Stork Naked Read Free Page A

had to get through by her body and wit alone.
    Could she manage it by feel? If she squinched her eyes tight shut and shuffled forward with her hands before her, she should be able to feel the path and the wall of the lighthouse, and nudge her way around it to the end of the bridge. Then she saw that in places the moat lapped right up against the house, and the stones looked irregular and wobbly. She was likely to misstep and fall, she couldn't afford that.
    She paused to ponder, sure there was some way. There was always a way, in a Challenge. She had missed it so far because she was just blundering through; she needed to use her mind. But how could her mind save her eyes from the flash? She wasn't used to using her mind; her magic talents had solved most of her problems so far.
    There must be something special about the lighthouse, some key to getting by it. A key—was there a key to its door, so she could get in and turn off the light? Where would it be?
    She looked, but saw no key. Too bad. Now if only there could be some pun key instead. Xanth was mostly made of puns; she had stepped on one more than once, getting disgusting smears of it stuck on the bottom of her shoe. Ugh!
    Pun. Her mind circled around that. This was a lighthouse. Could it also be a light house?
    With abrupt resolve she shut her eyes and advanced on the structure. She felt the light come on, but she didn't need to see for this. She advanced until her hand touched the curving wall. Then she squatted and reached as far around the tower as she could, her fingers catching in crannies. She heaved.
    The house came up. It was feather-light. She carried it away from the moat a suitable distance and set it down. Then she faced away from it and opened her eyes.
    The bridge was open. She had cleared the light house.
    She went to fetch the children, who were watching a story being acted by the serpent. Sesame emulated one character after another, most effectively. As Surprise approached, she emulated the grumpy Good Magician, and they burst out laughing. Who needed words, with ability like that?
    But by the time she got there, they had started another game. Children's lives moved so swiftly! Had she ever been like that, Surprise wondered? She paused more than a moment, to let them finish before taking them away. They were pretending to have special talents, with Sesame as the judge of the best one.
    “Summoning flying rugs,” Ted said, sitting down on the ground as if riding a rug. “Zooom!”
    “Conjuring useful elixirs,” Monica said, gesturing as if holding up a vial. “Only I can't control which.” She pantomimed sipping. “Beauty cream, I think.”
    “You turned into an ogress!” Ted said. “That was ugly cream.”
    Sesame angled her head toward Ted. He had won the exchange, mostly because of his rebuttal of Monica's talent.
    “Now I'm making a whole gram,” Ted said, shaping a form in the air with his hands.
    “That's hologram,” Monica said with a superior tone.
    “Whatever. It shows what's happening to one person, or animal, or thing. Like maybe a nymph showing her panties.”
    “Nymphs don't wear panties, dummy.”
    “Oh, yeah. Well, then, the nymph herself, running around, hobbling. That's almost as good.”
    “Talent of confusion,” Monica said, making spell-casting motions. “So she's there but you can't think to look.”
    “Oh, mice!” Ted swore.
    Sesame angled her head toward Monica. She had won that one.
    This seemed to be the best moment to break it off, before the children got tired of it and started something else. “Time to cross the bridge,” Surprise said. “Thank, you Sesame.”
    The serpent nodded, then sank under the water of the moat. Surprise liked her; Sesame had once traveled with Umlaut, helping him deliver letters, in the process bringing him to meet Surprise. That was not a favor to be forgotten. Surprise had liked Umlaut, so naturally married him when she came of age. And signaled the stork,