instantly, and that was no illusion. It didn't stop until just now. You did it, Grey!"

"But I couldn't have! It would take magic, and I have no magic. You know that."

She cocked her head. "Electra—what was she about to say to us, there on the path, that was so urgent? She may look like a child, but she's got a good mind."

"She was full of some news she had, but—"

"I think I know. This experience jogged my memory. Grey, when Ivy asked the Muse about your talent, she said that it would not be ethical to tell us about it in advance. Wasn't that it?"

"Yes, something like that. But what relevance—"

"Think about it. How could she tell us about a nonexistent thing?"

Grey froze. "But that must mean—"

"That you do have a talent," she finished. "She slipped, Grey, and Electra was the only one to catch it.

That's what she was so bursting to tell us! You do have magic!" Grey was stunned. "Oh, Nada, I could kiss you!"

"No you don't!" she said firmly. "Not when I'm sober."

"Uh, I meant that as a figure of—"

She smiled. "I know. Just never forget that I am Ivy's friend—a good one."

"I never did."

"You never did," she agreed ruefully. "I did, when drunk. But this has given us the key. What could your talent be?"

"Sobering drunk women!" he quipped, laughing, still not quite believing.

"More than that, I think. You denatured their whole pool!"

"But if that really is a magic spring, I could no more nullify it all than I could—"

"Nullify the goblins' hate spring," she concluded.

Grey thought about it. "Nullifying magic springs? That couldn't be, because it did make you drunk."

"Before you got into it. It didn't make you drunk. Once you applied your will to it—and just now to me—you countered it, instantly. Magically."

He nodded. "When I set my will to it. But is it possible that something else changed those springs? Maybe Ivy dehanced that hate spring; I mean, if she can enhance, maybe—"

"Ivy wasn't here for the wine spring," she reminded him. "And don't accuse me of doing it! I have no talent; my magic is in my nature, changing between my component species. Maybe some day the nada will develop talents, as the centaurs did. No, you did it. Grey. Your talent must be making magic springs harmless."

"But I'm Mundane! How could I have a, talent?"

She shook her head. "I don't know. Grey. But considering what the Muse said and what happened here, I'm pretty sure you do. And that means—"

"I can marry Ivy!" he exclaimed jubilantly.

"Yes. If Queen Irene thought this was a good way of denying you without actually saying no, she made a mistake, because now she can't say no!"

"All we have to do is escape the Wild Women and get together with Ivy and Electra, and everything's okay," he said, a trifle ruefully. He knew they weren't safe yet.

Indeed, a Maenad was coming toward them. The Wild Women knew where they were but had been too dazed by the loss of their wine to organize.

"I can change form and slide through the thicket," Nada said. "But I wouldn't leave you here alone."

"That one coming here doesn't look wild anymore," he said. "Maybe they're tame when not drunk."

"Tame Maenads could cost you your marriage, too," she said, squinting at the woman's perfect proportions.

"Maybe I can climb a tree, and you can go for help."

"Wild Women can climb."

"Let's just see what she wants. Maybe it's not an ultimatum," he said without much confidence.

The Maenad came close. "Magician!" she called. Her speech was clear, now that she was sober.

Grey was too surprised to speak, but Nada took over.

"What do you want with the Magician?"

"I'm no—" Grey started, but she elbowed him in the belly.

"We did not know your nature when we pursued you," the Maenad said. "We apologize, and beg you to restore our wine spring. We will do anything you desire."

"The Magician has all he desires," Nada said, her elbow poised to jab him again if he protested. Grey kept his mouth shut.

The Wild Woman looked at Nada's bare form appraisingly. "Indeed we can see that, serpent-woman. But if there is anything else he desires—food, an honor guard, servants—"

Nada considered. "The Magician was only visiting Parnassus. He has no need of your services. I will try to prevail on him to restore your wine spring, but I can not guarantee success. The best I can promise is that if you do not annoy him further, he will not do anything worse to you. If he is so inclined, he may see to your pool."

The woman fell to her knees. "Oh, thank you, thank you! We are but shadows without our wine! We would be unable to fight the Python."

Nada nodded. "The Python. Is he near?"

"He was following us up the path before we caught your scent. He must have taken the other fork, for there was the scent of live girls there."

Both Grey and Nada jumped. The dread Python—going after Ivy and Electra?

"We must be on our way," Nada said. She turned her face to Grey. "Magician, if you will at least consider their wine spring—"

Grey was uneasy about this deception, but realized that she was trying to get them out of this without having to fight. "Very well, serpent-girl," he said gruffly.

They drew themselves out of the tangled brush and followed the unwild woman back to the spring. "Understand, if the Magician restores your wine, and you then get drunk and wild and become troublesome to him, I can not be responsible for his temper," Nada warned them.

"We will stay far away from him!" the women promised in chorus.

Grey stepped up to the spring. If he really had denatured it, then he should be able to restore it. If he had not been the one responsible for what had happened, then he hoped that whatever was responsible would play along.

How should he go about this? Well, if it had been his will that did it to this pool and the hate spring, maybe his will could restore it. So he concentrated on the water, which was now quite clear. He willed for it to be restored, and for the pale rose color to return, since that was evidently the signal of its potency. Be wine again!

Was there a flicker of something? He squatted and touched the water with one finger, willing the color to intensify.

Immediately the water turned a rich red.

Alarmed, he straightened up and stepped back. What had he done? That was too much color!

A Maenad scooped up a palmful of water and sipped it.

Her eyes went round. "Blood!" she exclaimed.

Oops! Grey looked at Nada with dismay.

"Blood?" another Wild Woman asked. Then several more scooped up sips. "Blood!" they agreed. "Bloodflavored wine!"

Grey edged back. If they could get a running start—

"Oh thank you, Magician!"' the Maenad spokesnymph exclaimed. "This is so much better than before! Now we can satisfy both our thirsts at once!"

"Quite all right," he said benignly. Then Nada took his arm, and they walked back down the path.

The Maenads, jubilant, clustered around the pool, guzzling the water as if there were no tomorrow. They paid no further attention, to the two visitors.

Grey was almost floating, not because of their escape but because of this vindication of his magic. He had tried to turn the pool pink, and when that was slow he had tried for full red—and with his touch it had gone all the way!

No one else could have known what he was thinking, so it had to have been his own effort. His own magic. He did have magic!

But the riddle remained: how could he have a magic talent when he was Mundane? Everyone agreed that no Mundane had magic. Could everyone be wrong?

"We had better get back to Ivy and Electra," Nada said. "I don't like the sound of that Python going after them!"

The Python! Grey was tired, but that abruptly passed.

"I'll run! You get small and get into my pocket! We've got to get there as fast as we can!"

"Right you are. Magician!" she agreed with a wan smile. She held his hand, leaned over his arm (oh, that body)!, and became a snake spread across his hand and forearm. He lifted her to the breast pocket. Then he began to run.

He had no idea what he would do if he encountered the Python. He just knew he had to get there before Ivy did.

Then, abruptly, he stopped. How could he be sure of finding Ivy and Electra quickly? He had only a vague notion of the layout of this mountain and its bypaths, and Nada had no better knowledge. They could blunder about for hours while the Python caught and gobbled the girls!

Nada's snake head poked out of his pocket, questioningly. "We need a guide," he said. "Someone who knows every wrinkle of this mountain, so we can go directly to the most likely place, and get around the Python if we have to."

The snake head nodded, but without full conviction. He knew why: where could they get such a guide on such short notice?

The answer was obvious: one of the Maenads.

Grey turned about and marched back to the blood-wine spring. "Ahem."

The clustered Maenads jumped. "Oh, Magician, don't change your mind!" the spokesnymph cried. "We have done nothing more to annoy you!"

"I want a guide," Grey said. "Someone who knows this mountain perfectly."

"We all know it, Magician! If this is your demand, we must accede. Choose one of us to serve." And the Maenads lined up, setting their jaws, each obviously hoping he would not choose her.

This was no good! He needed a willing one, who would do her honest best. "Ah, er, a volunteer. Someone who wants to do it, to help me find my friends."

They burst into cruel laughter. "Magician, none of us want to help anyone! We are wild, bloodthirsty women! We are tame only for the brief time it takes to lure an unwary man close enough for the pounce, when he takes us for succubi." There was more laughter; they found such an error hilarious.

This wasn't getting anywhere. If he pushed his luck, they might forget their fear of him, and that could be awkward. But he still needed that guide.

"Well, er, maybe if one of you can pretend to be tame for this one task, in return for an, er, reward." He didn't know what reward he could sincerely offer, but was sure that none of them would do it unless either threatened or rewarded generously.

"Help someone for hours?" the spokesnymph demanded. "Impossible!"

But one Maenad came forward. "I—I might."

The spokesnymph shot her a withering glance. "That's right, Mae! You're always the last to rip out a gobbet of flesh. It's almost as if you don't really like hurting folk!"

"That's a lie!" Mae cried fiercely. But her attitude suggested that it wasn't. It seemed there were misfits even among the Wild Women.

"Very well," Grey said briskly. "Come along, Mae. Can you smell the trail of a normal woman?"

"Yes, very well," Mae agreed.

"Then sniff out the trail of the two young women who were with us before. We want to reach them before the Python does."

"They took the other fork," Mae said. She set off at a run, her bare bottom twinkling.

Grey watched for a moment. Then the snake wriggled in his pocket, reminding him that he was not here to watch twinkling bottoms. Embarrassed, he lurched into his own run, following Mae.