Cube Route Read Free

it usually was, with her, with men.
        He looked at the shelter. “Share that too?”
        “Of course.” Staying the night with a young man--how nice it could have been, if only she were the kind of girl to make a boy get ideas.
        Nevertheless, after they had eaten, they harvested pillows and settled in the cottonwood shelter. Each plank was full of soft cotton, and the pillows made it that much more comfortable. It was dark outside, but there was a faint glow from the walls so that they could see well enough. “Wanta talk or sleep?” Ryver asked. Then, realizing that sounded wrong, he tried to backtrack. “I mean--”
        “Talk,” she said quickly. “Tell me about yourself.” Because then she could listen and pretend she was part of his life.
        “Sure. I'm twenty-three years old and on my own. My name's Ryver because of my talent. I can work with water. You know--make water balls and things. What's your talent?”
        She had to tell him. “Nickelpedes. I can summon and direct them.”
        “Say, that's great! Can you make them go away, if you have to go through a cave or something?”
        “Yes.”
        “That must be fun. Everybody's afraid of nickelpedes.”
        “Yes.” Which was the problem. So she changed the subject. “Where are you from? Where are you going?”
        “I'm going nowhere in particular. I just like to travel. So I'm coming from home and going back there. Nothing much else to do. Last night I met a pretty girl with the talent of negativity; that was a frustration.”
        “She had a bad attitude?”
        “Not at all. She was nice. She said she expected to have a hot night with me, and I liked that idea. But then we slept in separate cabins and had nothing to do with each other.”
        Cube wished he had a similar idea about her, but of course he didn't. “Why?”
        “Her talent reversed her expectation. What she thinks of won't happen, and it didn't. I was just as annoyed as she was, but I couldn't get close to her.”
        If only he wanted to get close to Cube! “Why didn't she announce that the two of you would never get together?”
        Ryver stared at her. “She never thought of that. Neither did I. What a waste!” He shook his head. “How about you?”
        It kept coming back to her, and not in any way she liked, which was exactly where she didn't want it. But she had to answer. “I'm just a dull village girl. I'm going to see the Good Magician.”
        “That so? What's your Question?”
        Ryver was a bit too open for her taste, being short on sensitivity in the masculine manner. Now she was stuck with the answer. “How can I be beautiful.”
        “That makes sense,” he agreed. Then, yet again, he caught up to the awkwardness too late. “I mean--”
        “I know.”
        There was another ungainly silence. Finally he broke it. “That's my problem. I keep saying the wrong thing.”
        “I'm used to it.”
        “I guess so. But you know, sometimes things work out anyway. They did for my folks.”
        “Oh?”
        “My mother, Lacuna--she liked this man, but he didn't notice her, so nothing came of it. Then his life didn't work out, and hers didn't, and she wished it had happened differently, but it was too late. They had both ruined their lives by not getting together.”
        “But then she found your father,” Cube said.
        “Not exactly. He was the one she liked, who married someone else and made a mess of it.”
        “A mess? But in Xanth marriages always work out.”
        “Marriages last, yes. But she was a mean woman, so he was stuck, and probably wished he hadn't done it. Certainly my mother wished he hadn't. So she made it a Question to the Good Magician. He wasn't there, then, but Magician Grey was substituting, and he told her she should have proposed to Vernon.”
        “That wasn't