didn't like this, for he knew the others could not endure as much punishment as he could. But now they were committed, and it did seem better than staying among the dragons. They took the precaution of roping themselves together with Chem's rope so that no one would blow away.
They stepped across the line. Instantly they were in the heart of the wind, choking on dust. It was a dust storm, not a rainstorm! The flying sand cut cruelly into their skins. Smash picked up several girls and hunched his gross body over them, protecting them somewhat as he staggered forward. Then he tripped, for he could not see his own flat feet in this blinding sand, and fell and rolled, holding himself rigid so as not to crush the girls.
He fetched up in a valley formed in the lee of a boulder. Chem thumped to a stop beside them. Here the sand by-passed the party, mostly, and it was possible for each person to pry open an eye or two. Thanks to the rope, all were present, though battered.
'What do we do now?' Tandy asked, frightened. The Siren sat up and put the Ear to her ear. 'Nothing here,' she reported. 'But maybe the noise of this sandstorm is drowning it out.'
Smash took the Ear and listened. 'I hear the brass spaceship,' he said.
Biythe took it. 'I hear my own folk! They're playing the brass band! I must be ready to go home!' 'Are you sure?' the Siren asked.
'Yes, I think I am now,' the brass girl said. 'I have experienced enough of your world to know I like mine better. You are all nice enough people, but you just aren't brass.'
'All too true,' the Siren agreed. 'We must find another gourd so Smash can take you back. We might all prefer your world at this moment.'
'Maybe that's the silence you heard,' Tandy said. 'A gourd.'
'No, there's lots of noise in the gourd,' Smash said. 'It's an ogrishly fun place.'
'Let's find that gourd!' Biythe exclaimed. She was hardly bothered by the sand; she was merely homesick.
'Not until this storm dies down,' the Siren said firmly. 'Gourds don't grow in this weather.'
'But this is the Region of Air; the wind will never die,' Biythe protested.
Chem nodded agreement. 'I have, as you know, been mapping the inner wilds of Xanth; that's why I'm here. My preliminary research, augmented by certain references along the way, suggests that there are five major elemental regions in Unknown Xanth: those of Air, Earth, Fire, Water, and the Void. This certainly seems to be Air- and probably the storm never stops here. Well just have to plow on out of it.'
'I can plow!' Biythe said eagerly. She milled her brass hands and began tunneling through the mounded sand. In moments she had started a tunnel.
'Good idea!' Tandy exclaimed. 'I'll help!' She shook sand out of her hair and fell in behind the brass girl, scooping the sand farther back. Soon the others were helping, too, for as the tunnel progressed, the sand had longer to go before it cleared.
Finally they were all doing it, in a line, with Smash at the tail end packing the sand into a lengthening passage behind. Progress was slow but relatively comfortable. Periodically Biythe would tunnel to the surface to verify that the storm was still there. When they came to a sheltering cliff, they emerged and made better time on the surface.
The landscape was bleak: all sand and more sand. There were dunes and valleys, but no vegetation and no water.
The wind was indefatigable. It howled and roared and whistled. It formed clouds and swirls and funnels, doing its peculiar sculpture in the sky. Every so often a funnel would swoop in near the cliff, trying to suck them into its circular maw, but it could not maintain itself so close to the stone. Smash was aware that this must be a great frustration to the funnels, which were rather like ogres in their way-all violence and brainlessness.
Then they came to another demarcation. As they stepped across it, the winds abruptly ceased. The air cleared miraculously. But this was no improvement, for the violence of the air was replaced by the violence of the land. The ground shuddered, and not by any ogre's tread. It was an earthquake!
'Oh, I don't like this!' Chem said. 'I've always been accustomed to the firmness of ground beneath my hooves.'
Smash glanced at her. The centaur girl was standing with her forelegs braced awkwardly in different directions, her brown coat dulled by the recent sand-scouring, her tail all atremble, and her human breasts dancing rather appealingly. 'Maybe the ground is firmer farther north,' he suggested.
They turned north-and encountered an active volcano. Red-hot lava boiled out of it and flowed down the slope toward them. 'Oh, this is worse yet!' Chem complained, slapping at a spark that landed in her pretty tail. She was really shaken; this was just not her type of terrain.
The Siren listened to the Gap Dragon's Ear again. 'Say!' she said. 'The sounds differ, depending on which way I face!' She rotated, listening intently. 'To the north, it's a horrendous crashing; that's the volcano we see. I can hear the sound as I see it belch. To the south, it's the roaring of winds. We've already been there. To the west, a sustained rumble-the main part of the earthquake. To the east-' She smiled beautifically. 'A lovely, quiet, still silence.'
'Graves are silent,' Tandy said with a shudder.
'Better a graveyard than this,' Chem said. 'We can walk on through a cemetery.'
'Sometimes,' Tandy agreed.
They turned east. The ground shifted constantly beneath
them as if trying to prevent progress, but they were determined to get free of this region.
As the sun set tiredly beyond the volcano, fortunately not landing inside it, they reached another demarcation of zones. Just beyond it was a patch of hypnogourds. The silence was not of the grave, but of a garden area.
'I never thought I'd be glad to see a patch of those,' Tandy said grimly.
'This is where we spend the night,' the Siren said. 'While we're at it, let's find out whether those gourds are edible.'
'Save one! Save one!' Biythe cried.
'Of course, dear. Try this one.' The Siren handed the brass girl a nice big gourd.
Biythe hesitated, then looked into the peephole. She looked back up. 'There's nothing there,' she said.
'Nothing there?' It had not occurred to Smash that any of the gourds could be inoperative. He took the gourd from Biythe and looked in.
And found himself in the spaceship, spinning toward the ground. Hastily he grabbed the controls and tilted it back to equilibrium. Without the brass girl entangling him, he could manage just fine.
In moments he brought the ship back to the City of Brass and to the launching building. He managed to turn it around and land fairly neatly. Then he got out and made his way through the moving buildings to the one where Biythe lived. Number Four, following his string back. He wondered idly whether he had left a trail of string strewn all over the sky, near the moon. He had lost that string in Xanth, but retained it here. Good enough.
The brassies clustered around him. 'Where is Biyght?' they demanded. 'We're rehearsing with our brass band, and we need her.'
'Biythe. She changed her name. She'll be back as soon as I can fetch her. She heard you practicing, and said she would come back very soon. I had to find my way back here, because spaceships scare her.'
'Of course; we are afraid of heights. We dent when we fall too far. Biyght already had a dent in her-'
'Don't speak of that to a stranger!' a brass girl told the male brassie.
'So give me some time,' Smash said, 'and I'll return her. Now I know how to do it.'
They were not quite satisfied with this, but let him be. Smash settled down in a niche that moved with the wall, and snoozed.
Chapter 9. Gourmet Gourd
He woke in Xanth, where Tandy had taken away the gourd. 'I never know how long to give you,' she said. 'I'm very nervous about leaving you in there.' She lifted the Gap Dragon's Ear. 'I kept listening in this, and when it got pretty quiet, I thought maybe it was time to bring you out. I wasn't sure it was you I was -listening to, but since your health is relevant to mine-'
Smash took the Ear. He heard a guttural voice, saying, 'Mirror, mirror on the wall, pass this fist or take a fall,' followed by a tinkling crash.
'It's not quiet now,' Smash reported. 'Sounds like me talking.'
