Dolph sat down. Since the monster's mouth was fastened to his backside, this meant that he sat on the monster's face. His bulk spread out to cover all three eyes.

"I'm free!" Metria exclaimed, moving at last. "You broke its eye contact!"

"Go fetch some tangle vines," Dolph told her with his huge human mouth. "We'll tie it up and plug the hole with it."

She vanished. Would she do it? She might decide that she had better folk to torment elsewhere. He could hold the monster as long as he sat on it, but he couldn't leave without freeing it. He didn't want to sit forever.

Then the demoness reappeared with a squirming mass of vines. She used them to wrap around the monster. Some she put over its eyes, their suckers fastening the eyes closed. Then she hammered the teeth that were embedded in Dolph's posterior, so that he could get ^up.

He assumed ogre form, picked up the trussed monster, and jammed it into the hole. Then the two of them used more vines to anchor it there, so that it could neither enter nor exit Xanth. It had become the plug.

"That was very brave and smart of you, Prince," Metria said. "I am amazed."

"So am I," he admitted.

"But how did you manage to be so manly, when you had been so boyly before?"

Dolph pondered. "I'm not sure. I guess I just did what had to be done."

She shook her head. "You remain as much of a mystery as ever! Each time I think you are hopeless, you evince a modicum of amplitude."

"Of what?"

"Dimension, magnitude, scope, largeness—" she said fretfully.

"Potential?"

"Whatever. I am disgusted."

"You should be," he said, obscurely satisfied.

"Now I suppose you feel free to go rescue your Betrothees and try to sneak a glimpse of someone's panties."

"Right," he said, and assumed the form of a swift hawk. He launched into the air and headed west, toward the With-a-Cookee River. He was pleased to see that the demoness did not follow.

Chapter 5. Chex's Checks

Chex was about to resume her circuit, when a ghost appeared. "Oh, hello, Ghorge," she said, surprised. "What are you doing away from the Good Magician's castle?"

The ghost opened his mouth, but there was no sound. "He needs a sheet of paper," Grundy said. "He's a ghost writer, remember."

"Oh, that's right!" Chex hurried to fetch the paper. She set it on the table.

In a moment the handwriting appeared, in Ghorge's fancy script: The foal is at the With-a-Cookee River. Nada Naga and Electra are going there now.

"Oh, I must go there right away!" Chex exclaimed, vastly relieved.

But the ghost hadn't finished his message. More writing was appearing on the paper: Magician Grey believes there may be danger if you go. Che is the captive of goblins—

"And if the gobs see a winged centaur flying in," Grundy said, faster than the ghost could write, "they'll know whose mother she is."