"h.e.l.lo," Justin said. "Are you in good health?"

"I'm Inebriated," one said.

"And I'm Intoxicated," the other said. "We're twins."

They staggered on past. "You had better not like that type," Breanna told him dangerously as his gaze followed the girls.

"Naturally not." Justin quickly resumed looking through the Rings tube. "I do observe light, in precisely that direction." He pointed.

"Half again," Jaylin said, smiling.

He gave her the tube, and she looked. "I see a nymph lode-I mean a lymph node." But her correction was too late. A piece of metal rose from the ground and flew away. "Oops, I guess I did it again."

"I believe that is metal that is attracted to nymphs," Che said. "It is traveling in the direction of the Faun and Nymph retreat."

Jaylin looked again. In a moment she had narrowed it down similarly. Then she held the tube for Sim as he looked. "There," he squawked.

They now had a definite line, bearing close to north. "If we saw no need for cooperation before, we have it now," Che said. "But I think we had better continue to verify, in case the direction is not constant."

"Now some of us can fly," Justin said. "Some of us can walk. I think we will make swifter progress if all of us fly."

"And how am I going to fly?" Breanna demanded archly.

"Summon the demoness."

"Oh! I forget my Ring." She looked around. "But then we'll have to take it out of the Foop tube."

"That is a problem," he agreed.

"I will carry you," Cynthia said.

"And I will carry you," Che said to Justin.

That left Jaylin. She looked perplexed, then Putre nudged her. The other zombies were gone, but he had remained. "And I'll ride you!" she exclaimed. "Maybe you can't fly, out here in real Xanth, but you can certainly keep up."

They set off. Che kept an eye on the zombie colt, but he did indeed keep up, running as fast as a dream.

They moved a reasonable distance, then stopped to verify. The direction remained north.

The third pause was at the southern brink of the Gap Chasm. The direction remained north.

"Can you cross that?" Che asked Putre.

A speech balloon appeared. "I can run down one side, across, and up the other."

"But I'll fall off!" Jaylin protested.

"No, you can't fall off a dream horse when you have the Ring of Dreams," Che said. "And Putre wouldn't let it happen anyway."

The girl still looked doubtful. Breanna interceded. "It's magic," she said. "You can't be blamed for not really believing in magic, despite seeing it all around; sometimes I wonder about it myself. If you come to mischief, it won't be because of the horse."

"We'll hover near, until you are sure," Cynthia said.

Jaylin did not look completely rea.s.sured, but she nodded. Cynthia took off, carrying Breanna over the brink of the chasm, and hovered there.

Putre trotted to the brink, turned the corner, and trotted straight down the cliff. The girl remained on his back, her eyes squeezed shut. After a moment she opened them, realized that they were not falling, and relaxed. It was just as if they were traveling horizontally, thanks to the magic.

After that, Che also took off, carrying Justin, and Sim did too. They circled over the Gap Chasm, watching the horse gallop on downward.

Then Che saw a stir in the depths of the chasm. "Is that what I think it is?" he asked Sim.

"The Gap Dragon," Sim squawked. "He couldn't catch a dream horse anyway, but I will go explain." He flew down toward the dragon.

"Perhaps that is just as well," Justin remarked. "The girl is nervous enough already; she would not care to encounter the Gap Dragon."

Che nodded. He was of course friends with Stanley Steamer, because they were both winged monsters, but it was the dragon's job to patrol the base of the chasm and steam and eat any intruders. Legitimate travelers usually crossed one of the bridges across the Gap, but their own party was in a hurry.

In due course the horse galloped across the chasm, and up the far cliff.

It was evident that Jaylin was now entirely relaxed; experiencing was believing. "And we saw the Gap Dragon!" she exclaimed as they crested the brink and returned to regular ground. "He puffed steam at us!"

Perhaps their concern about her reaction had been exaggerated.

They moved on north. Soon they reached the boundary marking the Region of Air. They were across it before they realized, but it could not be mistaken. Wind storms battered them, forcing the flyers to take to the ground, joining Putre and Jaylin. "This is where c.u.mulo Fracto Nimbus, the demon cloud, brought Hurricane Happy Bottom, saving the Land of Xanth from getting blown away," Che informed Jaylin as he landed beside her.

"We don't have to put up with this wind," Sim squawked as he landed beside them, his lovely feathers scuffled.

"But don't we have to get through this Region to reach the Void?" Jaylin asked as her hair blew across her face. Then she did a doubletake. "Say-I understood you!"

"You must be getting to know me," he squawked. "Yes, we do have to pa.s.s though the several Regions, but we don't have to endure their rigors. We have the Rings."

"The Rings?" Then she caught on. "The Rings control their Regions!"

Che could have beat himself over the head with a wing. Why hadn't he thought of that? He was supposed to be Sim's tutor, but Sim was already beginning to out-think him.

"But we are unable to use the Rings individually while we orient on the Foop," Justin reminded them.

That neatly took Che off the hook. "Perhaps we should return the Rings to their individual users, and rea.s.semble the tube at each boundary," he suggested.

The others nodded. It might be clumsy, but they needed to use the Rings in more than one way. They dismantled the tube and pa.s.sed out the Rings. Breanna experimentally tried to put on Justin's Ring of Idea, but it wouldn't go on her finger; the Rings now accepted only their designated bearers.

Sim lifted his foot and squawked at his Ring of Air. Suddenly the storm wind died, and the air was still.

"Now that's more like it, Birdbrain," Breanna said affectionately. "Hiyo, Cynthia, away!"

The centaur filly took off, darting a wry expression at the others. "Even that girl's annoyances become endearing," Justin murmured. Che had to agree as he took off.

They saw that Putre and Jaylin had no trouble keeping up, running below. Soon the party came to the boundary of the next Region. They paused before crossing it, wary of the sudden change they knew could occur.

"The Region of Earth is highly volcanic," Che said. "It can be difficult to find a safe place to stand, let alone walk, but the air is not much safer because of the ejecta."

"The what?" Jaylin asked.

Che started to explain, but she cut him off, laughing. "I was only teasing you, Che. I'm from Hawaii, where we have active volcanoes. I know what they belch into the air. Or in our case, what they spew across the land: molten rivers. Our whole chain of islands was formed from volcanic ejecta."

He nodded. "For a moment I thought of the Demoness Metria."

"Yes, with her confused words. Why is she like that?"

"She got trodden on by a sphinx, long ago. It split her personality into three aspects: a crazy adult, an innocent child, and the one with the problem of vocabulary. That's also the one with the insatiable curiosity about mortal affairs, so we see a fair amount of her."

Smoke formed. "Did someone say my name?" it asked.

"Oh, no," Breanna muttered. "Maybe I can use my Ring to banish her."

"Save it for the Region of Fire," Cynthia suggested.

"We were just talking about ejecta," Jaylin said brightly to the demoness.

"About what?"

"Matter, substance, material, stuff, rocks-"

"Flying hot out of a volcano?"

"Whatever," Jaylin said crossly. But she couldn't hold her frown more than an instant. Then they both laughed.

"Well, you'll see plenty of that next door," Metria said.

"No we won't," Che said. He poked his head through the veil and saw the ground beyond shaking, and heard a nearby volcano rumbling dangerously. He lifted the Ring of Earth. "Quiet," he said.

Immediately the ground settled down, and the volcano silenced. The Region of Earth spread out before him. A violent terrain, but no longer in motion, and its air was clean.

"The Rings of Xanth remain impressive," Justin remarked.

"Indeed," Cynthia agreed.

"That's almost like cheating," Metria said, disgusted. She faded out.

They took time to rea.s.semble the tube and sight through it. There was no question: They had to enter the Region of Earth.

They crossed the Region, and soon came to the next.

"That will be the Region of Fire," Breanna said. "My turn." They verified the direction, then took apart the tube so that she could use her Ring. She poked her head and hand through the intangible curtain separating the Regions. In a moment she drew them back. "All clear, now."

The others crossed. Che saw a land of ashes and fading smoke. Gases jetted up from fumaroles that were normally on fire. The Region normally burned perpetually.

As he flew across, Che saw that already fresh gra.s.s and bushes were growing out of the ashes. There had to be a lot of flammable matter to feed the fires, which swept back and forth across the range. He wondered how this had ever gotten started; he would have to do some research to refresh his memory of those complicated past events, preparing for the time when Sim wanted to know.

Sim flew near. "How did this start?" he squawked.

Sigh. He would have to go on his present vague memory. "With an enchantment, of course. In the year of Xanth Three-seventy-eight the Seventh Wave settled around Lake Ogre-Chobee. The talents of its people were weak, so they set up a Talent Research Group headed by a man called Hydrogen, whose talent was to make dirty water become clean. They tried to develop better curses, so as to defend themselves from aggressive others. One of them named Loudspeaker learned how to amplify his voice and create Words of Power. Others continued their research. Soon they had eight Magicians. Unfortunately power corrupted them, and they became nasty and warlike. Loudspeaker led the forces of meanness, and Hydrogen led the forces of decency. Loudspeaker used terrible Words to enslave the air creatures north of the Gap Chasm, but Hydrogen hurled a curse that blew him away, leaving only the winds to form the Region of Air. Then Loudspeaker enslaved the creatures of the Earth, and Hydrogen hurled another curse that blasted him out and made the Region of Earth. Similar battles made the Regions of Fire, Water, and Void, which was the last and most terrible curse. They have remained ever since, still powered by the continuing force of the curses that formed them."

"A most interesting history," Justin remarked. "Curses certainly should not be misused."

"Then what of the Rings?" Sim squawked.

This was the part Che hated, because he could not remember. In fact, he had not known of the Rings before this mission began. "I must conjecture that Magician Hydrogen or some other historical Magician formed them, just in case it was ever necessary to bring the Regions under control, and then hid them so that they could not be misused. There is much of Xanth that we do not yet properly comprehend."

"And the Swell Foop?"

"That is entirely beyond my knowledge," Che admitted, ashamed. The worst had happened: His student's need for knowledge had outstripped the ability of his tutor.

Sim stared at him. Worse, so did Cynthia and Breanna, and even Jaylin, riding Putre below, looked up, dismayed. How gross was his failure! How would he ever live this down? Centaurs were supposed to know everything.

"There appears to be a void in your information," Justin observed.

"Yes," Che agreed, ashamed.

"Obviously the Swell Foop embodies magic to make itself hidden, so that not even the most knowledgeable species, the centaurs, know of it. Otherwise it would not remain hidden long."

"For sure," Breanna agreed, and Cynthia nodded. Sim flew higher, satisfied.

Che discovered that he was getting to like Justin Tree. The man had a knack for putting a positive face on things. "Thank you," he murmured.

"I merely spoke the manifest truth," Justin said. But his hand patted Che's shoulder near the wing; he did understand. He must have supported Breanna of the Black Wave similarly, for she was a feisty girl p.r.o.ne to mischief. No wonder she wanted to marry him.

They came to the Region of Water. This needed no pacification, except for one thing: Cynthia invoked her Ring to cause the surface of the lake near Putre to tighten so that he could run across it without sinking in. Night mares could do that anyway, but he was a zombie colt.

At last they reached the margin of the Void. This time it was Jaylin who had the applicable Ring. "But how do I use it?" she asked.

That was all too good a question. "The Void is the most deadly Region of Xanth," Che said. "Nothing that enters it can escape it, with certain limited exceptions such as the night mares. I think we had better be very sure that our mission requires us to pa.s.s this point."

Once again they a.s.sembled the tube. It showed that the Swell Foop was straight ahead, inside the Void. They considered, and took the tube apart again, because they wanted the protection of the individual Rings.

"So how does she use her Ring?" Breanna asked. "We can't pave over the Void."

"Is it possible that the Ring of Void will enable us to enter the Void, and depart it?" Justin asked. "If so, we can enter it, recover the Foop, and safely emerge. All we need is to be in the company of the Ring."

"But can we be sure of that?" Che asked.

"The very thought of going into the Void turns me white," Breanna said.

"I've got an idea," Jaylin said. "I'll ask the Night Stallion. He ought to know."

"That lord of dreams is not much for answering questions," Justin said.

"For sure, you can't just conjure him up at a whim," Breanna said. "I was amazed when my Ring of Fire conjured the Demon Grossclout, but I think he wanted to appear."