Read Luck of the Draw (Xanth) for Free Online

ordinary folk can’t,” she agreed.
    “So I’ll use it in the field,” he said. “It’s really nice to have this bit of Mundania with me.”
    “Let me fetch a carpet, and we will head out punning,” Mindy said. “Wait here.” She hurried back into the castle.
    “What use would a castle carpet be out in the field?” Bryce asked.
    “Woof.”
    “You will see,” Rachel translated, amused. There must have been an explanatory paragraph in that single woof.
    In three and a half moments Mindy was back, floating about a yard above the ground. She was sitting on a small carpet that seemed to move under its own power. Tweeter Bird was perched on her shoulder.
    “A magic flying carpet!” Bryce exclaimed.
    “I’m Mundane,” Mindy reminded him. “I don’t have magic of my own. Maybe eventually I will, but for now I have to borrow magic to get along. Princess Dawn lets me use it for punning.”
    “I see,” Bryce said, impressed anew.
    “You will need a pun bag,” she said, handing him a cloth bag with a drawstring closure. There were several more piled on the carpet.
    “Thank you.” He put the bag in one of the panniers at the rear of the trike.
    “Show the way, Tweeter,” Mindy said.
    “Tweet.” The bird flew up, spiraled several times, then oriented on a distant patch of trees.
    “You don’t know where the puns are?” Bryce asked. “I thought you had been doing this before.”
    “Yes, and yes. We have been punning every day, but each day we have to explore anew to locate the thickest pun fields.”
    “Oh—because you deplete an area and have to move on?”
    “No.”
    “Because the pun fields move?”
    “No.” She was amused.
    Faintly annoyed, he let it go. He would surely find out soon enough.
    Tweeter returned. “Tweet!”
    “Oh, no,” Mindy said. “That bad?”
    “Tweet,” the bird agreed.
    She sighed. “We’ll just have to get on it. Lead on, Woofer.”
    Woofer bounded out in the direction from which Tweeter had returned. Mindy’s carpet followed. Bryce and Rachel paced her.
    “I feel there is something I should tell you,” Mindy said as she floated beside him. “I don’t really belong here.”
    “Neither do I, of course. Were you summoned by a Demon also?”
    “No. I committed suicide.”
    “You what?”
    “Self-murder, hara-kiri, seppuku, suttee, croaking—”
    “Metria, get out of here!” Mindy flared.
    Now Bryce saw a small dark cloud pacing them. The verbally handicapped demoness had reappeared.
    “You’re not in or near Caprice now,” the cloud said. “You can’t repel me.”
    “Bleep!”
    “Oh, what you said! And you’re supposed to be a nice girl.”
    “Look, this is not my business,” Bryce said. “Let’s change the subject.”
    “We’d better,” Mindy said. “Look—here come Midrange and Erin. They often help with the punning. It makes it easier when there are supportive friends.”
    “They’re boring,” the cloud said, and faded out.
    Bryce saw the two cats. One was a large dark mongrel male, the other a lean tawny female. They came to greet Mindy and Bryce with a Meow and Mew.
    “This is Bryce, from Mundania,” Mindy answered their evident query. “He will be helping with the puns, as long as he can stand it.”
    Satisfied, the cats moved on.
    “Midrange?” Bryce inquired. “That’s an odd name for a cat.”
    “They were originally three pets in their family, Woofer, Tweeter, and Midrange. As in a mundane sound system.”
    He laughed. “That does make sense.”
    “Then Midrange met Erin, and split. The three remain close friends, however. Now maybe it’s Woofer’s turn.” She glanced across to where the two dogs were running side by side. Rachel was staying close to Bryce, but evidently did not mind Woofer’s company.
    “You were telling me something,” Bryce reminded her. “But I have to say, you certainly don’t seem dead to me. Were you speaking figuratively?”
    “Not exactly,” she said uncomfortably. “It’s that I