Chapter X – Horsemen
Kenya had been correct – passing back into Xanth through the gap in the Interface caused no discomfort. But upon landing, the group had to concede that, at the moment, they had no idea where to go next.
"I say we go straight to the catacombs," Fett declared. "Get this quest over with."
"I dunno," Jenny said warily. "Somehow I get the feeling that it won't be easy to defeat the Crypt Keeper. Something tells me we're going to need help."
Leia nodded. "I agree. The Crypt Keeper already has Com Pewter on his side. Who knows who else he's recruited to his cause?"
Anakin gave her a surprised look. "This is a change of tune."
Much as she disliked admitting it, he was correct. Before their accidental visit to Mundania, she probably would have sided with Fett, if only to leave Xanth as quickly as possible. But now that she knew what was at stake, what stood to be destroyed if they failed, she realized they couldn't afford to be hasty and careless. Never mind that neither Xanth nor Mundania had anything to do with her or the galaxy she came from – she was not about to let another world be destroyed as Alderaan had been. And if saving either or both worlds meant being in the company of the man who had once been Vader a little longer… she could tolerate it.
"Kenya had some books at her house," Luke pointed out. "One of them had something in it called the Four Horsemen. Father was going to ask her about…"
"WHAT!" bellowed Mentia, shifting rapidly between the forms of a skeleton, a harpy, and a hippogriff before regaining control of herself.
"I've never heard of the Four Horsemen," Jenny said curiously. "I've heard of one Horseman, a werehorse that tried to take over Xanth years ago, but the Day Mare Imbrium killed him…"
"The demoness seems to know something about it," Phillipa pointed out. "Ask her."
Mentia spluttered and ranted a few more minutes. "This is bad, real bad, I mean REALLY, REALLY bad, people! This could be the end of Xanth as we know it! The Crypt Keeper's a blanking idiot! I mean, anyone wanting to bring down the Interface has to be stupid and reckless, but to involve the FOUR HORSEMEN! The guy has a death wish!"
"Mentia, who are the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse?" demanded Anakin.
She inhaled deeply, brushed back her disheveled hair, rearranged her bosom, and started speaking. "The Four Horsemen are crossbreeds. Not just any crossbreeds, mind, but the four sons of the Night Mare Tranquility and the Demon Triment."
"Demon-night mare crossbreeds?" Jenny repeated, stunned.
"Yup. A powerful mix, seeing as demons pretty much run material Xanth and the night mares pretty much run the dream realm of Xanth. At least, that's what the Four Horsemen seemed to think. Of course, they thought a lot of things – such as that they were the rightful rulers of all Xanth, given their bloodlines. But Xanth's always ruled by a Magician. And since the Horsemen had no magic talents aside from the normal attributes of both demons and night mares, they hardly qualified."
"Or maybe Xanth was just prejudiced against crossbreeds," Phillipa put in.
"So the Horsemen tried to take Xanth by force. That didn't work, and both Demon Grossclout and the Night Stallion Trojan had the Horsemen banished to the Everglades, where they could do no harm."
"The Everglades?" repeated Luke.
"They're a never-ending swamp," Jenny replied. "If you wander into the Everglades, you'll never get out. There will only be swamp as far as you walk, fly, or teleport in any direction."
"But they must have escaped," Fett realized.
"They did," Mentia went on, looking sane for once as she spoke. "A hole in the Interface. It led them into Mundania for a brief time, where they could only exist as daydreams and visions. They managed to lurk in the dreams and inspirations of a group of people who ended up wandering into Xanth by accident. Once back in Xanth, they could take on their original forms and were free to wreak havoc once again."
"So they seek to take over Xanth?" asked Leia.
"Nope. Not anymore. Now they only seek to destroy Xanth. If they can't rule it, they want it dismantled down to the last moldy tangle tree. And they have a great army to do their bidding."
Anakin nodded. "That makes sense. They are symbols of destruction in Mundania; thus, they are capable of great destruction in Xanth."
"And here's the clincher," Mentia added. "The Horsemen were last seen near Castle Zombie."
Luke drew in a sharp breath. "The catacombs."
"The Crypt Keeper," Phillipa realized. "They're in league with the Crypt Keeper."
"And he's obviously ignorant of their true intentions," Fett added. "He has made dangerous allies."
"Very dangerous," Jenny agreed. "We're really going to need help to fight the Four Horsemen."
"The question is what kind of help," said Luke.
Fett pulled the flute Jenny had given him from a belt pouch. "According to the elf, this will summon the imp army."
"Can we be sure they'll be enough, though?" asked Leia. "Mentia, how big is the army of the Four Horsemen?"
"How should I know?" she shrilled. "I've never seen it!"
"Then we should prepare for the worst," Luke decided. "Jenny, can we use Sammy?"
"Of course." She set the cat down.
"Sammy, we need to find help in order to defeat the Crypt Keeper and the Four Horsemen. I know that's not a lot to go on…"
Evidently that didn't deter the cat. He mewled once and trotted off.
"What a remarkable animal," marveled Phillipa.
"He's great, isn't he?" asked Jenny, smiling. "He can find anything except home." She frowned slightly at that, but soon composed herself.
When Sammy finally stopped, it was at a great plain criss-crossed with the strangest roads Leia had ever seen – long, thin metallic rails laid atop thick beams of wood. Massive, groaning vehicles slithered along these tracks like great iron snakes, some belching smoke and others blaring horns. Alongside the nearest track was a large station-building of some sort, apparently abandoned. A wooden sign hung creakily from an eave on the building, reading in faded blue letters "Train of Thought Station."
"Um…" Luke was at a loss for words.
"Trains of thought aren't very common," Jenny explained. "But they're convenient for long journeys, and especially useful when you have some deep thinking to do before you get to your destination. But you need a ticket to get on, and I'm not sure how to get them…"
"Figures," Fett grumbled. "It's another challenge, isn't it?"
"Oh, cheer up, sweetie," a sultry female voice encouraged as a bizarrely dressed woman with frizzy orange hair and cat-eye glasses stepped out of the station, smiling fondly at Fett. "This one's a piece of cake compared to the riddle of the door – which you solved pretty well, considering you supposedly hate riddles."
For the first time Leia had seen – and perhaps the first time in the hunter's life – Fett jumped in shock. "Stang it all to chaos, not you again!"
"You mean you know this woman?" asked Anakin, laughing.
"It's not funny!" Fett spat. "Her name is Alto…"
"Sorceress Alto, pumpkin," she corrected. "Get it right." She dug into a pocket on her skirt and pulled out seven tickets. "Okay, the Good Magician ordered me to buy tickets for all seven of you. Seven tickets, seven destinations where you can find potential armies to fight the Four Horsemen. Lucky number, seven is." She held the tickets in the air. "But to get them from me…"
"Another riddle," hissed Fett, the words dripping with loathing.
"Nope, not this time." She tucked them back into her pocket. "This time it's a game-ordered challenge – and let me tell you, it's a doozy!" She said this with a delighted air, like a game-show hostess announcing a contestant's next contest.
Leia winced. More puzzles, more challenges… why couldn't things just be simple for once?
"You're bluffing, Sorceress Alto," Luke said with a smile. "You're way too eager. If the challenge really was as terrible as you say, you wouldn't be smiling like this."
"Fine, I lied, here's your tickets," she retorted, passing them out. "A Sorceress has to get her fun somehow… but you'll meet more challenges when you get to your destinations, so don't get too comfy."
Written across Leia's ticket was her name, the number of the train she was to board, and her destination – someplace called Centaur Isle.
"Centaur Isle?" Luke read aloud, looking over her shoulder. "That's one place we didn't go last time." He held up his ticket, which read "Ogre-fen Ogre-fen."
"Oh boy," Jenny said apprehensively. "Mine says I'm going to Castle Vortex. Home of the Curse Fiends."
"Who are the Curse Fiends?" asked Luke.
"Humans who all share one talent – the ability to curse someone," Anakin replied. "They live in Castle Vortex, an underwater fortress beneath Lake Ogre-Chobee."
"Lucky," Mentia whined. "I'd love to go somewhere where I can curse freely." She held up her ticket. "I got stuck with the Dream Realm."
"Where are you going, Father?" asked Luke.
He let the others see his ticket, which read Mount Parnassus.
"Wow," breathed Jenny. "Mount Parnassus has a rich history. I wish I could go there. Fett, where are you off to?"
"Imp Ire," Fett replied. "Which seems pointless, seeing as I already have the flute…"
"Maybe there's another reason why you need to go there," Luke theorized. "The Good Magician always seems to know best."
Phillipa took her ticket from Alto with her teeth, set it on the ground, and held it in place with a steel fore hoof to examine it. Her green eyes flashed sickeningly when she saw her destination.
"I refuse to go," she snarled. "Not there."
Leia looked at the crossbreed's ticket. "Where's Lake Eerie?"
"Up in northern Xanth," Anakin replied. "When Luke and I first came to Xanth, we traveled there. It is a haven for crossbreeds who are not acceptable in their parents' cultures."
That didn't make sense to Leia. If the lake was supposedly a sanctuary for mixed breeds like Phillipa, why was she so reluctant to go? Did she know something about Lake Eerie that Anakin didn't? Had she committed some crime there and been exiled?
"Sorry, hon, but there's no changing what's on your ticket," Alto told her. "And no swapping of tickets, either. Good Magician Humphrey chose your destinations specifically for each of you…"
"Well, you can tell the Good Magician just where he can shove it, then," Phillipa growled, and she ground her ticket into the dirt with her hoof and turned to go.
"Wait!" Luke shouted. "You can't go! The Good Magician assigned you to us."
"I can do as I please!" Phillipa retorted with a hiss. "I'm not his slave, am I?"
"Your year of service…" Jenny reminded her.
"So what if I don't give the whole year of service!" she snapped. "Not like he can track me down and take back his answer, can he?"
"Let her go," Fett advised. "We don't need her…"
"We do need her," Leia shot back. "Why would the Magician have assigned her to us if we didn't need her?"
"Phillipa, what's wrong?" inquired Anakin. "Why do you refuse to go to Lake Eerie? What have you done that keeps you from going there?"
She glared at him, and Anakin paled slightly but gave no other sign of discomfort.
"What's it to you?" she snapped.
"Did you steal something from them?" he pressed. "Do you have issues with their leaders…"
"I was born," she growled. "That's what I did to earn their wrath. My very existence is what keeps me from going there. Refuge of peace for all crossbreeds, my eye!" Her lips curled back over gleaming fangs, a rather unsettling sight.
"And why would they not accept you among their numbers?" asked Anakin, undeterred by either her illness-inducing stare or her show of teeth.
She flattened her ears against her skull, keeping her teeth bared. "My mother was a basilisk-unicorn crossbreed who fled to Lake Eerie years ago," she replied. "My father… was a magician named Darius Dracotaur."
Jenny gasped. Luke's eyes widened.
"Who?" asked Leia.
"Darius," Luke repeated. "He was a half-dragon, half-centaur magician who was gathering crossbreeds to take over Xanth. Father and I killed him… but we had no idea he had a daughter!"
"So it was you who dealt the blow," Phillipa remarked, leveling her gaze on Luke now. The young Jedi grimaced and put a hand to his stomach.
"Stop it now!" Leia ordered, standing in front of Luke to block the dragon-horse's line of sight. Her own stomach lurched when she made eye contact with her, but she didn't move.
"Do you think I'm proud of having a power-mad sorcerer for a father?" snarled Phillipa. "Do you think it's easy for me to live knowing what he did – and planned still to do – to innocent people? I hated him as much as anyone else, perhaps more so! Look!" And she spread one wing, cocking it at an angle to catch the sunlight.
Leia felt a stab of sympathy. Scrawled across the membranes of her right wing were vicious claw marks, twisting and warping the formerly smooth tissue.
"He did that when I was a filly," she said caustically, "when I accidentally broke one of his prized swords. It never healed quite right, it's a miracle I can still fly with it." She folded the wing away. "He was a brutal beast. Oh, he could be kindly and charming when he wanted to recruit some unsuspecting crossbreed into his army or give his soldiers a pep talk, but otherwise his temper was as short as his ingenuity for new cruelties was long. Some say he killed my mother, though I'll never know, for I don't remember her."
Leia listened, stunned, to Phillipa's words. Some of them could have been her own – her own father had been cruel, brutal, even to his children…
"It was at his behest that I created Lake Eerie with my talent," she went on. "He wanted a body of water whose waters were so mysterious they would be almost unknown to the rest of Xanth. I was young and stupid and thought he would be proud of me when I accomplished the task, but I was wrong, of course. He never valued me as anything but another servant. In the end, I had to run away. I couldn't bear it anymore. And when I returned… he was dead. Another had taken his place, and I knew they would have no place for me, the daughter of Darius."
"I'm sorry…" began Luke.
"Don't you dare say that," Phillipa snarled. "How can you know what it's like to have a father who's a vicious, tyrannical killer? How can you know what it's like to walk through a civilized area and feel as if every eye is upon you, knowing who you are and expecting you to follow in your father's footsteps and embark on some damned fool idealistic crusade? How can you know what it's like to know that, somewhere down the line, someone might hold you responsible for what he did?" She averted her gaze, and Leia's stomach finally calmed down. "And who's to say I won't eventually turn to his ways? Who's to say it's not in me somewhere, deep down – the desire to take over Xanth as he tried to, the urge to torture and manipulate others like he did?"
Leia didn't know what to say. What could she say? If she hadn't known Xanth to be real and not just some game, she would have suspected that someone had programmed Phillipa's character specifically for Leia to encounter. For many of her own thoughts had just been echoed by the dragon-horse. She, too, was the daughter of one of the most infamous tyrants of her world. She, too, would have to bear that stigmata for the rest of her life, no matter what she did to shake it. She, too, felt exposed to the galaxy – even though few knew of her true bloodline, she couldn't shrug off the feeling that the entire galaxy watched her every move, expecting her to fall into her father's habits.
And yes, Leia had also considered the possibility that, somewhere within her, there might be the same powers and desires that had driven her father, a darkness she couldn't escape.
"Phillipa," Luke said evenly, "I do know how you feel. My father wasn't always the man you see before you now. He was once a leader of the Galactic Empire, a regime that held the entire galaxy in a stranglehold. And when I found out I was his son… it nearly tore me apart."
Her head snapped around to look at Luke again, intrigued. He flinched in pain but continued.
"I had to realize that, while I might not like who my father had become, I didn't have to let it affect who I was. Regardless of whose blood was in my veins, it didn't change the fact that I was Luke Skywalker, Jedi Knight. And regardless of who your own father is, it doesn't have to affect your own destiny, whatever that may be."
Phillipa closed her eyes, considering Luke's words. Luke flashed Leia a knowing look and winked; his words had been meant for her as well as Phillipa.
"I still think there'll be trouble if I try returning to Lake Eerie," she countered. "Some of the crossbreeds might know me…"
"But others won't," Jenny piped up. "And if you show them you mean no harm, they won't care who your father is, I'm sure."
Leia smiled. Jenny and Luke, the eternal optimists.
Phillipa sighed. "Well, if they boot me out, at least I know what their opinion is." She bent down and took her crumpled, dirty ticket in her mouth. "I guess the not-knowing's worse than the knowing."
With a great screech of brakes and blast of horn, a train pulled into the station.
"All aboard for Centaur Isle and Ogre-fen Ogre-fen!" announced Alto.
Luke turned to Leia. "Well, shall we try our luck?"
"Didn't General Kenobi used to say there was no such thing as luck?" asked Leia.
Luke laughed a little. "I miss him. I wonder what he'd think of this place."
Leia smiled and boarded the train, Luke close behind.
"I meant what I said, Leia," he told her. "You may not like Father's past, but you don't have to let it affect who you are. And you don't have to let it get in the way of a relationship. Please, just give him a chance."
She sighed in defeat. "When I get back from Centaur Isle, I'll talk to him. Satisfied?"
"Very much," he replied with a huge grin.