Free Zombie Lover by Piers Anthony Page B

time for others. But there should be a few folk active.
     
    Sure enough, soon she spied the light of a lamp, and by the lamp a young man was putting handfuls of dirt into a bag. "Hello," she said by way of introduction.
     
    "That is a pointless interjection," he replied, not looking up.
     
    "What is?" she asked, vaguely nettled by his attitude.
     
    "Your stupid salutation."
     
    Breanna had never been a person to accept rudeness unchallenged. "Who says it's stupid?"
     
    "I do. I am Smart Alec. I always know a detail others don't think of." He paused reflectively. "I can't think why I'm unpopular."
     
    "Gee, it sure beats me," she retorted sourly. "What are you doing?"
     
    'Tm collecting magic dust, as any idiot can plainly see."
     
    "That looks just like ordinary dirt to me. Did you get some in your mouth, to make you talk dirty?"
     
    "I'm not talking dirty, I am merely making statements about the incapacities of others who evidently don't realize how dull they are."
     
    Breanna had had just about enough of this. She was ready to blast
     
    60       PIERS
     
    him with some real information on dullness, but remembered her mission Maybe he would like to play cards So she stifled her justified retort and tried to sotten him up tor the kill, as it were 'Thank you for explaining about the magic dust But how is it you know that this particular dirt is magic, and what do you want it for9"
     
    "All dirt in Xanth is magic," he said in superior fashion "It is what carries the magic It emanates from the center of Xanth, and slowly spreads out, and the magic diminishes as the dust thins This is near the center of Xanth, so should be pretty strong I'm going to take it to Mundama. where it should enable magic to be operative "
     
    "That's a great idea'" she said, putting more enthusiasm into it than she felt She had lived years in Mundama, and doubted that anything could budge its dreariness "How would you like to play a
     
    great new game9"
     
    Now at last Alec glanced at her, appraismgly She wasn't entirely easy with the places his gaze landed "Very well Take off your
     
    clothes "
     
    What a jerk1 "Not that kind of a game I'm only fifteen " "Oh Then you wouldn't know about that sort of thing " Actually she did know, but preferred not to tell him that   "This is
     
    a card game It—"
     
    "Forget it I'm not interested " He focused on his dust
     
    Imtated anew. Breanna walked on If this was the kind of reaction
     
    she was likely to encounter, her quest was more difficult than she had
     
    believed
     
    Then she thought of a way to get something useful from this jerk She turned back   "I'll bet you don't know who would want to play
     
    a card game "
     
    "Com Pewter " he said, and ignored her
     
    Com Pewter She had heard of him He was a machine like Com Passion, who resided in a cave and could change his local reality What better partner could she possibly find7 Smart Alec had known the answer, and had done her a huge if inadvertent favor
     
    But Pewter lived far away, south across the Gap Chasm, not ac tually all that far from her home in the Black Village How could she
     
    get there quickly9
     
    Well, maybe the same way she had gotten here But first she had to prepare Could Pewter's activities possibly be construed as censorship7 In Mundama that was the suppression ot certain political.
     
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    ribald, or otherwise objectionable speaking or writing and it happened a lot No matter how innocent or well meaning the expression there was bound to be somebody who found it offensive and wanted to abolish it dictating that only that particular person s beheis and expressions were truly free In Xanth it was brought bv the Censor Ship, a dread craft whose docking meant awful mischief for those in the vicinity She recalled when the Black Wave had suffered some of its effect They had managed to escape it, fortunately, but all of them remembered That was why they had made it a point to get