the boss: the Night Stallion. He makes decisions of policy.'
'The Dark Horse?'
'Close enough; some do call him that. He governs the herd of nightmares.'
It began to fall into place. 'This is where the nightmares live? By day, when they're not out delivering bad dreams to sleepers?'
'Exactly. All the bad dreams are generated here in the gourd, from the raw material of people's fundamental fears-loss, pain, death, shame, and the unknown. The Stallion decides where the dreams go, and the mares take them there. Your girlfriend abused a mare, so it took a lien on her soul, and when she came here, that lien was called due. So her soul is forfeit, and now we have it, and only the Night Stallion can change that. Why don't we set you up for an appointment with the Stallion, and you can settle this directly with him?'
'An appointment? When?'
'Well, he has a full calendar. Bad dreams aren't light fancies, you know. There's a lot of evil in the world that needs recognition. It's a lot of work to craft each dream correctly and designate it for exactly the right person at the right time. So the Stallion is quite busy. The first opening is six months hence.'
'But my lien expires in three months!'
'You're smarter than the average ogre, for sure! You might force an earlier audience, but you'd have to find the Stallion first. He certainly won't come to you within three months. I really wouldn't recommend the effort of locating him.'
Smash considered again. It seemed to him that this coffin protested too profusely. Something was being concealed here. Time for the ogre act again. 'Perhaps so,' he said. 'There is therefore no point in restraining my natural inclination for violence.' He picked up a rock and crumpled it to chips and sand
with one hand. He eyed the coffin.
'But I'm sure you can find him!' the box said quickly. 'All you have to do is seek the path of most resistance. That's all I can tell you, honest!'
Smash decided that he had gotten as much as he could from the coffin. 'Good enough. Give me the girl's soul, and I'll leave my three-month lien and meet the Stallion when I find him.'
'Do you think a soul is something you can just carry in your hand?' the coffin demanded derisively.
'Yes,' Smash said. He contemplated his hand, slowly closing it into a brutishly ugly fist that hovered menacingly over the coffin.
'Quite,' the coffin agreed nervously, sweating another blob of stinking goo. The soul floated up, a luminescent globe that passed right through the wood. Smash cupped it carefully in his hand and tromped from the gloomy chamber. Neither coffin nor skeletons opposed him.
Tandy sat where she had been, the picture of hopeless girlish misery. 'Here is your soul,' Smash said, and held out the glowing globe.
Unbelievingly, she reached for it. The globe expanded at her touch, becoming a ghost-shape that quickly overlapped her body and merged. For an instant her entire body glowed, right through the tattered red dress; then she was her normal self. 'Oh, Smash, you did it!' she exclaimed. 'I love you! You recovered my soul from that awful corpse!'
'I promised to protect you,' he said gruffly.
'How can I reward you?' She was actually pinching herself, amazed by her restoration. Smash, too, was amazed; he had not before appreciated how much difference a person's soul made.
'No reward,' he insisted. 'It's part of my job, my service for my Answer.'
She considered. 'Yes, I suppose. But how ever did you do it? I thought there was no way-'
'I had to indulge my natural propensities slightly,' he admitted, glancing at the pile of bones he had made. The bones shuddered and settled lower, eager to avoid his attention.
'Oh. I guess you were more terrible than the skeletons were,' she said.
'Naturally. That. is the nature of ogres. We're worse than anything.' Smash thought it best not to inform her of the actual nature of his deal. 'Let's get out of here.'
'Oh, yes! But how?'
That was another problem. He could bash through walls, but the force holding Tandy and himself inside the gourd was intangible. 'I think we'll have to wait for the Siren to free us. All she has to do is move the gourd so we can't look into it any more, but she doesn't know when we'll be finished in here.'
'Oh, I don't want to stay another minute in this horrible place! If I had known what would happen when I peeked into that funny little hole-'
'It's not a bad place, this,' Smash said, trying to cheer her. 'It can even be fun.'
'Fun? In this awful graveyard?'
'Like this.' Smash had spied a skeleton poking around a grave, perhaps looking for a new convert. He sneaked up behind it. Ogres didn't have to shake the earth when they walked; they did it because they enjoyed it. 'B0001' he bellowed.
The skeleton leaped right out of its foot-bones and stumbled away, terrified. Tandy had to smile. 'You're pretty scary, all right, Smash,' she agreed.
They settled down against a large gravestone. Tandy huddled within the protection of the ogre's huge, hairy arm. It was the only place the poor little girl felt safe in this region.
Chapter 5. Prints of Wails
The Siren greeted them anxiously as they woke to the outer afternoon of Xanth. 'I gave you an hour this time, Smash; I just didn't dare wait longer,' she said. 'Are you all right?'
'I have my soul back!' Tandy said brightly. 'Smash got it for me!'
The Siren had been looking her age, for her human stock caused her to be less than immortal. Now relief was visibly restoring her youthfulness. 'That's wonderful, dear,' she said, hugging her. Then, looking at Smash, the Siren sobered again. 'But usually souls can't be recovered without hell to pay-ah, that is, some sort of quid pro quo. Are you sure-'
'I've got mine,' Smash said jovially. 'Such as it is. Ogres do have souls, don't they?'
'As far as I know, only people of human derivation have souls,' the Siren said. 'But all of those do, even if their human ancestor was many generations ago, and so we three qualify. I'm sure yours is as good as any, Smash, and perhaps better than some.'
'It must be stronger and stupider, anyway,' he said.
'I'm so glad it's all right,' the Siren said, seeming not entirely convinced. She evidently suspected something, but chose not to make an issue of it at this time. Older females tended to be less innocent than young ones, he realized, but also more discreet.
They considered their situation. There seemed to be no ogres and no merfolk at Lake Ogre-Chobee, despite its name.
'Now I remember,' Smash said. 'The curse-fiends drove the ogres away. They migrated north to the Ogre- fen-Ogre Fen. I don't know why I didn't think of that before!'
'Because you weren't cursed by the Eye Queue before, silly,' Tandy said. 'You weren't very smart. But that's all right; we'll just go up to the Ogre Fen and find your tribe.'
'But that's the entire length of Xanth!' the Siren protested. 'Who knows what horrors lie along the way?'
'Yes, fun,' Smash said.
'Funny, the Good Magician didn't remind you about the ogres' change of residence,' the Siren said.
'Well, there's certainly not much doing here. I would like to travel with you a little longer, if I may, at least until I find a lake inhabited by merfolk.'
'Sure, come along, we like your company,' Tandy said immediately, and Smash shrugged. It really made little difference to him. He was partially preoccupied by his problem with the lien on his soul. He would soon have to find a pretext to go back into the gourd to search for the Night Stallion and fight for his soul.
'But first, let's abolish this menace once and for all,' the Siren said. She picked up the hypnogourd and lifted it high overhead, throwing it violently to the ground.
'No!' Smash cried. But before he could move, the gourd had smashed to earth. It fragmented into pinkish pulp, black seeds, and translucent juice. There was no sign of the world he and Tandy had toured within it; the magic was gone.
