'Like Herman the hermit, Chester's uncle,' Bink persisted. 'He could summon will-o'-the- wisps.'
'He was exiled from our society,' she said. Her expression had a surly quality that reminded him of Chester.
'Suppose other centaurs had magic-?'
'Bink, why are you being so offensive? Do you want me to have to leave you here in the wilderness?' She beckoned to her colt, who came quickly to her side.
'Suppose you yourself had a magic talent?' Bink asked. 'Would you still consider it obscene?'
'That does it!' she snorted. 'I will not endure such obnoxious behavior, even from a human. Come, Chet.' And she started off.
'Damn it, filly, listen to me!' Bink cried. 'You know why Chester came on my quest? Because he wanted to discover his own magic talent. If you deny magic in centaurs, you deny him-because he does have magic, good magic, that-'
She spun about, raising her forehooves to strike him down. A filly she might be, but she could kill him with a single blow.
Bink danced back. 'Good magic,' he repeated. 'Not anything stupid, like turning green leaves purple, or negative, like giving people hotfeet. He plays a magic flute, a silver flute, the most lovely music I ever heard. Deep inside he's an awfully pretty person, but he's suppressed it because-'
'I'm going to stomp you absolutely flat!' she neighed, smashing at him with both forefeet 'You have no right even to suggest-'
But he was cool, now, while she was half-blinded by rage. He avoided her strikes as he would those of a savage unicorn, without ever turning his back or retreating more than he had to. He could have stabbed her six times with his sword, but never drew it This debate was all academic now, since magic was gone from Xanth, but he was perversely determined that she should admit the truth. 'And you, Cherie-you have magic too. You make yourself look the way you want to look, you enhance yourself. It's a type of illusion, restricted to-'
She struck at him with both forefeet at once, in a perfect fury. He was affronting her deepest sensitivities, telling her that she herself was obscene. But he was ready, anticipating her reactions, avoiding them. His voice was his sword, and he intended to score with it. He had had too much of delusion, his own especially; he would wipe the whole slate clean. In a way, it was himself he was attacking: his shame at what he had done to Xanth when he freed the Demon. 'I challenge you,' he cried. 'Look at yourself in a lake. See the difference. Your magic is gone!'
Even in her fury, she realized she was not getting anywhere. 'All right I'll look!' she cried. 'Then I'll kick you to the moon!'
As it happened, they had passed a small pond recently. They returned to it in silence, Bink already starting to be sorry for what he was doing to her, and the lady centaur looked at herself. She was certain what she would find, yet honest enough to have her certainty disrupted by the fact. 'Oh, no!' she cried, shocked. 'I'm homely, I'm hideous, I'm uglier than Chester!'
'No, you're beautiful-with magic,' Bink insisted, wanting to make up for the revelation he had forced on her. 'Because magic is natural to you, as it is to me. You have no more reason to oppose it than you do any other natural function, like eating or breeding or-'
'Get away from me!' she screamed. 'You monster, you-' In another fit of fury she stamped her hoof in the pond, making a splash. But the water only settled back, as water did, and the ripples quieted, and the image returned with devastating import.
'Listen, Cherie!' Bink cried. 'You pointed out that Chester can be rescued. I'm just building on that. I don't dare open Crombie's bottle because the process requires magic, and there is none. Chester must stay in the lake for the same reason, in suspended animation. We need magic. It doesn't matter whether we like it. Without it, Chester is dead. We can't get anywhere as long as you-'
With extreme reluctance, she nodded agreement. 'I thought nothing would make me tolerate obscenity. But for Chester I would do anything. Even-' She gulped, and twitched her tail. 'Even magic. But-'
'We need a new quest!' Bink said with sudden inspiration as he washed himself in the pond. 'A quest to restore magic to the Land of Xanth! Maybe if we all work together, humans and centaurs and all Xanth's creatures, we can find another Demon-' But he petered out, realizing the futility of the notion. How could they summon X(A/N)th or E(A/R)th or any other super-magical entity? The Demons had no interest in this realm.
'Yes,' Cherie agreed, finding hope as Bink lost it. 'Maybe the King will know how to go about it. Get on my back; I'm going to gallop.'
Bink remounted her, and she took off. She did not have the sheer power Chester had, but Bink had to cling to her slender waist to stay on as she zoomed through the forest.
'And with magic, I'll be beautiful again?' she murmured into the wind, wistfully.
Bink, tired, nodded sleepily as Cherie charged on through the desolate wilderness. Then he was almost pitched off as she braked.
They faced a huge shaggy pair of creatures. 'Make way, you monsters!' Cherie cried without rancor. They were, after all, monsters. 'This is a public easement; you can't block it!'
'We not block it, centaur lass,' one monster said. 'You give way to let we pass.'
'Crunch the Ogre!' Bink exclaimed. 'What are you doing so far from home?'
'You know this monster?' Cherie asked Bink.
'I certainly do! What's more, now I can understand him without translation!'
The ogre, who now resembled a brute of a man, peered at Bink from beneath his low skull. 'You man we met, the one on quest? Me on gooeymoon with she loved best'
'Gooeymoon?' Cherie murmured.
