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

Forrest entered the room the woman indicated, and sat in a
    comfortable chair.
     
    I was once a night mare, but I lost my body and became a day mare.   I am
    invisible.   Would it help if you could see me?
     
    "Yes."
     
    Then close your eyes and make your mind blank.
     
    Forrest did as asked, bemused.   In a moment a horse appeared in his
    mind, a black mare with white socks on her hind legs.   Or perhaps if I
    assumed girl her voice said.   The horse twisted and changed, becoming a
    pretty young human woman.   "Is this better?" she asked.
     
    "I can hear you!" he exclaimed.   "That is, I could before, but now it
    seems more like speech."
     
    "Yes, it is easier to imagine a human form speaking.   It is your own
    mind doing it; I merely send the thoughts.   This is a day dreamlet.   You
    don't need to speak aloud, either; I can hear you if you just imagine
    yourself speaking.   I can use speech balloons, if you prefer."
     
    "Speech balloons?" he said aloud, then caught himself, and resolved to
    speak silently next time.
     
    A cloud appeared above the young woman's head, with part of it pointing
    down at the woman image.   IN THIS MANNER, the words in the balloon
    wrote.
     
    "Regular speech will do," he said.   Then caught himself again, and added
    without moving his lips: "But tell me, what is this about guiding me?"
     
    The dreamlet girl frowned prettily.   "I must perform a Service for the
    Good Magician.   That Service is to guide you to Ptero, and safely
    through it."
     
    "I don't know where Tero is."
     
    "Ptero," she said, spelling it in a speech balloon.
     
    "Wherever.   In fact I don't know anything about this.   I came to ask the
    Good Magician a Question myself, but he wouldn't even listen to it.   I
    have gone to all this trouble to try to help a tree, and he won't even
    listen!   "
     
    "The ways of the Good Magician are often inscrutable to ordinary folk,"
    she said.   "Tell me more of your situation."
     
    So he told her the whole story.   She was a very good listener, even
    making dreamlet scenes to illustrate what he described.   That way he
    knew she understood, because he could see the details, and make
    corrections when they erred.   "So here I am," he concluded.   "Ready to
    ask the Good Magician how to find a companion spirit for the clog tree,
    and I guess he's mad because for some reason he can't use me for a
    year's Service, so he won't talk to me at all."
     
    Imbri shook her head.   "Humfrey is old and grumpy, but he doesn't waste
    energy on anger.   He always has some obscure reason for what he does. We
    simply have to figure it out.   Obviously he has something in mind for
    you, because he informed me that my Service is to help you.   We just
    have to understand what you are doing."
     
    "What I want to do is find a spirit for the clog tree, so it won't fade.
    I have to do it within a month.   I don't know anything about this Ptero
    place.   Why should I go there?"
     
    She considered.   "As it happens, I am one of the very few folk in Xanth
    who do know something about Ptero.   Not a lot; nobody knows a lot about
    it.   But some, because on occasion I have delivered daydreams there.
    It's a very strange place."
     
    "That explains why you are supposed to be the guide.   But what about
    me?"
     
    "All I can think of is that the spirit you are looking for is there."
     
    "There are people there?"
     
    She laughed, and little HA HA's went out from her image.   When the
    demoness had made such laughter, it had been derisive; Imbri's laughter
    was friendly.   "There are more folk there than anyone can count."
     
    Forrest found this confusing.   "How can there be more?   Any person who
    exists can be counted."
     
    "That's the thing.   Not all of them exist."
     
    "Now I'm really confused!   How can there be people who don't exist?"
     
    "It's hard to explain.   Ptero is where all the folk who ever lived in
    Xanth stay, and all the folk who ever will