"You can make yourself light?" she asked, surprised.

"I can make anything light," he said. "But of course I don't do it indiscriminately. That would not be polite."

"I wish you could make me light!" she said. "Then maybe I wouldn't be so tired!"

"As you wish." Che flicked her shoulder with the tip of his tail.

Immediately Jenny felt quite light. She got up—and almost sailed off the raft! "I really am light!" she exclaimed.

"Certainly. But be careful, because I cannot make you heavy again. My magic is one-way. But the effect slowly fades."

Jenny felt her mind spinning, and not because her head was light. There really was magic here, practiced by ordinary folk instead of High Ones, and it worked on her! That explained a great deal.

"I remain unclear how you came to Xanth if you are from a foreign region," Che said.

"I'm unclear on that myself! I was following Sammy, and when he found what he was looking for—which was one of your feath-ers—we were here."

"Oh, that explains it. Sammy's a magic creature."

"No, he just has an uncanny ability to find whatever he looks for."

"Isn't that magic?"

Jenny reconsidered. "I suppose it is. Certainly it is now, because he's finding things much faster and better than he used to."

"Do you have a magic talent of your own?"

"Me?" She laughed. "I can hardly do regular things, let alone magic ones! I'm fortunate just to see straight, thanks to these nice spectacles your mother gave me."

"Do you mean to say you have not tried?"

Jenny was intrigued. "You mean you really think I might have some magic? Like making things light or heavy or something?"

"It seems possible. Human folk all have talents, and some other creatures have them too, if they have human lineage. Elves as a general class seem to be content with their tribal magic associated with their elms, but if you are not of that type, perhaps you conform to the human mode."

"I wonder what mine could be?" For the first time she had found a really positive reason to be here in this weird world.

"Oh—I forgot. Mundanes don't have magic. Only folk made in Xanth."

"What's a Mundane?"

"A person or animal originating in the dreary nonmagic realm beyond Xanth. My dam does not like to speak of it."

"But I'm not from there! Does Mundania have two moons?"

"I don't think so. Just one moon, like ours, only its green cheese has calcified into inedible rock."

"A moon made of green cheese?"

"And honey on the other side. My sire and dam went to the honey moon, where they conceived me. Perhaps that is where I obtained my taste for sweets."

"So if I'm not from Xanth or Mundania, then we don't know whether I have magic," Jenny concluded. "But if Sammy has magic, maybe I do too."

"Perhaps it is true," Che said doubtfully.

"Why did the goblins kidnap you?"