A Spell for Chameleon (Xanth 1) by Piers Anthony Read Free Book Online Page A

records of them all. Since the Shield and the Covenant, things have quieted down; the Waves were terrors."
    "Not the Firstwavers!" Bink said loyally. "We were peaceful."
    "That's what I mean. You are peaceful now, except for a few of your young hoodlums, so you assume your ancestors were peaceful then. But my ancestors found it otherwise. They would have been happier had man never discovered Xanth."
    "My teacher was a centaur," Bink said. "He never said anything about--"
    "He'd have been fired if he had told you the truth."
    Bink felt uneasy. "You're not teasing me, are you? I'm not looking for any trouble. I have a very curious mind, but I've already had more trouble than I care for."
    She turned her head around to fix him with a gentle stare. Her torso twisted from the human waist to facilitate the motion. The torque was impressive; her midsection was more limber than that of a human girl, perhaps because it was harder for a centaur to turn her whole body around. But if she had a human lower section to match the upper section, what a creature she would be!
    "Your teacher didn't lie to you. A centaur never lies. He merely edited his information, on orders from the King, so as not to force on the impressionable minds of children things their parents did not want them to hear. Education has ever been thus."
    "Oh, I wasn't implying any slight on his integrity," Bink said quickly. "I liked him, as a matter of fact; he was the only one who didn't get fed up with all my questions. I learned a lot from him. But I guess I didn't ask about history much. I was more preoccupied with something he couldn't tell me--but at least he did tell me about the Magician Humfrey."
    "What is your question for Humfrey, if I may ask?"
    What difference did it make? "I have no magic," he confessed. "At least, I seem to have none. All through my childhood I was at a disadvantage because I couldn't use magic to compete. I could run faster than anybody else, but the kid who could levitate still won the race. Stuff like that."
    "Centaurs get along perfectly well without magic," she pointed out. "We wouldn't take magic if it were offered."
    Bink did not believe that, but did not make an issue of it. "Humans have a different attitude, I guess. When I got older, it got worse. Now I will be exiled if I don't show some magic talent. I'm hoping Magician Humfrey can--well, if I do have magic, it means I can stay and marry my girl and have some pride. Finally."
    Cherie nodded. "I suspected it was something like that. I suppose if I were in your situation I could choke down the necessity of having magic, though I really think your culture's values are distorted. You should base your citizenship on superior qualities of personality and achievement, not on--"
    "Exactly," Bink agreed fervently.
    She smiled. "You really should have been a centaur." She shook her head so that her hair flung out prettily. "You have undertaken a hazardous journey."
    "Not more hazardous than the one to the Mundane world that will otherwise be forced on me."
    She nodded again. "Very well. You have satisfied my curiosity; I'll satisfy yours. I'll tell you the whole truth about the human intrusion into Xanth. But I don't expect you to like it much."
    "I don't expect to like the truth about myself much," Bink said ruefully. "I might as well know whatever there is to know."
    "For thousands of years Xanth was a comparatively peaceful land," she said, assuming the somewhat pedantic tone he remembered from his school days. Probably every centaur was at heart a teacher. "There was magic, very strong magic--but no unnecessary viciousness. We centaurs were the dominant species, but, as you know, we have absolutely no magic. We are magic. I suppose we migrated here from Mundania originally--but that was so long ago it is lost even to our records."
    Something tripped over in Bink's mind. "I wonder if that really is true--about magic creatures not being able to work spells? I saw a chipmouse conjure a