Xone Of Contention by Piers Anthony Read Free Book Online Page B

had a vaguely archaic mode of speaking that made him sound much older than he was. Except that he was much older, she remembered; he had taken youth potion. So he was after all in synch. But why was young Breanna so taken with the man?
    “How do I change my future?” she asked.
    “I should suppose that the mere decision to take a different course would be effective. A person's future is naturally determined by his choices in the present.”
    “All right. I'll do something else.” Pia concentrated, determined to do something else.
    But the vision of the future did not change.
    They pondered that, but none of them could figure out how she could change her future if it refused to be changed. “I suspect we shall simply have to wait until we arrive at that point,” Justin said. “Then perhaps we can estimate how we might have changed it, and what might be effective thereafter.”
    That seemed to cover it. They walked on down the path “We don't have much of an agenda,” Breanna said. “We thought the first day you'd just want to see the local sights. Then tomorrow, maybe we can visit Castle Roogna.”
    Edsel perked up. “I'm not much on the geography of Xanth. But isn't Castle Roogna south of the Gap Chasm?”
    “For sure. Chlorine arranged for a roc bird to carry us there. It should be a nice trip.”
    “That's tomorrow?” Pia asked. “Is Castle Roogna by the shore?”
    “No, it's inland.”
    “Then why am I seeing the shore, tomorrow?”
    That made the girl paused. “Gee. I don't know. Unless maybe we ask the roc to take us to the Isle of View or something.”
    “The what?”
    “It's an island named View. Very romantic. Prince Dolph and Princess Electra got married there.” Breanna smiled. “I hear it was quite an event, because neither one of them knew how to signal the stork. But they must have figured it out because the stork delivered twins.”
    “I wonder if there's an Isle of View II,” Edsel mused, his tone indicating that this was supposed to be funny. “For the second time around.”
    Pia figured it out. Isle of View I Love You. And I Love You Too. Romantic by definition. She didn't want to go there with Edsel; he would get ideas. So she would insist on the original tour, to that castle.
    She looked at the future again. It hadn't changed. They were still wandering along that stupid shore.
    “There's a sign,” Edsel said, looking ahead.
    The sign said RES PLING-BOXING-SOCKER. An arrow indicated another side path.
    “That's probably not—” Breanna began. But Edsel was already heading down it.
    “He's like that,” Pia said with resignation. “Impulsive to a fault.”
    Breanna shrugged. “The side path's enchanted, so it should be safe. But these diversions aren't always what you expect.”
    “This is true,” Justin remarked.
    They followed Edsel down the path. They came to a region where several men. women, and children were lying on the ground. They weren't sleeping, just lying.
    “You folk okay?” Edsel asked.
    “Of course,” the nearest man said. “We are restling.”
    “Wrestling?”
    “Restling. We are finding out who can laze around the longest. The winner gets to do it again tomorrow.”
    “As we said,” Breanna murmured.
    But Edsel was already going on to the next. This turned out to be a group of people making boxes as quickly as they could. Boxing.
    “Have you seen enough?” Pia asked in a moderately withering way.
    “The Socker should be better.” he said, moving on.
    It wasn't. People were hurling stinking used socks at each other. The winner was evidently the one who could overcome the others with the intoxicating fumes. Several people were gasping on the ground, and others had purple faces.
    “Go ahead, get in the contest, Ed,” Pia suggested sweetly “You could win hands down. Or maybe feet down.”
    He shot her a dark look. “You shouldn't try humor; it's not your forte.”
    But both Breanna and Justin seemed to be possessed of aspects of a smile.
    They