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Please come back!”
        The centaur opened her eyes. “Oh, did it happen again?”
        “Yes! I said your name, and you got carried away. I didn't mean to. I didn't realize--”
        “That's all right. But now you appreciate my problem.”
        “Yes I do. I won't speak your name again.”
        Karia straightened her legs and touched the ground. She walked back to the shelter. “I would like to go where nobody knows my name. Then I'd be safe. But there's always the chance I would meet someone unexpectedly, who would say my name, and then I could be in trouble. So I suppose I'll just have to stay home, where folk know to call me 'hey, you.' Not that I like that much either.”
        “That side effect--it's another pun,” Cube said. “No wonder you hate puns!”
        “No wonder,” Karia agreed wryly. “Why are you going to see the Good Magician?”
        “I want to be beautiful.”
        Karia looked at her more closely. “I suppose you aren't. I hadn't noticed.”
        “If you were a man, you wouldn't notice me at all. I want to marry and have a loving husband and a nice family and live happily ever after, but it will never happen as long as I'm homely.”
        “Oh, I'm not sure of that.”
        “You're not homely. You have a pretty face and a bosom that would make men stare even if it weren't bare.”
        “Point taken. I have not suffered that particular problem of being unnoticed. Yet I would exchange a portion of my assets with you, if I could abate my side effect.”
        “And I would gladly have that portion! If I had your breasts, no one would notice my face.”
        “Oh, I don't know. Others do notice my face, and of course my rear.”
        “Your rear?”
        “Like most centaurs, I have a handsomer posterior than face, and of course I am duly haughty about it.” Karia reached back and gave her haunch a resounding slap. “I just wish I could see it better.”
        “I have just the thing for you,” Cube said, fishing out the mirror. “Try this.”
        “I'm not certain how this relates,” Karia said, accepting it.
        “Try it and see.”
        The centaur held the mirror up before her face. “Oh, my! Can that be my rump?”
        “Yes. It's a rear-view mirror.”
        “Delightful! It's even handsomer than I thought.”
        “Keep the mirror,” Cube said.
        “Oh, I couldn't! I like it, despite the pun, but I have no return gift for you.”
        “I will be glad if you can keep it. A demoness with a speech impediment gave it to me, and I didn't want it, but I can't be free of it unless I give it away. I gave it away yesterday, but today I had it again. So it may not stay with you anyway, though I hope it does.”
        Karia considered. “In that case, I will keep it, and hope that it remains with me. If not, I will understand.” She paused. “The demoness--would that by any chance have been Metria?”
        “Yes. How did you know?”
        “She's just about the only one who interacts with humans more than briefly, usually mischievously. And she has trouble getting the right word. She doesn't hurt people, merely annoys them. This is the kind of trick one might expect of her.”
        “That's interesting.” Actually Cube had encountered several other mischievous demons, but they had departed once they tricked her into laughing and getting drenched. “But I still hope you keep the mirror.”
        “We shall see.” They composed themselves for sleep.
         
         

Xanth 27 - Cube Route
    Chapter 2
    Good Magician
         
        In the morning they prepared to go their separate ways. Karia still had the mirror; she checked. Then she looked into the sky, and quailed. “Oh, no.”
        “What's the matter?”
        “The dragon's there. I had hoped it would be gone overnight.”
        “A dragon is after