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over."
     
    "I shall hang on to that hope," he said ruefully.
     
    "Excellent.   Now it is time to see Humfrey."
     
    "I will take him there," Wira said.   Gary had forgotten she was there.
     
    He followed the young woman up endlessly winding stairways until they reached an obscure chamber buried deep within the castle.   A gnomish man sat at a desk, poring over a monstrous tome.   This was the Good Magician Humfrey; it could be no other.   He looked about a hundred years old.
     
    "Father Humfrey, here is Gary Gargoyle," Wira said.
     
    "Well, let's hear your Question," the gnome grumped.
     
    "How can I more readily purify the water?"
     
    "Get a philter." The face returned to the tome.
     
    "But-"
     
    "Now don't try to argue with him." Wira said urgently.   "That only makes him grumpier."
     
    "But I have no idea where-"
     
    "Ask Hiatus," Humfrey said without looking up from the page.
     
    "Who is Interruption?" Gary asked as Wira guided him back down the tortuous stairway.
     
    "Hiatus.   He's Lacuna's twin brother.   He grows noses and things on surfaces.   He must know where the philter is."
     
    "But how can I find it, when I have to tutor this child?" he asked plaintively.
     
    "Take her with you!" the Good Magician's annoyed voice floated after them.
     
    "I suppose I can do that," Gary agreed.   "But this still seems perplexingly confused."
     
    "Things usually work out in the end," Wira said reassuringly "Somehow.   Even if coincidence, chance, and common sense have to be inordinately strained."
     
    Gary hoped that was the case.   Once more he wished that the demoness had left him alone.   His life had been simple; now it was unduly complicated.   But he also had to admit that it had been boring, and now it was interesting.
     
     
     
    3
     
    IRIS
     
    Gary found himself outside the castle, with no idea where to go next.   In the confusion of the Good Magician's grudging bits of Answer, Gary had forgotten to get lesser information he needed.   Such as how to find Magician Trent or the Sorceress Iris.
     
    He gazed at the moat and the mixed terrain beyond.   Would he have to find his way out as deviously as he had found his way in? And then search for the people he needed? It was all so confused.
     
    "You look extremely perplexed," someone said behind him.   "I love that in a creature."
     
    Gary didn't bother to look, because he recognized the voice.   "Shape up or ship out, Mentia," he said gruffly.
     
    A small ragged brown cloud drifted into his field of vision.   "How did you know I was out of shape?" the demoness asked, disgruntled.
     
    "I don't care about your physical shape," he said.   "I just mean that if you're not here to help, I don't want to bother with you.   I have enough problems already, thanks to your interference."
     
    "My interference!" the cloud said, forming into a huge smoky exclamation point.   "Is this the thanks I get for trying to help you?"
     
    "You want thanks? Here it is.   Thank you for not smoking in my presence."
     
    The smoke solidified into the demoness' supposedly natural human aspect.   "Are you really annoyed with me?" she asked, looking woebegone.
     
    Gary knew it was an act, but fell for it anyway.   "I guess not.   I know you thought you were trying to help me.   But now I'm stuck not knowing where to go, and not only am I far from my river, I owe the Good Magician a Service.   I wish I'd never met you."
     
    Mentia sighed.   "I guess it was sort of crazy to think you'd be grateful.   But I'm a crazy creature.   Maybe I should help you some more."
     
    "No!" he cried, alarmed.
     
    "Not even if I showed you how to find Magician Trent?"
     
    "Not even-" He paused.   "You'd do that?"
     
    "And the Sorceress Iris too," she said sweetly.   "If that would make you feel good about me."
     
    "Why should you care how I feel about you?"
     
    "I shouldn't.   But I'm a bit crazy, as you know.   I'm not a bad creature, and you're an