Bink considered. He remembered how an Evil Magician had taken over the crown of Xanth-and had turned out not to be evil at all. But that had been a special situation. Suppose a truly evil man-or woman-obtained unconscionable power? 'I see your point. I'll think about it. Maybe I won't go all the way to the source. But I must rescue the Magician, regardless.'
'Yes of course,' Beauregard agreed, seeming ill at ease for a demon.
They boarded the diggle and moved out, following the direction Crombie had indicated. 'I don't know the deeper depths so well,' Jewel said, 'But there's a whole lot of solid rock here, since we're not following so close to the river. I'll tell the diggle to stay within the rock until we get there, and only to come out where there is light. I think you could sleep some while we travel, while I sing the worm along.'
'You are beautiful,' Bink said gratefully. He leaned his head against her back and was lulled to sleep by her singing, amplified and sweetened by his contact with her. And the worm ground on.
Chapter 11
Brain Coral
Bink woke with a start as the diggle halted. 'I think we're here,' Jewel murmured. Her voice was hoarse from hours of singing.
'You should have waked me before!' Bink said. 'To take my turn singing the worm along. You've sung yourself out.'
'Your head was so nice on my shoulder, I couldn't disturb you,' she rasped. 'Besides, you'll need all your strength. I can feel the magic intensifying as we move along.'
Bink felt it too: a subtle prickle on his skin like that of the magic dust. For all he knew, the rock through which they traveled might be the magic-dust rock, before it welled to the surface. But the mystery remained: what was it that imbued that rock with magic? 'Uh, thanks,' he said awkwardly. 'You're a sweet nymph.'
'Well-' She turned her head, making it easy to kiss. She smelled of especially fine roses: this magic, too, was enhanced by the environment. Bink leaned forward, inhaling the delicious fragrance, bringing his lips close to-
They were interrupted by the sight of the bottle. It bobbled on the glowing surface of another lake. Something was attached to it, a bit of string or tar-
'Grundy!' Bink cried.
The golem looked up. 'About time you got here! Fetch in this bottle, before-'
'Is it safe to swim in this lake?' Bink asked, wary of the glow. It might keep the goblins away, but that didn't make it safe for people.
'No,' Jewel said. 'The water is slowly poisonous to most forms of life. One drink won't hurt much, if you get out of it soon, up at the headwaters where it is diluted by the fresh flow from the surface. But down here, where it has absorbed much more horrible magic-'
'Right. No swimming,' Bink said. 'Chester, can you lasso it?'
'Out of range,' the centaur said. 'If the eddy currents carry it closer to shore I can snag it readily enough.'
'Better hurry,' Grundy called. 'There's something under the lake, and it-'
'The fiends lived under a lake,' Chester said. 'Do you think the enemy-?'
Bink started stripping of! his clothing. 'I think I'd better swim out and get that bottle right now. If the lake harms me, the Magician can give me a drop of his healing elixir. That should be more potent, too, here.'
'Don't do that!' Jewel cried. 'That lake-I don't think you'd ever reach the bottle. Here, I'll have the diggle phase through the water. Nothing hurts him when he's in phase.'
At her direction, and hoarse singing, the worm slid into the water, erecting its circular flange to form a temporary tunnel through the liquid, as through rock. He moved very slowly, until Chester's flute appeared and played a brisk, beautiful marching tune. The flute seemed larger and brighter than it had before, and its sound was louder: more magical enhancement. The diggle speeded up, expanding and contracting in time to the music. He advanced purposefully toward the bottle. 'Oh, thank you, centaur,' Jewel whispered.
'Hurry! Hurry!' the golem called. 'The coral is aware of the-is trying to-is-HELP! IT'S COMING UP TO GET ME!'
Then Grundy screamed horribly, as if in human pain. 'I'm not real enough, yet,' he gasped after the scream had torn its way out of his system. 'I'm still just a golem, just a thing, string and gum. I can be controlled. I-'
He broke off, then screamed again, then resumed more quietly. 'I'm gone.'
Bink understood none of this, yet had the sinking feeling that he should somehow have tried to help the golem to fight off-what? Some encouragement, some reminder of the feelings Grundy evidently did have. Maybe the golem could have fought off his private personal horror, if-
Now the worm was almost at the bottle. Quickly Grundy wrapped his string-arms about the cork, braced his feet against the neck of the bottle, and heaved. 'By the power of the brain coral, emerge!' he gasped.
The cork flew out. Smoke poured from the bottle, swirled into a whirlwind, ballooned, then coalesced into the figures of the Good Magician and the griffin. 'Grundy rescued them!' Chester exclaimed as his flute faded out.
'Fly to shore!' Bink cried. 'Don't touch the water!'
