Heaven Cent by Piers Anthony Read Free Book Online Page A

change to a smaller form,” Marrow said. “The fall should not damage me.”
    Dolph located a small clearing, let go the line, then changed to hawk form and dived down after them. They reached the ground together. Then he resumed ogre form, picked up the line, bunched it together, and gave a big kick.
    The bones flew up and out, and landed back in Marrow's familiar skeleton form. “That is a relief!” he said. ”I can not be harmed by many things, but bone chewing and bone cracking will do it. The harpies would have eaten out my essence."
    “That's what I thought,” Dolph said. He was more shaken by the experience than he cared to admit. Those harpies were vicious creatures, so full of malevolence. Their example even made him inclined to wash behind his ears, because the harpies had ears almost as dirty as their mouths.
    They decided to proceed afoot over the mountain, so that the watching harpies could not intercept them in the air. At least they were across the river!
    Except for one thing: Dolph's knapsack with his clothing and supplies was on the far side. He chose not to speak of this inconvenience, because he knew it was pointless to face the harpies again.
    Dolph remained in ogre form, because this was a strange region and he believed this form was safer. Hardly anyone in his right mind ever bothered an ogre, and even those in there wrong minds were apt to regret it. There were stories about foolish goblins attacking ogres and getting hurled so far that some were still lost behind the sun, getting terribly hot from its flames. Sometimes a large tangle tree would tackle one; there were still some twisted stumps with their tentacles tied in massive ogre knots. Dolph couldn't do such things, of course, because he wasn't a real ogre, but who else would know that?
    He looked around. For a wilderness area, this was amazingly nice. The ground was even under the trees, and there were no bad bramble bushes. They stopped for a drink at a lovely little brook whose water was sparklingly clear. It was like a park—where no park should be.
    Dolph lay down and put his ogre snoot to the water. But just then there was a horrendous scream from upstream. Startled, he jumped up, and Marrow cocked an ear hole.
    The forest was silent. Dolph shrugged and lay down again, ready to drink—and again the scream sounded, worse than before, and closer. It sounded vaguely female, and less vaguely menacing. But nothing appeared, and the forest was undisturbed.
    Dolph decided that he had better get his drink before the thing reached them and attacked, forcing them to fight or flee. A real ogre wouldn't know how to flee, of course, which was apt to make things awkward: if Dolph had to flee, his masquerade would be exposed. He got down a third time and put his ugly ogre puss to the water.
    This time the scream was almost on top of them. A huge bear burst into view, its fur wild. “That's my water!” it screamed. “You can't have it! Get out, get out, get out!”
    A talking bear? Dolph scrambled back to his feet. An ogre could smash a bear, but he was not a real ogre and hesitated to try violence. So he tried to reason with it. “Me want drink; what he think?” Ogres had trouble with pronouns, so me, he and she were about the number they could manage.
    The bear pointed to the brook. Instantly the water turned color, becoming smoky. “You drink, ogre, you die! Now it is poison!”
    How could a bear poison a brook without touching it? But the water certainly looked dangerous now!
    Marrow poked a bone finger into the water. The bone changed color. “Yes, it is poison,” he said. “This must be a vila in bear form.”
    Dolph wanted to ask what a vila was, but to do that he had either to figure out a suitable rhyme, or change to boy form. He couldn't do the first at the moment, and hesitated to do the second while facing a dangerous animal. So he just stood there stupidly, which was easy to do in ogre form.
    “Yes, I am Vida Vila, and this