Question Quest Read Free Page B

same attitude from her. “I don't suppose I can talk you out of asking your Question?” he inquired plaintively.
    “Magician, my life is blah. All I want to know is where in my dreary life I went wrong.”
    “You mean that's it?” Ivy asked.
    “Yes. Then maybe I'll know what to do about it.”
    Ivy turned to Grey. “That seems simple enough.”
    “It isn't,” he said. He glanced again at Lacuna. “I would really rather you didn't ask it.”
    “Well, I don't want to cause you distress, but it seems little enough for me to ask, considering that I made my way through your challenges and am prepared to offer a significant service.”
    Grey frowned. “I am not yet completely proficient in the magic of information. The Good Magician Humfrey would know how to handle this much better than I do. But there have been rumblings, and they suggest that your Question is a lot more complicated for us both than it seems. In fact, they indicated that if I Answer it, the situation of Xanth may change significantly. I don't want to take the chance. So, with no malice toward you, I must decline to Answer.”
    “Grey!” Ivy said, appalled. “I've known Lacuna all my life! She's a good person. She has such a simple Question. How can you do this?”
    “I know just enough of Humfrey's magic now to know that this is best,” he said unhappily. “Now if she cares to ask some other Question—”
    “No, only this one,” Lacuna said firmly.
    “Then I'm sorry, but—”
    She fixed him with an Adult Stare. He was not yet so long beyond childhood as to be immune to its effect. He scuffled his feet. “I did not come here to take No for an Answer,” she said. She might be dull, but she knew her rights. “I insist: tell me Where Did I Go Wrong?”
    Grey obviously felt properly miserable, but still he clung somehow to his position. “I won't—”
    It was time for the carrot. She had learned how to wield stick and carrot; it was a necessary secondary talent of all baby-sitters. “I have in mind a rather special service, to repay you for your trouble.”
    “Well, if I were to use your service, I'm sure you could confuse other applicants by putting misleading printed messages on the walls. But—”
    “Magician, I can free you from your obligation to the evil machine. Even after Magician Humfrey returns.”
    Both Grey and Ivy jumped. “You can do that?” Ivy breathed with sheer faint hope.
    “I can go to Com-Pewter and change the print on its screen to say that Grey Murphy's obligation is no longer in force. Since what's on that screen changes reality to conform, that will be true. There will be no further obligation.”
    Ivy turned to the Good Magician, her eyes shining. “Can she do that, Grey?”
    Grey dived for a huge tome sitting on a table. He leafed rapidly through it, staring into the depths of its musty pages. He paused, then looked up. “Yes, it is here. She can do it. If she prints the right words on Pewter's screen. If she has the nerve to broach the evil machine in its evil den. There is one key word that must be used at the end or it won't be effective.”
    “Key word?” Lacuna asked.
    “ 'Compile.' ”
    “You mean to assemble something?”
    “Compile. It has a special meaning for Com-Pewter. It locks in whatever has just been printed on its evil screen. Com-Pewter can change anything except itself, and this changes Pewter itself. I understand about this, because of my experience with similar machines in Mundania.”
    “Then—” Ivy started.
    Grey raised his hands in surrender. “That is the one service I cannot refuse. I will have to Answer Lacuna's Question.”
    Lacuna smiled, vastly relieved. The truth was she wanted to free Grey anyway, because she knew how happy that would make Ivy. But it was best to do it this way.
    “Very well,” Grey said grimly, turning the pages of the Book of Answers again. “I shall have to Answer, and hope the consequences are not as bad as they could be.” He found his