Somehow he had known she would say that. She would not help him at all, except to encourage him to do something he would regret, whatever that might be. She delighted in seeing his dilemma.

But maybe there was a way out of it. There was no obvious way to plug the hole, so maybe he couldn't do much here anyway. He could assume roc form, fly to the Good Magician's castle, and tell them about the hole. Then he could fly to the With-a-Cookee River and rescue the girls. That way he could do the right thing and still maybe catch a glimpse of—

Something showed at the hole. It looked like a cross between a man and a demon, but worse than either. Its arms looked like tentacles, and its three huge eyes glared out with such malevolence that Dolph was terrified. The demoness had not been fooling: this was a monster that could wreak havoc in Xanth!

"Maybe you're right," Metria said. "It's time to get out of here!"

"No way," Dolph said, walking toward the monster.

"But you could get hurt here—and, worse, so could I. That thing is part demon."

"Then get out of here and stop distracting me," Dolph gritted. What form would be best to tackle this thing? Maybe an ogre.

"I don't understand you," Metria said. "Suddenly, without thinking at all, you're doing the right thing."

"Of course you don't understand: you're not human. Are you going to help me deal with this thing?"

"Yes. Not because it's the right thing to do, but because I might learn more about the mysterious workings of the feeble human mind." She became a grotesque horned demon with outsized claws and came at the monster from another side.

The monster swiveled one eye to orient on her, while the other two focused on Dolph. Metria froze in place, while Dolph felt a huge and awful chill. The monster was monstrous in mind as well as body and was mesmerizing them both!

Dolph couldn't move, but he could still change forms. He became a basilisk, whose very gaze was deadly to mortal creatures. That should set the monster back!

The two giant eyes blinked. Then a tentacle arm reached for Dolph. A toothy maw opened. The thing was going to eat the basilisk!

Metria, meanwhile, remained immobile. That third eye held her fixed where she was.

Dolph became a picklepuss, with pickly green puss and brine-moist eyes. Anything it touched would be pickled, and anything that tried to eat it would find it disgustingly bad tasting.

More tentacles came and wrapped around the picklepuss. The monster was going to eat it anyway! Maybe it even liked being pickled. Dolph was hauled in to the maw.

He became a sphinx, with the body of a lion and the head of a man. Sphinxes ordinarily were peaceful creatures, not much for combat, but they were very big. The monster's mouth closed on something that was many times its own size. The sphinx hide was too thick for the teeth to puncture; they got stuck, and the monster couldn't let go.