Yon Ill Wind by Piers Anthony Read Free Book Online Page A

adult.
    The RV started up and moved slowly toward the raft.  It nudged onto the planking, fitting comfortably.  Then David and Karen ran to put the blocks at the wheels so it couldn't roll off even if the brakes didn't hold.
    When they were all safely aboard, the centaurs shoved off.  Then they unfurled a sail and tied it firmly in place.
    The winds remained quite stiff, so this gave the raft plenty of push.  It moved obliquely against the wind, tacking.  The muscular centaurs clearly knew what they were doing.
    Each had his station, whether at sail, tiller, pole, or guard, and was intent on his business.
    “This is a good time to eat,” Sheila said.  “It will take a while to cross the channel, and thereafter you may be distracted by the things of the mainland.”
    Mom recovered some of her normal aplomb.  “Will you join us in the meal, Sheila?”
    “Of course,” the centaur said.  “Let me set up toad stools for you.” She went to a box at one side and brought forth stools that were indeed shaped like toads, and when they sat on them, the stools made “Ribbit!” croaking sounds.
    “Now, that's interesting,” Dad remarked.  “Where we come from, toads are silent; only frogs croak.”
    “Mundania is surely a curious place,” Sheila said politely.  “Our toads accept no such constraints.”
    They ate their interesting meal as the raft forged across the channel to the mainland.  The shoreline seemed to be solid jungle with strange-looking trees, but there was a golden beach.  “The Gold Coast,” Sheila explained.  In due course they came aground, and Dad drove the RV onto land.
    “I will show you to the landing site,” Sheila said.  “It should not be long now before your guide arrives.  Can your moving house travel at trotting velocity?”
    “If it has firm, level terrain,” Dad said.  “This beach seems suitable.”
    “It is at the edge of the Gold Coast,” the centaur said.
    “Thereafter you will use the trollway, which is certainly firm.  I shall run ahead, and you may follow at such speed as your house can manage.”
    They piled into the RV, and Dad started the engine.  He turned west to follow Sheila.  The kids all looked out the windshield to see how it went.
    At first the centaur walked.  As they caught up to her, she trotted.  Then, as the RV caught up again, she broke into a gallop, her hair/mane flying back.  “I wish I could see her from the front,” Sean murmured.
     “You have seen more than enough of her already,”
    Mom replied primly.
    They got going at about twenty-five miles an hour, which seemed to be the centaur's cruising speed.  Soon they came to what looked like nothing so much as a giant pillow sitting on the sand.  Here Sheila stopped, so they did too.
    “My, your house does move well,” the centaur said.
    She was breathing hard, which surely provided Sean with all the view he could have desired.  “I am beginning to suspect that Mundania is not as dreary a region as reputed.”
    “It does have its points,” Dad said.
    Sheila looked at her wrist watch, which turned out to be two eyes painted on her wrist.  They winked at her in what must have been a meaningful pattern.  “Your guide should arrive soon,” she said.
    They settled down to wait for the arrival of the guide.

Xanth 20 - Yon Ill Wind
    Chapter 3: CHLORINE
    Chlorine was enjoying herself.  It was fun being beautiful and smart, in the company of a handsome and smart (but mute) man.  But her enjoyment was fading.  There was no one to see her in her lovely brilliance, and Nimby was more apparent than real.  That was to say, he had the appearance but not the reality of a princely man.
    And he was the cause of her good fortune.  So he didn't really count.  She needed to be among real people, whose admiration and envy meant something.  But she couldn't go to her home village, where someone might possibly recognize her and know her present beauty for a fraud, and she didn't know