Piers Anthony - Xanth 05 - Ogre, Ogre

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Chapter 1. Nightmare
Tandy tried to sleep, but it was difficult The
demon had never actually entered her private bedroom, but
she was afraid that one night he would. This night she was
alone; therefore she worried.
Her father Crombie was a rough soldier who had no
truck with demons. But he was away most of the time,
guarding the King at Castle Roogna. Crombie was fun
when he was home, but that was rare. He claimed to hate
women, but had married a nymph, and tolerated no inter-
ference by other males. Tandy remained a child in his eyes;
his hand would have hovered ominously near his sword if
he even suspected any demon was bothering her. If only he
were here.
Her mother Jewel was on a late mission, planting orange
sapphires in a stratum near the surface. It was a long way
away, so she rode the Diggle-worm, who could tunnel
through rock without leaving a hole. They would be back
after midnight. That meant several more hours, and Tandy
was afraid.
She turned over, wrapped the candy-striped sheet about
her in an uncomfortable tangle, and put the pink pillow
over her head. It didn't help; she still feared the demon.
His name was Fiant, and he could dematerialize at will.
That meant he could walk through walls.
The more Tandy thought about that, the less she trusted
the walls of her room. She was afraid that any unwatched
wall would permit the demon to pass through. She rolled
over, sat up, and peered at the walls. No demon.
2 Ogre, Ogre
She had met Fiant only a few Weeks ago, by accident.
She had been playing with some large, round, blue rubies,
rejects from her mother's barrel—rubies were supposed to
be red—and one had rolled down a passage near the de-
mons' rum works. She had run right into a rum wrap a
demon was using, tearing it so that it became a bum wrap.
She had been afraid the demon would be angry, but instead
he had simply looked at her with a half-secret half-smile—
and that had been worse. Thereafter that demon had shown
up with disturbing frequency, always looking at her as if
something demoniacally special was on his mind. She was
not so naive as to be in doubt about the nature of his
thought. A nymph would have been flattered—but Tandy
was human. She sought no demon lover.
Tandy got up and went to the mirror. The magic lantern
brightened as she approached, so that she could see herself.
She was nineteen years old, but she looked like a child in
her nightie and lady-slippers, her brown tresses mussed
from constant squirming, her blue eyes peering out wor-
riedly. She wished she looked more like her mother—but of
course no human person could match the pretty faces and
fantastic figures of nymphs. That was what nymphdom
was all about—to attract men like Crombie who judged the
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distaff to be good for only one thing. Nymphs were good
for that thing. Human girls could be good for it, too, but
they really had to work at it; they fouled it up by assigning
far more meaning to it than the nymphs did, so were
unable to proceed with sheer delighted abandon. They were
cursed by their awareness of consequence.
She peered more closely at herself, brushing her tresses
back with her hands, rearranging her nightie, standing
straighten She was no child, whatever her famer might
choose to think. Yet she was not exactly buxom, either.
Her human heritage had given her a good mind and a soul,
at the expense of voluptuousness. She had a cute face, with
a pert, upturned nose and full lips, she decided, but not
enough of the rest of it. She couldn't make it as a nymph.
The demon Fiant obviously thought she would do, how-
ever. Maybe he didn't realize that her human component
made her less of a good thing. Maybe he was slumming,
looking for an intriguing change of pace from the dusky
demonesses who could assume any form they chose, even
Ogre, Ogre 3
animal forms. It was said that sometimes they would
change to animal form in the middle of the act of—but no
human girl was supposed to be able to imagine anything
like that. Tandy couldn't change form, in or out of bed,
and certainly she didn't want any demon's attention. If
only she could convince him of that!
There was nothing to do but try to sleep again. The de-
mon would come or he wouldn't; since she had no control
over that, there was no sense worrying.
She lay down amidst the mess her bed had become and
worried. She closed her eyes and remained still, as if sleep-
ing, but remained tensely awake. Maybe after a while her
body would be fooled into relaxing.
There was a flicker at the far wan. Tandy spied it
through almost-closed eyes and kept her small body frozen.
It was the demon; he really had come.
In a moment Fiant solidified inside the room. He was
large, muscular, and fat, with squat horns sprouting from
his forehead and a short, unkempt beard that made him
look like a goat. His hind feet were hooflike, and he had a
medium-length tail at his posterior, barbed at the tip. There
Was a dusky ambience about him that would have betrayed
his demonic nature, no matter what form he took. His eyes
were like smoky quartz shielding an internal lava flow,
emitting a dull red light that brightened when his attention
warmed to something. By diabolic standards, he was hand-
some enough, and many a nymph would have been deli-
riously happy to be in Tandy's place.
Tandy hoped Fiant would go away, after perceiving her
alseep and disordered, but knew he wouldn't. He found her
attractive, or at least available, and refused to be repulsed
by her negative response. Demons expected rejections; they
thrived on them. It was said that, given a choice between
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rape and seduction, they would always choose the rape.
The females, too. Of course, it was impossible to rape that
kind; she would simply dematerialize if she didn't like it
Which might be another explanation for Fiant's interest in
Tandy; she couldn't dematerialize. Rape was possible.
Maybe if she were positive, welcoming him, that would
turn him off. He was obviously tired of willing females.
But Tandy couldn't bring herself to try that particular
ploy. If it didn't work, where would she be?
4 Ogre, Ogro
Fiant approached the bed, grinning evilly. Tandy kept
her eyes screwed almost shut What would she do if he
touched her? She was sure that screaming and fighting
would only encourage him and make his eyes glow with
preternatural lust—but what else was there?
Fiant paused, looming over her, his paunch protruding,
the light from his eyes spearing down through slits. "Ah,
you lovely little morsel," he murmured, a wisp of smoke
curling from his mouth as he spoke. "Be thrilled, you soft,
human flesh. Your demon lover is here at last! Let me see
more of you." And he snatched the sheet away.
Tandy hurled the pillow at him and bounced off the
bed, her terror converting to anger. "Get out of here, foul
spiriti" she screamed.
"Ah, the tender morsel wakes, cries welcome! Delight-
ful!" The demon strode toward her, the blue tip of his
forked tongue rasping over his thin lips. His tail flicked
similarly.
Tandy backed away, her terror/anger intensifying. "I
loathe you! Go away!"
"Presently," Fiant said, his tail stiffening as it elevated.
"Hone your passion to its height, honey, for I will possess
its depth." He reached for her, his horns brightening in the
reflected glare of his eyes.
Desperate, Tandy wreaked her ultimate. She threw a
tantrum. Her body stiffened, her face turned red, her eyes
clenched shut, and she hurled that tantrum right at the
demon's fat chest.
It struck with explosive impact. The demon sundered
into fragments, his feet, hands, and head flying outward.
His tail landed on the bed and lay twitching like a be-
headed snake.
Tandy chewed her trembling lip. She really hadn't
wanted to do that; her tantrums were devastating, and she
wasn't supposed to throw them. Now she had destroyed the
demon, and there would be hell to pay. How could she
answer to hell for murder?
The pieces of the demon dissolved into smoke. The
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cloud coalesced—and Fiant formed again, intact. He
looked dazed. "Oh, that kiss was a beauty," he said, and
staggered through the walL
Tandy relaxed. Fiant wasn't dead after all, but he was
Ogre, Ogre 5
gone. She had the best of both situations. Or did she? He
surely would not stay gone—and now they both knew her
tantrums would not stop him. She had only postponed
her problem.
Nevertheless, now she was able to sleep. She knew there
would be no more trouble this night, and her mother would
be home the next few nights. Fiant, for all his boldness
when he had his victim isolated, stayed clear when a re-
sponsible person was in the neighborhood.
Next day Tandy tried to talk to her mother, though she
was pretty sure it wouldn't help. "Mother, you know that
demon Fiant, who works at the rum refinery? He—"
"Oh, yes, the demons are such nice people," Jewel said,
smelling of mildly toasted sulfur. That was her magic: her
odor reflected her mood. "Especially Beauregard, doing his
research paper—"
"Which he has been working on since before I was bom.
He's a nice demon, yes. But Fiant is another kind. He—"
"They never make any trouble for me when I have to set
gems in their caves. The demons are such good neighbors."
The sulfur was getting stronger, beginning to crinkle the
nose; Jewel didn't like to hear criticisms. »
"Most are. Mother." Naturally the demons didn't bother
Jewel; without her, there would be no gems to find, and
the demons were partial to such trinkets. "But this one's
different. He—"
"Everyone's different, of course, dear. That's what
makes Xanth so interesting." Now she smelled of freshly
blooming orange roses.
"Maybe different isn't quite what I mean. He comes to
my room at night—"
"Oh, he wouldn't do that! That wouldn't be right." The
wrongness of such a thing showed in the smell of an over-
ripe medicine ball; even immature medicine balls smelled
unpleasantly of illness, and aging intensified the effect
"But he did\ Last night—"
"You must have dreamed it, dear," Jewel said firmly.
And the aroma of carrion of a moderately sated dragon
showed how distasteful any such notion was to Jewel.
"Sometimes those nightmares carry irresponsible dreams."
Tandy saw that her mother did not want to become
aware of the truth. Jewel had been a nymph and retained
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6 Ogre, Ogre
many of her nymphal qualities despite the burden of expe-
rience that marriage and motherhood had imposed on her.
She had no real understanding of evil. To her, all people
and all creatures were basically good neighbors, including
demons. And in truth, the demons had been tolerably well
behaved, until Fiant had taken his interest in Tandy.
Her father Crombie would understand, though. Crombie
was not only human, he was a man of war. Well did he
understand the ways of males. But he hardly ever had time
off, and she had no way to advise him of her situation, so
he couldn't help now.
As she thought of her father, Tandy abruptly realized
that Jewel could not afford to lose her faith in people, be-
cause then she would have to question Crombie's fidelity.
That could only disrupt her life. Evidently Jewel's thoughts
were to some extent parallel to Tandy's because now there
was the disturbing odor of a burning field of wild oats.
So Tandy couldn't actually talk to her mother about this.
It would have to be her father, in private. That meant she
had to get to him, since he would not be home in time to
deal with the demon. It was said that no man could stand
against a demon in combat, but Crombie was more than a
man: he was her father. She had to reach him.
That was a problem in itself. Tandy had never been to
Castle Roogna. She had never even been to the surface of
Xanth. She would be lost in an instant if she ever left the
caves. In fact, she was afraid to try. How could she travel
all the way to her father's place of employment, alone? She
had no good answer.
The demon did not come the following night. The night-
mares visited instead. Every time she slept, they trotted in,
rearing over her bed, hooves flashing, ears fiat back, snort-
ing the scary vapors that were the bad dreams they bore.
She woke in justified terror, and they were gone—only to
return as she slept again. That was the way of such beasts.
Finally she became so desperate she threw a tantrum at
one of them. The tantrum struck it on the flank. The mare
squealed with startled pain, her hindsection collapsing, and
her companions fled.
Tandy was instantly sorry, as she generally was after
throwing a tantrum; she knew the dark horse was only
doing its duty and should not be punished. Tandy woke
Ogre, Ogre 7
completely, tears in her eyes, determined to help the ani-
mal—but of course it was gone. It was almost impossible to
catch a nightmare while awake.
She checked where the mare had stood. The floor was
scuffled there, and there were a few drops of blood. Tandy
hoped the mare had made it safely home; it would be sev-
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摘要：

file:///F|/rah/Piers%20Anthony/Anthony,%20Piers%20-%20Xanth%2005%20-%20Ogre%20Ogre.txtChapter1.NightmareTandytriedtosleep,butitwasdifficultThedemonhadneveractuallyenteredherprivatebedroom,butshewasafraidthatonenighthewould.Thisnightshewasalone;thereforesheworried.HerfatherCrombiewasaroughsoldierwho...

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