Free Question Quest by Piers Anthony Page B

how to survey the Maenads.”
    I wasn't sure about this approach, but she smiled at me and as usual I went along with her. She was learning to use her innocence effectively. So we flew to the palace of the oracle. It was nice enough looking, though in disrepair, with a number of stones fallen. It was actually at the base of Mount Parnassus, but neither the Maenads nor the python seemed to be around at the moment, to our relief.
    We talked with the head priest. “Certainly we can answer your Question,” he said confidently. “What will you proffer in payment?”
    “Payment?” For a moment I was blank.
    "Surely you did not expect to achieve this valuable information for nothing?”
    I had indeed had some such notion, but hesitated to admit it. “What do you normally charge?”
    “What do you have?”
    I didn't like the direction this was going, “I don't really have anything. I'm just trying to do a survey for the King.”
    “What manner of survey?”
    “I am cataloging all the human talents of Xanth.”
    “Now that is interesting,” he said, stroking his beard. “You will surely pick up much incidental information.”
    “Yes, quite a bit. But—”
    “Suppose we do it on commission?”
    “On what?”
    “We shall give you your Answer. In return, you will give us half of what you profit from it.”
    “Half of my information?”
    “Exactly. More specifically, you will share what you learn with us. That can be interpreted as all your benefit, but also as nothing, because you retain what you share. It seems fair to call it an equal measure.”
    I looked at MareAnn. “Does this make sense to you?”
    “It seems like a big price for one Answer,” she said. “But if you keep all you share, then it's not a painful price. Still, I distrust it. Let's put a time limit on it.”
    “A time limit!” the priest said, shocked.
    Somehow that made me feel better. “One year,” I said.
    “Ten years,” he responded instantly.
    So he would bargain. I knew how to do that. We pulled back and forth, and wound up where we both knew we would: five years. It still seemed expensive, but at least it wasn't forever. I really appreciated MareAnn's caution.
    So the Pythia, a girl very like the ones we had interviewed in the village, took her perch over the fuming crack in the mountain, and I stepped up and asked my Question: “How can I interview dangerous folk without danger?” For it occurred to me that there might be awkward interviews elsewhere than Parnassus. I figured I might as well get as much for my Answer as I could.
    The maiden took a deep breath of fume and kicked her legs so that her skirt lifted in a manner that made me that much more eager to get into the Adult Conspiracy. She let out a stream of indecipherable whatever, punctuated by expressions I didn't catch. Maybe I would have understood it better if my attention hadn't been partly distracted by those legs. The priests then made notes and conferred privately. After a bit they emerged to give me my interpreted Answer: “Demon conquest.”
    I had somehow expected something else. “What do demons have to do with this?”
    “We don't know,” the priest said. “We merely know that this is the Answer you sought. Do not forget to pay for it.”
    For this I had yielded a share of all my information for the next five years? “I don't even know whether I'm supposed to beat a demon, or the demon is supposed to beat me,” I complained.
    “That is a matter of indifference to us,” the priest said. "Now please clear out; there may be another client on the way.''
    We mounted our horses and took off. MareAnn was no better pleased than I. Perhaps she had noticed me looking at the Pythia's legs. MareAnn's own legs were just as good, of course, but in her innocence she made no secret of them, so they were less exciting.
    We returned to the village for the night. “How was it?” the villagers asked.
    “They told me 'demon conquest,'” I said angrily. “For this I