At last Smash slept. He still wasn't used to doing so much thinking, and it tired him despite the amplification the Eye Queue provided. He had never had to work things out so rationally before, or to see the interrelationships among diverse things. Well, one day he would win free of the curse and be a true brute of an ogre again. He slept.
Chapter 6. Dire Strait
Next morning they came up against the barrier Smash had been unable to remember. It was a huge crevice in the earth, a valley so deep and steep that they shrank back from it. It extended east and west; there seemed to be no end to it, no way around.
"How can we go north?" Tandy asked plaintively. "This awful cleft is impossible!"
"Now I remember it," Smash said. "It crosses all of Xanth. Down near Castle Roogna there are magic bridges."
"Castle Roogna?" Fireoak asked. She looked wan, as if she had not been eating well, though she had been provided with all she wanted. Smash suspected her absence from her beloved tree was like an ordinary person's need for water. She would have to return to it soon, or die. She was suffering from deprivation of soul, and would soon become as Tandy had been within the gourd, if not helped. Her rat wounds only aggravated the condition, hastening the process.
"That's right," Tandy said brightly. "If this crack passes near Castle Roogna, you can follow it there!
Your problem is solved."
"Yes, solved," the hamadryad agreed wanly.
Now the Siren noticed her condition. "Dear, are you well?"
"As well as I can be," the dryad replied gamely. "The rest of you must go on across the chasm; I will find my own way to Castle Roogna."
"I think you have been away from your tree too long," the Siren said. "You had better return to it, to restore your strength, before attempting the long trip to Castle Roogna."
"But there is not time!" Fireoak protested. "The moon is waning, night by night; soon the lunatic fringe will sunder, and my tree will be exposed."
"Yet if you perish on the way to see the King, you can do your tree no good," the Siren pointed out.
"It is indeed a dire strait," the dryad agreed, sinking to the ground.
The Siren looked at Smash. "Where is your tree, dear?" she asked Fireoak.
"North of the chasm. I had forgotten about-"
"But how did you cross?"
"A firebird helped me. Because I am associated with a fireoak. But the bird is long gone now."
"I think we must nevertheless cross over soon and return you to your tree," the Siren said. Again she looked meaningfully at Smash.
"We will go with you, to guard your tree," Smash said, catching on.
Tandy clapped her hands. "Oh, how wonderful to think of that. Smash! We can help her!"
Smash said nothing. The Siren had really thought of it, but he was amenable. They couldn't let Fireoak perish from neglect-and she surely would, otherwise. They could certainly guard her tree from harm; no one would come near an ogre.
But first they had to get to the tree-and that meant crossing the chasm-in a hurry. How were they going to do that?
"You chipped steps in the prints-of-wails mountain," Tandy suggested.
"But that was slow," the Siren said. "It could take several days. We must cross today."
They stared into the chasm, baffled. There seemed to be no way to cross it rapidly-yet they had to, somehow. For now all could see how the hamadryad was failing. Fireoak's surface had turned from lightly corrugated skin to deeply serrated bark, from young nymph to old tree trunk. Her green hair was wilting, and the tinge of red was turning black. Her fire would soon be out.
"There must be a path," John said. "If we just spread out and look, surely we'll find it."
That was a positive idea. They commenced their search for the path.
There was the sound of galloping hooves from the west. The group ran back together, and Smash faced the sound, ready for whatever might come.
Two centaurs appeared, moving rapidly. One was male, the other female. Centaurs could be good news or bad, depending. Smash was conscious of his orange jacket and steel gauntlets, gifts of the centaurs of Centaur Isle, but knew that there could be rogue centaurs in this wilderness. What were these two doing here?
Then Smash recognized them. "Chet! Chem!" he exclaimed.
The two drew up, panting, a light sheen of sweat on their human and equine portions. Smash embraced each in turn, then turned to make introductions. "These are friends of mine from the Castle Roogna region." He faced the other way. "And these are friends of mine from all over Xanth."
"Smash!" the filly centaur exclaimed. "What happened to your rhymes?"
"I'm cursed with intelligence, among other things."
"Yes, I can see the other things," Chet said, contemplating the assorted females. "I never knew you were interested."
"We sort of imposed on him," Tandy said.
"Yes, Smash is impose-able," Chem agreed. She was young, so lacked the imposing proportions of her mother; the last time Smash had seen her, she had been playing children's galloping games. In another year or so she would be looking for a mate. He wondered why she was not still in centaur-schooling, as her mother was very strict about education. "We came here to do the same."
"The same?" Smash asked. "We're traveling north."
"Yes," Chem said. "Good Magician Humfrey told me where to intercept you. You see, I'm doing a thesis on the geography of uncharted Xanth, completing my education, but my folks won't let me travel alone through that region, so-"
"And so I escorted my little sister this far," Chet finished. He was a handsome centaur, with noble features, a fine coat, and excellent muscles on both his human and equine portions. But a purple scar marred his left shoulder, where a wyvem had once bitten him, causing serious illness. "I know she'll be safe with you. Smash. You're a big ogre now."
"Safe? We're about to try to cross this gulf!" Smash protested. "And we don't know how."
"Oh, yes. The Gap Chasm. I brought you a rope." Chet presented a neat coil. "Humfrey said you would need it."
"A rope!" Suddenly their way down into the chasm was clear. Centaur rope was always strong enough for its purpose.
"I'll help get you down," Chet said. "But I'm not supposed to go myself. I have to return immediately to Castle Roogna with a message or two. What's the message?"
Smash's curse of intelligence enabled him to catch on. "A village is about to cut down a fireoak tree for timber. The tree's hamadryad will die. The King must save the tree."
"I'll tell him," Chet agreed. "Where is it?"
Smash turned to Fireoak, who sat listlessly on the ground. "Where is your tree?"
The hamadryad made a feeble motion with her hand.
"This is no good," Chet said. "Chem, let's use your map."
The filly walked over to Fireoak. "Show me on my picture," she said.
An image formed between them. It was a contour map of the Land of Xanth, a long peninsula with the Gap Chasm across its center and the ocean around it. "Show me where the tree is," Chem repeated.