He sat up. One leg remained anchored-but now he had anchorage to rip out of the clutch of the demon weed. It didn't even hurt this time. He looked at the battling monsters-and saw the snakelike hair of the catoblepas twined around the head of the argus, gripping it by horns, ears, scales, and eyeballs-anything available. The body of the catoblepas was covered with reptilian scales, from its gorgon head to its cloven hooves, invulnerable to the attack of the argus. In overall shape it was like any quadruped, not all that remarkable; but that deadly writhing prehensile head hair-what a horror!
Had he really wanted to return to magic Xanth? He had so conveniently forgotten its uglier aspect. Magic had as much evil as good. Maybe Mundania would really have been better.
'Fools!' the harpy cried, seeing Bink loose. 'He's getting away.' But the monsters were now enmeshed in their own struggle, and paid her no attention. No doubt the winner would feast on the loser, and Bink would be superfluous.
She darted down at Bink, forgetting all caution. But he was on his feet now, and able to fight. He reached up and caught her by one wing, trying to get his hands around her scrawny throat. He would gladly have strangled her, in a sense strangling all the meanness of Xanth. But she squawked and fluttered so violently that all he got was a handful of gummy feathers.
Bink took advantage of his luck and ran away from the fray. The harpy fluttered after him for a moment, screeching such hideously foul insults that his ears burned, but soon gave up. She had no chance of overcoming him by herself. Harpies were basically carrion feeders and thieves, not hunters. It was their fashion to snatch food from the mouths of others. There was now no sign of the other creatures that had rustled and scraped toward him; they too were predators only of the helpless.
Where was Fanchon? Why hadn't she come to help him? She surely must have heard his cries for help-if she still lived. There was no way she could have been unaware of the recent fracas. So this must mean-
No! She had to be somewhere. Maybe down by the sea, catching fish, out of hearing. She had been invaluable during the past two days, and unswervingly loyal to the welfare of Xanth. Without her he could never have escaped the power of the Evil Magician. For intelligence and personality she had it all over the other girls he had met. Too bad she wasn't-
He saw her, resting against a tree. 'Fanchon?' he cried gladly.
'Hello, Bink,' she said.
Now his worry and speculation translated into ire. 'Didn't you see me being attacked by those monsters? Didn't you hear?'
'I saw, I heard,' she said quietly.
Bink was baffled and resentful. 'Why didn't you help me? You could at least have grabbed a stick or thrown rocks. I was almost eaten alive!'
'I'm sorry,' she said.
He took another step toward her. 'You're sorry! You just rested here doing nothing and-' He cut off, losing the words to continue.
'Maybe if you moved me from the tree,' she said.
'I'll dump you in the sea!' he cried. He strode up to her, leaned over to grab her roughly by the arm, and felt a sudden wash of weakness.
Now he understood. The tree had put a lethargy spell on her, and was starting in on him. As with the carnivorous grass, it took time to take full effect; she must have settled here to sleep, as careless in her fatigue as he had been in his, and was now far gone. There was no actual discomfort to alert potential prey, just a slow, insidious draining of vitality, of strength and will, until it all was gone. Very similar to the grass, actually, only this was less tangible.
He fought it off. He squatted beside her, sliding his arms under her back and legs. He really wasn't too weak, yet; if he acted fast-
He started to lift her-and discovered that his squatting posture had given him a false sense of well- being. He could not raise her up; in fact, he wasn't sure he could stand alone. He just wanted to lie down and rest a moment.
No! That would be the end. He dared not yield to it. 'Sorry I yelled at you,' he said. 'I didn't realize what you were in.'
'That's all right, Bink. Take it easy.' She closed her eyes.
He let go of her and backed away on his hands and knees. 'Good-bye,' she said listlessly, reopening one eye. She was almost done for.
He took hold of her feet and pulled. Another surge of weakness came, making the job seem impossible. It was as much emotional as physical. There was no way he could haul her weight. He tried anyway, his stubbornness prevailing over even this magic. But he failed. She was too heavy for him here.
He backed farther away-and as he left the environs of the tree his energy and will returned. But now she was beyond his reach. He stood up and took another step toward her-and lost his strength again, so that he fell to the ground. He would never make it this way.
Again he hauled himself back, sweating with the effort of concentration. Were he less stubborn, he would not have gotten this far. 'I can't get you out, and I'm only wasting time,' he said apologetically. 'Maybe I can loop you with a rope.'
But there was no rope. He walked along the trees of the edge of the jungle and spied a dangling vine. That would do nicely if he could get it loose.
He grabbed it in one hand-and screamed. The thing writhed in his grasp and looped about his wrist, imprisoning it. More vines dropped from the tree, swinging toward him. This was a land kraken, a variant of the tangle tree! He was still being fatally careless, walking directly into traps that should never have fooled him.
Bink dropped, yanking on the vine with his full weight. It stretched to accommodate him, twining more tightly about his arm. But now he spied a pointed bit of bone on the ground, remnant of prior prey; he swept
