"You also told me there's a hole in Xanth," he reminded her. "I don't believe you." He was pretty sure she hadn't told him about the river, but he didn't want to get into another dialogue with her.

She sighed, and her clothing reappeared. For a moment it was faintly translucent, but when he tried to see through it to catch a glimpse of her panties, it turned opaque, and he saw nothing. She was still teasing him!

He resumed ghost form and floated across the isle, but there was no foal there. Could the demoness be telling the truth about this? That Che Centaur was in goblin clutches? If so, he shouldn't dally here; he should hurry right down to the river to help rescue the foal.

But he couldn't afford to believe the demoness, because the moment he did, it would turn out to be a lie. The same was true for her story about the hole in Xanth. He would just have to complete his search of the Elements.

They completed Water and approached the Void. The pleasant water ended abruptly, and beyond was nothing.

Metria drew up just shy of the line. "Look, Dolph, you're a ghost and I'm a demoness, but this is no ordinary region. It's not safe for even us to enter. This is the event horizon."

"The what?"

"Finis. Kaput. The point of no return."

"You mean there's no crossing back?"

"Whatever," she agreed, irritated.

"But what if Che Centaur is in there?"

"Then he'll never come out. You know that. So it's no good us going in there and getting trapped too. Why don't you do the expedient thing and believe me, so we don't get into trouble? That hole in Xanth still needs to be plugged."

Dolph looked at the Void. He knew he shouldn't believe her, but what she said did seem to make sense. He couldn't help Che by getting lost himself. Still, if Che was in there.

"You fool!" she exclaimed. "You're still thinking about stepping across that line!"

"Well—"

She became canny. "If you agree to go the other way, I might forget to keep my panties hidden."

He was sure she was lying. She probably never wore any panties anyway. But the notion was demonishly tempting, regardless. "All right. Show me your hole."

She paused for just half a moment, and he realized that she must have found something funny in what he said. Then she lifted from the ground. "It's south."

They zoomed back through the four regions until they were just south of the Region of Air and west of the territory of the flies. The demoness dropped down into the jungle. There did seem to be an odd section, between trees. "See, a monster has come through already," she said, pointing.

Indeed, there was something there. It looked a little like an ogre and less like a man. It seemed to have been patched together from scraps of people, with pegs holding the pieces fast at the joints, and a couple more pegs holding the head together. It was marching around in a wobbly circle.