Read Online Question Quest by Piers Anthony - Free Book Online

distinctly twitched your ear. I felt it against my cheek.”
    I had not realized that I was now using the language of the equines. It must have come from my association with the unicorns and my improved health after my dunking in the healing spring. That could have given me better control of my ears.
    “Yes, I'm sure that's it,” she said, kissing the side of my head in the manner she might kiss a unicorn.
    Magic could be wonderful.
    But as the darkness became complete, something alarming happened. The house abruptly tilted.
    “Eeeeek!” MareAnn cried in perfectly feminine fashion, grabbing onto me.
    My first impulse was to leap out of bed and run outside. But I couldn't, because MareAnn was clutching me closely. So I got hold of the edge of the bed instead, in that manner anchoring us both. My first instinct had been wrong, anyway; how could I have deserted the girl beside me?
    The floor tilted back, but that was not the end of it.
    The whole house was rising! I saw the downward movement of trees in the moonlight beyond the window. It was as if a giant were picking up the whole house.
    Then things steadied. “I'd better check,” I whispered, drawing myself free of her clutch. I loved the close contact, but a deep suspicion was growing in me.
    “You're so brave!” she whispered back.
    Brave? Not that I knew of! I just was doing what I had to do. I scrambled away from bed and blankets and crossed the floor to the window. As I did, the house began to rock again, almost throwing me off my feet. I lunged to the window and caught hold of the sill, while MareAnn screamed from the bed.
    I peered out. Sure enough, the house was in the air. But it was not floating or being carried by a giant. In the dusky deep shadows below I made out an enormous muscular thigh growing out-of the side of the house. I didn't need to see more; I knew that this was the upper part of a great powerful leg and that it was a monstrous bird's leg with giant claws on the foot. I had heard of this type of thing but never expected to see it, let alone be in it.
    The house paused momentarily. I took advantage of the moment to hurl myself back across the loom to the bed. The bed, table, and chair were all firmly anchored to the floor; now I understood why.
    “What did you see?” MareAnn asked, eagerly grabbing onto me again.
    “Chicken legs,” I said.
    “What?”
    “The house has grown chicken legs and is running around. It's a werehouse. It changes its nature at night.”
    “You mean like a werewolf?”
    “Yes, except that it doesn't eat people. It just runs around. It won't hurt us, as long as we hang on.”
    “But why? I mean, what does it do!”
    “It just runs around, and in the morning it will settle down in a new place. Maybe it gets its kicks from giving rides to folk like us.” I hoped; I wasn't sure that it was quite as innocent as that, but since I didn't know otherwise it was pointless to alarm her.
    The house began moving again. Now we could feel the pulse as the powerful legs walked. The whole house shook as each foot struck the ground. We were lucky that our knapsacks were firmly jammed under the bed, so that they didn't slide around.
    “I'm getting motion sick,” MareAnn said bleakly.
    “Um, I wouldn't recommend that,” I said. "I'm not sure the house would like having, uh, you know on its floor.”
    “I'll stifle it,” she agreed hastily.
    We clung to each other and the bed. There was nothing else to do, as the werehouse charged on through the night. Sometimes it paused to scratch at the ground; sometimes it leaped and landed jarringly. Mostly it just kept going.
    “If this were anywhere else, I'd really enjoy spending a night like this with you in my arms,” I said at one point.
    “I wonder if stork-summoning can be worse than this?” she mused.
    “I hope not!” Then we laughed, somewhat sickly.
    I don't know how much sleep either of us got, but we did succeed in not getting sick. In the morning the house settled