that demon Fiant, who works at the rum refinery? He-'
'Oh, yes, the demons are such nice people,' Jewel said, smelling of mildly toasted sulfur. That was her magic: her odor reflected her mood. 'Especially Beauregard, doing his research paper-'
'Which he has been working on since before I was born. He's a nice demon, yes. But Fiant is another kind. He-'
'They never make any trouble for me when I have to set gems in their caves. The demons are such good neighbors.' The sulfur was getting stronger, beginning to crinkle the nose; Jewel didn't like to hear criticisms.
'Most are. Mother.' Naturally the demons didn't bother Jewel; without her, there would be no gems to find, and the demons were partial to such trinkets. 'But this one's different. He-'
'Everyone's different, of course, dear. That's what makes Xanth so interesting.' Now she smelled of freshly blooming orange roses.
'Maybe different isn't quite what I mean. He comes to my room at night-'
'Oh, he wouldn't do that! That wouldn't be right.' The wrongness of such a thing showed in the smell of an overripe medicine ball; even immature medicine balls smelled unpleasantly of illness, and aging intensified the effect 'But he did, last night-'
'You must have dreamed it, dear,' Jewel said firmly. And the aroma of carrion of a moderately sated dragon showed how distasteful any such notion was to Jewel. 'Sometimes those nightmares carry irresponsible dreams.'
Tandy saw that her mother did not want to become aware of the truth. Jewel had been a nymph and retained many of her nymphal qualities despite the burden of experience that marriage and motherhood had imposed on her. She had no real understanding of evil. To her, all people and all creatures were basically good neighbors, including demons. And in truth, the demons had been tolerably well behaved, until Fiant had taken his interest in Tandy.
Her father Crombie would understand, though. Crombie was not only human, he was a man of war.
Well did he understand the ways of males. But he hardly ever had time off, and she had no way to advise him of her situation, so he couldn't help now.
As she thought of her father, Tandy abruptly realized that Jewel could not afford to lose her faith in people, because then she would have to question Crombie's fidelity. That could only disrupt her life.
Evidently Jewel's thoughts were to some extent parallel to Tandy's because now there was the disturbing odor of a burning field of wild oats.
So Tandy couldn't actually talk to her mother about this. It would have to be her father, in private. That meant she had to get to him, since he would not be home in time to deal with the demon. It was said that no man could stand against a demon in combat, but Crombie was more than a man: he was her father.
She had to reach him.
That was a problem in itself. Tandy had never been to Castle Roogna. She had never even been to the surface of Xanth. She would be lost in an instant if she ever left the caves. In fact, she was afraid to try.
How could she travel all the way to her father's place of employment, alone? She had no good answer.
The demon did not come the following night. The nightmares visited instead. Every time she slept, they trotted in, rearing over her bed, hooves flashing, ears fiat back, snorting the scary vapors that were the bad dreams they bore. She woke in justified terror, and they were gone-only to return as she slept again.
That was the way of such beasts.
Finally she became so desperate she threw a tantrum at one of them. The tantrum struck it on the flank.
The mare squealed with startled pain, her hindsection collapsing, and her companions fled.
Tandy was instantly sorry, as she generally was after throwing a tantrum; she knew the dark horse was only doing its duty and should not be punished. Tandy woke completely, tears in her eyes, determined to help the animal-but of course it was gone. It was almost impossible to catch a nightmare while awake.
She checked where the mare had stood. The floor was scuffled there, and there were a few drops of blood. Tandy hoped the mare had made it safely home; it would be several nights before this one was fit for dream-duty again. It was a terrible thing to lash out at an innocent creature like that, no matter how bothersome it might be, and Tandy resolved not to do that again.
Next time she slept, she watched for the nightmares, trying to identify the one she had hurt. But they were a long time in coming, as if they were now afraid of her, and she could hardly blame them for that.
But at last they came, for they were compelled to do their job even when it was dangerous to them.
Timidly they approached with their burdens of dreams, and these now related to the harming of equines.
They were making her pay for her crime! But she never saw the hurt one, and that made her feel increasingly guilty. She was sure that particular nightmare was forever wary of her, and would not come again. Maybe it was lying in a stall wherever such creatures went by day, suffering. If only she had held her temper! It was the job of nightmares to carry the unpleasant dreams that sleepers were scheduled to have, just as it was Jewel's job to place the gems people were destined to find. Since the dreams were ugly, they could not be trusted to voluntary participation. Thus nightmares had a bad reputation, in contrast with the invisible daymares who brought in pleasant daydreams. People tried to avoid nightmares, and this made the horses' job more difficult. Tandy wasn't sure what would happen if the bad dreams did not get delivered, but was sure there would be trouble. It was generally best not to interfere with the natural order. She wondered idly what dreams the nightmares themselves had when they slept.
A few days later, when Tandy was settling down, the demon Fiant came again. He walked right through the wall, a lascivious grin on his face. 'Open up, cutie; I'm here to fulfill your fondest fancies and delve into your deepest desires.' His tail was standing straight up, quivering.
For a moment Tandy froze, unable even to speak. She had been bothered by this creature before; now she was terrified. Staring-eyed, she watched his confident approach.
Fiant stood over her, as before, his eyes glowing like red stars. 'Lie back, spread out, make yourself comfy,' he gloated. 'I shall exercise your extreme expectations.' He reached for her with a long-nailed diabolic hand. Tandy screamed.
This night, Jewel was home; she rushed in to discover what was the matter. But the demon marched calmly out through the wall before Jewel arrived, and Tandy had to blame her scream on the nightmares.
That provided her with a fresh burden of guilt, for of course the mares were innocent.
Tandy knew she had to do something. Plant was getting bolder, and soon he would catch her alone-and that would be worse than any nightmare. He had proved he could survive one of her tantrums, so Tandy had no protection. She would have to go to her father Crombie-soon. But how?
Then she had an inspiration. Why not catch a nightmare and ride her to Castle Roogna? The creature would surely know the way, as the mares had the addresses of all people who slept.
But there were problems. Tandy had no experience riding horses; she had sometimes ridden the Diggle behind her mother, traveling to the far reaches of Xanth to place emeralds and opals and diamonds, but this was different. The Diggle moved slowly and evenly, phasing through the rock as long as someone
made a tune it liked. The nightmares, she was sure, moved swiftly and unevenly. How could she catch one- and how could she hold on?
Tandy was an agile girl. She had climbed all over the caverns, swinging across chasms on rope-vines, squeezing through tiny crevices-good thing she was small! - swimming the chill river channels, running fleetly across sloping rockslides, throwing chunks at the occasional goblins who pursued her. If a nightmare got close enough, she was confident she could leap onto its back and hang on to its flowing mane. It would not be a comfortable ride, but she could manage. So all she really had to worry about was the first step-catching her mare.
The problem was, the nightmares came only during a person's sleep. She might pretend sleep, but she doubted she would fool them-and if she grabbed one while awake, it would surely dissipate like demon-smoke, leaving her with nothing but a fading memory. Nightmares were, after all, a type of demon; they could dematerialize in much the way Fiant did. That was how they passed through walls to reach the most secure sleepers. In fact, she suspected they became material only in the presence of a sleeper.
She would have to ride the nightmare in her sleep. Only that would keep it material, or enable her to dematerialize with it.
