"I appreciate your courtesy," King Roogna said. "But this Castle is as yet incomplete. I doubt it would be of much use to you."
"You deaf, or just stupid?" the goblin inquired. "I said clear out."
"I regret we are not disposed to do that. However, there is some nice level ground to the east that you might use-"
"Useless against flying monsters. We need elevation, battlements, shelter-and great supplies of food. We come in one hour. If you are not gone, we shall eat you." The goblin spun awkwardly about on his ponderous feet and departed.
"Now we have the envoy from the harpy forces," the King said, half-concealing a quirky smile. The oldest and croniest of harpy hens 0apped in.
"I saw that goblin!" she screeched. "You are consorting with the enemy. Your gizzards will bleed for this!"
"We declined to let the goblins use our premises," King Roogna said.
"I should think so! We will use your premises!" she screeched. "We need roosting space, cells for captives, kitchens for raw meat!"
"I regret we can not make our facilities available to you. We are not choosing sides."
That was for sure, Dor thought. Both sides were repulsive.
"We'll claw you into quivering chunks!" she screeched. "Making deals with goblins! Treason! Treason! Treason!" She flapped out.
"So much for the amenities," King Roogna said. "Are the ramparts ready?"
"As ready as possible," Jumper chittered. "The situation is not ideal."
"Agreed." The King frowned. "The rest of you may not appreciate the full gravity of the situation. Goblins and harpies are very difficult creatures to deal with. They are more numerous than humans, and have massed themselves, while our kind is dispersed all across the Land of Xanth. We can not reasonably expect to withstand siege by their forces without the aid of the zombies, and even then it will be difficult. The Zombie Master has been delayed-" He glanced at Magician Murphy. "But is on the move again." He glanced at Dor. "The question is, will he arrive in time?"
"An excellent question," Murphy said. "Shall we agree that if the Zombie Master fails to arrive before the battle commences-?"
The King glanced at the others questioningly.
Dor visualized the battlements. The goblins would have to scale some thirty feet of wall buttressed by the square corner towers and round midwall towers, after fording the deep moat. He couldn't see how they could be a serious immediate threat. The harpies normally struck by picking people up and carrying them away. The centaurs were too heavy to be handled that way. Why, then, was the King so grave? Even unfinished, Castle Roogna should be proof against these threats. A long siege seemed unlikely, because the besiegers would be killing each other off, and running out of food.
"What happens if the zombies don't arrive before the battle starts?" Dor asked.
"It would be a shame to have damage done to this fine edifice, perhaps loss of human life," Murphy explained. "It is only sensible to abate the curse before the situation gets untoward."
"You mean you can call off the whole goblin-harpy battle, this whole siege, just like that?"
"Not just like that. But I can abate it, yes."
"I find that hard to believe," Dor said. "Those armies are already well on their way. They aren't just going to turn around and go home just because you-"
"The King's talent is shaping magic to his own ends. Mine is shaping circumstance to interfere with others' designs. Alternate faces of similar coins. All we have to determine is whose talent shall prevail. Destruction and bloodshed are no necessary part of it. In fact I deplore and abhor-"
"There has already been bloodshed!" Dor exclaimed angrily. "What kind of macabre game is this?"
"A game of power politics," Murphy responded, unperturbed.
"A game where my friend was tortured by Mundanes, and my life threatened, and the two of us were pitted against each other," Dor said, his anger bursting loose. "And Millie must marry the Zombie Master to-" He cut himself off, chagrined.
"So you have an interest in the maid," Vadne murmured. "And had to give her up."
"That's not the point!" But Dor knew his face was red.
"Shall we be fair?" Murphy inquired meaningfully. "Your problem with the maid is not of my making."
"No, it isn't," Dor admitted grudgingly. "I-I apologize, Magician." Adults were able to apologize with grace. "But the rest-"
"I regret these things as much as you do," Murphy said smoothly. "This contest with the Castle was intended to be a relatively harmless mode of establishing our rights. I would be happy to remove the curse and let the monsters drift as they may. All this requires is the King's acquiescence."
King Roogna was silent.
"If I may inquire," Jumper chittered, Dor's web translating for all to hear. "What would be the long-range consequence of victory by Magician Murphy?"
"A return to chaos," Vadne replied. "Monsters preying on men with impunity, men knowing no law but sword and sorcery, breakdown of communications, loss of knowledge, vulnerability to Mundane invasions, decrease of the importance of the role of the human species in Xanth."
"Is this desirable?" Jumper persisted.
"It is the natural state," Murphy said. "The fittest will survive."
"The monsters will survive!" Dor cried. "There will be seven or eight more Mundane Waves of conquest, each with awful bloodshed. The wilderness will become so dense and horrible that only spelled paths are safe for people to travel. Wiggles will ravage the land. There will be fewer true men in my day than there are in yours-" Oops. He had done it again.
"Magician, exactly where are you from?" Vadne demanded.
"Oh, you might as well know! Murphy knows."
"And did not tell," Murphy said.
"Murphy has honor, once you understand his ways," Vadne said, glancing at the Magician obliquely. "I once sued for his hand, but he preferred chaos to an organized household. So I am without a Magician to marry."
"You sought to marry above your station," Murphy told her.
Vadne showed her teeth in a strange crossbreed of snarl and smile. "By your definition, Magician!" Then she returned to Dor. "But I let my passion override me. Where did you say you were from, Magician?"
Dor suddenly understood her interest in him-and was glad he could prove himself ineligible. It would be as easy to deal with Helen Harpy as with this woman, and for similar reason. Vadne was no soft and sweet maid like Millie; she was a driven woman on the prowl for a marriage that would complete the status she craved. "I am from eight hundred years hence. So is Jumper."
"From the future!" King Roogna exclaimed. He had stayed out of the dialogue as much as possible, giving free rein to the expression of the others, but this forced his participation. "Exiled by a rival Magician?"
"No, there is no other Magician in my generation. I am on a quest. I-I think I'm going to be King, eventually, as you surmised before. The present King wants me to have experience." Obviously King Roogna had not discussed Dor's situation with anyone else, letting Dor present himself in his own way. More and more, Dor was coming to appreciate the nuances of adult discretion. It was as significant as much in what it did not do as in what it did do. "I'm only twelve years old, and-"
"Ah-you are in a borrowed body."