The warlock insane by Christopher Stasheff

to take the time to… mount." Rod forced himself back to his feet, looking around.
    "Well… better keep… going. Which way… now?"
    "Good… question," the doppelganger puffed, pushing himself away from the tree. They found themselves staring at a fork in the trail.
    "Which branch?" Rod murmured.
    "Dexter, or Sinister?" his doppelganger responded.
    "You have but to ask."
    They looked around, staring.
    A trunk detached itself from the trees and stepped forward between the two arms of the fork. They discovered, with starts of surprise, that it was a man. He was a foot taller than either of them, and his clothes were the dark gray of bark. The same fabric shrouded his head in a cowl. Rod exchanged a wary look with his double. The doppelganger nodded and sidled around the stranger, loosening his sword in its sheath.
    The bark-man folded his cowl back.
    Rod stared—the man's whole face seemed to curve upward on the sides. His mouth was a grin, and the corners of his eyes tilted up. His bunched cheeks were so red they could have been spots of paint. He looked as though the mere idea of sadness had never even touched him.
    "He's a happy-face," Rod said.
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    "No, he's not," the doppelganger contradicted. "You should see him from the back! He's a sad-face."
    "Gentlemen, gentlemen!" The stranger lifted both hands in appeal. "I am both—Comedy before and Tragedy after!"
    Rod didn't like what that said about the man's view of life. "And I'm supposed to ask you which path to take to my future?'
    The stranger shrugged and said gaily, "Why trouble yourself with the future?" From behind, the same voice said, with dire tones, "To me, all futures are past." Rod decided the man would have done well in commodities.
    "Wherever you go," counseled Mirth, "there is much to enjoy; for there is beauty in all things, and vividness in every experience."
    "Experience is a history of pain," answered Tragedy, "for ugliness and squalor prevail." The doppelganger cocked an eyebrow in skepticism. "You boys really can't agree on anything, can you?"
    "Aye," said Mirth, "on Unity!"
    "We concur on Duality," Tragedy explained.
    "They can't even agree on what they agree on," Rod said to the doppelganger, exasperated.
    "Oh, they do, if you look at it the right way." The doppelganger tilted his head way to the side. "I mean, after all, the Duality is just the two aspects of Eternity."
    "Not you, too," Rod groaned. "Look, can we get down to basics here?" He turned back to the two-faced man. "Which way should we go?"
    "To the right," said Mirth; so of course:
    "To the left," said Tragedy.
    "Got a coin?" Rod asked the doppelganger.
    "Why?"
    " 'Cause I'm ready to flip."
    "Chance brings disaster," Tragedy intoned.
    "Chance may bring happiness," Mirth responded.
    "Why did I know that was coming?" Rod muttered. He looked up at Fess. "Can you make sense out of all this?"
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    "Not readily," Fess answered. "However, I do detect a slight depression in the snow between the two paths of the fork."
    Rod whirled, staring."I don't see anything."
    "It is a matter of averaging the bumps in the snow, Rod."
    "I'll take your word for it." Rod stepped forward toward the center.
    "Back!" cried Mirth.
    "You must not go there!" cried Tragedy.
    "At last," muttered the doppelganger, "something they agree on." Both faces whirled toward him at the same moment—or tried to. The only real result was that the two-faced man lurched aside, and Rod dodged past him.
    "Stop!" shrieked Mirth.
    "Avoid moderation!" lamented Tragedy.
    But Rod was kicking the snow aside, and discovered a very faint, but discernible, track. "Come on," he said to the doppelganger, who jumped to follow him.
    The two-faced man lumbered into motion, following them with the ungainly stride of a man who is of two minds about an issue, reaching out with clumsy