'Why do you even want to marry him?' Grundy asked. 'He's such a gloomy old gnome, he's no prize for a woman, especially a pretty one.'
'Who said I wanted to marry him?'
Grundy did a rare double take. 'You distinctly-your Question-'
'That is for information, golem. Once I know whether he will marry me, I'll be able to decide whether I should do it. It's a difficult decision.'
'Agreed,' Grundy said. 'King Trent must have labored similarly before marrying Queen Iris.'
'Do you love him?' Dor inquired.
'Well, I think I do. You see, he's the first man who ever associated with me without?you know.' She nodded her head toward the corner. There was the statue of a man, carved beautifully in marble.
'That's-?' Dor asked, alarmed.
'No, I really am a statue,' the stone answered him. 'A fine original work of sculpture.'
'Humfrey won't let me do any real conversions,' the gorgon said. 'Not even for old times' sake. I'm just here to identify the foolish or to scare off the fault-hearted. The Magician won't answer cowards.'
'Then he won't answer me,' Dor said sadly. 'I was so scared-'
'No, that's not cowardice. Being terrified but going ahead and doing what must be done-that's courage. The one who feels no fear is a fool, and the one who lets fear rule him is a coward. You are neither. Same for you, golem. You never deserted your friend, and were willing to risk your precious flesh body to help him. I think the Magician will answer.'
Dor considered that. 'I sure don't feel very brave,' he said at last. 'All I did was hide my face.'
'I admit it would have been more impressive had you closed your eyes and fenced with me blind!' she said. 'Or snatched up a mirror to use. We keep several handy, for those who have the wit to take that option. But you're only a boy. The standards are not as strict.'
'Uh, yes,' Dor agreed, still not pleased.
'You should have seen me when I came here,' she warmly. 'I was so frightened, I hid my face-just as you did.'
'If you didn't hide your face, you'd turn everyone to stone,' Grundy pointed out
'That too,' she agreed.
'Say,' Grundy demanded. 'It was twelve years ago when you met the Good Gnome. I was there, remember? How come you're just now asking your Question?'
'I left my island at the Time of No Magic,' she said frankly. 'Suddenly no magic worked at all in the whole Land of Xanth, and the magic things were dying or turning mundane, and all the old spells were undone. I don't know why that was-'
'I know,' Grundy said. 'But I can't tell, except to say it won't happen again.'
'All my former conquests reverted to life. There were some pretty rowdy men there, you know-trolls and things. So I got all flustered and fled. I was afraid they would hurt me.'
'That was a sensible fear,' Grundy said. 'When they didn't catch you, they went back to the Magic Dust village where most of them had come from, and I guess they're still there. Lot of very eager women in that village, after all that time with all their men gone.'
'But when the magic came back, the Magician's spell on my face was gone. It was one of the one- shot variety, that carried only until interrupted. A lot of spells are like that, mine included. So I had my face again, and I-you know.'
Dor knew. She had started making statues again.
'By then, I knew what was happening,' she continued. 'I had been pretty naive, there on my isolated island, but I was learning. I really didn't want to be that way. So I remembered what Humfrey had said about Mundania, where magic doesn't ever work-that certainly must be a potent counterspell laid on that land!-and I went there. And he was right. I was a normal girl. I had thought I could never stand to leave there, but the Time of No Magic showed me that maybe I could stand it after all. And when I tried, I could.
It was sort of strange and fun, not nearly as bad as I had feared. People accepted me, and men-do you know I'd never kissed a man in Xanth?'
Dor was ashamed to comment He had never kissed a woman other than his mother, who of course didn't count. He thought fleetingly of Millie. If-
'But after a while I began to miss Xanth,' the gorgon continued. 'The magic, the special creatures- do you know I even got to miss the tangle trees? When you're born to magic you can't just set it aside; it is part of your being. So I had to come back. But that meant-you know, more statues. So I went to Humfrey's castle. By that time I knew he was the Good Magician-he never told me that when we met!-and that he wasn't all that approachable, and I got girlishly nervous. I knew that if I wanted to be with a man in Xanth, I mean man-to- woman, it would have to be one like him. Who had the power to neutralize my talent. The more I thought about it-well, here I am.'
'Didn't you have trouble getting into the castle?'
'Oh, yes! It was awful. There was this foghorn guarding the moat, and I found this little boat there, but every time I tried to cross that horn blasted out such columns of fog that I couldn't see or hear anything, and the boat always turned around and came back to shore. It was a magic boat, you see; you had to steer it or it went right back to its dock. I got all covered in fog, and my hair was hissing something awful; it doesn't like that sort of thing.'
Her hair, of course, consisted of myriad tiny snakes or eels. They were rather cute, now that he was getting used to the style. 'How did you get across the moat, then?'
