There was a dim sound ahead, but it grew brighter as they approached it. It sounded like metal being pounded.

They came to a cabin formed from knotted trees. "That's an ogre den," Nada said, alarmed.

Kim had had more than enough experience with ogres. She looked for a way to bypa.s.s the cabin. But again the jungle closed in thickly, making it impossible to deviate from the path. They would have to chance it. "Maybe those ogres aren't looking for trouble," she said with faint hope.

"Peaceful ogres? That's an oxymoron!"

But Bubbles wasn't barking, and that was a positive sign. As Anathe had shown, not all ugly folk were bad. Anyway, the way she was being channeled here suggested that it was another challenge. So she would just have to handle it. Watchfully.

The sound turned out to be an ogre pounding centaur shoes. These were not like people shoes; they were U-shaped bits of metal. Sparks flew up with each blow, and the metal turned red-hot. There was no forge; the ogre's blows were so hard that the heat came directly from them.

Kim wanted to try to sneak past without the ogre noticing, but knew that the game would never let her get away with that. Sure enough, in a moment the ogre looked up and saw her. "See she!" he roared.

But Bubbles didn't bark, so Kim stood her ground. In a moment an ogress came from the house. Or was she an ogress? There was something exceedingly odd about her, and in a moment Kim realized what it was: she wasn't ugly. She was at worst ordinary. No fangs. No hairy nose. Just a reasonably homely countenance. Kim had heard of only one un-ugly ogress in Xanth, but this one wasn't she. Was it possible that there were two of them? What was ogredom coming to!

The ogress looked at Kim. Simultaneously, Bubbles growled. That meant trouble.

The ogress did not seem threatening. She smiled and stepped toward them. But Bubbles whined and hid behind Kim.

Was this the danger Anathe had warned her about? Was the pretty ogress smiling to cover some sinister plot? What could it be? The woman was making no threatening gestures.

Nada Naga stepped in front of Kim. "Stop there, ogress," she said firmly.

But the ogress didn't stop. She just kept smiling and advancing. Nada, annoyed, strode forward to intercept her. "What are you up to?" Nada demanded.

"I just want to touch you," the ogress said, extending her hand.

"Why?" Nada asked, with understandable mistrust.

"I just have to do it," the woman said. Then she lunged forward, and her hand touched Nada.

Immediately Nada changed. Not to serpent form; she became ugly. In fact, she was as hideous as Ma Anathe. The ogre woman, in contrast, became radiantly beautiful.

"Oh, ugh!" Nada cried, realizing what had happened. She changed to serpent form, but that didn't help; she was an ugly reptile.

Kim now had some understanding of the threat. But she didn't care. "Hey, change her back!" she cried, advancing on the ogress.

"I can't," the ogress wailed. "I want to, but I can't. It's my curse."

"What do you mean, you can't?" Kim demanded. "If you can enchant a person, you can break the enchantment, can't you?"

"No I can't. It is my talent to make others ugly. To take their beauty for myself. I have to do it; I can't stop myself. And it ruins me, because no ogre will marry a pretty ogress. Father has been trying to get me married off for years, but every time I start to get suitably ugly, some pretty girl comes along and ruins it." She broke into tears, which was a decidedly unogrish thing to do.

Kim's mind was chugging along with a high compression ratio. Was this the challenge? If so, there was a way to handle it. Suddenly she knew what that way was.

"Take this," she said, bringing out the chip of reverse wood. "Touch her again."

The beautiful ogress took the chip, confused. She poked a lovely finger at the serpent, as if afraid it would get bitten off. Nada, realizing that Kim was onto something, remained still, and allowed herself to be touched.

Suddenly the serpent was beautiful, and the ogress was mediocre. The effect had been reversed!

"Oh!" the ogress exclaimed, delighted. "What fine magic! What is it?"

"It is reverse wood," Kim explained. "It reverses the effect of your magic."

"You mean that with it, the ones I touch will become pretty while I turn ugly? Oh, this will change my whole life! I must have it. What do you want for it?"

"Oh, I just found it by the path," Kim said. "You can have it. But I can tell you something you might like to do. In there is a woman in a house to the east who is very ugly. She-"

"Yes, Anathe Ma! I have always envied her ugliness."

"Touch her with the chip, and her ugliness will be yours."

"Oh, I will!" the ogress cried. "Father, I must run. But when I return, I'll be truly ogrish!" She ran off down the path. Before long the ogress would be phenomenally ugly, and a kind old woman would be beautiful. It seemed fitting.

Kim picked up Nada's clothes and put them in her pack. Nada continued in serpent form, as there was a male in view.

They paused by the laboring ogre. He ignored them. Bubbles did not seem unduly distressed, so Kim figured he was not a threat to them. She had the feeling that there was more here to be gleaned. This work must be connected to the foundry, and she would have to pa.s.s the foundry.

The ogre was doing impressive work. His centaur shoes were minor works of metallic art, and were surely a great help for those centaurs who required them. But what was there here that might help her handle the foundry?

The ogre pounded. A hot fragment of metal tore free and spun into the ground almost by Kim's feet. She stepped back, not wanting to be burned-then reconsidered, and stepped back to where she was. She picked up two sticks and used them to pick up the cooling metal. It was almost in the shape of a crude key.

A key. Could be. Just as the chip of reverse wood had helped solve a problem, this might help solve another. When she encountered that problem. She had the answer; now all she needed was me question. Maybe.

She found a heavy leaf, and set the key in that. Then she folded the leaf around it, and put mat in her pocket where the reverse wood chip had been. "Thank you, ogre," she said.

"Girl some welcome," he grunted, continuing his labors.

Kim walked on, satisfied. She had the feeling that she was making progress in the game.

But had she taken care of the thing Anathe had warned her about? She wasn't sure.

Once they were beyond the ill-kempt view of the ogre shoemaker, Nada returned to human form. She was completely lovely again. There was no doubt of this, because she was bare. Every charm practically scintillated. Kim gave her back her clothing, stifling another surge of jealousy. Oh, to look like that! "I think I found a way to thank Anathe for her kindness," she said. "Now she will look as nice as she is."

"I'm just glad you had the reverse wood chip," Nada said. "I have no desire to be an unbeautiful beast"

Neither did Kim. But magic wasn't going to make her beautiful. She would always be a distinctly ordinary girl. In and out of the game.

They moved on. There was a sign ahead: FOUNDRY. "I hope this is the last challenge before we reach the Good Magician's castle," Kim said. "I like Xanth, but I'm getting tired of constantly exercising my brain and body."

"It has been wearing for me too," Nada said. "No offense."

"How did you get to be a Companion?" Kim asked. She had read the Xanth books, but couldn't remember that detail. "Did you volunteer?"

"No, I committed an indiscretion in the realm of the gourd, and was required to pay for it in this manner. Jenny is serving her year for the Good Magician, having done a favor for a friend."

"Well, at least you get to stay in Xanth. Dug and I have to leave, when our games are over."

"But you can return to play again."

"Yes. But it's not quite the same. I wish I could live here all the time."

"All Mundanes do."

They crested a hill, and there in the next valley was the foundry: a huge building surrounded by centaurs. Many of them were lying down; others were standing, but seemed uncomfortable.

They approached the nearest centaur cautiously. "If I may inquire," Kim inquired, "what is going on here?"

"We are all foundering," the centaur replied, pained. "Is that not evident?"

"I guess it is," Kim said. "I suppose this is because of the foundry?"

"This, too, should be evident."

"But why did you come here, if it is so dangerous for you?"

"We came to attend Centaur Vention, of course. But a random cursor pa.s.sed, and dropped a cursory curse, rendering our Vention Center into this awful foundry. Now we are unable to get away, because of our tender feet."

"There's an ogre making centaur shoes to the east," Kim said. "Would those shoes help you to walk?"

"Certainly. But none of us can hotfoot it over there, and in any event, there probably are far too few shoes for us. What we need to do is nullify the cursor's curse. Then the foundry will be gone, and we will not need shoes."

"I am sorry to learn of your distress," Kim said. "But I am not sure what I can do about it. It's really not my problem."

"Have no concern. When you attempt to pa.s.s the foundry, as you must to proceed along your route, you too will founder. Then it will be your problem also."

Kim considered that. This definitely sounded like a challenge. She would have to rise to it. "What do you think I can do about it?"

"Since you have not yet foundered, you might be able to find the natural antagonist to the foundry, which of course is the lostwet"

"Of course," Kim agreed. Puns were serious business in Xanth. "The lost-wet would cancel out the found-dry."

"Precisely. Then we would all be free of our founder."

Kim decided to test the extent of this challenge. "On the other hand, I might avoid the whole thing by going back the way I came, and seeking another route south."

"You would have to cut cross-country through the impenetrable jungle," he pointed out. "I suspect you would find that very tiring. Then you would encounter the Big Top, the Gn.o.body Gnomes, and Com-Pewter. I suspect you would rather accept a ride from one of us, bypa.s.sing all those hazards."

Kim saw the way of it. "I suspect I would," she agreed. "Where do you suppose I might find the lostwet?"

"There is a lost wax trail to the south which ought to lead there."

"Lost wax?"

"It was lost in the process of casting the foundry curse."

She should have known. "I shall follow that trail," Kim agreed.

They turned south. Bubbles soon sniffed out the smell of wax. It looked as if a huge vat of melted wax had spilled and flowed and cooled and solidified, forming the path. This would be known as the lost wax process. Now it had hardened so that it was easy to walk on.

At the end of the trail of wax was a small lake. The wax seemed to have flowed out across the surface of the lake, cooling, and finally formed a thin wax seal over it. The seal was very strong, so that they were able to walk out on it without falling in the lake. It was transparent, so that they could see right down to the bottom of the lake.

This seemed to be a flat expanse. At the near end was a smooth slope, while at the far end was a portal, similar to the ones she had used to let the water into the naga tunnel. In the center of the portal was a small keyhole.

Kim brought out the key she had saved from the ogre's work. It was now cool and firm. Could this be the key to that lock? This was the game; it was bound to be the proper key. So she would have to put the key in that lock, and open that portal. Beneath it should be the lostwet.

But how was she going to get the key there? She could see the keyhole, but the transparent wax was so hard that she couldn't scratch it, let alone poke a hole in it. She was being tantalized by a goal so near yet so far. "Do you know anything about this?" she asked Nada.

"I knew there was a challenge here, but not its nature," Nada confessed. "I don't know anything about wax."

It figured. The Companion's job was to get the Player safely to the challenges, but not to solve them. So Nada had braced Anathe when it seemed that the woman was interfering with Kim, but was no help in fathoming this riddle.

"Do you have any idea, Bubbles?" Kim asked.

The dog wagged her tail and started sniffing the waxed surface. Kim wasn't sure that Bubbles had really understood her question, but the dog obviously wanted to be helpful.

In a moment Bubbles stopped. She had found something. Kim checked, and saw a tiny hole in the wax. Maybe she could get her finger into it and pull the wax up, making an access to the water.

But her finger wouldn't fit; the hole was too small. And anyway, the wax was so strong that she would need a keyhole saw to cut through it, and of course Xanth didn't have such machines. So what good was the hole?

Then she considered the key again. It was just small enough to fit through that hole. But if she put it through there, she would just lose it in the lake, being unable to retrieve it. That seemed even more pointless than her other options.

But this was the game. There had to be a way. She just had to figure it out.

Kim strained her brain, but could not squeeze out any useful notion. The key was here, the lock was there, and never the twain could meet, it seemed. Unless- The light of an idea flashed over her head again, but dimly, because she wasn't sure she had the right clue. It was only half a flash, really. She had played with a puzzle in a book once, in which a string pa.s.sed through small holes, and something had to be transferred from one loop to another, when it was too big to fit through the holes. The trick had been to manipulate the string, pa.s.sing it around the object and through the holes, until the puzzle could be solved. Here she had a key, and a keyhole, and a small hole leading to the wrong place; was there a way to get the key to the keyhole indirectly? She didn't have any string, and string wouldn't do the job anyway, but maybe the principle applied.

She lay down on the wax and peered through it, studying the situation. Now she saw that there were a number of bugs running around on the bottom of the lake. They looked like ticks, the kind that had to be kept off people and dogs, but these had to be water bugs, or at least capable of living in water. There were letters of the alphabet on their backs, identifying them. They didn't seem to be doing anything, just moving back and forth in semicircular paths, as if they were pendulums. All of them faced the same way, as if they had fled from the locked portal. When they moved, they didn't turn left or right; they skittered sideways, maintaining their orientation. Every time they reached the end of a semicircle, they clicked. Click-click. That struck Kim as odd behavior, even for such odd creatures.

Pendulums. Clicks. As in big clocks. Making ticks and tocks. So they were ticks, Xanth-style. Kim had read how the Good Magician Humfrey in his youthful days had lived on a tick farm, growing ticks for clocks, and had a real problem when the ticks mutated and made mischief. She remembered how aggravating the cri-tic had been. Could it be that some of those errant ticks never had been run down, and here they were? Just waiting to accomplish something?

The other half of her idea flashed. Maybe she could get them to move the key for her! To take it to the lock she couldn't reach. If only she could figure out how to do it.

She held the key in her hand. Suppose she dropped it through the hole, and simply asked the ticks to move it for her? But why would they bother, even if they understood what she wanted? She had to have some way to encourage them. And there had to be a way, because this was the game.

If they were ticks, where were the tocks? All the bugs were the same; there didn't seem to be any tocks. Where did the tocks come from? She hadn't read of any lock farm. Actually, in a clock, a tock was just the other side of a tick. So were tocks really ticks turned over? If so, there were really tocks as well as ticks.

This was crazy, but maybe it made punnish sense: ticks might not help her, but tocks might. If she could just get them to turn over. The ticks were all facing away from the portal and its keyhole, but tocks might face toward it. So maybe they could take the key the right way.

What could she lose? Kim put the key to the hole in the wax. It dropped through and plinked on the floor of the pool.

Immediately the ticks changed their behavior. They stopped swinging aimlessly, and started advancing on the key. But Kim realized that they would push it the wrong way, away from the lock. She needed tocks to push it the right way.

"Tick-lock!" she cried. But the ticks ignored her.

She realized that n.o.body would respond to a general call. If someone called "People-smeople!" she would ignore him too. But if someone called her by name or description, she would react.

"Fran-tic!" she called. No tick responded. "Fantas-tic!" Still nothing. "Gigan-tic!" The ticks continued toward the key, and the first one was beginning to push the key off toward a trench Kim now saw some distance beyond. If it fell in there, it would never be recovered!