'You offer another temptation of personal attachment,' Bink said. 'I can not let it influence me!' For now he realized that he had not yet won the battle against the brain coral. He had prevailed physically, but intellectually the issue remained in doubt. How could he be sure the decision he made was his own?
Then he had a bright notion. 'Argue the other case, Magician! Tell me why I should free the Demon.'
Startled, Humfrey demurred. 'You should not free the Demon!'
'So you believe. So the coral believes. I can not tell whether that belief is really yours, or merely a function of the will of your master. So now you argue the opposite case, and I'll argue the case for leaving him chained. Maybe that way the truth will emerge.'
'You are something of a demon yourself,' Humfrey muttered.
'Now I submit that these friends of mine are more important than an impersonal Demon,' Bink said. 'I don't know what's right for X(A/N)th, but I do know that my friends deserve the best. How can I justify betraying them by freeing the Demon?'
Humfrey looked as if he had swallowed the evil eye, but he came back gamely enough. 'It is not a question of betrayal, Bink. None of these creatures would ever have experienced magic, if it had not been for the presence of the Demon. Now his period of incarceration has been fulfilled, and he must be released. To do otherwise would be to betray your role in the Demon's game.'
'I have no obligation to the Demon's game!' Bink retorted, getting into the feel of it. 'Pure chance brought me here!'
'That is the role. That you, as a sapient creature uninfluenced by the Demon's will, come by your own initiative or accident of chance to free him. You fought against us all to achieve this point of decision, and won; are you going to throw it all away now?'
'Yes-if that is best'
'How can you presume to know what is best for an entity like X(A/N)th? Free him and let him forge his own destiny.'
'At the expense of my friends, my land, and my love?'
'Justice is absolute; you can not weigh personal factors against it.'
'Justice is not absolute! It depends on the situation. When there is right and wrong on both sides of the scale, the preponderance-'
'You can not weigh rights and wrongs on a scale, Bink,' Humfrey said, becoming passionate in his role as Demon's Advocate. Now Bink was sure it was the Good Magician speaking, not the brain coral. The enemy had had to free Humfrey, at least to this extent, to allow him to play this game of the moment. The Magician's mind and emotion had not been erased, and that was part of what Bink had needed to know. 'Right and wrong are not to be found in things or histories, and can not be properly defined in either human or Demon terms. They are merely aspects of viewpoint. The question is whether the Demon should be allowed to pursue his quest in his own fashion.'
'He is pursuing it in his own fashion,' Bink said. 'If I don't free him, that's according to the rules of his game, too. I have no obligation!'
'The Demon's honor compels him to obey a stricture no man would tolerate,' Humfrey said. 'It is not surprising that your own honor is inferior to that perfect standard.'
Bink felt as if he had been smashed by a forest-blasting curse. The Magician was a devastating in- fighter, even in a cause he opposed! Except that this could be the Magician's real position, that the coral was forced to allow him to argue. 'My honor compels me to follow the code of my kind, imperfect as that may be.'
Humfrey spread his hands. 'I can not debate that. The only real war between good and evil is within the soul of yourself-whoever you are. If you are a man, you must act as a man.'
'Yes!' Bink agreed. 'And my code says-' He paused, amazed and mortified. 'It says I can not let a living, feeling creature suffer because of my inaction. It doesn't matter that the Demon would not free me, were our positions reversed; I am not a Demon, and shall not act like one. It only matters that a man does not stand by and allow a wrong he perceives to continue. Not when he can so readily correct it.'
'Oh, Bink!' Jewel cried, smelling of myrrh. 'Don't do it!'
He looked at her again, so lovely even in her apprehension, yet so fallible. Chameleon would have endorsed his decision, not because she wished to please him, but because she was a human being who believed, as he did, in doing the right thing. Yet though Jewel, like all nymphs, lacked an overriding social conscience, she was as good a person as her state permitted. 'I love you, Jewel. I know this is just another thing the coral did to stop me, but-well, if I hadn't taken that potion, and if I weren't already married, it would have been awfully easy to love you anyway. I don't suppose it makes you feel any better to know that I am also risking my wife, and my unborn baby, and my parents, and all else I hold dear. But I must do what I must do.'
'You utter fool!' Grundy exclaimed. 'If I were real, I'd snatch up the nymph and to hell with the Demon. You'll get no reward from X(A/N)th!'
'I know,' Bink said. 'I'll get no thanks from anyone.
Then he addressed the huge demon face. 'I free you, Xanth,' he said.
Chapter 13
Magic Loss
Instantly the Demon burst loose. The seeping magic of X(A/N)th immediate environment was as nothing compared to the full magic of his release. There was a blinding effulgence, a deafening noise, and an explosion that threw Bink across the cavern. He crashed jarringly into a wall. As his senses cleared be perceived the collapse of the cavern in slow-motion sight and sound. Huge stones crunched to the floor and shattered into
