"Maybe the ceiling?" Pia asked.

Justin looked up. "I fear it is just beyond my reach."

"And mine, certainly," she said, for he was substantially taller than she. "But I could check it if you lifted me "

"I suppose I could do that," he said doubtfully.

She had a notion why. "You don't want to pick up a girl who's not Breanna. It would seem too friendly."

"This is an accurate observation."

"Well, you could carry me without picking me up."

"I don't understand."

"Let me ride on your shoulders."

"Oh." He seemed not wholly relieved.

"We do have a job to do," she reminded him.

He squatted down beside the wall, and she mounted his shoulders, putting her legs down in front. "You clasp my knees, so my hands are free to reach up."

He rose to his feet, somewhat unsteadily, putting his hands on her knees. She in turn clasped his neck with her thighs. Her dread panties were now in contact with his head, but he couldn't see them, so didn't freak out. It was possible to get around some of Xanth's magical effects, she realized.

He walked, and she reached sliding her fingers along the smooth ceiling. It was solid throughout: no illusion covered it. When they completed the circuit, they knew that they had failed.

"Squat down so I can dismount," she told him.

Justin just stood there.

"Or lean over so I can jump down." she said.

He did not react.

What was the matter? Couldn't he hear her? She realized that he hadn't said a word since they started the ceiling search.

Then she caught on: her panties were against his ears, or close enough so that he could hear their faint rustling. They had freaked out his hearing.

She wedged her hands down to cover his cars, breaking the contact. "Get down." she said, loudly enough to he heard through the barrier.

"Certainly." He got down, and she climbed off.

"Well, we haven't gotten far," she said. "There just doesn't seem to he any waiy a minute we didn't cheek the pictures. There could he a pa.s.sage there."

"Perhaps so." he agreed, though he sounded weary.

They entered the mountain scene again, this time checking the side walls. There was nothing. They went to the next scene and checked similarly. Nothing.

"I'm getting depressed," Pia said. "But we'd better check the rest." They checked the next three, and found nothing. One more failure and they would be done.

Resigned, Pia entered the Hooded scene-and found a gap in the wall. "Justin!" she shrieked. "I've found it!"

He made his way to her, and felt the wall. "Dear girl, you are correct." he said, "There is an aperture."

It was about head height on her. Justin boosted her up and she cradled into it. In a moment she was beyond the illusion, and saw that she was in a short tunnel leading gradually down. The sides of it glowed faintly, so she wasn't blind. "Give me a moment to get clear, then follow," she called back. She needed that moment, because she was on her hands and knees, and he would freak out if she didn't get her panties out of sight first.

"My hands seem to have gone numb," he said.

They must have touched her panties during the boost. This was multimedia magic! "Flex your fingers," she called. "They'll recover in a moment."

She reached the base of the curve, and the tunnel debouched into another full sized pa.s.sage below. "Okay, come on," she called.

Justin scrambled into the tunnel and crawled down toward her. Soon he stood beside her. "This certainly seems to he an avenue," he agreed, looking around. "It must pa.s.s under the inner pa.s.sage, going toward the center of the circles. That would seem to be where the answer to our question lies."

"Yes Let's find it Then we can tell the others, and maybe finally get our night's rest."

"That would he eminently satisfactory."

The pa.s.sage sloped downward, and at the base there was water. It wasn't illusion: it seemed to be ground water that had seeped in and flooded the floor. It wasn't deep; they sloshed through it and come out the other side.

They came to a large chamber, whose ceiling was supported by a number of thick columns. The columns were square, rather than round. The chamber seemed to be curved: in fact it was like the two pa.s.sages, circling around a huge central pillar. This was the true center of the establishment.

"What's this place?" Pia asked, impressed by its magnitude.

"Why. I suspect these are square roots," Justin said. awed. "Cube roots, more accurately. And that this must be a tree."

"A tree?"

"A very large, very special tree. In fact, I believe this is the Coventree."

"The what?"

"It is largely isolated from the regular forests, but has remarkable properties. I know of it only by reputation, but believe the identification is secure. This would be its root system."

Pia looked around with a new appreciation. "All these columns- roots."

"And the center is the main root."

"So it's a big tree. So what?"

"The Coventree has the power of illusion. Were it human, it would perhaps rival the Sorceress Iris in that respect. That explains why we did not see it in the light of day; it's enormous upper girth was concealed by illusion. But because it is vegetable, it is not considered to be a Magician. Still, it is a plant well worthy of respect."

"By other plants, maybe," she agreed cynically. "Other trees. But-" Then she made a connection "You were a tree for a long time. That's why you relate."

"True. I have learned appreciation for the way of trees. Yet by what coincidental chance I should find myself here escapes me."

Another bulb flashed over her head. "That spook who called us this way-it was you it really wanted!"

"Me?"

"Maybe it couldn't reach you directly, so it lured us instead, knowing you would follow. Because you understand trees. You relate."

"Dear girl. I believe you are correct!"

"Everything was illusion, including the copy of Breanna Except the path-and maybe the other plants cooperated to make that. To get us here-and you here. And now you're here."

"But why would an important tree like this want my presence?"

"Maybe you should ask it."

"But I can't just ask a tree something. Trees don't speak. Not even this one "

"That spook who lured us spoke." But Pia reconsidered. "It didn't say anything meaningful. Just about danger, and hurrying. Like a recording. No intelligence there."

"Trees don't really understand human dialogue. I was a man before I was a tree, it took me some lime to learn the ways of trees, and I think it would take longer for a tree to learn the ways of people. So I doubt that the Coventree would be able to speak to me or anyone in intelligible terms. That is simply not its nature."

"But you do understand its nature." she said warmly. "Better than any other human being. So it must want to talk to you."

Justin considered, "I think more likely it simply wants my understanding. But of what?"

"This is a puzzle," Pia said. "Edsel could figure it out better than I could. But maybe I can get it. This whole place-the castle, the tunnel rings, the pictures-they must all be part of it. Something to understand. To figure out. just as we figured the way to get in here."

"But why would a tree set riddles?"

"Because that's the only way it can communicate. You said it can't talk, it doesn't understand dialogue. But it must have some reason to tell you something. You just have to figure out what it is."

Justin considered. "You must be correct. That is the way a tree would do it. But what message could there be in a phantom castle?"

"That's just to mark the place, so we couldn't miss it. I thought that was obvious all along. But the pictures-it didn't want us to get beyond them until we had truly figured them out. I think the pictures are the message." She remembered how their Companions software, back in Mundania, wouldn't let folk see the Pia guide without clothing until they had demonstrated mastery over the subject matter. This could be similar, in vegetable fashion.

"But they are, taken as a whole, revolting. That rising water-perhaps mobile animals like it, but it is not good for trees "

"Rising water." she echoed. "Justin-that could be it."

"It can't be it. No tree would want its roots flooded out."

"The tunnel here-it's flooded at the low point It surely wasn't that way when it was built. The water's rising here too, just as it is in the pictures. And that's not good."

Justin stared at her. "This is it." he agreed. amazed. "The water is rising, and drowning out the trees. And n.o.body cares but the trees."

"And the leprechauns, who must have helped with the excavation of this gallery."

"Yes, of course. And with the crafting of the pictures."

Something shifted inside her, and the chamber seemed to change color. "Do you know. Justin. all my life I've been a selfish brat, and it's never made me happy. Now, suddenly, I see a way to do something unselfish. I want to save those trees."

"But no one can-"

"We know what's happening. The snows in the mountains are melting, and flowing to the valley, and it's flooding, and drowning out the trees. They can't stop it, because they're immobile. The leprechauns probably can't go to the cold mountains. But maybe we can. That's why Coventree wanted to bring you here. So you would understand, because you of all people relate to trees, and do something. Before it's too late. And I want to help you. Maybe it will be the one truly decent thing I do in my life."

"But you're Mundane. You have to return to Mundania."

"Yes. So I guess we'd better hurry, and get this done before I leave Xanth."

"I suppose if you insist." he said dubiously. "But this problem may have no ready resolution. The forces of nature may be intractable."

"There must be a way to handle it, or the Coventree wouldn't have asked for help. We just have to figure out how. Now let's go tell the others."

"But they may not agree."

"Yes they will."

"How can you be certain of that?"

"Because Edsel will do it if I ask him to, and with the two of us in it, you two Companions have to tag along to make sure we don't get in trouble we can't handle."

"You seem truly determined."

"I truly am. This is my one chance "

He nodded. "In that case, I feel free to say that I am very much in accord. The thought of trees suffering unnecessarily is intolerable to me, and I wish to do all that I can to alleviate their distress."

"Why didn't you say so before?"

"Because it was not my province to direct your tour of Xanth, only to facilitate it. A mission like this is well beyond the parameters of my a.s.signment."

"Let me see if I have it straight," she said. "You couldn't ask it, but you can support it."

"Exactly."

"You're so archaically ethical that you couldn't even hint at what you wanted."

"True."

"I think it's a pleasure to know, you Justin. Maybe the decade will come when I'll be able to be like that. But right now I'm simply not up to it. I have to go for what I want."

"I would not presume to criticize your policy."

"I can see what Breanna likes in you."

He smiled abashedly "Then you are able to perceive this more clearly than I can. She is such a wonderful girl, but I am ordinary. There are times when it is all I can do to avoid-" He hesitated. "Touching her."

Pia considered. He evidently didn't realize that she and Edsel knew about this. He hadn't touched Breanna, technically; she had held his hands "I think she's more touchable than you think."

"But she is too young!"

Pia, flush with the joy of her decision to do something truly decent for a change, realized that there was a bit more she could do. "Justin, things have changed in the last century, in Xanth as well as Mundania. Okay, so maybe the Adult Conspiracy stops you from going all the way Yet. But there is an in-between stage, and you should pa.s.s through it before the Conspiracy ends. So you're not caught flat fooled, as it were, when the time comes. I mean, you don't climb a mountain in one giant step, do you1? You do it in easy stages."