They stopped, waiting for whatever it was to come into view In a moment it did so, surprising them both. It was a creature larger in ma.s.s than Esk, but smaller than Chex. It had a lemon-shaped gray body, a small snout m front, and tiny feet.

"Why, that's a huge mole," Esk said.

But Chex's mouth was striving to fall open. "I thought they were extinct'" she said.

"Oh, no, there are many moles underground," Esk a.s.sured her. "I've seen them-"

"That's no mole!" she said impatiently "That's a vole!"

"A what!"

But now the creature had spied them It lifted its head, showing tiny eyes just beneath its fur The eyes were brown. "Eh!" it inquired.

"Where are you from''" Chex asked the creature. She did not seem to be afraid, so Esk judged it to be harmless.

"Eh? A ventaur," it said.

"That's centaur," Chex said primly "I am Chex Centaur Who are you7"

It peered more closely at her. "I am Volney Vole Pleav allow me to paw "

"Don't you know you're supposed to be extinct?" she asked.

"Volev don't vttnk," it retorted indignantly.

"It has trouble with esses," Esk said, catching on.

The snout turned toward him "And who are you, vir?"

"I am Esk "

"h.e.l.lo, Evk Pleav allow me to paw "

"We aren't trying to prevent you," Chex said. "Just to learn about you"

"I have important buvinew with the Good Magivmn. Pleav let me paw"

"But we're looking for the Good Magician too!" Esk exclaimed. "We thought he was up this path!"

"Not thiv path," the creature a.s.sured him "Only the Gap Chavm."

"But then the Good Magician is nowhere!" Chex said despairingly. "We have looked along all the other paths!"

The vole studied them. "Brown and gray," it remarked. "Good colorv "

"That's right, we all match!" Chex said. "Only you're brown in the eyes, not the fur "

"Thiv iv my vurfave vuit."

Chex paused, translating it. "This is your surface suit?"

"That'v what I vaid, Chekv. I reverve it below." And the vole performed a sudden convolution, becoming brown. The most surprising thing was that its eyes turned gray. Now the three of them aligned as perfectly as they were able.

"Volney, I think we should have a talk," Chex said. "I think we are all in trouble, because we can't find the Good Magician."

"But I muvt find the Magivian!" the vole said, sounding desperate. "It iv movt important!"

"It's important to us too," Chex said. "I think we'll find him faster if we compare notes and make common cause."

Volney considered. "Common cauve," he agreed. Then he convoluted again, changing back to his surface outfit, eyes and all.

"You see, Esk came looking for the Good Magician from the east," Chex said. "I came looking from the west. We both followed a path to the south, but it wasn't there, so now we were trying the north path-"

"And I came from the north," the vole finished. "It iv not there."

"So we seem to have a problem," she concluded. "We all need to see the Good Magician, but none of us can find him. Have you any notion how we should proceed?"

"What did you find to the vouth?"

"A mountain with a tunnel. That wasn't on the map my dam showed me"

"Your d.a.m.n what?" the vole asked.

"Never mind! I'm sure the map was accurate."

"But featurev change "

"Yes Still-"

"We muvt go to the end of that path," the vole decided. "That iv where it hav to be "

Chex sighed. "I suppose you're right. But we really don't find the prospect of going through that tunnel appealing. There have been signs that the enchantment on the path has been unpaired, so that it is no longer completely safe for travelers. If the tunnel were to collapse-"

"A vole hole never collapvev," Volney said with certainty.

"That's right-you were a burrowing species," she said. "You must know about tunnels."

"All about them," the vole agreed. "If that tunnel iv not vafe, I will vimply make another."

Chex glanced at Esk. "Do you concur?" she asked. "Shall we try the south path again?"

"I guevv we'd better," he said.

She shot him a marvelously dark look, and he realized that it really wasn't very funny. His efforts at humor, like his efforts at original thought, tended to fall flat.

They proceeded back south, Chex leading, then the vole, then Esk. But it was now late in the day, and they realized that it would be night by the time they reached the tunnel, and that did not appeal at all. So they paused at the cross paths and ate some more fruit. Fruit was new to Volney, because he was not a climbing or reaching creature, but he liked it. Then he sniffed out some edible roots that were new to Esk and Chex, but that were similarly palatable after being washed in the fluid from some water chestnuts Chex plucked.

While they ate, they conversed. Esk and Chex told of their backgrounds and missions to the Good Magician, and Volney told of his.

The civilized voles were not, he explained, extinct. They had merely departed for a greener pasture, some centuries ago. The larger family of voles comprised burrowing creatures ranging from the tiny, vicious wiggle larvae to the huge amiable diggles, with many varieties of squiggles between. Because the civilized voles avoided publicity, most other creatures hardly knew of them, and regarded the squiggles as the dominant representatives of the type. The region of Xanth between Castle Roogna and the Gap Chasm had been getting crowded, so the voles had in due course traveled into the wilderness to the east, where they had settled by the meandering sh.o.r.es of the friendly Kiss-Mee River.

"Yes, I saw that on Mother's map," Chex said. "The Kiss-Mee River connects Lake Kiss-Mee with Lake Ogre-Chobee. It is an almost unexplored region of Xanth, and little is known about the details of its geography."

"Which iv the way we like it," Volney responded. "For centuriev we have burrowed there in private comfort. But now-"

"Something happened?" Esk asked, getting interested. Geography was not his favorite subject, but happenings had greater appeal.

"Divavter," Volney agreed. "It iv that horror I have come here to ameliorate. I wav choven to make thiv divreputable journey becauve of my ekvellent command of the vtrange language of the vurfave folk."

"Yes, you speak it very well," Chex said quickly, forestalling the somewhat less sensitive remark Esk was about to make.

"However, I note you have vome difficulty with your evvev," the vole said discreetly.

"Some dif-" Esk started, but was cut off by a flick of Chex's tail that stung his mouth with uncanny accuracy. The strike was not hard, but made him feel strangely light-headed. Sometimes she understood him almost too well!

"We all must do the best we can," Chex said gently. "Even those of us who have difficulty with our esses. Just what is this disaster you have come to ameliorate?"

"The very devtrucvion of the Vale of the Vole," he p.r.o.nounced with feeling.

"The Vale of the Vole!" Chex repeated. "What a marvelously evocative name!"

"But the foul demonv devavtated it," Volney said sadly.

Esk lifted his head. "I smell smoke," he said.

Sure enough, another little smoker was coming along the path from the west. It spied them and let out a hungry puff.

"Get on the south path!" Esk snapped. Chex and Volney scrambled for it, leaving the east-west path clear.

Esk stationed himself just south of the intersection and waited. As the dragon charged up, he murmured "no."

The dragon tried to stop, but Esk said "no" again. Therefore the creature's feet kept going, carrying it right on by the intersection. In a moment it was out of sight, still traveling east.

"Very nice," Chex said. "First you stopped its attack, then you stopped its reversal. It had to keep on going, by which time it had lost track of what it had been after."

She understood his effort almost better than he did!

"That iv uvful magic," Volney agreed. "I regret I have no vuch talent."

"Don't voles have magic?" Esk asked.

"Nothing vignificant. We merely dig."

"You were about to tell us what happened to the Vale of the Vole," Chex said.

"Ah, yev, and a vad vtory it iv," Volney said sadly. He went on to describe how the foul demons, who had previously shared the Vale almost unnoticed, decided to destroy the friendly Kiss-Mee River. Apparently its meandering contours displeased them, so they invoked monstrous magic and pulled the river straight.

"No more curves?" Chex asked, shocked. She was, of course, a creature of many esthetic curves.

"Does it matter?" Esk asked, somewhat duller about the esthetics. He was a creature of irregular lines and b.u.mps.

"Of course it matters!" Chex exclaimed, her eyes almost flashing. "Just how friendly do you suppose a straight-line river is?"

"It iv unfriendly to the land, too," Volney said. He explained how the water now coursed directly down the straight channel, not pausing to support the fish isolated by its loss of loops and eddies, and was leaving many water-loving plants dry. The lush vale was becoming a barren valley. The lovely moist soil that the voles had dug in was now turning to dry sand and dust, and their tunnels were eroding. Paradise was converting to wasteland. Indeed, the remnant of the waterway was now known as the Kill-Mee.

"But can't you dig out new curves for the river to kiss?" Chex asked. "Can't you restore it to its natural state?"

It turned out that the voles could not, because the demons maintained guard and hara.s.sed anyone who tried to tamper with their inimical design. The voles were diggers, not fighters, and were helpless before the violence of the demons. If they could not restore the river, they would have to leave-but they knew there was no other region of Xanth as good as the Vale of the Vole had been. So Volney was now coming to ask the Good Magician for the answer to their problem: how to stop the demons from interfering with the restoration of the Kiss-Mee River.

"That's funny," Esk said.

Chex stared at him. "I find nothing humorous about the situation," she said severely.

"I mean, I'm looking for the Good Magician to learn how to stop another demon," he explained. "She came to take my hideout because things weren't so nice back where she came from. If the demons live in the Vale of the Vole, and they have fixed it up to suit themselves, why did she have to leave?"

"Maybe she came from some other area," Chex said.

"No, she mentioned the Vale, or maybe the Kiss-Mee, I'm sure of that. I remember it clearly because she-" But he didn't want to talk about the kisses the demoness had offered him. Because it hadn't been exactly kisses proffered.

"Perhapv vhe iv an unlovely demonew," Volney said. "Vo the otherv vent her away."

"No, she's a lovely creature," Esk said. "That is, I mean, she can a.s.sume any form she wants, and that includes luscious-I mean s.e.xy- uh, that is-"

"We are getting a notion what that is," Chex remarked dryly. "She did vamp you, didn't she!"

"Well, she offered, but-but I-I am trying to get rid of her. Anyway, what would be ugly to a demon, who can a.s.sume any shape? I don't think she would have left for that reason. Actually, she said it was the hummers that drove her away."

"Hummingbirds?" Chex asked, perplexed.

"No, these are something that mortals can't hear, but that drive demons crazy. So she left. So maybe it's ironic, that they straightened out the river but still aren't satisfied."

"Hummerv," Volney repeated musingly. "We may have heard of them. One of us overheard a demon say it was to get rid of them that they straightened the river. But we don't know what they are."

"Well, it seems to me that if you could just find out what they are," Chex said, "you might use them to make all the demons move out. Then you could restore the river, and the Vale of the Vole would be friendly again."

"Yev. Maybe the Good Magivian will tell uv that."

They moved on south along the path, through the big trees. But they had used up time resting and talking, and darkness was looming up from the gloom below the forest. "We had better make a good camp for the night," Esk said. "Maybe we can set up some stakes to hinder the dragons."

There was a crack of thunder. "We'll need more than that to keep from getting soaked," Chex said.

Esk squinted at the looming clouds. "We won't get soaked. That's a color hailstorm!"

She looked more carefully. "Why so it is! We had better get under cover. There's no telling how large those hailstones will be. And of course we'll still get wet when they melt."

"A storm iv bad?" Volney asked.

"It can be bad," Chex agreed. "It is best to play safe, and find suitable cover. But there seems to be little loose wood here to fashion a shelter; we may have to lean against the lee side of trees."