Read Online Faun and Games by Piers Anthony - Free Book Online

the
    chamber is fine, but I'l-n afraid to leave it."
     
    "I know the feeling," LA said.
     
    "But how can I see the Good Magician, if I can't leave the room, and you
    can't change the reverse wood""
     
    "It is a question."
     
    A question he had to answer for himself.   So he walked around the
    chamber, pondering hard.
     
    "What, stuck again'?" D.   Sire inquired mockingly from the doorway
    leading out to the tracks and moat.
     
    He had had enough.   He ran to the reverse wood sandal, picked it up, and
    hurled it at her.   In the course of that action he felt himself
    changing, and changing back.
     
    The wood passed right through her.   "oooh, that smarts," she cried,
    flapping her hands to bow the smoke away from a sandal-shaped hole in
    her- mid-section.
     
    The sandal splashed into the water of the- noat beyond her.   The water
    shuddered and turned to fire.   There was a scream of outrage from the
    moat monster, who must have had to scramble to land.   A little reverse
    wood in the wrong place could be a lot of mischief.
     
    But Forrest's problem had been solved.   The chamber was now normal, and
    so were his emotions.   "Thanks for your help, demoness," he called out
    one doorway, then walked out the other, into the main castle.
     
    A young woman greeted him in the ball.   "Hello, Forrest Faun," she said.
    "I am Wira, the Good Magician's Adaughter-in-law.   He is ready to see
    you now."
     
    "Just like that?" He was surprised to have such ready acceptance, after
    the complications of the Challenges.
     
    "He has been most interested in your progress.   This way, please."
     
    Magician Hunifrey had been following his case?   The Challenges had
    seemed designed to confuse or discourage him.
     
    Forrest followed the woman through dull passages and up a dark stairway.
    He wondered how she could be so sure-footed, in such poor lighting.
     
    Soon they were at a study so gloomy that "dingy" would be inadequate to
    describe it.   Within it a gnome sat hunched over a huge tome.   "Forrest
    Faun is here, Good Magician," Wira said.
     
    The gnome looked up.   "Thank you, dear." It was probably illusion, but
    there almost seemed to be a nuance of affection when he spoke to her.
    "Send him in."
     
      Wira turned to Forrest.   "Go on in," she said.   There was something odd
    about her gaze, which did not quite meet his own.
     
    Then he realized what it was: she was blind.   That was why she was
    indifferent to darkness.
     
    Embarrassed for no reason he could settle on, he walked on into the
    Magician's crowded study.   "My Question is-"
     
    "Yes, yes, of course," the Magician said impatiently.   "Imbri will be
    here in a moment."
     
    "But how can you Answer, if you don't hear my Question?"
     
    "I am not going to Answer, because I won't charge you a Service.
     
    Now stop wasting my time."
     
    Forrest experienced an unusual emotion.   After half a pause he
    recognized it: anger.   "You mean I took all this trouble to come here,
    and to brave your Challenges, for nothing?"
     
    "Not for nothing.   For the Solution to your problem.   That requires
    neither Question nor Answer.   The mare will clarify it in due course."
     
    "But how can I get a Solution, without-?" He stopped, because he saw
    that Humfrey was paying him no further attention.   The grumpy old
    Magician was lost in his tome.
     
    Wira reappeared.   "Come on downstairs.   It will be all right.   It always
    is."
     
    "This isn't what I expected."
     
    "It seldom is."
     
    So he followed her back through the dusky passages.
     
    Hello, Fat.   Are you the one I am to guide'?
     
    Forrest looked around, startled.   No one was there.
     
    You ('a i'l see me, the voice said.   I am M(ire Imbri, the day male.
     
    I c n speak to you only in daydreams.
     
    "In my dreams?" he asked, surprised.
     
    Wira turned.   "Oh, she's arrived?   Good.   Sit down here and talk with
    her.   I will return when you need me."
     
    Distracted,