Perhaps being a toad would not he so bad. No doubt flies would taste very good, and the lady toads would look as good as human girls did now. Maybe the great love of his life was waiting in the grass, warts and all...
The ambush detail arrived, half carrying a struggling woman. Bink saw with relief that it was not Sabrina, but a marvelously ugly female he had never seen before. Her hair was wild, her teeth gnarled, her body sexually shapeless.
"Stand," Trent said mildly, and she stood, responsive to his easy air of command. "Your name?"
"Fanchon," she said rebelliously. "Yours?"
"The Magician Trent."
"Never heard of you."
Bink, caught by surprise, had to cough to conceal his snort of laughter. But Trent was unperturbed. "This puts us on an even footing, Fanchon. I regret the inconvenience my men have caused you. If you will kindly inform me of the location of the Shieldstone, I shall pay you well and send you on your way."
"Don't tell him!" Bink cried. "He means to invade Xanth."
She wrinkled her bulbous nose. "What do I care about Xanth?" She squinted at Trent. "I could tell you-but how do I know I can trust you? You might kill me as soon as you had your information."
Trent tapped his long, aristocratic fingers together. "This is a legitimate concern. You have no way of knowing whether my given word is good. Yet it should be obvious that I should bear no malice to those who assist me in the pursuit of my objectives."
"All right," she said. "Makes sense. The Shieldstone is at--"
"Traitor!" Bink screamed.
"Remove him," Trent snapped.
Soldiers entered and grabbed him and hustled him out. He had accomplished nothing except to make it harder for himself.
But then he thought of another aspect. What were the chances of another exile coming from Xanth within an hour after him? There couldn't be more than one or two exiles a year; it was big news when anyone left Xanth. He had heard nothing about it, and no second trial had been scheduled.
So-Fanchon was not an exile. She was probably not from Xanth at all. She was an agent, planted by Trent, just as Bink had first suspected. Her purpose was to convince Bink that she was telling Trent the location of the Shieldstone, tricking him into confirming it.
Well, he had figured out the scheme-and so he had won. Do what he might, Trent would not get into Xanth.
Yet there was a nagging uncertainty...
Bink was thrown into a pit. A pile of hay broke his fall, and a wooden roof set on four tall posts shaded him from the sun. Other than that, his prison was barren and bleak indeed. The walls were of some stonelike substance, too hard to dig into with his bare hands, too sheer to climb; the floor was packed earth.
He walked around it. The wall was solid all around, and too high for him to surmount. He could almost touch the top when he jumped and reached up--but a lattice of metal bars across the top sealed him in. He might, with special effort, get high enough to catch hold of one of those bars-but then all he would be able to do would be to hang there. It might represent exercise, but it wouldn't get him out. So the cage was tight.
He had hardly come to this conclusion before soldiers came to stand at the grate, shaking rust onto him. They stood in the shade of the roof while one of them squatted down to unlock the little door set in that grate and swing it up and open. Then they dropped a person through. It was the woman Fanchon.
Bink jumped across, wrapping his arms around her before she hit the straw, breaking her fall. They both sprawled in the hay. The door slammed shut, and the lock clicked.
"Now, I know my beauty didn't overwhelm you," she remarked as they disentangled.
"I was afraid you'd break a leg," Bink said defensively. "I almost did, when they threw me in here."
She glanced down at her knobby knees, showing beneath her dull skirt. "A break couldn't hurt the appearance of either leg."
Not far off the mark. Bink had never seen a more homely girl than this one.
But what was she doing here? Why should the Evil Magician throw his stooge in the den with his prisoner? This was no way to trick the captive into talking. The proper procedure would be to tell Bink she had talked, and offer him his freedom for confirming the information. Even if she were genuine, she still should not have been confined with him; she could have been imprisoned separately. Then the guards would tell each one that the other had talked.
Now, if she had been beautiful, they might have thought she could vamp him into telling. But as she was, not a chance. It just didn't seem to make sense.
"Why didn't you tell him about the Shieldstone?" Bink inquired, not certain with what irony he intended it. If she were a fake, she could not have told--but she also should not have been dumped in here. If she were genuine, she must be loyal to Xanth. But then, why had she said she would tell Trent where the Shieldstone was?
"I told him," she said.
She had told him? Now Bink hoped she was phony.
"Yes," she said, looking him straight in the eye. "I told him how it was set under the throne in the King's palace in the North Village."
Bink tried to assess the ramifications of this statement. It was the wrong location-but did she know this? Or was she trying to trick him into a reaction, a revelation of its real location-while the guards listened? Or was she a true exile, who knew the location and had lied about it? That would account for Trent's reaction. Because if Trent's catapult lobbed an elixir bomb on the palace of Xanth, not only would it fail to disrupt the Shield, it would alert the King-or at least the more alert ministers, who were not fools-to the nature of the threat. The damping out of magic in that vicinity would quickly give it away.
Had Trent actually lobbed his bomb--and had he now lost all hope of penetrating Xanth? The moment the threat was known, they would move the Shieldstone to a new, secret location, so that no information from exiles would be valid. No--if that had happened, Trent would have turned Fanchon into a toad and stepped on her--and he would not have bothered to keep Bink prisoner. Bink might have been killed or released, but not simply kept. So nothing that drastic had happened. Anyway, there had not been time for all that.
"I see you don't trust me," Fanchon said.
A fair analysis. "I can't afford to," he admitted. "I don't want anything to happen to Xanth."
"Why should you care, since you got kicked out?"
"I knew the rule; I was given a fair hearing."
"Fair hearing!" she exclaimed indignantly. "The King didn't even read Humfrey's note or taste the water from the Spring of Life."
Bink paused again. How would she know that?
"Oh, come on," she said. "I passed through your village only hours after your trial. It was the talk of the town. How the Magician Humfrey had authenticated your magic, but the King-"
"Okay, okay," Bink said. Obviously she had come from Xanth, but he still wasn't sure how far he could trust her. Yet she must know the Shieldstone's location-and hadn't told it. Unless she had told it--and Trent didn't believe her, so was waiting for corroboration from Bink? But she had announced the wrong location; no purpose in that, regardless. Bink could challenge her on it, but that would still not give away the right location; there were a thousand potential spots. So probably she meant what she said: she had tried to fool Trent, and had not succeeded.
So the balance in Bink's mind shifted; now he believed she was from Xanth and she had not betrayed it. That was what the available evidence suggested. How complex could Trent's machinations become? Maybe he had a Mundane machine that could somehow pick up news from inside the Shield. Or-more likely!-he had a magic mirror set up in the magic zone just outside the Shield, so he could learn interior news. No-in that case he could have ascertained the location of the Shieldstone directly. Bink felt dizzy. He didn't know what to think-but he certainly wasn't going to mention the key location.
"I wasn't exiled, if that's what you're thinking," Fanchon said. "They don't yet ban people for being ugly. I emigrated voluntarily."
"Voluntarily? Why?"
"Well, I had two reasons."
"What two reasons?"
She looked at him. "I'm afraid you would not believe either one."
"Try me and see."
"First, the Magician Humfrey told me it was the simplest solution to my problem."
"What problem?" Bink was hardly in a good mood.
She gave him another straight look that mounted to a stare. "Must I spell it out?"
Bink found himself reddening. Obviously her problem was her appearance. Fanchon was a young woman, but she was not plain, not homely, but ugly-the living proof that youth and health were not necessarily beauty. No clothing, no makeup could help her nearly enough; only magic could do it. Which seemed to make her departure from Xanth nonsensical. Was her judgment as warped as her body?
Faced with the social necessity of changing the subject, he fixed on another objection, an aspect of his thought: "But there's no magic in Mundania."
"Precisely."
Again his logic stumbled. Fanchon was as difficult to talk with as to look at. "You mean-magic makes you-what you are?" What a marvel of tact he demonstrated!
But she did not chide him for his lack of social grace. "Yes, more or less."
"Why didn't Humfrey charge you--his fee?"
"He couldn't stand the sight of me."
Worse and worse. "Uh-what was your other reason for leaving Xanth?"
"That I shall not tell you at this time."
It figured. She had said he wouldn't believe her reasons, and he had believed the first one, so she wouldn't tell him the other. Typically female logic.
"Well, we seem to be prisoners together," Bink said, glancing around the pit again. It remained as dismal as ever. "Do you think they're going to feed us?"
"Certainly," Fanchon said. "Trent will come around and dangle bread and water at us, and ask which one would like to give him the information. That one will be fed. It will become increasingly difficult to turn him down as time passes."
"You have a gruesomely quick comprehension."
"I am gruesomely smart," she said. "In fact, it is fair to say I am as smart as I am ugly."
Yes indeed. "Are you smart enough to figure out how to get out of here?"
"No, I don't think escape is possible," she said, shaking her head in a definite yes.
"Oh," Bink said, taken aback. Her words said no, her gesture said yes. Was she crazy? No-she knew the guards were listening, though they were out of sight. So she sent them one message while sending Bink another. Which meant she had figured out an escape already.
It was now afternoon. A shaft of sunlight spilled through the grate, finding its route past the edge of the roof. Just as well, Bink thought; it would get unbearably dank in here if the sun never reached the bottom.
Trent came to the grate. "I trust you two have made your acquaintance?" he said pleasantly. "Are you hungry?''
"Now it comes," Fanchon muttered.
"I apologize for the inconvenience of your quarters," Trent said, squatting down with perfect aplomb. It was as if he were meeting them in a clean office. "If you both will give me your word not to depart these premises or interfere with our activities in any way, I shall arrange a comfortable tent for you."
"Therein lies subversion," Fanchon said to Bink. "Once you start accepting favors, you become obligated. Don't do it."
She was making extraordinary sense. "No deal," Bink said.
"You see," Trent continued smoothly, "if you were in a tent and you tried to escape, my guards would have to put arrows in you--and I don't want that to happen. It would be most uncomfortable for you, and would imperil my source of information. So it is vital that I have you confined by one means or another. By word or bond, as it were. This pit has the sole virtue of being secure."
"You could always let us go," Bink said. "Since you aren't going to get the information anyway."
If that ruffled the Evil Magician, he did not show it. "Here is some cake and wine," Trent said, lowering a package on a cord.
Neither Bink nor Fanchon reached for it, though Bink suddenly felt hungry and thirsty. The odors of spice wafted through the pit temptingly; obviously the package contained fresh, good things.
"Please take it," Trent said. "I assure you it is neither poisoned nor drugged. I want you both in good health."
"For when you change us into toads?" Bink asked loudly. What did he have to lose, really?
"No, I am afraid you have called my bluff on that. Toads do not speak intelligibly-and it is important to me that you speak."
Could the Evil Magician have lost his talent in the course of his long Mundane exile? Bink began to feel better.
The package touched the straw. Fanchon shrugged and squatted, untying it. Sure enough--cake and wine. "Maybe one of us better eat now," she said. "If nothing happens in a few hours, the other eats."
"Ladies first," Bink said. If the food were drugged and she were a spy, she wouldn't touch it.
"Thank you." She broke the cake in half. "Pick a piece," she said.
"You eat that one," Bink said, pointing.
"Very nice," Trent said from above. "You trust neither me nor each other. So you are working out conventions to safeguard your interests. But it really is unnecessary; if I wanted to poison either of you, I would merely pour it on your heads."
Fanchon took a bite of cake. "This is very good," she said. She uncorked the wine and took a swig. "This too."
But Bink remained suspicious. He would wait.
"I have been considering your cases," Trent said. "Fanchon, I will be direct. I can transform you into any other life form--even another human being." He squinted down at her. "How would you like to be beautiful?"
Uh-oh. If Fanchon were not a spy, this would be a compelling offer. The ugly one converted to beauty-"Go away," Fanchon said to Trent, "before I throw a mudball at you." But then she thought of something else. "If you're really going to leave us here, at least give us some sanitary facilities. A bucket and a curtain. If I had a lovely posterior I might not mind the lack of privacy, but as it is I prefer to be modest."
"Aptly expressed," Trent said. He gestured, and the guards brought the items and lowered them through the hole in the grate. Fanchon set the pot in one corner and removed pins from her straggly hair to tack the cloth to the two walls, forming a triangular chamber. Bink wasn't sure why a girl of her appearance should affect such modesty; surely no one would gawk at her exposed flesh regardless of its rondure. Unless she really was extremely sensitive, with her remarks making light of what remained a serious preoccupation. In that case it did make sense. A pretty girl could express shock and distress if someone saw her bare torso, but privately she would be pleased if the reaction were favorable. Fanchon had no such pretense.
Bink was sorry for her, and for himself; it would have made the confinement much more interesting if his companion had been scenic. But actually he was grateful for the privacy, too. Natural functions would otherwise have been awkward. So he was full circle; she had defined the problem before he ever started thinking it out. She obviously did have a quicker mind.
