She was getting nowhere, and she couldn't remember any more of the ticks she had read about. Then she realized that she had it backward: Humfrey had dealt with all those ticks. She had to address those ticks that had escaped his notice.

She strained her brain. She saw a tick that was somewhat dusky, as if spoiled. Its letter was N. "Necro-tic!" she cried.

The tick paused. She had identified it!

"Necro-toc!" she said. And the tick turned around and faced the other way. She had done it!

"Necro-toc, push the key!" she called.

The tock skittered sideways and reached the key. It made little clocks, rather than clicks, as it moved. It braced its head against the key and pushed. The key moved toward the lock. Kim had found out how to do it. She would get a lick at the lock.

But other ticks were coming to push the other way. One got placed squarely before the key, and it came to a halt. Then a second tick lined up before the first, and the key began to slide back.

Kim saw that one of the ticks seemed a bit doubtful. Its letter was A. "Agnos-tic" she cried, and it paused.

"Agnos-toc. Push the other way!"

The tick turned around and pushed from the other direction. Now it was two to one, and the key resumed motion toward the lock. It was getting close. "Go, go, go!" Kim whispered fervently, urging her team on.

But another tick crowded into the s.p.a.ce left by the Agnos-toc, and pushed the other way. So it was two to two, and the key stopped moving again. Then a third tick arrived, making it three to two, and the key started moving away again.

The third tick was not very active itself, but it seemed to stir the other two up, and they pushed harder. Its letter was C. Suddenly Kim recognized it.

"Cataly-tic!" she cried, and it paused. "Cataly-toc!" It turned around. "Push the key." It pushed.

Now the Necro and Agnos tocks were revitalized, becoming very active. The key moved so rapidly that the other ticks could not catch it, and at least it reached the keyhole of the lock. They pushed it in, and then pushed it around so that it turned. There was a loud clock! sound, and the C fell away, leaving the (c)lock. The lock opened.

The water swirled into it. Kim realized that it was like the lock of a ca.n.a.l, handling water. The water would be held there until it was moved on to the next lock.

As the water drained from the pool, the thin wax covering lost its support. It collapsed, and the three of them had to scramble to get off it before getting dunked.

The ticks and locks and fragments of wax swirled into the lock along with the water. Soon there was just a dry depression there. They walked down into it. It seemed to be nothing but a fairly level region. Where was the lostwet?

Bubbles paused to sniff something. Kim looked. It was a blinking little square or oblong, so small Kim would not have seen it if the dog had not called her attention to it.

She picked it up. It seemed to have no ma.s.s; it was just a tiny manifestation she could balance on the tip of her finger. What could it be?

Then she understood. "It's a cursor!" she cried. "We had to get rid of the water-to get the wet lost-in order to get it. It's the cursor that made the foundry and then got lost in the wet. With this we should be able to reverse the damage it did."

Both Nada and Bubbles looked doubtful, but neither argued. Kim marched out of the lost pool and back onto the lost wax trail, balancing the blinking thing on her finger. They followed.

She reached the place where the centaurs had foundered. "I got it! I got it!" Kim cried, brandishing her blinking finger.

Heads turned to look at her. The male centaurs frowned. The females blushed. What was the matter with them? Centaurs were notoriously unflappable.

Then Kim realized what was wrong. She seemed to be making a signal with her finger. It might not have the same meaning in Xanth as it did in Mundania, but it could hardly be considered polite.

She straightened out her other fingers. "I have the cursor," she explained. "The one to nullify the curse, I think."

"Of course," the nearest centaur replied. "Put it on the foundry."

Kim walked on to the foundry. As she got closer, her feet started to hurt. Her shoes felt too tight. She wanted to get the weight off. But she knew what it was: she was foundering. All she had to do was nullify the curse, and it would go away. So she gritted her teeth and walked on.

The pain got worse, until it felt as if she were walking on acid-soaked pincushions. She couldn't stand it any more. She had to stop.

But now she was close to the foundry. She held up her finger. "Take this!" she cried, jabbing it toward the building. The cursor flew off and struck the foundry wall.

There was a flash. Kim blinked with the brightness of it. As her eyes cleared, she saw that the building had changed. Now it was the Centaur Vention Center. She had done it!

The centaurs got up and trotted in. "Now we shall give you and your Companion your ride to the Good Magician's castle."

"Thank you," Kim said, gratified. She knew she had managed to win another challenge.

Chapter 13: TALENTS.

Dug ran after Jenny, who was running after Sammy, while Sherlock followed them all. Jenny knew enough to hold on to Sammy when telling him to find something, but she kept forgetting. She was after all a child, Dug remembered; he had to make allowances. Certainly her little cat's talent was useful.

The trouble was that the paths the little cat took were not necessarily suitable for people. They soon got tangled in brambles, burrs, and thistles. "Stop, Sammy!" Jenny cried. "We can't keep up with you!"

The cat stopped. Jenny picked him up. She was about to ask him to pick out an easy and safe path for them to follow, when she paused.

Dug and Sherlock were pausing too. They had blundered into an odd section of the forest. It wasn't that the trees were different, just that their arrangement was odd. Instead of being randomly scattered, they were growing in lines and curves, as if part of some huge ornamental garden. A garden cultivated by a giant, perhaps.

"I think we should quietly move away from here," Sherlock murmured.

Dug agreed. He did not like the look of this. He turned back the way they had come.

But there was a commotion back there. Something was following them. "Oops," Jenny said. "I think maybe we're somewhere we shouldn't be."

"My sentiment exactly," Dug said, reversing course. He led the way to the side, trying to avoid the thing behind by going at right angles to its motion. But he came up against a ma.s.sive hedge of woven trees. There was no way through it, and the thorns on the trunks made it impossible to climb up and over. "In fact, I think maybe we're in another challenge." It was the last thing he wanted. He didn't care about the game at the moment; he just wanted to intercept Kim so he could warn her that she had a False Companion who would betray her at the key moment. The longer it took to catch up to her, the greater the risk of her betrayal.

He walked beside the dread hedge, seeking somewhere to hide. But the hedge curved around, herding him toward the center of the tree garden. Meanwhile the thing closed in from behind. There seemed to be no escape.

"All right, already," Dug said. "I'll face it!" It had not been fear of bodily harm that had driven him to hide, but fear of delay. He wanted to skip the game for now, until he could warn Kim, and maybe exchange Companions back so that the liability would be his instead of hers. It was the right thing to do.

They stood and waited for the thing. And Dug was surprised again. Because it wasn't a monster, it was a pair of horses with riders. And a foal. A halfway handsome man rode the stallion, and a lovely woman rode the mare. The man wore a sword. But the oddest thing was the metal. Each horse had heavy chains wrapped around its body. What was going on here?

The man spied them. He waved. "Hi, there, friends," he said in a friendly fashion. "What are you doing in the Garden of Talents? I thought it was closed to the public."

Appearances could be extremely deceptive, in Xanth. But Dug saw nothing to be gained by being too defensive. This just possibly barely might be a chance encounter. So he told the truth. "I am Dug. I am playing in a game. This is Jenny Elf, my Companion, and this is Sherlock, who is looking for a place for his Black Wave to settle in peace. We strayed in here unintentionally, and wish only to leave it behind."

"The game?" the man asked, his brow wrinkling.

"The demons are running it," Jenny explained.

The woman took an interest. "Then it must be fun." She turned to the man. "Let's learn more of this, Jordan."

The man was amenable. "Okay." He jumped down from his horse, while the woman floated down. He strode forward. "I'm Jordan the Barbarian. My talent is to heal quickly. This is my wife, Renee. Or Threnody, if you like that better. She's half demon. These are our friends the ghost horses: Pook, Peek, and Puck." The stallion, mare, and foal nodded their heads in turn when named, showing that they understood human dialogue.

"Oh, I know of you," Jenny said. "I learned about it in centaur school. You came from more than four hundred years ago, in Xanth's history, and met Threnody-"

"In the year 677," Threnody said. "We had a small misunderstanding, but later we got together again."

"In 1074," Jordan said. He counted on his fingers. "Eighteen years ago. We've been happily exploring the wilderness ever since. And whatever." He pinched Threnody's well-rounded bottom.

"There's a certain charming naturalness about barbarians," Threnody said, smiling as she kicked his shin. "They're so ill-mannered."

"And a certain s.e.xy mystery about demon women," Jordan agreed. He tried to pinch her again, but this time his hand seemed to pa.s.s through her body as if it were smoke.

It occurred to Dug that the two were well matched. Jordan liked a woman who was mysterious and s.e.xy and had certain demonly qualities, and Threnody/Renee liked a man who had few human restraints. She probably didn't give him any trouble about seeing her panties, but she could prevent him from handling her flesh when she chose.

"The demons are running the game," Jenny said. "It's for two Mundanes: a girl who won a prize, and-well, I'm not sure how Dug got in."

"Pirated copy, probably," Dug said. "I should've asked. My friend who wanted my girlfriend got it"

"Pirates, eh?" Jordan said, interested. "They're like barbarians."

"I'm from Mundania," Dug said. "I'm just visiting Xanth, playing the game. But right now I don't want to play it, I want to intercept the other player, Kim, so I can-"

"Wipe her out!" Jordan said, pleased.

"Not exactly. I really don't care about the prize. But-"

"But you like the girl," Threnody said. "So you want to catch her and make like a barbarian." She pinched Jordan's bottom.

"Uh, not exactly that, either," Dug said, privately intrigued by the byplay between the two. "I maybe did something that's going to wipe her out, and I have to warn her before it happens. So it's fair."

"Fair?" Jordan asked blankly.

Threnody nudged him. "You know about fairness. It's in the Barbarian Handbook. Page 432, Footnote F."

He looked sheepish. "I guess I didn't read that far. Barbarians aren't much for books."

"I quote: 'If all else fails, try fairness. Fair women can be very appealing.' "

He brightened. "Oh. Sure. All I need now is a fair-"

He broke off, because she had just drawn a knife and cut off his mouth. Jordan looked surprised. Then he fetched out a big handkerchief, mopped the blood, and gave her a reproving glance. Already his mouth was healing. New lips were growing to replace the lost ones. Well, he had said that his talent was fast healing. He had meant it literally.

"Anyway," Dug continued, refusing to act as shaken as he was by this incidental demonstration, "I just want to get on away from here and on my way. But the big th.o.r.n.y hedge is stopping me. Do you know any way past it?"

"I could phase through it," Threnody said. "I can become demonically insubstantial when I choose. But I don't suppose that will help you much."

"That hedge usually doesn't bother us," Jordan said. He lisped a bit, because his mouth had not yet grown back to full size and flexibility. "But probably you can't get by it. You see, it grows only when it wants to catch someone, and then it grows in a circle, so they can't get out. You have to find a magic talent to get out."

"That's a game challenge!" Dug said. "How could you have encountered it, if you're not part of the game?"

"Threnody told me we might have a bit part to play in a game," Jordan admitted. "I guess this is it. Maybe it will relieve the boredom of being stuck with one woman."

Threnody lifted her knife, but this time he caught her hand, then kissed her with his new-formed lips. Dug doubted that Jordan was really bored.

"Well, then, can you tell me how I find a magic talent? I'm Mundane; I don't have any magic of my own."

"Sure, There's a box of talents in the center. You can't miss it. Only there's a catch."

"There's always a catch," Dug agreed wearily.

"You have to pick out talents blindly. You have to use a talent at least once before you can put it back and take another."

That didn't seem like much of a catch, so Dug knew it couldn't be the whole story. "What's the catch to the catch?"

"Hey, you're thinking like a barbarian!" Jordan said with approval. His mouth was now almost the way it had been before. "Never trust any civilized person. The catch is you don't know what talent you've got, so you'll have trouble using it."

"But it will take forever to guess, without a hint," Dug protested.

"There's a hint," Threnody said. "It's a list of fifty talents. You can check them off as you identify them. If you use up all fifty, there'll be a new list. If you get one that will enable you to escape the garden early, you won't need to return it; it will fade out in a day or so anyway."

So that was it. If he were lucky, and quick to fathom his luck, he could be on his way rapidly. Otherwise he might be stuck for hours. Or days.

Dug turned and walked to the center of the glade. Sammy jumped down to show him the way. The others followed.

"May I pet Puck?" Jenny asked, approaching the ghost foal. "He's so cute."

The chained foal approached her, agreeing to be petted. "Why are they wearing those chains?" Sherlock asked.

"That's the way ghost horses are," Jordan said. "Without their chains they'd fade out. It's the chains that hold them in this realm."

"Wouldn't it be kinder to unwrap them and let them go?" Jenny asked.

"Then what would we ride?" Jordan asked sensibly.

Sherlock and Jenny didn't argue. They evidently realized that there was not too much point in discussing gentle social concerns with a barbarian.

Dug came into the central glade. There was the spellbox. It was circular, with a flat top. Behind it was a billboard, t.i.tled 50 SPELLS.

There did not seem to be any opening in the top. But Dug was getting used to the ways of magic. He touched the top with his hand, and sure enough, his hand pa.s.sed right through it, disappearing beyond, as if the top were a sheet of liquid paint. His questing fingers caught something. He drew his hand back, hauling out the thing-and his hand was empty. But he felt subtly changed.

The others were watching him. "Do you have a talent?" Jenny asked.

"I have something," he said. "I suppose it's a talent. But I don't know which one."

"You can read the list, and try them in order," Sherlock suggested.