That started a mental dialogue. Could they somehow do it? “Maybe, just maybe, we can,” Apoca said. “We have become light ourselves, for this interaction, so Blair is slightly longer than he was. If we stab ahead and catch her taillight, we can impress on her our utter alienness, and that will be a full dose of novelty.”

  “Let’s do it.”

  Pinkie came to an intersection and slowed slightly, something the light beams of Xanth and Mundania were unable to do. Or rather, she was extending her length to make herself longer, seemingly almost within reach. She was playing it invitingly close, intensifying the cruel tease.

  Apoca shot to the front of Blair, extending his length just a little.

  They caught the tip of Pinkie’s tail. Alien light! they flashed, letting Pinkie feel it.

  The touch electrified her. Here was more novelty than she had ever known! She fell instantly in love. She let Blair advance to overlap her completely, so that the two beams formed a lovely purple that awed all the other beams. Not only were they in instant love, they had spectacularly merged. The experience was illuminating.

  And Apoca and Nimbus were vaulting back out of the scene, out of the stellar cluster, out of that entire region of space. They were on their way home.

  “Good job, well done,” Apoca said.

  “But we still don’t know why,” Nimbus said. “There must be some point to this exercise we are unable to understand.”

  “Maybe it was just a diversion, so that he could savor our essence.”

  “Our grown mature female woman essence,” Nimbus agreed. “We delivered that in good measure. Any other male would have been seduced into abject love slavery.”

  “Squid is surely a phenomenally lucky pseudo-girl.”

  Suddenly Apoca was back kissing Chaos, three instants after she had started. The kiss broke and she took a breath. Physically it had been nothing special, and not much emotionally, but mentally—what a happening!

  “Thank you,” Squid said as Chaos faded into the background. “The favors have been exchanged. The scales are even. You will be going to see the Good Magician next. He will tell you your spot mission.”

  Just like that? Nolan, reverting to his own consciousness, was surprised.

  Chapter 6

  Mnemonica

  Apoca was surprised. Was she the protagonist again? It was getting hard to tell. But there was the baton, hovering beside her. She had felt like the protagonist before, but it wasn’t her turn. What had happened?

  “I was tuning in on you,” Nolan said. “Via Aurora and Nimbus. Then you ended the kiss, and my awareness returned to me. Only to discover us here in”—he paused to look around and spied a sign—“Limbo.”

  Now Apoca looked around. There was the sign, neatly mounted on the trunk of an acorn tree in otherwise pleasant green scenery. Assorted pie plants grew in patches, and there was a thick-trunked beerbarrel tree nearby, surely filled with boot rear, the beverage with a kick. They would not go hungry or thirsty. Also a shoe tree with assorted slippers, and clothing trees. Even a pan-tree for ladies’ underwear. But something was missing. “Where are the others?”

  “I am here with you,” Nimbus said. “And Aurora is with Nolan.”

  “That’s a relief! But what about the other members of the Quest? And Dolly Llama and Gina Giantess? Not to mention Squid and Chaos and the Fire Sail Boat?”

  “We were there with them,” Nolan agreed. “Now we’re here.”

  “Squid said we had to go see the Good Magician.”

  “I already saw the Good Magician. That’s why I’m here courting you.”

  “Something is weird,” she concluded. “Maybe it is my turn to see him, though I’m not sure why.”

  “Someone is coming,” Aurora said, with Nimbus relaying it.

  “Uh-oh,” Nimbus said. “I feel a blanket of silence closing in on me and on Aurora. I fear our participation is not allowed near the Good Magician’s Castle.”

  “But you two are our friends,” Apoca said. “We like to compare notes with you.”

  There was no answer. Apoca saw Nolan glancing at his own shoulder in surprise. The bugs had been silenced. They were still there, in fine fettle, only unable to communicate. Good Magician’s rules.

  They oriented on the sound of footsteps. In one and a half moments a lovely young woman appeared, making her way cautiously toward them as she passed through a patch of pie plants with a lingering look at a ripe lemon meringue. Extremely lovely. She was in fact the shapeliest black-haired beauty Apoca had ever seen, and she had seen a number recently. She could tell that Nolan was close to freaking out, though the girl was modestly dressed. It was not that he was a lecher but that this knockout was simply overpowering. Every slightest move of her body as she walked hinted at romantic rapture. Even Apoca herself found herself wondering what it would be like to kiss this creature.

  She needed to break up this spectacle before it got out of hand. “Hello!” she called.

  The woman looked at her. “Hello,” she echoed, her voice dulcet. “Do you know where we are?”

  Nolan was silent, his mind evidently too full of visual ecstasy to leave room for any other function. He was after all a man; allowance had to be made.

  “We do not,” Apoca said. “We suddenly found ourselves here with no explanation.”

  The girl smiled uncertainly, the expression making her even prettier, if that was possible. “Me too.”

  “Maybe we’re dreaming,” Nolan said. He certainly looked dreamy.

  Enough of this. “I am Apoca, and this is my companion Nolan. We are on a special Quest. Who are you and why are you here?”

  “I am Chameleon. I don’t know why I’m here.”

  “Chameleon!” Apoca and Nolan said almost together. “The Chameleon?” Apoca asked.

  The woman looked at them, startled. “I am just myself, nobody important. Is something wrong?”

  Apoca took a breath. “You’re a historical figure!”

  Chameleon glanced down at her figure as if making sure something illicit wasn’t showing. “I’ve been told my figure is okay.”

  Apoca remembered that the historical Chameleon varied with the cycles of the moon, ranging from beautiful and stupid to ugly and smart. “It’s okay. I meant you are known from long ago. I am surprised to find you here.”

  Chameleon focused. “I remember, I think I will marry Bink, and we will live a long time.”

  Nolan shook himself out of his trance. “You remember your future?”

  “Sort of. I remember my past as a village girl, with the men looking at me, and I remember what will happen to me, but it gets sort of vague in the distance. Is that all right?”

  “That’s fine,” Apoca said reassuringly. “This is a strange place. We don’t understand it well either.”

  “Maybe I can understand it better in my smart phase.”

  Which transition would take two weeks. “Maybe.”

  “I will try it.”

  “Uh—”

  But the woman was already changing. Her lovely features faded and became ordinary, then ugly. She was now a crone. “Now we shall see,” she said. Her voice had a new authority.

  “But your full cycle takes four weeks!” Apoca protested.

  “And was involuntary,” the new Chameleon agreed. “This is evidently not a normal Xanth setting. Somehow my duller self caught on. It seems we have options we lacked before.”

  “It’s Limbo,” Nolan said, no longer at all distracted by her appearance. “There’s a sign.”

  “Which means that we have been lifted out of our normal habitats and are in a presumably temporary state of uncertainty. There must be a reason. A purpose.”

  “Uh, yes,” Nolan agreed.

  “I saw an indication that the Good Magician’s castle is in the vicinity. You said you are on a Quest. Could that relate?”

  “We were told we would be seeing the Good Magician,” Apoca said.

  “Let’s not rush it before we get a better notion. I seem to be in a framework that allows me to gain some perspective on the whole of my life. Is this similarly true for you?”

  Apoca exchanged enough of a glance with Nolan. “No.”

  “Interesting. Is one of you the protagonist?”

  She was sharp, all right. Apoca glanced at the baton. “Yes. At the moment I am.”

  “Then I may have been summoned to assist you in your Quest. Perhaps you should provide me with more details of it.”

  They told her about it, right up to the Kiss. Chameleon caught on swiftly. “So a Demon is involved. He would of course have the power to craft a temporary reality for us and put us here in Limbo. I may have an insight to his intention.”

  “You do?” Nolan asked. “You are smarter than we are.”

  “Of course. Which is surely why I am here. You need input beyond your own capacity.”

  Apoca appreciated the insight but was discovering that she did not like this version of Chameleon as well as the other. She suppressed that attitude. “What are we missing?”

  “The Demons are in most respects all-powerful. They entertain themselves by playing Demon games, competing for enhanced status among themselves. They typically make wagers on mortal situations, because these are unpredictable. Their ground rules require them not to intervene, ensuring that the contests are fair. They also have a policy of nonintervention in each other’s domains. Thus Demon Chaos will not directly interfere in the Land of Xanth. But since he has obviously been asked to help you, he is doing it indirectly. Thus my appearance.”

  “He did help us,” Nolan said. “He is ensuring that the route to find Dwarf Demon Talents will be there.”

  Chameleon glanced at him with perhaps a mixed emotion: contempt for his low intelligence and appreciation for his handsome body. “Would that be the limit of Squid’s request?”

  This time Apoca and Nolan shared a generous glance. They had not thought of that! Squid was a nice girl. She would have asked for more.

  “Mortals can’t hope to compete with any Demon on any level other than emotion,” Chameleon said, seeing that they understood. “You have virtually no chance on your own. So Chaos, to please his mortal friend, and perhaps liking the mature kiss Apoca delivered, is doing more. He can’t intervene directly, but there may be an indirect way to help you. By giving hints of your necessary strategy to persuade Dwarf Demon Talents to do your will. The three incidents occurring in the Universe Kiss seem to have a common thread; Boy desires Girl and has the means to win her provided he can recognize and implement it in time.”

  “Yes,” Apoca agreed, half-awed. Why hadn’t she seen that before?

  “So you may have the means to win your Demon’s case, and thus yours, if you can discover it.”

  Enable Dwarf Demon Talents to win Dwarf Demoness Transcription? What could they possibly offer him or her to enable that? They were grains of sand.

  Chameleon angled a shrewd glance toward her, fathoming her concern. “Perhaps this current episode will enable you to figure it out.”

  “We don’t even know what the current episode is,” Nolan complained.

  “Exactly. This is clearly a crafted setting, controlled by the Demon Chaos. He must be trying to clarify it for you, without being obvious. You will want to pay close attention to details.”

  The details of a crafted setting? Apoca elected not to comment. She wished Vinia were here to search out a green path.

  “We’ll try,” Nolan said.

  “There has to be a reason I was plucked from my ordinary life to appear here,” Chameleon said. “I suspect that I will remember none of it when I return to my normal frame. I am here merely to serve my purpose, which I believe is to clarify this process for you. There will surely be others, similarly plucked. The two of you are the protagonists; only the pair of you are likely to emerge from this environ with intact memory. Apply it well.”

  Environ. Short for environment. In her smart phase she used a more sophisticated vocabulary.

  “We’ll try,” Apoca agreed. She found herself somewhat awed to be in the presence of such a historical figure, even if it was in Limbo.

  “Probably the Demon Chaos will guide you through this confusion as you orient on his hidden purpose.”

  “We hope so,” Nolan said.

  A figure appeared in the distance. “Ah, there’s Bink!” Chameleon exclaimed. “Back to my favored form.” She changed rapidly to her comely aspect and ran to meet him, her body flexing in all the right places and her hair flinging back appealingly.

  Of course that would be what he liked, Apoca thought. Phenomenal beauty and devotion coupled with barely enough intellect to function. A virtual nymph. Nymphs were typically good for only one thing, which made them highly popular with men. Gratification with no backtalk.

  This time Nolan did freak out, though no underclothing showed. Apoca waited until the girl was far enough away to be beyond jiggle range, then touched his elbow. “Wake, dreamer. She’s not for you.”

  He snapped out of it. “Did I get distracted?”

  “You did. But that’s par for the course.”

  Chameleon caught Bink in a flying hug. They kissed passionately, the perfect couple. Then she whispered in his ear and walked on beyond him. And faded out, her scene done.

  Bink walked toward them. He was a rugged but rather ordinary man. “Hello, Nolan and Apoca. Chameleon tells me I have business with you. How can I help?”

  “We’re not sure,” Apoca said. “It seems we have a sequence to play out, but we don’t yet know what it is.”

  Bink considered. “I seem to have a memory of my past and future, but the two of you appear in it only quite vaguely, and are peripheral. You are not in my family line.”

  “We are not,” Apoca agreed. “Chameleon conjectured that we are here to learn something that will enable us to succeed in our Quest, and that you must be here to help us. Beyond that we have no idea.”

  He glanced cannily at her. “Was she in her smart stage?”

  “Yes.”

  “Then she’s probably right. So I’d better just tag along with you until I find a way to help.”

  They started walking, going nowhere in particular. They chatted with Bink, who turned out to be an easygoing, likable chap, not at all egoistic because of his historical significance. Of course here in Limbo, he didn’t know he was historical.

  They came to another sign: good magician’s castle.

  “That’s right,” Apoca said. “We are supposed to see the Good Magician.”

  “That normally means three Challenges to pass, so that he knows you are serious.”

  “Even in a simulation?” Nolan asked.

  “A realistic simulation.”

  Of course it would be realistic. What had they been thinking?

  They gazed at the castle beyond the sign. It was surrounded by innocent scenery and a competent moat featuring a ferocious-looking moat monster. But what drew Apoca’s attention was a sinister sparkle in the air surrounding the scene. She didn’t like the look of it. “This castle may or may not be legitimate,” she said. “But I doubt it is safe to barge on up to it.”

  “My thought too,” Nolan said. He picked up a stone and threw it toward the moat.

  The stone exploded in midair, forming a cloud of sand that fell to the ground like rain.

  “Presumably we are safe from any real harm here in Limbo,” Bink said. “But normally a careless move can wash a person out of the Good Magician’s Challenges. He does not tolerate carelessness gladly.”

  And surely they did not want to wash out of this one. “Um,” Apoca agreed.

  “In fact he does not tolerate anything gladly,” Bink concluded, remembering. “His grumpiness is famous. Or as Chameleon smart would say, infamous.”

  Nolan picked up a loose stick and threw it in the same direction. It burst into flame, leaving a cloud of ashes that drifted down to coat the turf. Finally he picked up a bucket of water that happened to be sitting beside the path, surely by no coincidence, and heaved a big splash. It puffed into vapor that heated on into smoke as it floated away in the trace breeze.

  “This is hostile magic,” Apoca said. “Entirely surrounding the castle.”

  “Then this must be my clue,” Bink said. He stepped forward.

  “Wait!” Apoca cried, too late. There was no sense in deliberately washing out.

  Bink became the center of a conflagration. The magic fire tried to incinerate him, but he stood firm, ignoring it. It tried harder, only to wear itself out. Finally it gave up, all its power expended. The sparkle in the air was gone.

  Now Apoca remembered. Bink had Magician-class magic that normally did not show: he could not be harmed by magic. The magic had destroyed itself trying. The way was clear. He had known this would happen.

  Another man appeared, walking from behind them during their distraction. “Good show, Bink!” he called.

  “Hello, Trent,” Bink called back as he dusted off some dying flickers.

  The legendary King Trent! Apoca was amazed again.

  “What are we up to, friend?” Trent asked.

  “We seem to be in a timeless spot simulation for the benefit of Nolan Naga and Apoca Lips,” Bink replied. “They have a Quest and need to see the Good Magician.”

  Trent turned to them. Apoca was struck by his mature handsomeness. “Hello, Nolan and Apoca. I doubt we have met, though I seem to have a faint emerging memory of our eventual association. You are from my future?”

  “We are,” Apoca agreed, feeling girlish. “To us you are a historical figure. You established the Golden Age of Xanth, after first being vilified as the Evil Magician.”

  Trent laughed. “Vilifications sometimes lack substance. Let’s see what I can do for you.”

  Bink had disappeared, his link in the chain completed.

  They walked on through the recent death field. There was the moat. The drawbridge was up and secured from the other side; no help there. There was a small rowboat just big enough for three. And the horrendous moat monster. It was clear from the nature of its look and slaver that it would regard any reckless folk who tried to row across the moat as its meal for the day.