Nydia spoke. “My thought is to conjure the spirit of the Void into a figurine, then talk with him. He might then be willing to let the other members of the Quest in and out.”

  “You?” Eartha asked.

  Nydia nodded. “It is, I think, my turn.” She glanced at Lilith. “You would take me?”

  “I would take you,” the demoness agreed. “I could assume the semblance of a flower in your hair, so as not to intrude on the dialog.”

  “If this should work,” Flood said, “and the rest of us are allowed to visit the Void, what would we do there?”

  “We would search for that object or idea that we need to accomplish our Quest,” Nerine said. “If it exists, that is where it is most likely to be.”

  “Then I think we have our mission,” Nydia said. “I suggest we relax today and tackle it tomorrow—with renewed vigor.”

  No one argued. Just digesting the information they had received was a job, let alone acting on it.

  They walked away from Ouroborus’s material body, still clenching its tail, and ascended to the land, where those who needed to harvested fruits and pies for dinner. The Elements, of course, did not need to eat. They drew their energy from their aspects of the environment.

  Rob looked about. “It has been some time since I have seen this, other than via my lesser surrogates.” He meant ordinary snakes, with whom he was in telepathic contact.

  “I have more to show you,” Eartha said. “Let’s leave these folk to their devices for a few hours while we explore more fundamental interaction in some private place. We have been touchingly close for a while, but not as close as we can be now via these proxies.”

  “This promises to be interesting,” Rob agreed. “I have had little experience with the human form, but discover it has its impulses.”

  “Indeed. So does this figurine of mine.” Eartha indicated a pair of rounded mountains on the horizon that resembled nothing so much as the bare bosom of a giant woman, lying on her back. Adjacent hills resembled head, arms, and legs. “I believe there will do. I like its contours.” They walked away together.

  “Blip,” Woe repeated. “That cursed privacy again.”

  The others set about making a camp, with several temporary shelters for the respective couples. The children Vinia and Woe Betide shared one, Lilith was single, and Nydia shared one with Ecstasy. “I think I know exactly how you feel,” Nydia said.

  “Unfulfilled,” Ecstasy agreed. “They must be getting to it about now.”

  The ground shook with a mounting series of quakes. Then a ring of volcanoes erupted, illuminating the night sky, followed by a gradual relaxation.

  “I suspect they are making it,” Nydia said.

  “Did I mention jealousy? Bleep! I am experiencing it.” Ecstasy laughed without humor. “The irony is that they are both using figurines I crafted. I am envying my own artistry.”

  “We need to find a good man for you. One who appreciates your artistry with the figurines.”

  “That’s not the kind of artistry I am thinking of at the moment. But what man would ever desire a lumpy middle-aged woman?”

  “There must be one. We just need to find him.” But Nydia had doubt. So she changed the subject slightly. “You craft the figurines with inanimate ectoplasm. How can they perform like living creatures?”

  “Ectoplasm is special. When fallow, it resembles inactive mist or dust, but it is actually solidified magic. My talent is to shape it, as if it was merely a type of clay, but its properties are way beyond that. When it is animated by a soul or Element or even just a living plant or creature, it conforms to the functioning of that thing, only better, as it is inherently healthy. It enhances the ideal. Most folk would be better off with plasm bodies.”

  “So couples really are experiencing the wonders of the Adult Conspiracy?”

  “They really are, probably with better performance and feeling than fleshly living folk. That’s not my doing, it’s the plasm. I liken it to a bottle of love or healing elixir: I merely make the bottle.”

  Nydia shook her head. “You make remarkable bottles.”

  “Thank you,” Ecstasy said sadly.

  Chapter 8

  Void

  In the morning, as a party of fourteen—four Elements with their four partners, two regular single humans, two demons, one ant, and one unattached nymph—they walked the enchanted path to the next intersection. Sure enough, there was an arrow pointed north. element void. caution. Vinia could have followed a green path there, but this represented a more general confirmation.

  “Next question,” Nydia said. “Do we want to walk there, following the arrows, seeing the sights along the way, or fly directly there on the carpet?”

  “We can see the sights better from above,” Vinia pointed out. “And the carpet will be faster.” The others nodded.

  Faster. That was what bothered Nydia. She was in no hurry to tackle the dread Fifth Element. It might be the last thing she ever did. But she couldn’t show hesitation, let alone fear; she was the leader. “Carpet it is,” she agreed, hoping her racing pulse didn’t show. She hadn’t known until this moment that nymphs even had pulses. She realized that it was fear that stalked her, and she wasn’t used to it. Yet it was better than the largely mindless oblivion of the Retreat. At least now her limited life had some suggestion of purpose.

  She brought the carpet out and unrolled it. They took their places, the material spreading to accommodate them flawlessly, the fabric firmly anchoring them in place. They could probably fly it upside down without falling off, not that they would care to try. Vinia took the helm, and the carpet sailed grandly up into the sky.

  “This is interesting,” Rob said as he sat beside Eartha. “I would have liked to view the night’s pyrotechnics of the volcanoes from this vantage. I have hitherto been limited to ground level scenery.”

  “You were bored with the personal interaction?” Her face was straight, but her tone quirked.

  He laughed. “By no means. I just would have liked to see the remarkable external show.”

  “There will be other chances,” Eartha said, nudging a knee. She seemed more than satisfied with their association. It was surely fun playing at romance in foreign bodies, as they could never manage it in their original forms.

  “We have no business being jealous,” Ecstasy murmured.

  Nydia understood perfectly. “We just have to hope our turns will come.” Yet what were the prospects, realistically? Nydia might be steering into her doom.

  A monstrous cleft in the ground came into sight. “Is that the—?” Rob asked.

  “Yes, that is the Gap Chasm,” Eartha answered. “You are invisibly preventing it from becoming a slice through the entire Land of Xanth. More power to you. A cosmic break might be inconvenient.”

  “It’s nice to be appreciated.”

  “I am coming to appreciate you in other ways now.”

  They were flirting. Nydia and Ecstasy kept their mouths tightly shut. So did Vinia, who could also overhear the dialog. Woe Betide pretended to be asleep.

  North of the Gap Chasm were ordinary human villages. Then came the home regions of the Elements. All of them studied their own sections closely. Of course, they weren’t limited to them, any more than ordinary folk were limited to their houses or villages; they were just intrigued by the sight from outside.

  Then the Void, which, not oddly, had no display. It was just a vague dark patch. They glided down toward its edge.

  “What is that?” Moonroe asked.

  Aery looked. “I think it’s a person. A woman. Looking for something.”

  They all looked. What was a woman doing so close to the dangerous Void?

  “And a big dog,” Flame said.

  “No, a wolf,” Aery said.

  “In fact, a werewolf,” Eartha said. “They are subtly different from animal wolves.”

  The carpet angled down to land at the fringe, and they debarked. They stood before a blank wall.

  The woman saw them and came close. “Hello! I’m Jenny Elf, and this is my steed wolf, Wolfram.” The wolf changed briefly into manform, showing that he was indeed a werewolf.

  “Oh, you’re a wolf rider,” Ecstasy said.

  Now Nydia found it in the template: Jenny Elf had come from a foreign land and married the leader of the pack. She was actually a queen, or the equivalent. Evidently, she preferred to be anonymous in that respect.

  “Yes,” Jenny said. “I was taking a shortcut home to the pack when there was a flux in the Void perimeter that almost caught us. We bounded into the brush to avoid it. A branch caught my wrist and ripped off my amulet.” She held up her hand, showing four fingers, including the thumb. “I lost my treasured trophy medal. We were searching for it when you came.”

  “A flux,” Flood said. “That figures.”

  “We are a Quest,” Nydia said. “I am Nydia Nymph, and these are my companions. We are trying to find out why the Elements are acting up. You evidently ran afoul of mischief at the verge of the Void.”

  “Yes. I will be heartbroken if I lose my medal. It’s a miniature of the infamous Catastrophe sculpture. You know, the rear end of a cat.”

  “Cat ass trophy,” Ecstasy said through a groan. The others made silent groans.

  “My favorite cat was Sammy, who could find anything but home. He finally went his own way, but I kept the medal in memory of him. Now it’s gone, and I can’t find it anywhere. If it flew into the Void, it’s doomed. I’ve looked and looked, but I only found someone’s lost abacuss, and all it did was cuss at me.”

  Nydia got a notion. “We are about to enter the Void on business, as we have a way out again. Why don’t you join us, so you can search inside?”

  That paused the woman. “Is that safe? Nothing leaves the Void, except—”

  “Anything can enter the Void,” Lilith said. “Hardly anything can leave it. Only ghosts, night mares, demons, spooks, and the like. Creatures without permanent mortal substance. I am the demoness Lilith. I can navigate it.” She looked around, addressing Jenny and the others. “I know you won’t want to risk it until I demonstrate—that’s not exactly a pun, demon straight—that I really can convey you out.” She turned to Nydia. “Are you ready?”

  As if she would ever be really ready! “Yes,” she said tightly.

  The demoness addressed the group again. “Nydia and I are about to demonstrate how to pop in and out of the Void. Do not be alarmed; we will soon return. Meanwhile, the rest of you can get to know each other better.”

  “She means it,” Rob said, reading her mind. “All we have to do is watch and wait.”

  Eartha smiled. “I am finding another reason to value you. Your telepathy.”

  He smiled back. “So I am good for Two Things.”

  “Three, counting your holding Xanth together.”

  They were still flirting. Nydia suppressed yet another shapely tinge of envy. She wanted so much to have a romantic relationship with a worthy man, but all she faced was likely oblivion in the Void. Her mind kept coming back to that. She wished it would stop.

  Lilith returned her attention to Nydia. “I will assume the form of a passion flower and tuck into your hair so that you seem to be alone, unless you wish me to show myself as nominally human.”

  “That’s fine,” Nydia said through forcefully unclenched teeth. It wasn’t association with the demoness that bothered her, but fear that the departure would mess up and she would be forever stuck in the Void. Having escaped the Retreat, she did not want to be captive elsewhere.

  Lilith puffed into smoke, reformed as a pretty flower, and floated to Nydia’s hair. “Hello, Anthem Ant,” she said mentally, picking up on her contact telepathy.

  Anthem played a chord. “Hello, Lilith.”

  “I love your music.” Then back to Nydia mentally: “Now for a sample excursion. Steady, Nydia; there will be a wrench as we move. I can do it smoothly alone, but your body is solid. There will be a pop as you vacate this spot and a minor explosion as you displace the air in the new location. You won’t be hurt, but you may feel briefly strange.”

  “So there’s a reason demons turn smoky as they travel,” Anthem said.

  “Indeed. We integrate with the air, between the molecules, so that the displacement is easier, saving energy.” She oriented on Nydia. “Ready?”

  “I am ready,” Nydia replied silently, hoping it was true.

  Then came the wrench. Suddenly she was in the center of an explosion, the air heating as it puffed outward. Then it cleared.

  They were standing on a gentle green slope. Colorful bushes and trees dotted it. This was the dread Void?

  “It is indeed the Void,” Lilith said. “Seeds blow through the perimeter, discover the fertile soil, and grow readily enough. Sufficient sunlight filters through to sustain them. Plants don’t travel the way animals do, so are satisfied to remain in a single spot indefinitely.”

  “It seems, well, just like normal terrain.”

  “It is not. Try walking.”

  Nydia walked. There was no problem. She went around a bush, down the slope.

  “Now try to go uphill.”

  She turned about and took a step back the way she had come. And got nowhere. Her feet moved, yet her body remained where it was. Alarmed, she tried harder, but still did not get anywhere. “This is weird.”

  “The Void is three-way. You can go forward or sideways in either direction, but not back. The safest thing is to stand still.”

  “Weird,” Nydia repeated.

  “Actually, if you concentrate you can go back a step or two, but that’s the limit. It gets harder, and you tend to slide back to your original spot.”

  Nydia concentrated and finally managed to take a step up-slope. But it was difficult and tiring and she knew it was a lost effort. “I am satisfied that this is the Void,” she gasped.

  “Now for the return.” There was another wrench and hot puff of air. Then she was back where she had been, facing the other members of the Quest. They looked surprised and concerned.

  “I’m all right,” Nydia said, though slightly flustered. “It’s just a green slope.”

  “Not a dark gulf?” Noletta asked.

  “No, just a hillside. But I couldn’t step back up-slope. It’s three-way travel: left, right, forward. Not back.” She forced a smile. “Anyone else?”

  Jenny visibly nerved herself. “I will join you for this. Wolfram will be satisfied to wait outside. Don’t worry; he doesn’t eat people.”

  “We don’t have to use the demoness,” Eartha said. “We can simply march through the wall as a group and see for ourselves. And come back one at a time, courtesy of Lilith.”

  “That seems apt,” Moonroe said. “But perhaps one person, or couple, should remain outside, just in case. Then if there’s a glitch, they can return to the Queendom of Thanx and report.”

  So Aery had told him about the Queendom. “That seems sensible,” Nydia agreed. “So who should it be?”

  “We volunteer,” Nerine said, and Flood did not differ. Maybe they wanted more alone time together. Or to learn about the tame werewolf.

  “We’ll send someone back to report every so often,” Nydia said. Then, as much to shore herself up as the others, she faced the wall. “Forward march.” Before any of them, especially her, lost their nerve.

  They walked together through the wall. This time there was no wrenching, merely a faint tingling; this was not conjuration. They emerged at the top of the slope, the scene spreading out below.

  “Interesting in its ordinariness,” Noletta said. She took a few steps down the hill, then tried to return. And made no progress.

  Soon the others were doing it, Elements and companions alike. They could walk forward, left or right, but not back up the slope more than two or three feet, and that against intangible resistance. Jenny was meanwhile eyeing the ground, looking for her lost medal, but there was no sign of it.

  “Who wants to make the first report, back outside?” Nydia asked.

  “I will,” Noletta said.

  The flower floated from Nydia’s iridescent hair to Noletta’s blue hair. Then the nymph vanished, leaving a popping implosion of air. Flame looked nervous without her.

  In two and a half moments, she was back, this time the air briefly exploding, hitting them all with the passing puff. “Report made,” she announced. “They were relieved, Wolfram too.” The flower floated from her back to Nydia.

  “I am oddly reassured,” Jenny said.

  “So are the rest of us,” Ecstasy said.

  They proceeded carefully down the slope, which led to a small and perfectly ordinary forest of nutty acorn trees, sad pining trees, and assorted aromatic pie trees. No one had to be hungry here. They passed through it to find a field of flowers of many kinds. In it was a sort of sidewise house fashioned of woven sticks and hay, all width and no depth.

  “People!” someone called. A girl of about eighteen appeared, running along the path in front of the house. “Hello!”

  “Hello,” Nydia responded, taken aback. There were residents here? “We are exploring the Void.”

  “By choice?” the girl asked. “Don’t you know you can’t leave it?”

  “We have a way,” Nydia explained. “We have a demoness.”

  “One and a half demonesses,” Woe Betide said.

  The girl’s mouth opened cutely. “Oh! Let me tell my sisters!” She ran off, her short skirt flouncing in the manner teen garments did. Nydia made a mental note to adjust her own skirt, in due course.

  In three moments they were back. “I am Sweetie,” the first girl said. “This is Sourie, and Saltie.” Indeed, the first looked sweet, while the second frowned, and the third seemed to have a mixed taste in her mouth. All three were nevertheless reasonably cute in their skirtlets, young legs, and blouses. Their tresses were respectively blond, brunette, and salt gray, waving enticingly as they moved.