"Your spell is ailing," said a woman beside him. It was the old spell doctor, enjoying her unexpected participation in the proceedings. The party was theoretically open to all, but few garden-variety citizens had the nerve to attend. "But it is too potent for me to fix. Are you a Magician?"
"No, just a strongly talented nonentity," Bink said, wishing that were as facetious as it was intended to sound.
She concentrated. "No, I am mistaken. Your spell is not sick, just balked. I think it suffers from lack of exercise. Have you used it in the last year?"
"Some," Bink said, thinking of his recent escape from the moat-monsters. "Not much."
"You have to use magic, or you lose it," she said wisely.
"But what if there is no occasion to use it?"
"There is always an occasion for magic-in Xanth."
That hardly seemed true, for him, here in the palace. His talent protected him from most harm-but so did the favor of the King. So his talent got little exercise, and might indeed be getting flabby. His fight with the animated sword had been the first real occasion for his talent to manifest in some time, and he had sought to avoid invoking his magic there. So his moat dunking was about it. He remained a little wet, but the undersea decor concealed that. Would he have to seek danger, to keep his talent healthy? That would be ironic.
The woman shrugged and moved on, sampling other delicacies. Bink looked about-and caught the ghostly eye of Millie.
He went to her. "How is it proceeding?" he inquired politely.
At close range, the ghost was audible. Perhaps the movement of her white lips helped. "It is so exciting!" she exclaimed faintly. "To be whole again!"
"Are you sure being mortal is worth it?" he asked. "Sometimes when a person achieves his dream, it sours." Was he really addressing her-or himself?
She gazed at him with sympathy. He could see the other guests milling about beyond her, for she was translucent. Milling through Millie! It was slightly hard to focus on her. Yet she was beautiful in a special way: not merely her face and figure, but her sheer niceness and concern for others. Millie had helped Chameleon a lot, showing her where things were, what fruits were edible and what were dangerous, explaining castle protocol. It was Millie who had inadvertently shown Bink himself another facet of the Magician Trent, back when Bink had believed the man to be evil. "It would be so nice if you found my bones," Millie said. Bink laughed, embarrassed. "Millie, I'm a married
"Yes," she agreed. "Married men are best. They are-broken in, experienced, gentle, durable, and they do not talk gratuitously. For my return to life, for the first experience, it would be so nice-"
"You don't understand," Bink said. "I love my wife, Chameleon."
"Yes, of course you are loyal," Millie replied. "But right now she is in her ugly phase, and in her ninth month with child, and her tongue is as sharp as the manticora's stinger. Right now is when you need relief, and if I recover my life-"
"Please, no more!" Bink exclaimed. The ghost was striking right on target.
"I love you too, you know," she continued. "You remind me of-of the one I really loved, when I lived. But he is eight hundred years dead and gone." She gazed pensively at her misty fingers. "I could not many you, Bink, when I first met you. I could only look and long. Do you know what it is like, seeing everything and never participating? I could have been so good for you, if only-" She broke down, hiding her face, her whole head hazing before his eyes.
Bink was embarrassed and touched. "I'm sorry, Millie, I didn't know." He put his hand on her shaking shoulder, but of course passed right through it. "It never occurred to me that your life could be restored. If I had-"
"Yes, of course," she sobbed.
"But you will be a very pretty girl. I'm sure there are many other young men who-"
"True, true," she agreed, shaking harder. Now her whole body was fogging out. The other guests were beginning to stare. This was about to get awkward.
"If there is anything I can do-" Bink said. Millie brightened instantly, and her image sharpened correspondingly. "Find my bones!"
Fortunately that was not easily accomplished. "I'll look," Bink agreed. "But I have no better chance than anyone else."
"Yes, you do. You know how to do it, if only you put your marvelous mind to it. I can't tell you where they are, but if you really try-" She looked at him with ardent urgency. "It's been so many centuries. Promise me you'll try."
"But I-what would Chameleon think if-"
Millie put her face in her hands. The stares of the other guests hardened as the ghost's outline softened. "All right, I'll try," Bink promised. Why hadn't his talent protected him from this? But he knew the answer: his magic protected him from physical, magical harm. Millie was magical but not physical-and what she intended for him when she became physical would not ordinarily be construed as harm. His talent had never concerned itself with emotional complications. Bink would have to solve this triangle by himself.
The ghost smiled. "Don't be long," she said, and drifted off, her feet not touching the floor.
Bink spotted Crombie and joined him. "I begin to comprehend your view," he said.
"Yes, I noticed her working you over," Crombie agreed. "She's had her secret eye on you for sometime. A man hardly has a chance when one of those vixens starts in on him."
"She believes I can locate her bones first-and now I have to try. Really try, not just dawdle."
"Child's play," Crombie remarked. "They're that way." He closed his eyes and pointed upward at an angle.
"I didn't ask for your help!" Bink snapped.
"Oops, sorry. Forget where I pointed."
"I can't! Now I'll have to look there, and sure as hell her bones will be there. Millie must have known I'd consult you. Maybe that's her talent: knowing things ahead of time."
"Why didn't she skip out before she was murdered, then?"
Good question. "Maybe she was asleep, when-"
"Well, you're not asleep. You could skip out. Someone else will find her, especially if I give him the hint"
"Why don't you find the bones?" Bink demanded. "You could follow your finger and do it in an instant."
"Can't. I'm on duty." Crombie smiled smugly. "I have woman problems enough already, thanks to you."
Oh. Bink had introduced the woman-hater to his former fiancée, Sabrina, a talented and beautiful girl Bink had discovered he didn't love. Apparently that introduction had led to an involvement Now Crombie was having his revenge.
Bink set his shoulders and followed the direction indicated. The bones had to be somewhere upstairs. But maybe they still would not be obvious. If he did his honest best but could not locate them-
Yet would it be so bad, that date with Millie? All that she had said was true; this was a very bad time for Chameleon, and she seemed fit only to be left alone. Until she phased into her beautiful, sweet aspect, and had the baby.
No, there lay ruin. He had known what Chameleon was when he married her, and that there would be good times and bad. He had only to tide through the bad time, knowing it would pass. He had done it before. When there was some difficult chore or problem, her smart phase was an invaluable asset; sometimes they saved up problems for her to work on in that phase. He could not afford to dally with Millie or any other female.