Jumper began to catch on. "A ghost can't escape ghost sheep."

  "Right," Shepherd agreed, satisfied.

  Gheorge had had enough. He sailed up into the air, fleeing the flock.

  Bunctious sailed right up after him. EWE CAN'T GET AWAY THAT WAY, EWE MISERABLE EXCUSE FOR A MAN. I WILL HAVE EWER DONKEY FOR A TROPHY, EWE SILLY BURRO. The two disappeared into the sky, the ram in hot pursuit of the man.

  There was the titter of a stifled giggle among the remaining girls.

  "I see what ewe mean, uh, what you mean," Jumper said, impressed. "Gheorge won't be bothering Phanta anymore."

  The ghost Phanta emerged from the blob and became live Phanta. "Oh, Shep, that was beautiful!" she exclaimed, flinging her arms about him. "Your sheep saved me from a fate worse than death." She was speaking literally.

  "You're part of the flock now," Shepherd said. "Of course the ghost ewes will expect some heavy petting. We still have a way to go before we reach the Pasture in the Sky."

  "We'll get there," she said.

  They moved on, surrounded by the ghost flock.

  Jumper and the girls settled back into their party. But they were interrupted by another visitor.

  "Charon!" Haughty said.

  "I am not bound by the outcome of the Demon challenge," Charon said, assuming male harpy form. "You impressed me at the ball, and I want to see more of you. Will you come with me?"

  "What do you offer?"

  "A perch on my raft as I pole it across the River Styx with loads of souls going to Hades. A lot of smooching between shifts."

  Haughty considered a fraction of a moment. "You know when night comes, I become Hottie. I can't help it."

  "Two for the price of one. I am eager to associate with both of you."

  Haughty looked at Jumper. "It seems like a fair offer to me," Jumper said. "If you like being at the fringe of Hades."

  "Oh, I do," Haughty agreed. "It's a harpy's dream. Damned souls are fascinating."

  "Then go. You too deserve happiness."

  "Thank you." Then, to Charon. "Lead the way, O foul bird! We're going to H**l together."

  They spread their wings and flew away.

  "And now we are three," Dawn said. "Since the mission is lost anyway, I have another errand I would like to accomplish."

  "Errand?" Jumper asked.

  "To find a mortal prince for Eris."

  "But that was only if we completed the mission."

  "But I think it is not forbidden if we don't. Eris is deserving; I want to help her if I can."

  "So do I," Jumper agreed.

  She gazed at him, surprised. "Jumper! You've got a thing for her!"

  He had to confess it. "Foolish, I know. But when she danced with me, spider style, I felt she really understood me. I know I'm destined to be Sharon's plaything, but if I had any choice in the matter, I'd be Eris's plaything instead."

  "Then maybe you don't want me to find her a prince."

  "No, do find her a prince, if you can do it without making your ultimate sacrifice. I couldn't help her anyway, and I want her to be happy. At least some good might come of this failure."

  "You have a generous nature. So be it." Dawn nodded to her sister, and walked away.

  "Ultimate sacrifice?" Eve asked.

  "Dawn's ready to convert to male and be a prince, if that's the only way."

  Eve was amazed. "I never suspected! My sister has more gumption than I thought."

  Anne was finishing the last of the pies. "I don't know anything about it, but you folk seem to have had an interesting history," she said. "Thank you for the food. I think it is helping get me back into shape."

  She was right: her upper and lower sections were now connected by a thin but feasible section of torso. It would take a lot more eating to restore her completely, but it was progress.

  "We have indeed had an interesting mission," Eve agreed, "which is now winding down. Our party was not to celebrate so much as to have one last fling before we faced the fact of defeat."

  "I'm sorry," Anne said. "I had better be moving on." She walked away.

  "Now it's just the two of us," Eve said to Jumper. "Somehow neither the party nor the good fortune of the others managed to cheer me much."

  "That's understandable," Jumper said. "You face an awful future."

  "And you face failure to return to your natural sphere."

  "Actually, this sphere has been more interesting than mine was. My time with the girls, and with Sharon, and with Eris…" He shrugged. "I would have been sorry to miss that."

  "Something is bothering me," she said. "But I can't quite put my finger on it."

  A dim light flashed over his head. "If the mission has failed, why hasn't Demon Pluto claimed you?"

  "That's it," she agreed. "I know he is eager to despoil me."

  "Yet you want to marry him?"

  "It is heaven and hell," she said seriously. "He has wonderful qualities and awful qualities. If I marry him, the wonderful qualities will prevail and I will be a happy woman. But if he takes me without marriage, he won't get half my soul, his bad qualities will prevail, and I will be miserable."

  "I take the point. It is somewhat the way I felt about Sharon."

  "You really liked her. How is it that you suddenly got smitten with Eris?"

  "I never could afford to trust Sharon. She fascinates me, but I don't know what side she's really on. I'm sure with Eris: she wants to marry a prince and escape confinement. That's understandable. So I think I can trust her, even though I know she is a Demon and I am purely incidental to her designs."

  "And she danced with you in spider form."

  "Yes. I really liked that. She seemed to understand me."

  "The girls understood you."

  "Yes, and I like all of them. Phanta seduced me, but any of them could have done so in similar circumstances. So I suppose I'm pretty fickle. I'm really not used to such human interactions."

  "It is the nature of any human man to desire any attractive human woman he encounters," she said. "We all know that, and Dawn and I played on it, flashing you."

  "Yes. But why? I was committed to the mission throughout; you didn't need to strengthen that."

  "We thought we did, so that Sharon could not corrupt you away from it. We may have misjudged you."

  "I don't know. I wish I knew why that cable is so important. I know Pluto doesn't want it restored, but why should the Good Magician care about it? Why should he assign two Sorceresses to help repair it?"

  "It is important," she agreed. "But I don't know why. Now you have aroused my female curiosity. Why don't we complete our trek to it, so I can touch it, and learn all about it? Then at least we'll know."

  "Done," he agreed. "But how can we find it?"

  "I can find it," she said confidently. She touched a nearby stone.

  "Part of this stone's orientation is with respect to the rest of the terrain, and part of that terrain is the place where the cable reaches Xanth. This way." She set off on her bicycle.

  He paced her on his. "It does seem slightly ridiculous, considering that we can't fix it anyway. But I really would like to know."

  "Just as I would like to know why Pluto hasn't claimed me. That suggests that the mission has not yet officially failed. That maybe there is still a chance."

  "If we can just figure it out," he agreed. "Maybe when you touch the cable, you will learn how it can be fixed without our full group. Because I thought that was the definition of our failure: if any one member was lost, the mission was forfeit."

  "Apparently not." She paused, glancing at him. "Maybe it is you, Jumper. You are the one who can't be corrupted away from it. All the rest of us were just along to keep you on track."

  He shook his head. "I don't see how I could be that important."

  "These things aren't necessarily determined by personal importance. You are the one equipped to splice the cable back together. That makes you transcendentally important to this particular mission."

  "Maybe so," he agreed dubiously.

  "We can't reach the cable today. We'll have to spend another night on the road."

  "There doesn't seem to be a time limit. I don't mind traveling with you."

  "And you find me, also, attractive."

  "I didn't mean that!"

  "Unattractive?"

  "No! I mean—"

  She smiled. "Be at ease, Jumper. I'm teasing you. Do you think my panties would have made you react if I were unattractive to you?"

  "No," he agreed, embarrassed.

  "Let's make a night of it."

  "That isn't called for."

  "Let's face it, Jumper. I anticipate an eternity of being a Demon's plaything. I might as well have a session with someone I truly like and respect, before descending into that hell."

  "Oh." What else could he say? "All right."

  Then Sharon appeared. "So you're making out with her, you wretch! Why do I bother with you?"

  Jumper was taken aback only half a moment. "Look who's talking! You're a Demoness, with no scruples. You've been playing me along so that I will do your will, what ever it is." He glared at her. "You can tell me now: what is your will?"

  "I told you: I am mad at Pluto, so I want your mission to succeed."

  "So you will have to marry me and become decent? That doesn't make sense to me."

  "I am so mad at him that I am prepared to make even that sacrifice."

  "If you really feel that way," Eve said evenly, "why don't you marry Jumper now? That will satisfy us that you truly are committed to our cause."

  "You're impossible," Sharon huffed, and vanished.

  "I really can't trust her," Jumper said. "But she does tempt me."

  "Perhaps I can alleviate that. Kiss me."

  "No, you don't!" Sharon said, reappearing.

  Could Sharon actually be jealous of Eve? Or was she merely trying to wean him away from what ever remaining commitment to the mission he had? That suggested again that the mission was not yet completely lost, and that Eve's commitment bolstered his to make it possible. Yet he was unable to see how.

  "I am curious," Eve said to Sharon. "If you are jealous of Pluto's interest in me, why are you trying to break up what ever interest Jumper has in me? If I have a night with Jumper, wouldn't that decrease my value to Pluto, and perhaps make it more likely that he would marry you after all?"

  "You're impossible too," Sharon said, and vanished again.

  "Something is operating here that we don't properly understand,"

  Jumper said. "Now we can't be sure which of us she is trying to mess up. If she wants me, then she doesn't want me with you. If she wants Pluto, then she should want you with me."

  "Which suggests that she wants you, not Pluto," she agreed. "Or that this is what she is trying to make us believe."

  "So we still can't trust her," he said.

  They came to a pathside campsite. They foraged for supper, then stripped and washed in the small lake. He had half forgotten how stunningly lovely Eve was, and seeing her bare again made him react.

  "We could do it right here in the water," she murmured.

  He was mightily tempted, but something stopped him. "No, with regret."

  "Because of Sharon?" she asked.

  "Because of Eris."

  "Ah. I suspect you were ready to love Eris because she had the Demon qualities that attracted you to Sharon, and is more trustworthy."

  "That may be it," he agreed. "I wish…" But he couldn't finish, knowing that Eris would have no such interest in him.

  "We share a situation," she said. "We each want the Good Demon, and don't want the Bad Demon. Even though in my case the two overlap and your case seems hopeless."

  "Yes."

  "Yet it seems it is not yet finished, hopeless as it appears. There may be something we have overlooked. Maybe I'll discover it when I touch the broken cable."

  "Maybe," he agreed.

  They waded out of the water and dried, then went into the shelter for the night. Eve lay beside him, as lovely in repose as in activity. He regretted his decision to pass up her offer.

  She opened an eye. "You sure?"

  "No."

  She laughed. "Let's compromise with a kiss."

  "Yes."

  They kissed, chastely, and she was wonderfully appealing.

  "It's a good thing I'm not my sister. I would know what you are thinking."

  "You know it anyway," he said.

  "We are teasing each other without meaning to," she said. "So let's conclude this appropriately."

  "I don't understand."

  "The bleep you don't." She wrapped her arms about him, half rolled to be on top of him, pressed evocatively close, and kissed him again.

  This time there was nothing chaste about it. "Stop me when you've had enough."

  He was silent.

  There followed a sequence much like the one with Phanta, only more so. Eve clearly knew what she was doing, and had no regrets. "Thank you!" he gasped as it concluded.

  "And I hope this spoils you for Sharon, and me for Pluto," she said, satisfied. "If we lose, they lose too."

  "That's spiteful."

  "Do you disagree?"

  "No."

  She laughed, kissed him again, then got up to clean up again. When she returned she asked, "Was it only for spite?"

  "No."

  "Agreed. Now we can sleep."

  They did. But this time they held hands.

  In the morning Jumper was pensive. "Are you sorry?" Eve asked.

  "About last night? No. About today, yes. I fear we are about to confirm our failure."

  "Which was one reason for last night."

  "There were other reasons?"

  "I really do like you, Jumper, as do all the girls. You are a genuinely decent person. None of us have any romantic future with you, but last night was friendship intensified. No one else needs to know, other than the Demons. I don't believe Eris would mind; she would understand.

  Accept it for what it was, and remember."

  "I do. I will." It was all he could say, being overwhelmed by appreciation.

  They set out on the bicycles, following the path to the cable. At one point there was another crack in the ground severing the path. But this time no harpy was along to carry across Jumper's silk cord.

  "That's farther than I can jump," he said. "We'll have to climb down through it. I can make a web ladder. Or if a wind comes up, I can extend a kite thread and float us across."

  "There's no wind. But I wonder… how far can you jump?"

  "In my natural form, pretty far. That's my specialty. But there are limits."

  "Try a practice jump."

  "Very well." Jumper changed to spider form and jumped alongside the crevice.

  And was amazed as he sailed high and far. "That's farther than I ever jumped before."

  "I felt a certain vigor in my step," Eve said. "We seem to be gaining strength. I don't know why; I can't touch strength and know about it the way I can an object."

  "This makes the difference. Now I know I can hurdle that crack. I will carry a line across, and come back for you and the bikes."

  "I will need another cocoon."

  He had forgotten her fear of heights. "Gladly." He spun one, she entered, and he sealed her in. Then he jumped across, toting a line, tacked it to a tree, returned, and carried Eve across. He let her out.

  She kissed him. "At times like this, I really need to be with someone I can trust," she said shakily, kissing him on his mandibles.

  "Welcome." He fetched the bicycles across, took up his line, and changed back to manform.

  "Maybe the air here is invigorating, so we have more energy."

  "Maybe," he agreed. He did feel light on his feet.

  They continued on along the path. Around noon they reached the Xanth border. And paused, impressed.

  For the forest and fields of Xanth abruptly quit. It was not a gulf or crevice; it was simply the end of it. Jumper was speechless.

  "Xanth is its own world now," Eve said. "It happened two years ago, when a party of folk traveled the entire circuit of Ida's moons and corrected a glitch, separating Xanth from Mundania. So there is nowhere to go beyond Xanth."

  "But we haven't found the broken cable!"

  "We will." She glanced right and left. "That way," she said, pointing right.

  They rode along the edge, beside the nothingness that was beyond the edge of the planet. Jumper hoped they wouldn't accidentally fall off. He had not thought about the shape of Xanth before, and never realized that it was essentially flat. A flat peninsula.

  "No water?" he asked. "I thought there was sea beyond Xanth."

  "There is around most of it. But the water has not yet filled in around the northern border, which once connected to the interface with Mundania. The sea will surely get here when it is ready."

  "Oh." There didn't seem to be much else to say.

  They came to a giant tree that spread half its foliage out beyond the edge. Its general outline was like a huge conical hat.

  "Coven Tree," Eve explained. "Mundane witches used to meet here, absorbing some of the magic of Xanth. Now of course it is out of their reach."

  "But how can they be witches without magic?"

  "They have to fake it. Probably no one believes that they used to have real magic."

  "That's too bad," Jumper said sympathetically.

  They rode on. Soon they encountered a boy and girl arguing. "Mine is better," the boy said.

  "No, mine is," the girl retorted.

  Then the two spied Jumper and Eve. "Hey, you decide," the boy said. "My talent is conjuring things into bottles. My twin sister's talent is conjuring them out again. Which is better?"

  Jumper exchanged a glance with Eve. He was learning the art of this, and she had a beautiful eye, so it was pleasant.

  "Let's see a bottle," Jumper said as the two of them stopped their bicycles and got off.

  The boy brought out a bottle. Inside it was a miniature woman screaming to get out. "You put living folk in?" Eve asked, concerned.

  "Well, she annoyed me," the boy said defensively.

  "Take her out," Eve said sternly to the girl.

  The woman disappeared from the bottle and appeared full size outside it. "That impertinent rascal!" she exclaimed.

  "They are arguing which talent is better," Jumper said. "Conjuring things in, or out. What do you say?"