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  "Yes. That's why this is so odd. A funny elf smell, and no elm tree. I must be misinterpreting." Nada returned to serpent form and explored further.

  Soon she was slithering along the goblin's trail. The evil little men had not even tried to conceal it; they had simply charged along to one of their trails, and then used that. The centaur and odd-elf smells continued, closely associated; it was almost as if both were captives.

  Then Electra touched her back with a hand. "I see something," she whispered.

  Nada lifted her head and peered around. She had kept her head low before, sniffing out the trail. There was a faint light off to the side.

  She put on her human head. "That must be the goblin camp! We'll sneak up on it."

  They did that, moving quietly. Nada had no trouble, in her serpent form, but Electra had to move very slowly in her human body.

  They came to the edge of a little jungle glade. There were four goblins and a well-damped fire. Beside the fire was a little tent. Nada realized that Che must be tied in the tent. Could she slither silently in behind and untie him without the goblins knowing? It seemed worth a try.

  She resumed naga form. "I'm going in that tent," she whispered.

  Electra nodded. She would wait here and spring in when her help was needed.

  Nada became a small snake and slithered around the glade toward the tent. The goblins seemed to be eating their supper. She hoped it wasn't boiled centaur! She was relieved that the party was so small; she could probably handle it alone, in large serpent form. One of them was female, which made it that degree less formidable, because lady goblins were much less nasty than males. But it would be better to untie Che first so that he could bolt free while Nada kept the gobs at bay.

  The funny thing was, she didn't smell Che or the odd elf. The closer she got to the tent, the less likely it seemed that either creature was here. What could this mean?

  She reached the tent and slithered under its back flap. It was empty. The only smell was that of the female goblin. Evidently she was in charge of this party and had the best facilities.

  But why was this little party of goblins camping out here, apart from the main mass? And where was Che? The mysteries were deepening instead of fading.

  Nada slithered back out of the tent, disappointed. They would have to resume the trail they had been following before; this was only a diversion.

  Then Electra sneezed. Nada knew the sound the moment she heard it, and hoped the goblins wouldn't.

  No such luck. "What was that?" the gobliness exclaimed, jumping up so quickly that her long hair swirled about her body.

  "It sounded like a human sneeze, Godiva," one of the males replied.

  "I know that, Moron!" Godiva snapped. She pointed to the sound with a wand she had.

  "Eeeek!" Electra cried, rising into the air. Nada saw her clearly in the moonlight, flying without wings. It seemed that the gobliness had magic—in fact a magic wand.

  Nada had to act. She assumed monster serpent form and launched herself at the goblins.

  "Look out, Godiva!" a goblin cried.

  Godiva whirled. She spied Nada. Her wand whipped around. In a moment Nada was lifted into the air, while Electra dropped to the ground.

  "What have we here?" Godiva asked, keeping Nada suspended in the air.

  Nada changed to human form, still floating. "You have a naga," she replied, hoping that would set them back or at least take their attention off Electra, so she could do something. This magic wand was another surprise!

  "Look at that body!" a goblin exclaimed, ogling her. The other two males stared similarly.

  Oops! In her confusion, Nada had forgotten her nakedness. She would have used her natural form instead, if she had taken more than half an instant to think about it.

  "Idiot!" the gobliness cried. "Imbecile! Grab that other girl!"

  Two goblins yanked their eyeballs back into place, turned, and charged Electra, but she dodged past them in her athletic way and went for Godiva. Electra, being human, was twice the size of the goblins, which helped. The charge caught the goblins by surprise; they might have expected her to flee. She touched the gobliness' arm and shocked her.

  Godiva sank to the ground, dropping the wand. At the same time, Nada fell. She managed to twist around so as to land on her human feet, avoiding injury.

  Electra dived for the wand. The goblins, stunned again by the sight of Nada, were slow to think of that. Electra brought it up and pointed it at one. "Now get back!" she cried. "Or I'll hoist you into the tree-tops!"

  The goblins, amazingly, laughed. "You can't use that!" one said, advancing on her.

  Nada resumed serpent form and hissed at him. He fell back.

  "But it's true," Electra said, dismayed. "It isn't working for me."

  Nada put on her human head. "Keep it anyway," she said. "That will stop them from using it. Now let's get out of here."

  "Wait!" Godiva called, struggling to sit up. "Don't take our only magic!"

  "Why not?" Electra asked. "You must've stolen it from someone else."

  "No, it's mine," Godiva said. "My mother's actually, but I'm using it with her permission. Why did you attack us?"

  "We didn't attack you!" Nada responded indignantly. "We were just checking to see if you had the centaur foal. Then Electra sneezed."

  "You're looking for Che Centaur?" Godiva asked. "Are you with the elf?"

  "You know about the elf? I smelled it, but there's something odd about it."

  Godiva gazed at her a moment. "I think maybe we should talk," she said.

  "Talk? We have to rescue the foal!"

  "We may not be enemies," Godiva said. "Not exactly, anyway."

  This was stranger yet! "Do goblins honor a truce?" Nada asked.

  "Females do." Godiva turned to the three males. "Moron, Idiot, Imbecile—lay down your weapons and back off."

  The three males did exactly that. Nada was impressed. "Truce, then," she agreed. "While we talk."

  "While we talk," Godiva said. "Let me explain at the outset that we are not the goblins who have the foal. We want to rescue him before the Goblinate of the Golden Horde boils him and his companion, the elf girl."

  "Elf girl!" Nada explained. She had assumed it was male. But that did not account for the whole of the oddity.

  "Who is that elf, if she's not with you?" Nada asked.

  They settled down by the warm fire, which was a pleasure. Nada did not fully trust the gobliness, but as long as Electra held the wand, and the goblins didn't know that Electra's charge was gone, perhaps it was all right. It was evident that Godiva had information they needed.

  "We know little of her, and I will tell you what there is. But first I must explain our interest in the foal," Godiva said. "Have patience; I will make this brief, and I think the Golden Horde will not harm them until morning."

  "I hope not!" Electra said.

  "We are from Goblin Mountain in the east," Godiva said. "Some time back, an ogre passed by with an entourage of seven females. He was remarkably decent for his kind, and suspiciously unstupid, except with regard to women. One of the females was Goldy Goblin, daughter of Gorbage, chief of the North Slope Gap goblins. She was seeking to trap a husband in the approved fashion. The ogre managed to fathom the secret of the magic wand the tribe had stolen, and he gave it to Goldy, who then had power to snare the son of the chief. The ogre stomped on northward and was lost to history, but Goldy remained, and married, and the stork brought me. I am so named because of an obscure legend associated with hair and taxes; I need not bore you with that." Godiva tossed her hair, and they saw that she wore little or no clothing beneath it; the hair served as an effective cloak.

  "In due course I snagged my own chief's son, who seemed to appreciate my costume," Godiva continued. "In due course the stork brought us Gwendolyn, who was as lovely and nice as any female child. But through a tragic mischance she was rendered lame, and can walk only with difficulty. Since I will not suffer my daughter to be humble
d by circumstance, I determined to obtain a suitable steed for her to ride. Thus it was that I borrowed my mother's wand, and used a tunnel spell, and took the centaur foal."

  "But Che's too young to ride!" Electra protested.

  "He will grow," Godiva said. "Meanwhile, we shall tame him, so that he is safe for Gwendolyn. On such a steed, when she is grown, she should be able to achieve my hope for her, and our tradition will continue. Unfortunately our tunnel spell malfunctioned, and when we emerged we were not back at Goblin Mountain, but here on the wrong side of the Elements. That was the beginning of our problem."

  "Murphy's curse!" Electra exclaimed. "It made the plot go wrong!"

  "So there was hostile magic," Godiva said. "I suspected as much. At any rate, my point is that we mean no harm to the foal. He will be well treated, and my daughter will be as compatible a companion as he can find. But here in this hostile region we knew we would have trouble with the Goblinate of the Golden Horde, so we were hurrying north to avoid it. We hoped to cross the river and circle the Elements and return to Goblin Mountain from the north. But this strange elf appeared suddenly, spooked my men with cherry bombs, and stole the foal from us. Naturally we followed, but they fled to a raft on the river, and we could not reach them. It is important that no harm come to the foal, you see; that limited our options. But then the horde goblins got wind of the presence of the foal and advanced on the river, and we had to fall back; they are hundreds to our four, and the magic wand will not prevail against such odds. This is our present state: we must save the foal from certain death at the hands of the horde, but we lack the resources to attack. Only if I can use the wand to float the foal clear of them during the night can it be accomplished."

  Nada nodded soberly. Now things were falling into place! She could not approve Godiva's abduction of Che Centaur, but she had to trust her motive now. If Che died, Godiva lost, just as did the centaur's friends.

  "But the elf girl!" Electra said. "Who is she? Why did she come? Where is she now?"

  "Apparently she is a friend of the foal," Godiva said. "She is a strange one, with oddly pointed ears and missing fingers, and she is twice the size of the elves we know. The horde took her captive and seems to be treating her no better than the foal; I suspect they mean to cook her also. She is only a child, and the oddest thing is that she does not seem to weaken away from her elm."

  "But all elves are tied to their elms!" Nada said.

  "As I said, she is a strange one. I have never before seen her like. She even wears spectacles and associates with an odd little animal of the feline persuasion."

  "Chex Centaur must have found her on some distant mount, and brought her in for a companion to Che," Electra said. "She must have followed you when you stole Che and tried to rescue him." She frowned. "But it's funny Chex didn't tell me about it. I have played with Che often, and there's never been an elf there."

  "We are all mystified," Godiva said. "But there you have it. I believe we should make common cause and try to rescue the foal from the horde. Thereafter we may settle our differences as to the foal's disposition."

  Nada pondered, not completely at ease with this. She didn't trust goblins for one excellent reason: they were untrustworthy. It was true that Godiva had no wish to harm Che, but the moment he was rescued, she would probably try to spirit him away to Goblin Mountain. Still, it was hardly likely that one naga and one human girl could rescue Che alone.

  "We have a whistle to summon other search parties here," she said. "Maybe—"

  "The goblins aren't deaf," Godiva pointed out. "If they think others are coming, they will simply move up their schedule and boil their captives now. They don't know about us because we hid, but they would know if they heard that whistle."

  She had a point. "We also have sparkleberries to summon help from the Good Magician," Nada said.

  "The goblins aren't blind, either. They have sentries posted. That is why we did not dare camp closer to them; we would have been spied and wiped out. After we rescue the foal, then you might summon your help."

  She did seem to be making sense. "But how will we settle who gets Che?" Nada asked. "We don't want him captive at Goblin Mountain either."

  "We can settle that after we rescue him. We can hold a contest or draw straws or something, the loser bound to let the winner have him. In either case, he will be safe."

  Nada looked at Electra. "What do you think? Can we trust these goblins?"

  "I think we have to," Electra said, evidently no better pleased than Nada was. She handed the wand back to the gobliness.

  "Very well." Nada faced Godiva. "We'll act together to rescue Che and the elf girl. Once we have them safe from the horde, we'll decide who keeps Che. But you have to understand that no matter what deal you make with the two of us, Che's parents will not rest until they have him back. They are winged monsters, and I think you could find the winged monsters laying siege to your mountain."

  "We had really hoped that no one would know where he was," Godiva confessed. "But I think that once it is clear how well we treat the foal, the objections will fade. I think you would rather see him with us than cooked, and we would rather see him with you than cooked, so let's deal with the present situation and leave the other till tomorrow."

  She certainly was practical! But so was Nada. "Even working together, we can't match the power of the Horde. We'll need a ruse or some device to get him out without their knowing right away. Suppose I assume small snake form and sneak unobserved into their camp, and untie him and lead him out. If they spy us, then you loft us high out of their reach with your wand."

  "I can't loft two at once," Godiva said. "Not of your size."

  "I was afraid of that. Then loft him alone, and I'll assume large serpent form and fight my way out of it as well as I can."

  "But you can't hope to—" Electra protested.

  "Then you will make the deal to free Che from Godiva," Nada said. "Before you marry Dolph."

  "Maybe I could sneak in to untie him," Electra said.

  "No. You can't change size or form. But you can help by carrying me to the horde, so that I can rest and sleep and be at my best when I have to be."

  Electra looked unhappy, but she had to agree that this was best. Still, she had an objection. "That wand can keep him high only while Godiva wields it. The goblins will soon see her, and if they catch her—"

  "True," Godiva said. "Just as the two of you overcame me. I must concentrate on the wand when I am using it; I will be pretty much helpless. But I might hide in a tree, and they would not see me. My three henchmen could decoy them away."

  "Awww—" one of the males protested.

  "Quiet, Moron," Godiva snapped.

  "It isn't nice to call him that," Electra said.

  "That's his name," Godiva replied. "They are Moron, Idiot, and Imbecile—all stalwart examples of their kind."

  "Oh." Electra was embarrassed. "But you can only loft Che so far, from one fixed place, and those goblins of the horde will be all over."

  Godiva sighed. "I know. It is not an ideal situation. But we must do what we can. If it comes to nothing, then you must signal your friends, as there will by then be nothing to be lost by alerting the horde."

  "I'm not satisfied with it," Electra said.

  "If you can improve on it, welcome," the gobliness said. "I think now we should get started, as I believe the horde is some distance away. We must move as quietly as possible, hoping to approach them undetected."

  "I'll look for a pineapple plantation or something," Electra said. "There has to be something to cause some extra mischief for those mean things."

  "Good idea." Godiva turned to the three males. "Spread out, look for anything like that, and report to a female if you find it."

  "But we'd rather use the path!" one protested.

  "That's the first place the horde will set an ambush, Imbecile."

  Imbecile dropped his protest.

  "But how will we find each other?" Nada asked, still j
ust a bit uneasy about Godiva's intentions.

  "Idiot can whistle like a bird," the gobliness said. "Idiot, do the bird-in-hand call."

  The male goblin pursed his ugly lips and whistled. The sound was a trilling cadence that sounded almost like "I got it! I got it! It's mine!"

  Nada was impressed. "But suppose there's a real bird here?"

  "There may be. It wouldn't make sense to use a call that the horde knew was foreign. But a real bird will not remain for the rendezvous, while Idiot will."

  Nada nodded. It was a good device.

  They spread out into the forest. Electra might not like traveling alone through it at night, but the moon was extra big and bright, so she could see well enough, and she realized that the horde would have cleaned out most predators, so it was probably reasonably safe. "If you have trouble, wake me," Nada said, then took her hand and changed to small snake form. Electra put her carefully in a breast pocket. Nada, of course, could not use breast pockets; not only were they unprincessly, there was no room in that region of her torso for anything like that.

  Nada coiled into a disk and let Electra's motion lull her to sleep. It was comfortable here, and actually, when it came right down to it, Electra was far from flat chested. In the right gown she could show off to a certain advantage. It was just that she never bothered to, preferring to look tomboyish. Maybe she was afraid that if she looked as feminine as she could, Queen Irene would notice and make her stop dressing like a boy and running unfettered around the grounds. But that would come to a definite stop within a week if Dolph didn't notice. Nada resolved to take Electra in hand the moment they got back to Castle Roogna and put her in a low-cut gown. Of course that would still leave those freckles to deal with, but maybe some vanishing cream would make them vanish. There was a creamweed in the orchard with the milkweeds; that might have some of the right variety. The wrong variety would make Electra's whole face vanish, so some care was in order.

  Lulled by the motion and her thoughts, Nada fell asleep. She was fortunate that in her reptilian mode she had cold nerves and could relax despite her knowledge of the deadly danger of her coming mission. A warm-blooded creature would have worried about the horde. If she helped rescue Che but didn't make it out herself, then Electra would not need the gown and cream. That seemed sensible.