confused. 'I don't-seem to have much of an opinion,' he confessed.
She glanced back at him, surprised. 'No opinion? You, with your un-ogrish intelligence? Surely you jest!'
'It best me jest,' Smash agreed amicably.
She peered closely at him. 'Smash-what happened to your Eye Queue? I don't see the stigma on your head.'
Smash touched the fur of his scalp. It was smooth; there was no trace of roughness. 'No on; it gone,' he said.
'Oh, no! It must have been washed out when you nearly drowned! That's the third thing we've lost-your intelligence. That certainly affects Tandy's prospects here. You're back to being stupid!'
Smash was appalled. Just when he needed intelligence, he had lost it! What would he do now in a crisis?
The centaur was similarly concerned, but she had an answer. 'We'll have to use my intelligence for us both, Smash. Are you willing to follow my lead, at least until we get through the Void?'
That seemed to make sense to Smash. 'She lead, me accede.'
'I'll try to haul her back.' Chem drew harder on the rope, and, of course, she had the mass to do it.
Suddenly it went slack, and the loose end of it slid back across the line.
'Oh, awful!' the centaur exclaimed, dismayed. She switched her tail violently in vexation. 'We've lost her!'
'Oh, awful,' Smash echoed, since his originality had dissipated with his intellect. What had happened to Tandy?
'I think I'd better step partway across so I can look without committing myself,' she decided. 'You stay on this side-and don't let me cross all the way. After a minute, if I don't back out, you haul me out, slowly. Agreed?'
'Me agree, assuredly,' he said. He was furious at the Eye Queue for deserting him in his hour of need.
Of course he had intended to get rid of the curse-but not just yet. Not at the brink of the Void. Now he was liable to do something ogrishly idiotic, and cost his friends their lives. Even his rhyming seemed ludicrous now; what was the point in it? Not until the curse of the Eye Queue had descended on him had he appreciated how stupid a typical ogre seemed-just a hulking brute, too dull to do more than smash things. Indeed, his very name.
The centaur poked her forepart cautiously through the border. It disappeared into the swirl. Smash felt very much alone, though her hindquarters remained with him. He marveled that a human girl as smart and pretty as Tandy could have any interest in him, even as an animal friend. It must have been the Eye Queue that appealed to her, the intelligence manifesting in the oddest of hosts, the sheer anomaly of the bone-headed genius. Her interest would dissipate the moment she discovered what had happened. That, of course, was best; it would free her full attention for her ideal human-type man, whoever and wherever he might be. Yet Smash remained disquieted.
The fact was, he. realized now, the curse had had its positive aspect. Like the curse of the moon that human females labored under-one of the things that distinguished them from nymphs-it was awkward and inconvenient, but carried the potential for an entirely new horizon. Females could regenerate their kind; the Eye Queue enabled a person to grasp far broader aspects of reality. Now, having experienced such aspects, he would be returned to his former ignorance.
A minute had passed and gone some distance beyond, and Chem had not backed out. In fact, she was trying to proceed the rest of the way across the line. Smash knew he had to stop that; even if he was now too stupid to perceive the danger in committing oneself to a potential course-of-no-return, he remembered the centaur's orders. 'Me take up slack, haul she back,' he said, inwardly condemning his ogrish crudity of expression. He might be stupid; did he have to advertise it so blatantly?
That started another chain of thought. Part of the vaunted dullness of ogres was not because of the fact, but because they insisted on the distinguishing characteristic of expression. He could have said, 'Because my friend the filly centaur, a decent and intelligent person with a useful magic graphological talent, may be in difficulty, I am required to exert myself according to her expressed wish and draw her gently but firmly back across the demarcation between territories. Then we shall consider how best to proceed.' Instead, he had spouted the idiotic ditty in the ludicrous manner of his kind. Surely the Eye Queue vine had been as much of a curse in its untimely departure as in its arrival!
There was resistance. Either Chem didn't want to come back, or something was hauling her forward.
Smash drew harder on the rope, but the centaur braced forward, fighting it. Something was definitely amiss. Even an idiot could tell that Smash was tempted to give one monstrous tug on the rope and haul her back head over tail, as an ordinary ogre would, but several things restrained him. First, her mass was similar to his own; he might lose his footing and yank himself across the line, in the wrong direction.
Second, the rope was bound about her humanoid waist, which was delicately narrow; too harsh a force could hurt her. Third, he was not at full strength, so he might not be able to move her effectively even if properly anchored.
Then the rope went slack. Chem, too, was proceeding unfettered into the Void.
Smash dived for her disappearing rump, his ogrish action preceding his inadequate thought. He was too late. She crossed the line. Only her tail flicked back momentarily, as if flicking free a fly.
Smash caught the tail and worked his way along it, hand over hand. Her forward impetus hauled him right up to the line; then he got his balance, dug -his toes in, and brought the centaur and himself to a halt.
Now he exerted what remained of his power and drew her back. It sufficed; slowly her rump reappeared.
When he got her hind legs across, he shifted his grip carefully, picked up her two feet, and
wheelbarrowed her backward. She could not effectively resist, with her feet off the ground.
At last he got her all the way across. She was intact. That relieved one concern. 'Tell why she untie,' he grunted, not letting her go.
Chem seemed dazed, but soon reorganized herself. 'It's not what you think, Smash. It's beautiful in the Void! All mist and fog and soft meadows, and herds of centaurs grazing-'
Smash might be stupid, but not that stupid. 'She still in daze. Centaurs no graze.'
Her eyes rounded, startled. 'Why, that's right! Sea cows graze. Water-horses graze. Black sheep graze.
Centaurs eat in human fashion. What am I thinking of?'
Perhaps she had seen a herd of grazing animals and jumped to a conclusion. But that was of little moment at the moment. 'That is dandy. Where is Tandy?'
'Oh, Tandy! I didn't see her.' Chem was chagrined. 'I crossed the line to seek her and was so distracted by the beauty of the region that I forgot my mission. I'm not usually that flighty!'
True enough. Chem was a filly with all four hooves on the ground. She was less aggressive than her father Chester and less imperious than her mother Cherie, but still had qualities of determination and stability that were to be commended. It was entirely unlike her to act in an impetuous or thoughtless manner.
Now something else occurred to Smash. There were various kinds of magic springs in Xanth that trapped the unwary. Some caused a person to fall in love with the first creature of the opposite sex he or she saw; that was how the species of centaur had originated. Some caused a person to turn into a fish.
Some healed a person's wounds instantly and cleanly, as if they had never been. Had the group encountered one of those before, John the Fairy would have been able to restore her lost wings. And some springs caused a person to forget.
'She get wet, she forget?' he asked, wishing he could voice his concern more eloquently. Damn his bonehead!
'Wet?' Chem was perplexed. 'Oh-you mean as in a lethe-spring? No, I didn't forget in that fashion, as you can see, and I'm sure Tandy didn't. For one thing, there was no spring nearby, certainly not within range of the rope. It's something else. It's just such lovely land, so pleasant and peaceful, I simply had to explore it. Nothing else seemed important, somehow. I knew that farther in there would be even more wonder, and-' She paused. 'And I just couldn't step back. I realize that was very foolish of me. But I'm sure that place is safe. No monsters or natural hazards, I mean.'
Smash remained doubtful. Tandy was gone, and Chem had almost been gone. It had been no simple distraction of mind that kept her there; she had untied her safety rope and resisted his pullback with all her might. Yet she seemed to be in full possession of her faculties now.
