Man From Mundania by Piers Anthony Read Free Book Online

that's why the Heaven Cent
    brought me here and the magic's working, or they aren't
    here and Murphy's curse sent me awry and it's another
    picklement."
     
    "What kind of curse?"
     
    "Magician Murphy made a curse a long time ago, and we
    don't knew whether it sdll has effect. But if it does, it could
    have sent me to the wrong place, and this could be Mundania.''
     
    "My name is Murphy," Grey said. "My father is Ma-
    jor Murphy, and I'm Grey Murphy."
     
    She stared at him with a peculiar intensity. Then she
    shook her head. "No, it couldn't be. Magician Murphy
    lived almost nine hundred years ago."
     
    "Maybe Murphy's curse sent you to the nearest Mur-
    phy," he said jokingly.
     
    But she took it seriously. "Yes, that could be. It could
    be the last gasp of the curse. So it's not coincidence, but
    it's not where I was supposed to go either. I was supposed
    to go where I was most needed."
     
    "I thought you were supposed to go where the Good
    Magician was."
     
    ' 'Yes. We assumed that was where I was most needed,
    because of his message."
     
    "Skeleton Key to Heaven Cent," Grey said.
     
    Ivy jumped. "How did you know that?"
     
    "I, uh, got that book. It says—"
     
    "Oh, of course. The Muse has them, but someone
    sneaks them out to Mundania every so often. It's a bad
    business, but they can't seem to fix the leak. Anyway,
    Dolph found the Skeleton Key—that turned out to be
    Grace'1 Ossein—"
     
    "Who?"
     
    "I thought you read the book."
     
    "Not that far, I guess. I fell asleep. But I did leam how
    the Good Magician disappeared."
     
    "Grace'1 is a walking skeleton. She's very nice."
     
    "Oh, like Marrow Bones."
     
    "Yes. So she was the Skeleton Key, and she helped get
    the Heaven Cent. So it seems natural that this was how
    the Good Magician wanted us to find him. But if the curse
    diverted me to a Murphy instead of to Humfrey—"
     
    "Maybe the Heaven Cent worked properly, only the
    Good Magician wasn't the one who needed you most."
     
    Her eyes widened. "What?"
     
    Grey gulped. "I uh, really needed someone like you. I
    mean—" He faltered, embarrassed.
     
    "But you don't believe in magic!"
     
    "I wish I did!" he exclaimed fervently. "I wish—I wish
    I could believe in whatever you believe in, so I could be
    wherever you are, and—" But he couldn't continue, be-
    cause he knew he was making even more of a fool of
    himself than usual.
     
    "You needed me," Ivy said, musingly.
     
    "I guess I'd better go now."
     
    "You don't believe in Xanth, so you don't believe I'm
    a princess or that I have any magic," she said.
     
    "But I do believe in you!" he cried desperately.
     
    She gazed at him with a new expression, appraisingly.
    "So it really doesn't make any difference to you whether
    I'm royal or common, or magic or not."
     
    "I wish it did! Oh, Ivy, I think you're such a wonderful
    girl, if only it wasn't for this—this—"
     
    "Delusion," she concluded.
     
    "I didn't say that!"
     
    "But it's true."
     
    That he could not deny. He made a supremely awkward
    retreat to his room. If only he could have found some way
    to express his feeling without messing up!
     
    The computer screen lighted as he entered. YOU HAVE
     
    A PROBLEM?
     
    "Stay out of this!" he snapped, and struck the On/Off
    switch viciously, shutting it down. Then, unable to con-
    centrate on anything else, he sat on the bed and resumed
    reading the novel.
     
     
     
     
    Man from Mundania          37
     
    Chapter 3. Signs
     
    I vy sat and thought for some time. She had been
    so sure that this was an aspect of Xanth, perhaps a setting
    in the gourd, and that Grey was an accomplice in the de-
    ception. The only question was whether it was witting or
    unwitting. He seemed so nice, but of course that could be
    part of the challenge. She had to figure out where she was
    so she could reach the Good Magician. After all, if this
    place was so devious that not even Humfrey, who knew
    everything, could find his way out, it surely