Wait until merging is complete, the shade said gratefully. I cannot help you until I become you.
Bink hoped it was no deception. But what, really, did he have to lose? And what did the shade have to gain by a lie? If it did not save Bink, it would only share the sensation of being eaten by the dragon. Then they would both be shades-and Bink would be an angry one. He wondered what one shade could do to another. Meanwhile, he waited.
At last it was done. He was Donald, the prospector. A man whose talent was flying.
'We go!' Donald cried through Bink's lips exultantly. He put his arms up as if diving and rose straight up through the crack in the ceiling, with such power that the edges of rock and dirt were flung aside.
The sheer brightness of day blinded them as they emerged. The Gap dragon took a moment to orient on this strange occurrence, then pounced. But Donald made another effort, and shot up so swiftly that the huge teeth snapped on air. He kicked the monster on the snout, hard. 'Ha, gaptooth!' he yelled. 'Chew on this.' And he stomped on the tender portion of the dragon's nose.
The jaws gaped open, and a cloud of steam shot out. But Donald was already zooming out of reach. The dragon had no chance to catch them before they were too high.
Up, up they sailed, straight out of the canyon, above the trees and slopes. There was no effort other than mental, for this was magic flight. They leveled off, proceeding north across Xanth.
In delayed reaction, Bink realized that he had a magic talent. By proxy, certainly-but for the first time in his life he was experiencing what every other citizen of Xanth experienced. He was performing. Now he knew how it felt.
It felt wonderful.
The sun bore down from almost straight overhead, for it was now midday. They were up amid the clouds. Bink felt discomfort in his ears, but an automatic reaction by his other self popped them, making the pain abate before it intensified. He didn't know why flying should hurt his ears; maybe it was because there wasn't enough to hear up here.
For the first time, too, he saw the full upper contours of the clouds. From beneath they were generally flat, but from above they were elegantly if randomly sculptured. What seemed like tiny puffballs from the ground were big masses of fog in person. Donald flew through them with equanimity, but Bink didn't like the loss of vision. He was nervous about banging into something.
'Why so high?' he inquired. 'I can hardly see the ground.' This was an exaggeration; what he meant was that he could not make out the details he was accustomed to. Also, it would have been nice to have some of the people see him flying. He could buzz around the North Village, astounding the scoffers, qualifying for his citizenship?no, that would not be honest. Too bad the most tempting things were not right to do.
'I don't want to advertise,' Donald said, 'It could complicate things if people thought I was alive again.'
Oh. Perhaps so. There could be renewed expectations, maybe debts to be paid, ones that mere silver would not abate. The shade's business was necessarily anonymous, at least so far as the community was concerned.
'See that glint?' Donald inquired, pointing down between two clouds. 'That's the silver oak tree. It's so well hidden it can be spotted only from above. But I can tell my boy exactly where to find it. Then I can rest.'
'I wish you could tell me where to find a magic talent,'' Bink said wistfully.
'You don't have one? Every citizen of Xanth has magic.'
'That's why I'm not a citizen,' Bink said glumly. They both spoke through the same mouth. 'I'm going to the Good Magician. It he can't help me, I'll be exiled.''
'I know the feeling. I spent two years exiled in that cave.'
'What happened to you?'
'I was flying home, after discovering the silver tree, and a storm came up. I was so excited by the thought of riches that I couldn't wait. I risked the trip in high winds-and got blown into the Gap. The impact was so great I landed in the cave-but I was already dead.'
'I didn't see any bones.'
'You didn't see any hole in the ground, either. The dirt filled in over me, and then my body got washed away by the river.'
'But-'
'Don't you know anything? It's the place of death that anchors the shade, not the place of the corpse.'
'Oh. Sorry.'
'I hung on, though I knew it was hopeless. Then you came.' Donald paused. 'Look, you've done me such a favor-I'll share the silver with you. There's enough on that tree for both my family and you. Only promise not to tell anyone else where it is.'
Bink was tempted, but a moment's reflection changed his mind. 'I need magic, not silver. Without magic, I'll be exiled from Xanth, so I won't be able to share the silver. With magic-I don't care about wealth. So if you want to share it, share it with the tree; don't take all its leaves, but just a few at a time, and some of the silver acorns that drop, so the tree can go on living in health and perhaps reproduce itself. In the long run that will be more productive anyway.'
'It was a fortunate day for me when you dropped into my cave,' Donald said. He banked into a curve, going down.
Bink's ears popped again as they descended. They dropped into a forest glade, then walked half a mile to an isolated, run-down farm. It took that much motion to completely eliminate the fingering cramps in Bink's legs. 'Isn't it beautiful?' Donald inquired.
