Piers Anthony - Cube Route (Xanth)

Hello, Metria, she said. I'm back. How was it?"

Let's make sure. Pull someone out of the pouch.

There's a problem?

Silhouette couldn't do it. I want to be sure it's you.

Diamond knows it's me. Indeed, the dog was licking her hand and wagging her tail.

Diamond liked Silhouette too.

Cube shrugged and put her hand to the purse. Ryver, she said.

The man caught her hand, then slid out. Where are we?

In a dull haunted inn, Metria said, her dress abruptly covering anything interesting. Go back in the pouch.

Ryver shrugged and put his foot to the pouch, then slid in. It seemed the demoness could turn it off as readily as she could turn it on, and she wasn't interested in fascinating any mortals at present.

Now you know it's really me, Cube said. What is going on?

You would hardly believe it! That woman got into more trouble! I'm accustomed to making trouble, not preventing it. What a chore.

I want to know all about it, Cube said. But can it wait until morning?

Yes, now that you're back. How did it go in Mundania?

I put her aunt in her place, fired her accountant, beat up her boyfriend, and set her up with a new one.

Who?

Philip, son of Filip the gardener. He's in love with her.

Odd. She didn't advert him.

Didn't what him?

Allude, reference, touch on, bring up

Mention?

Whatever, the demoness agreed crossly. How can he be her boyfriend?

They were children together. He's a good man. She has execrable taste in men.

Beautiful women do; it's in the Big Book of Rules.

So I set her up with the one she needs. I just hope she has the wit to realize it.

She was afraid you'd get raped.

Cube laughed. Who'd ever rape me?

In her body.

That did make the difference. He tried. Cube went to the bed and lay down. Catch me up in the morning. She closed her eyes.

You're a cool one. The demoness must have faded out, because she was silent thereafter. Cube lay for a while, reviewing the events of the past day, hoping she had done the right thing. But she knew it would take time to be sure she had. If she had. She sank slowly to sleep without resolution.

The mares brought her mixed dreams bordering good and bad without quite entering the territory of either. She woke in the night, thinking. Cube knew she had done things in Mundania she had never done in Xanth, and not just because she had wielded a beautiful body. Backing off Aunt Susan like that, putting pincers on the accountant, actually physically attacking boyfriend Yorickthis had been quite unlike Silhouette, but also unlike Cube herself. She had gumption to spare, but she had demonstrated more than that. It had bordered on cruelty. She had never been that way in real life.

And there, perhaps, was the key: Mundania had not been really real to her. It had been an alternate existence, like a game, where consequences weren't completely personal. So she had acted boldly. But now, done with it, she was reflecting on right and wrong. It had not been her life there, but it was Silhouette's life. Had she had the right to change it so substantially?

Yet Silhouette had been trying to commit suicide. Left to herself, she would have, literally, no life. Cube had acted to make it possible for her to have not only a life, but a good life. If she failed, the woman was no worse off than she had been. If she succeeded, Silhouette could forge on and perhaps accomplish worthwhile things. And make a good young man very happy.

Mostly satisfied, Cube returned to sleep. This time the mares brought her good dreams. Some daymares must have been moonlighting, because nightmares never brought good dreams.

In the morning Cube organized for the resumption of her trip. She saw that the thread now led out of the room. She must have accomplished her Mundane mission, apart from her personal satisfaction. She hoped so. She liked Silhouette despite her phenomenal beauty, and wanted her to succeed in life.

The innkeeper intercepted her, fidgeting and shifty with his eyes. There's more pots to scrub. You owe me.

I have paid you, Cube said evenly. She had had recent experience dealing with dishonest folk.

How? he demanded.

I abolished your ghost.

How can I believe that? Naturally he, being untrustworthy, did not take the word of others.

Go check the room. She's gone, and I don't think she'll return.

He lumbered off to check the room. Cube followed the thread out of the inn. Then it set off down a minor path into the deepest forest. Diamond followed it, evidently remembering the way.

That's where Silhouette went, Metria said, appearing beside her.

That's right: you were going to tell me how her day went. How did it go?

Mixed. First she didn't really believe this was a magic land. She wanted to see real live magic, and there wasn't any at the inn. She wasn't satisfied with my changes of form; she said I could be the only demon in an otherwise ordinary land. She wanted me to show her some real magic. So I guided her to the petrified forest.

But she was already frightened enough.

It's the forest that's frightened, not the person. I showed her some puns. And I kept an eye out for dragons; one of those would have impressed her.

They continued along the thread-marked path. But she had all of my memory to draw on. She should have known Xanth is magic.

She said it could be another hallucinogenic dream. In fact she wasn't sure she wasn't still in Mundania, with the pills she had eaten zonking out her mind.

She must have been determined not to believe.

Or afraid to believe. I'm a demon; I don't have many mortal emotions. But I was sorry for her.

The thread led me into her life, Cube said. I tried to clean it up by getting rid of the vultures. I must have done what was needed, because now the thread is moving on.

But it's just showing you the way to Counter Xanth. Why should it care about Mundania?

Cube wondered about that too. It must be more than a line. There must be things I have to do or learn along the way, so it is making me do and learn them.

What could you learn in Mundania?

Cube considered. That beauty is not necessarily enough, by itself. Silhouette could attract men, but she didn't have the judgment to go with the right one or the strength to get rid of the wrong one. Cube had the judgment and strength, but of course lacked the beauty to make it count, here in real life.

I tried to tell you that at the outset.

I suppose I had to experience it myself before I could believe it. But now she wondered: she had thought the thread had been distorted because she had too many Companions, but now it seemed more sophisticated than that. Was it distorted at all, or merely devious? Reaching Counter Xanth seemed to be more than just a physical route.

A gentle wind ruffled Cube's dull hair. She thought of how attractively Silhouette's lustrous hair would flow with that wind. Yet the woman had been ready to die. Yes, beauty alone was not enough. But the lack of it was an overwhelming problem.

They came to a man with a bow. He was loosing arrows, but seemed to have no target. Some flew high, some flew low, and some disappeared into the forest. Diamond went to stand behind a tree, wary of this wild aim.

Cube paused. What are you doing?

He glanced at her. I told you yesterday.