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