Free Swell Foop by Piers Anthony Page A

says. This time he proved it."
    "Proved it? How?"
    "By bringing in a Mundane mortal man with a magic talent as Exhibit A. His talent was metallergy."
    "You mean metallurgy?" Breanna asked, trying to cut short the multiple alternatives sequence. "Working with metals?"
    "No. Met-allergy. His metalwork made folk sneeze."
    "And he had immigrated from Mundania? The talent had grown after he lived here? I find that hard to believe."
    "Me too," Xeth said.
    "It turns out that magic infuses new Mundane folk too slowly to show until time has passed. So they think they have no talents, and stop looking for them. Children respond much more rapidly, so their talents show sooner. The professor says that anyone who has lived in Xanth for more than five years has a talent, if he only knew it."
    "I'll be bleeped!" Breanna exclaimed. "I never thought of that!"
    "Typical mush-filled skull."
    "I guess so. But how come the word hasn't gotten out?"
    "It's just one of those obscure facts Grossclout uses to flunk unwary students. Nobody's interested."
    "Maybe no demons are. But I'll bet most mortals would be. I'll have to tell them to look, after this mission is done." Then Breanna brought herself back to business. "So maybe this is another mush case. I just have to see that Ring. By clearing the mush out of my thick skull."
    "You got it, mushmind." The demoness formed momentarily into a big steaming bowl of cornmeal mush.
    "Okay, I'm trying to look with a new perspective. To see whatever I missed before." Breanna crossed and uncrossed her eyes, looking around.
    "But we can see everything," Xeth protested. "The pitcher, the basin, the dirt-ring where the basin sat—everything."
    Breanna's jaw dropped half a notch. "The dirt-ring! That's a Ring."
    "But not the one we want," Metria said.
    "I wonder." Breanna approached the counter. She put her finger to the ring of dirt—and felt something hot. She closed her hand on it, and lifted—and the entire Ring came up. It was hot because little flames were dancing around it, though they did not actually burn her hand. As it moved it shrank until it was the size of a finger ring. "Got it!"
    "It was masquerading as dirt!" Metria said, amazed.
    "It was there all the time," Xeth agreed. "My mind was mush."
    "Mine too," Metria agreed.
    "And it was Com Ponent who put us on to it," Breanna agreed. "All it took was a little elementary reasoning." She put the Ring on her little finger, where it fit perfectly. The flames continued to flicker without burning her flesh. There was no doubt about the identity of the Ring of Fire.
    "It fooled me," Metria said. "I thought it would look—"
    "The way it does now," Xeth agreed. "So did I."
    "For sure," Breanna agreed, well satisfied. "We were all mushbrains. But you really helped, with your story of that class lesson. That got just enough mush out." She looked around, invigorated. "Now I want to go home to Castle Zombie and get married."

 
     

     
     
    Che Centaur looked at the gathering of zombies. Which one should he choose as a guide? Breanna was already departing with King Xeth.
    "I'll take you," Zyzzyva Zombie said. "Mine is the Ring of Earth."
    "I thought I might look for the Ring of Air, since I can fly."
    "No, that's for Sim. Anyway, they don't have to match up that way."
    That made sense. "Very well. Where is it?"
    "The Good Magician has it."
    "Humfrey? But then he could have given it to Cynthia when he gave her the Service."
    "No. He does not know where he has it, and he did not realize it would be necessary." She spoke with no detectable impediment, and there was no rot visible on her; she was an extremely fresh zombie. She was also a warrior woman, carrying a short sword, and she looked very fit generally.
    "Very well. I will take you there."
    She got on his back, and she was lithe and light, no problem to carry. Of course it was no problem to carry anyone who could stay mounted, since he flicked them light anyway. He did so, first flicking her, then flicking