Free Yon Ill Wind by Piers Anthony Page A

And she marched down the path, her way lit by pretty glowworms set along the edges.
    The path led right to the castle entrance.  Chlorine knocked on the door, and it opened immediately.  A pretty young woman stood there.  “Welcome to the Good Magician's Castle, Chlorine and Nimby,” she said.  “I am Wira, his daughter-in-law.  Please come this way.”
    So she had, indeed, been expected.  She was glad she had played it straight, and found her own way through the challenges.
    They followed her inside.  The interior was surprisingly light, because rays shone in through the high windows.
    Chlorine realized that it wasn't really night; that had just been a local effect in the garden, which passed when they left the vicinity of the thyme plant.
    “How did you know our names?” Chlorine inquired.
    “If my memory is correct, you—can't even see us.”
    “It is true I am blind,” Wira said.  “But I know this castle well, and can't get lost.  And I overheard Magician Humfrey grumbling about the situation.  It seems he had no trouble identifying you.  Chlorine, but your friend Nimby baffled him.  He had to look him up in the Big Book of Answers, sure that there was no such person.  But the Book had an entry the Magician must have forgotten, and it said Nimby was a dragon ass with the magic talent of enabling himself and his companion to be whatever the companion wished them to be.  That his full name was Not In My Back Yard, because most people didn't like him.
    The Magician shook his head, not wanting to admit that he had been ignorant of such a creature.  I fear he is beginning to feel his age.”
    Chlorine smiled.  “The Book of Answers spoke truly.
    Nimby is not the man he appears to be, but he is much nicer than he looks in his natural form.  He is welcome in my back yard, for I have come to know him by his actions, not his appearance.  His only liability is that he can't speak.
    He is enabling me to have a really nice time, for now.”
    “For now?”
    “I know it has to end all too soon, and I will return to my wretched home life.  But I will always have this wonderful adventure to remember, my single shining moment, thanks to Nimby.  I intend to make the most of it.”
    “I fear the Good Magician means to make more of it than you expect.”
    “Oh, no, my year's Service is part of it,” Chlorine said cheerfully.  “I am resigned to that.  It will extend my adventure.”
    Wira brought them to a rather dull-looking woman in a sewing room who was mending a pile of socks.  “Mother Sofia, here are our visitors,” Wira said.
    Sofia looked up.  “Are you sure you want to broach Himself with your Question?  He will require you to perform a most arduous Service in return.”
    “Yes, of course,” Chlorine agreed.  “I look forward to it.  The more adventurous the better.”
    “As you wish.  Wira will take you to him now.”
    The blind young woman led them up a dark winding stone stairway to a squeezed crowded chamber.  There in the shadows sat the Good Magician Humfrey Himself.  He looked grumpily up from his monstrous tome.  “Yes?”
    “Where is my last tear?” Chlorine asked.
    “It is in your eyes, spread across them to keep them moist.  Half of it keeps your right eye well, and the other half keeps your left eye well.  Without that final tear, you would immediately go blind.”
    Chlorine was amazed.  “I never thought of that!  Of course, it must be true.”
    “It is true,” Humfrey said grumpily.  “Now report to the cat-a-pult for your Service.”
    But Chlorine, being nice but not too nice, balked.  “I know I have to serve a year's Service, but for that little bit of obvious-in-retrospect information?  That doesn't seem fair.”
    “Please, don't argue,” Wira said worriedly.  “That only makes him grumpier.”
    “Nevertheless, I will answer,” Humfrey said, more grumpily.  “You knew the conditions before you came to me, so if you wasted the chance to