appears regardless of the orientation of the viewer. To orient on the conjuration is useless; it is the original we require.'
'Easily solved, demon,' Humfrey snapped. 'Crombie, point out the direction of our bottle as viewed from the locale of the conjuration.'
How simple! The conjuration was here, so this would give the proper direction to there. But would it work?
The griffin whirled and pointed again. This time the wing aimed away from Bink, and downward.
'That is the way you must go,' Beauregard said gravely. 'Now before I banish the image, have you any other questions?'
'I do,' Chester said, 'About my talent-'
Beauregard smiled. 'Very clever, centaur. I think you have the mind of a demon! It is indeed possible, in this situation, for you to obtain the information you seek without incurring the Magician's normal fee, if your ethics permit such exploitation.'
'No,' Chester said. 'I'm not trying to cheat! Magician, I know my talent now. But I've already served part of the fee, and am stuck for the rest.'
Humfrey smiled. 'I never specified the Question I would Answer. Pick another Question for the fee. That was part of the agreement.'
'Say, good,' Chester said, like a colt with sudden access to the farthest and greenest pasture. He pondered briefly. 'Cherie-I'd sure like to know her talent, if she has one. A magical one, I mean. Her and her less-magical-than-thou attitude-'
'She has a talent,' Humfrey said. 'Do you wish the Answer now?'
'No. I might figure it out myself, again.'
The Magician spread his hands. 'As you prefer. However, we are not insured against accidents of fate. If you don't solve it, and Bink doesn't find my bottle before the enemy does, I may be forced to renege. Do you care to take that risk?'
'What do you mean, before the enemy does?' Bink demanded. 'How close is the enemy to-'
'That is what we were discussing before,' Beauregard said. 'It seems the Magician can not be protected from his own information-talent. He is correct: that bottle has been carried very close to the region your enemy inhabits, and it is very likely that the enemy is aware of that. Thus this is not a routine search for the bottle, but a race against active opposition.'
'But what is the nature of the enemy?' Bink demanded.
'Begone, Magician,' Beauregard said. Humfrey and Crombie converted into smoke and swirled into the bottle. 'I can not answer that Question directly, other than to remind you that the enemy must be some sort of demon. Therefore I spare myself the embarrassment of confessing my ignorance in the presence of my human counterpart in research. Professional rivalry, you might say.'
'I don't care about professional rivalry!' Bink retorted. 'The Good Magician and Crombie are my friends. I've got to save them!'
'You're loyal,' Jewel said admiringly.
'The thing you must understand,' Beauregard continued, 'is that as you approach the source of magic, the magic of the immediate environment becomes stronger, in a function resembling a logarithmic progression. Therefore-'
'I don't understand that,' Bink said. 'What have logs to do with it? Is the enemy a tree?'
'He means the magic gets stronger faster as you get closer,' Chester explained. Centaurs had excellent mathematical comprehension.
'Precisely,' the demon agreed. 'Thus we demons, being more proximate to the source, tend to be more magical than you creatures at the fringe. But in the immediate vicinity of the source, the magic is far stronger than we can fathom. Therefore I can not identify your specific enemy or describe his magic-but it is likely that it is stronger magic than you have encountered before.'
'I've met pretty strong magic,' Bink said dubiously.
'Yes, I know. And you have extremely strong magic yourself. But this-well, though I have never been able to fathom the precise nature of your talent, therefore my prior remark about you being an ordinary individual, empirical data suggest that it relates to your personal welfare. But at the source-'
'Suddenly I understand,' Bink said. 'Where I'm going, the magic is stronger than mine.'
'Just so. Thus you will be vulnerable in a manner you have not been before. Your own magic suffers enhancement as you proceed, but only in a geometric ratio. Therefore it can not-'
'He means the enemy magic gets stronger faster than our magic,' Chester said. 'So we're losing power proportionately.'
'Precisely,' the demon agreed. 'The nature of the curves suggests that the differential will not become gross until you are extremely close to the source, so you may not be much inconvenienced by it, or even aware of it. Still-'
'So if I continue,' Bink said slowly, 'I come up against an enemy who is stronger than I am.'
'Correct. Because the strength of the magic field of Xanth varies inversely with distance, on both an individual and environmental basis-'
'What about the magic dust?' Chester demanded.
'That does indeed enhance magic in its vicinity,' Beauregard agreed. 'But it is not the major avenue for the distribution of magic. The dust is basically convective, while most magic is conductive. Were that village to
