Read xanth 40 - isis orb for Free Online Page B

Mother Nature. Sometimes she wears a highly symbolic veil; there’s a statue with the words ‘I am that which is, has been, and shall be. My veil no one has lifted. The fruit I bore was the Sun.’ Some consider her image suckling her son to be the prototype of the Christian Madonna and Child. Not that this is widely known in Xanth.”
    “That’s amazing! I think I would avoid her if I could.”
    “I hear that bad girls can be more interesting than good girls,” Liz said.
    “But you’re going to be a good girl,” Wira said quickly.
    “Oh, of course, Mom.” But she looked dangerously intrigued.
    “I also don’t know about this box,” Hapless said. “Humfrey said something about the first five entries being the identities of the people I need. That just leaves me confused. How do I find them?”
    “He can be obscure,” Sofia said. “I’ve seen that box before. Don’t do it now, but when you’re ready to travel, tomorrow, open it and there will be a picture of your first Companion.”
    “Okay,” Hapless agreed. “So I’ll recognize that person. But how do I actually find him?”
    “That is easy,” Sofia said. “A path will open up before you. Merely follow it and it will lead you to that person.”
    “A path? Just like that?”
    “An enchanted path that you can follow without danger. That part is easy.”
    “Just don’t step off the path,” Liz warned. “Then it’s not easy. I tried it once, and nicklepedes came after me. I had to summon a big lizard to eat them.”
    “But suppose I need to—” He broke off, remembering that he was talking to a child. “Or are there rest stops?”
    He didn’t fool her or shock her. “Poop in a bag, then throw it across the line.”
    “Oh. Thank you.”
    “Liz is very practical,” Wira said fondly.
    “Himself is pleased with you,” Sofia said.
    “The Good Magician? He seemed impatient with my questions.”
    “That’s his way. He was glad you asked them. It means you have some wit. Not every Quest taker does.”
    “Well, he came to see me, to get me to take this Quest. He told me to think outside the box. I hadn’t done much of that before, but I’m learning.”
    “He did need someone,” Wira said. “He searched for a long time, but none of the regular querents were suitable.”
    “Querent?”
    “A person who comes with a Question. A query.”
    “Oh.”
    “Then he saw you in a magic mirror,” Liz said. “You matched the specs.”
    “I had no idea!” He decided not to ask what specifications qualified him, lest it be ignorance and stupidity.
    But Sofia answered anyway. “He said you have gumption, if only you could find it. That’s what distinguished you from all the others.”
    So when he had in effect told off the Good Magician, finding his gumption, he had won some respect. That was good to know.
    In due course they had dinner, and he went up to his room. It was a nice one, complete with a shower: a little chamber where warm rain was always falling. There was a bowl with a small dipper on the table, maybe for his refreshment. He dipped out some of the sparkling drink, then paused. Should he be thinking outside the box?
    He compromised. He very cautiously touched his tongue to it.
    He was rocked back by a punch in the mouth. Sure enough: this was a punch bowl. A fitting reminder.
    In the morning he joined them for breakfast. Humfrey himself was not there; apparently he did not mix socially even with members of his family.
    He thought of one more question. “You are the Designated Wife,” he said to Sofia. “That implies there are others.”
    “There are,” she agreed. “Over the course of a century or more he married and lost five and a half wives; then the Demon Xanth played a trick on him and gave them all back to him together. But in Xanth there’s a rule: only one wife at a time. So now each of us takes a turn for a month, and that works well. When one of us gets completely fed up with him, the next takes her place, fresh