He peered down at her. "I say! You're the prettiest goblin I've seen!"

At that point, by sheerest coincidence, a shy fly came by and smacked her fight in the face. Gwenny started blushing too badly to speak.

Che stepped forward. "Perhaps we should exchange in introductions before we part," he said. "I am Che Centaur, and this is Gwenny Goblin and Jenny Elf. And Jenny's cat, Sammy." Sammy was sniffing noses with the stone dog.

"I am Alister," he said. "And this is my dog Marbles. We're going to ask the Good Magician about finding a magic talent for my father. My talent is finding things. I can find anything except an answer."

"That's Sammy's talent!" Jenny exclaimed. "He can find anything except home."

Alister was surprised. "I thought no two people ever had the same talent."

"Sammy's an animal."

"Oh. Then it must be all right. I was afraid we were in the wrong time, or something."

"Stranger things happen," Che said.

"Actually, I was amusing myself on the way, because I know this path leads to the Good Magician's castle. I was seeing whether I could find special things along the way, without deviating from the path. This time I had decided on the prettiest girl in the region. I can see my talent is in good working order." He glanced again at Gwenny.

And she had the tremendous misfortune to get stung by another shy fly just at that moment. Again, her blush drowned out her effort to speak.

Oh, how that embarra.s.sed her!

Then they resumed their walk to the northeast, and Alister and Marbles continued southwest. Gwenny wondered whether they really could be in the wrong time. Wouldn't that be odd, meeting folk who were there some other time!

"Actually, the soldier Crombie finds things, too," Che remarked in an afterthought. "I understand that he closes his eyes, whirls around, and points, and whatever he is seeking is in that direction. But he's pretty old now, so maybe he doesn't do it anymore."

Gwenny finally recovered from her shy attack. How embarra.s.sing to have it happen just then! He had seemed like a nice young man, for a human being. "Maybe it isn't finding that's the talent that can't be repeated," she said.

"Maybe it's how a person finds something. Crombie whirls around, and Sammy just runs; Alister must have some other way."

"That is surely it," Che agreed.

"Meanwhile we had better find a place to camp for the night," Jenny said.

Sammy bounded ahead. Jenny ran after him, as she always did. "Wait for me, Sammy!" she cried, as she always did. But he didn't wait, as he always didn't.

Gwenny and Che were used to this. They ran along after the two. Soon they came to a pathlet to the side, and ran down it. It led to a large spreading tree. Its branches formed a big cuplike center covered by broad mottled leaves. Sammy jumped right up into this cup and stopped.

Gwenny examined one of the leaves. She discovered to her surprise that the mottles were in the form of legible print.

I AM THE MINISTREE.

WELCOME TO MY BRANCH.

"A ministree?" Jenny asked. "Sammy, are you sure-?"

But the cat was licking his paw, ignoring her.

So they all climbed into the center cup. One of the branches extended down to the ground so that Che was able to walk up it without much trouble.

They discovered good fruits on the tree, and found that the bark of the branches was spongy and comfortable to settle down on. A number of the big leaves hung low.

Gwenny picked another and read it.

HAVE YOU CONSIDERED PROTECTING THE TREES OF XANTH?.

She picked another.

OUR MOST PRECIOUS HERITAGE IS OUR PLANT LIFE.

Hm. Were there random messages, or was there a pattern? She picked another leaf, randomly, and read it.

WE URGE ALL FEELING CREATURES TO CONSERVE THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM.

"I think this tree is trying to tell us something," Gwenny said, showing the leaves she had picked.

"Well, it seems to be ministering to us," Che said.

"That is consistent with its ident.i.ty. Perhaps it is also ministering to the environment of Xanth."

Gwenny thought about that, and decided it was all right.

"Sammy was right," she said. "This is a good place to stay. And we should try to preserve the good plants of Xanth."

She picked another leaf.

THANK YOU, it said.

PLEASE REMEMBER NOT TO LITTER.

"We won't litter," Gwenny promised.

Che picked a leaf.

REMEMBER WHAT THE DEMONS DID TO THE KISS-MEE RIVER it said.

"That was a terrible thing!" Che agreed. "We hope the demons learned their lesson."

The tree's leaves rustled with appreciation. It was satisfied that its ministry was effective.

In due course they settled down to sleep, each nestled comfortably on a broad branch. Gwenny took one last look around before closing her eyes.

Che, the youngest of them, was already asleep. Gwenny saw his dream. It turned in the air around him, like a picture projected on him, so that he was both lying quietly on the branch and being active in the dream.

In the dream he was spreading his wings and flying up into the sky. Up, up he flew, gloriously, spiraling in the sunlit air, for it was full day in the dream. He sailed over the ministree and on over the Gap Chasm, which was close by to the north. He felt wonderful; there were little lines of joy and excitement around him, showing his feelings.

Then he looked down and back, and saw the cup of the ministree, where his two friends remained. "I can't desert them!" he exclaimed. He began spiraling down as the dream faded out.

Gwenny was touched. The young centaur had personal aspirations, but he also had loyalty. His dream had shown that more perfectly than words would have.

She looked at Jenny Elf, who had now drifted to sleep.

In her dream she was standing on the ground, holding her cat. "I wish I knew the way home," she said.

Then Sammy jumped from her arms and bounded away.

"Wait for me, Sammy!" she cried, chasing after him.

"You'll get lost!"

The cat leaped through a shimmer in the air and landed in a strange scene beyond it. Jenny followed. It remained fairly dark; the night had not changed to day. They charged through a weird un-Xanthian landscape, where trees were subtly and unsubtly different and bushes were simply not the kind that grew in Xanth. There were two moons hanging in the dark sky. Jenny and Sammy ran up to a huge tree, where several big canine animals lounged. "The Holt! The wolf-friends!"

Jenny cried joyfully. She threw herself among them without fear.

People came down from the tree. No, they were huge elves, with pointed ears and four-fingered hands like Jenny's. They embraced her joyfully.

"Jenny! We thought you were lost! We feared that something terrible had happened to you! We feared you were dead or cruelly hurt?"

"No, I'm all right, I'm all right!" she replied. "I've had the most wonderful adventure!"

"But what is that thing on your face?" one of the adults asked.

Jenny put a hand to her spectacles. "Oh, I got these in Xanth! They help me to see clearly!" Then she stood still.

"Xanth! My friends! I can't leave them! Not while they have such important things to do! And the Good Magician-I have to serve-I promised-"

Then her dream faded out. She was back in the ministree. She, too, was loyal, even in her sleeping fancy. She wanted to go home, but wouldn't until she had met her commitments.

Gwendolyn Goblin closed her eyes, but she felt the tears squeezing out anyway.

Next day they thanked the ministree for its hospitality, promised to treat plants and trees with respect, and set out refreshed. By noon they reached the Gap Chasm. It was as awesome as it had been from the other side.

"But how are we going to get down this clifflike slope?"

Gwenny asked, appalled at the magnitude of the challenge.

"I can make us light enough to handle the climb safely," Che said. "All we need to do is find a section where there are sufficient handholds. It may be tedious, but feasible."

"Why not just jump?" Jenny asked. "It would save us time and scratches."

Gwenny laughed. "That far? We're not crazy!"

"But if we are light enough, we wouldn't land hard enough to hurt, would we?" Jenny asked.

Gwenny's outgoing glance collided with Che's incoming glance. The elf might be right!

"Perhaps we could verify it," Che said.

"How?" Gwenny asked, not at all easy about such a descent.

"We could make the C-A-T light, and inquire the fastest and safest way down. If he were to J-U-M-P-"

Jenny looked at Sammy. "You aren't fooling him. He's been listening in on all our lesson sessions, and probably can spell as well as we can."

"But he's an animal," Che said.

"Sammy, find C-H-E," Jenny said, facing away from the little centaur.

The cat leaped onto Che's back.

It seemed that the centaur had been stung by a shy fly this time. His face, neck, and shoulders turned red.

Gwenny knew how he felt. Sammy, however, looked smug.

They decided to try it. After Che cooled off, he flicked each of them several times with his tail, making them so light that they had to pick up stones for ballast. Then he flicked Sammy similarly.

"Sammy, find the fastest and safest way down into the Gap Chasm," Jenny said to the cat.

Sammy ran along the brink of the chasm. They followed. He came to a smoothly slanting face of rock where a small river crossed on the way down. The river found a rounded channel farther down and happily coursed along it.

Sammy ran away from the river. He stopped at a tree with leaves as big as any member of their party. They were glossy and looked slippery and tough.

"A toboggan tree!" Che exclaimed. "We must pick leaves for ourselves and Sammy."

They did so, carrying them back to the brink.

Sammy jumped onto his leaf, which then overbalanced and slid into the river. The cat rode the leaf down across the rock face and into the channel.

Jenny jumped after him, riding her leaf. Gwenny was next, and then Che.

They were all in the small river, sliding down. It was fun, in its way, but scary, for they were moving very fast despite their lightness. It was the current of the river that was carrying the leaves along at its own pace, not that of their bodies. They clung to their leaves.

The river twisted around, seeking what seemed to be the most devious possible route. It shot through a narrow channel, then paused in a brief pool, then set out again across another slanting stone face. Then it leaped gleefully out into s.p.a.ce. "ooooo!" Gwenny cried with mixed joy and horror. But the leaf landed gently on another slope, and continued down.

Suddenly the river curved and spread out. The world seemed to be set on right angles. Then Gwenny realized that they were at the bottom; it was the normal level land that seemed strange, after the long slide down the side.

They got off their floating leaves and waded to the bank of the river.

They were wet around the edges, but were safely and swiftly down. Sammy had indeed known the way.

The base of the chasm was almost level here. There was green gra.s.s and a number of bushes and even small trees.

There was also a beaten track down the center. They knew what used that: the Gap Dragon.

Indeed, as they spied the track they felt a shudder in the ground. The dragon was coming!

"Get out your pa.s.s, Gwenny," Che reminded her. "We don't want the dragon to get confused and eat us."