Xone Of Contention Part 20

"Oh, yeah, that's right. Okay, Para: were you delivered?"

One slap, which he heard as Yes.

"So no one made you?"

Yes. There was a moment of confusion as they established that the answer was literal: no one had made the craft, because it had been delivered by a stork.

"This is getting interesting." Breanna said. "Who could be the parents of a boat with ten pairs of duck feet1'"

Edsel zeroed in on the answer. "Was your mother a duck?" Edsel asked.

Two loot slaps. No.

He tried other creatures, hut none was right.

Breanna got a notion. "A boat! Was your mother a boat?"

Yes.

They considered. It seemed unlikely to be an ordinary boat. What kind of boat could signal the stork?

"A dream boat?" Breanna said, a bulb flas.h.i.+ng over her head.

Yes.

"Was your father a duck?" Three slaps, signifying uncertainty. "Uncertain because you don't know?

No.

"Because it's not exactly a duck?"

Yes.

They tried variations of ducks, and finally Edsel got it: "A quack. Your father was a quack."

Yes. It turned out that the two had blundered onto a love spring, tricked there by Anemone, which was a water creature with a bad att.i.tude - an enemy, in fact. They desperately signaled the stork about ten times before they managed to get clear of that potent water. The stork works had pondered the order for some months, and finally compromised by delivering one boat with ten pairs of duck feet. By that time the quack was long gone, but the dream boat remained, and she showed Para the ways of the water. But he had to learn the way of the land himself, and that was chancy.

Now they wanted to know how Para had come to be a.s.sociated with the two docks, where Breanna had first encountered him. This was hard to zero in on, but they were making progress - when Justin and Pia returned.

"I'm almost disappointed." Breanna murmured, smiling. She had a very, white smile in the subdued light of the illusion castle.

"There'll be other occasions," Edsel said. Then they focused on the others. The four stood beside the boat, catching up. The two who had gone underground seemed oddly animated, as if they had had some transcendent experience.

"We have discovered a tree," Justin said. "The Coventree. This region is safe for us."

"A tree?" Edsel asked, wondering if he had missed the punch line.

"But, we've just got to help that tree." Pia said. "It's getting drowned out. and so are its friends."

"But we can't take time to get involved in forestry," Breanna protested. "We have to get Edsel and Pia safely back to the O-Xone "

"I think not," Justin said. Breanna spluttered. "But-" Justin turned to his companion. "Pia?"

Pia turned to Edsel "I would be so grateful for your support. So very, very grateful."

She never spoke like that unless she really wanted something, and not only could she make him extraordinarily glad to cooperate, she could make him phenomenally unhappy when he did not. "You have it." he said immediately. He didn't need to know what he was committing himself to, just that heaven was better than h.e.l.l.

"Thank you," she said, and hugged and kissed him. She had her sixteen year old body back, and it put images of squadrons of storks into his fevered imagination. She would make good on the implication, too, when the opportunity came. She always did. The fact was, he loved being wound around her little finger.

"Since they are determined to resolve this matter," Justin was saying, "we are obliged to a.s.sist them in whatever way we are able."

"Have you been enchanted?" Breanna asked suspiciously. "What happened down there?"

"We'll show you," Pia said. "Come, you must meet the Coven-tree."

Breanna shot a desperate glance at Edsel, but he was lost. He could argue with Pia, he could exchange insults with her. he could be mad at her, but he could not oppose her when she used her s.e.x appeal to win her way. He knew this did not mean that she would remain married to him, but for the duration of his cooperation in her design, she would be his loving girlfriend. That might be the best he could get, and he was incapable of refusing it.

"I guess we have to do it," Breanna said, clearly not entirely pleased Justin embraced her and kissed her. and pinched her bottom "Justin!" she said, astonished. "You got fres.h.!.+"

"Something I learned from Pia." he said, looking apprehensive.

"You learned from-what were you two doing down there?!"

"He told me that you surprised him." Pia said evenly "I told him how to surprise you in turn."

"Oh " The girl reconsidered, perhaps remembering the business of holding hands. Then she turned back to Justin. "Okay. Do it again Edsel had to laugh. Pia had made quite an impression on those two, first getting Breanna to lead Justin into something, then getting him to initiate something. Physical romance was a process Pia knew volumes about. The Xanthly Adult Conspiracy would never be the same.

Then Justin and Pia led the way down into the nether section. Para followed them, his duck feet handling the steps well enough. Edsel hesitated, then drew the lid down, closing them in: it now seemed safer than advertising where they had gone.

"First the tour," Pia said. "I know you're tired, and we'll rest soon, but this is important."

Actually Edsel wasn't tired, because he had been riding in the boat and then sitting and talking with Breanna. He was curious to know what had gotten Pia so excited and commuted.

It was a showing of six museum-style pictures or settings. Illusion paintings, Justin explained. Two were of snowy mountains, and four were of a pleasant wooded valley.

They completed the circuit. They were back at the stairway. "That's it?" Breanna asked. Edsel felt much the same. So there were six somewhat repet.i.tive pictures, so what?

"The snows are melting," Pia said. "The valley is flooding." Edsel exchanged a glance with Breanna. This time he did the honors.

"So?"

"So the runoff from the mountains is flooding the valley," Pia said. "The roots of the trees are drowning, and so the trees are dying."

Edsel shrugged. "It happens. What's your point?"

"Those are good trees. It's not right just to let them die, when we can maybe do something to save them."

"Since when were you ever an environmentalist?"

Instead of retorting with a cutting remark. Pia paused to consider. "Since I met the Coventree "

"Is this a magic tree? Did it enchant you?"

Pia considered again. "I don't think it enchanted me. But if it did, I'm glad of it. I feel-as if I've fallen in love. With a mission."

This was strong medicine, but not necessarily bad. Pia had never before been dedicated to anything other than her comfort of the moment.

"Then maybe we had better meet the Coventree," Breanna said.

"Coming up." Pia led the way into the last picture.

Edsel and Breanna stared. "Oh. that's right," Edsel said after a moment. "You can pa.s.s through illusion."

It turned out to be an awkward route, especially for the duck footed boat. They went through a hole in the side wall, down a small tunnel, into a larger cross tunnel, through a puddle of bilge-water, and into a large central cave where squat square columns abounded.

"This is the Coventree," Pia said. "Or rather, its root system. We can camp safely here for the night."

"But we saw no big tree above," Breanna protested.

"Illusion can conceal as well as appear." Justin reminded her.

"So what do we do," Edsel asked. "Can we talk to it?"

"No. this just proves how it is getting flooded out. That water in the pa.s.sage will rise, unless we stop the mountain melt."

"You mean those pictures are of this area?" Breanna asked. "Or the valley part of it?"

"Yes." Justin said. "They ill.u.s.trate the problem."

"And we're supposed to somehow stop nature?" Edsel asked.

"Stop the melting in the mountains," Pia said patiently "That will stop the slow flooding, and save the trees."

He found this hard to believe. "And for this, you will give me-?" She stepped into him, very soft and exciting. "Yes."

"Then bring on the mountains," he said.

They found nooks, spread out the blankets, and settled down for the night. Pia joined Edsel, and if she had ever been more desirable or ardent, he could not remember when. All this, to save some trees? He had to be missing something. But meanwhile, he had a piece of heaven.

In the morning, by his watch-the fungus light down here was unchanged-they stirred and got organized. They ate more pies for breakfast and prepared to set out on their new mission.

Overnight, perhaps in his dreams, Edsel had pondered the flooding problem. Evidently it was a chronic thing, not merely seasonal. Mountain glaciers normally melted some in summer and re-froze in winter, staying in balance. Only a larger pattern of heating, a climate change, could make them melt continuously. What was causing that?

Pia had brought him into this, but now he was getting into it in his own fas.h.i.+on, as a challenge. He liked solving mysteries, and perhaps this was a worthy one.

Justin went to touch one of the square roots. "We will try to address the problem," he told it. "We will do our best."

Pia went to another root. "We really will," she said. Then she leaned forward and kissed its rough bark.

The faint glow around the cave brightened. Whether that was in response to the promise or the kiss Edsel wasn't sure: both were surely potent.

They turned to the exit pa.s.sage-and there across it was an illusion picture. It showed the valley, with no lakes or ponds, the sun s.h.i.+ning brightly The Coventree understood their mission, and was acknowledging in its fas.h.i.+on. Edsel realized that the tree could not respond in animate fas.h.i.+on, but could at least make pictures, which it probably had to grow in the course of hours. It must have been working on this one overnight.

They walked through it, suffering no blindness, as this illusion was paper thin. Beyond it was another. This one was a map, showing the local lay of the land, and the placement of the snowy mountains. Now they knew exactly where to go.

They made their way out through the pa.s.sages and illusions, and emerged to the daylight above. The castle was gone; the region was flat. With one significant exception: there was the Coventree, rising above the region where they had seen its great central root. It was a huge tree, larger than Edsel had ever seen before, stretching toward the clouds. The illusion castle must have been formed around it. concealing it at night. But by day, freed of its protective illusion, it stood out in all its grandeur. It would indeed be a shame to let such a tree die.

They got in Para, and the boat set off. Justin and Pia rode in front, eager to see the way ahead, leaving Edsel and Breanna to the rear. "So did she do you last night?" Breanna inquired.

"Am I allowed to answer without violating the Adult Conspiracy?" She laughed.

"That's answer enough. You know, I can see how Justin would relate to the welfare of trees, and I don't blame him at all But Pia surprises me, I never figured her for the type."

"She surprises me too," he admitted. "I love her, but she has always been self-centered. I don't see any way in which this intermission can profit her personally,"

"This what?"

"Intermission. A mission inside a larger mission " She considered that.

"Quest."

"What?"

"It's a quest rather than a mission. More eclat."

"Quest," he agreed, liking the concept. "But not her type. It there were the promise of a bag of pretty gemstones at the end, I could see it. But just to save some trees: She never cared about trees before."

"There must be a reason."

"There must be," he agreed. They had speculated about enchantment, but it didn't seem to fit.

A shape flew out of the background. It was large, and somewhat clumsy. "Beware," Breanna said. "That's a harpy."

"Have no concern," Justin called back. "That's Handi. I know her. She's clean and intelligent."

"Trees get to know many flying creatures," Breanna said. "I suppose I shouldn't be jealous."

The harpy had the wings and talons of a buzzard, and the head and b.r.e.a.s.t.s of a woman. Edsel had understood that they were always ugly, but this one wasn't.

"What is the nature of your quest?" she called. Her voice was not a screech, either.

"h.e.l.lo, Handi." Justin called. "Come and perch for a bit."

The harpy was surprised. "You know me?" She hovered doubtfully.

"And you know me," Justin said. "I'm Justin Tree, in manform."

"Justin!" she cried. "That is your voice." She came in to perch on the side of the boat. "But what are you doing with three Mundanes?"