"But we're friends! I couldn't think of—"
"Your niceness is all too likely to cost you your life, and me my happiness," Nada said. "It is time for desperate measures. We have to eliminate one of us, and we just had an easy way to do it. But now we may have eliminated both of us, and that's no good either."
"Maybe you're right," Electra said, biting her lip in the way that wasn't permitted to princesses. "I guess I just wasn't thinking. But oh, Nada, I just had to try to save you!"
"I would have tried the same for you," Nada confessed. "Still, we have to get sensible sometime."
They were still falling, but it seemed to Nada that their descent was slower now. She remembered that this was the gourd, where things were not necessarily quite what they seemed. Was it possible that they were not both about to be dashed to pieces below?
Electra peered down. "There's a river!" she said, some of her brightness returning. "A very pretty one."
Nada looked. There was indeed a river, which glistened in the sunshine. At the moment Nada wasn't inclined to question how there could be sunlight way down here below the corkscrew swamp path; the river was beautiful in a crystalline way, with many perfectly-cut facets. "I agree."
They continued slowing, until at last they came to rest on the river bank. Now the crystals of the river were large and bright, sending lovely splays of light in a number of directions. "What a beautiful Crystal River!" Electra breathed.
"But now we are off the cookie path," Nada reminded her, getting practical. "We shall have to look for it, for we don't want to be forever lost here in the gourd, no matter how beautiful this part of it is."
"Yes, of course," Electra agreed, chastened. "But I'm sure the corkscrew is here somewhere."
They looked, but there was no corkscrew swamp path. Evidently they had fallen beyond it and were lost. "We shall just have to look for a cookie sign," Nada decided. "You look upriver and I'll look downriver. That will double our chances of finding the correct path."
"But we shouldn't separate!" Electra protested. "We might never find each other again!"
"And if only one of us emerges from the gourd, where does that leave us?" Nada inquired softly.
"But—" Electra started, flustered. Then she caught on. "You mean—?"
"I mean it is one way to resolve our dilemma, without prejudice to either of us."
"Oh, Nada, I don't like this way!" Electra cried.
"Make me this pact," Nada said firmly. "Whichever one of us finds the cookie trail will follow it straight out, so as to waste no time in rescuing Che Centaur. The one who doesn't find it can backtrack and pick up the trail later."
"But if we both make it through, then who marries Dolph?"
"The one he chooses, of course, as always."
Electra looked troubled. She evidently had a suspicion what Nada intended to do, but didn't want to accuse her of it openly. "I suppose."
"Very well, it's decided," Nada said briskly. She slithered downriver. She made it a point not to look back, so that Electra would have to do the right thing and explore upriver.
She hoped Electra would be the one to find the cookie trail. Then the girl would follow it out and proceed on their mission, alone. The trail markers would be gone, so Nada would not be able to follow her. Electra would marry Dolph, and live and be happy. Dolph would be happy too, for once he really paid attention to Electra—a thing he really had never done—he would discover that she was a far better match for him than Nada was. She was closer to his age, which counted for a lot, and seemed closer yet, which counted for more. She shared his juvenile enthusiasms. She loved to eat, and she could never refrain from laughing when someone blew on a stink horn, making a foul-smelling noise. That was something no princess could get away with, but a prince could and an ordinary girl could. Most important of all, Electra lived to please Dolph, and that was a quality any man could come to appreciate in any woman, once she got his attention. So Dolph would be happier with Electra, and everyone knew it except him. He just needed a situation where he could realize it.
The Crystal River wound its lovely way down to a strange sea. It was red, and it seemed to be groaning. Well, not exactly groaning; the sound was more like a whine.
She stopped at the beach, which was in the shape of a great U. In fact there were many little metal U's on it, instead of sand. They were the kind of things that centaurs nailed to their feet to prevent wear. They were called horseshoes, because presumably horses could use them too. The whole beach was made of diminishing horseshoes! What bad dream was this supposed to be the setting for?
She went to the water, curious about its color. She looked around, saw no human folk, and changed to her human form. Then she stooped to dip out a handful of the water.
She saw eyes looking up at her, from under the surface. Oops! Was someone there, spying on her human nakedness? No, it was a shell with eyes. A see shell, of course.
She reached into the water, took the edge of the shell, lifted it, turned it over, and used it to dip out some of the whining red water. She brought it to her mouth and tasted it.
Sure enough, it was a flavored alcoholic beverage. Red whine. No doubt yet another prop for somebody's bad dream.
Well, Nada didn't need it. She walked on along the beach, away from the Crystal River, wishing she had her clothes. She had forgotten about this detail when she separated from Electra, and now could not go back to get her clothing from her friend. She would just have to make do. Perhaps it didn't matter, as she would not be emerging to normal Xanth.
For that was the gist of Nada's notion: she would fail to find her way out of the gourd, and Electra would marry Dolph by default and live happily ever after. Nada could not renege on her betrothal directly, but if she were lost here she wouldn't have to. Maybe she could find work in the dream realm, the way Girard Giant had three years ago. Ivy had of course told her all about that: how they had discovered a river of blood and traced it to its source, which was the giant's injury, and managed to help Girard recover and find his true love, Gina Giantess. Girard had been one of the invisible giants, but now he was a visible one working in the gourd. So there was a precedent, and Nada was ready to work here if the Night Stallion had a use for her.
Then she saw the cookie. It was a delicious-looking pun-wheel, the kind that was horribly tempting to princesses, though they invariably made folk turn around and groan. Ivy said she had loved them as a little girl, and she still blushed and yielded to her desire to eat one, every so often. After all, just how much could be expected of a princess? There were limits.
Nada knew her plan was in trouble. She had thought that the cookie trail was upriver, not down, because they had fallen down to this region. Now she realized that the cookie trail could go wherever it wanted, including down—and it had done so. So she was the one who had found it, not Electra. Her princessly sacrifice had been for nothing.
What was she to do now? She still knew that Electra was the proper one to marry Dolph, and that would never happen if Electra didn't find her way out of the gourd. Certainly Nada didn't want to leave Electra here, because then she would have no chance to marry Dolph, and would die within the week.
Nada pondered, and considered, and thought, changing forms for each activity, and finally realized that there was a way out of this mess. All she had to do was avoid the cookie trail, so that it didn't vanish, and hide. In due course Electra, failing to find any cookies upstream, would come downstream and find it here. She would assume that Nada had already taken it, for she didn't know that it was a one-use trail. She would follow it out, and the plan would be intact.
Nada backed away from the cookie, trusting it not to vanish. She was right: it remained in place, because she had not passed it. She assumed her serpent form and slid into the brush. When she was well hidden, she became absolutely still. She intended to watch to be sure that Electra did come. If she did not, Nada would have to go look for her, for at least one of them did have to make it on through the
gourd. Che Centaur needed rescuing, after all.
Now that her notion was being implemented, Nada had a second thought. How could poor little Electra rescue Che from the mean goblins? She could shock one of them, but where there was one goblin there were always twenty more. Didn't Nada know that, from her father's endless war against the encroaching goblins of Mount Etamin! She was really deserting Electra, and that made her feel increasingly guilty. Yet this was her chance to do the right thing by Electra, and by Dolph too, and she really had to follow through. So she kept still, and waited.
Before long Electra did come. She hadn't found the cookie trail, so was trying to catch up with Nada, who she thought must have found it.
Nada watched as the girl ran by. Such vigor! Her light brown braids flounced busily, and her freckles seemed to bounce off her face. She had such joy of life, no matter what she was doing. She would be so good for Dolph, who had such little notion what life was about.
Yet Nada felt a tear flowing down across her snoot. That was odd, because as far as she knew, serpents didn't cry. This was the last time she would be seeing Electra. She hated what she was doing to her friend, though she knew it was best for her. Electra would never understand what had happened, and would be upset about taking advantage of the situation and marrying Dolph. Electra was horribly sweet about things like that. Yet at the same time Electra would be struggling to rescue Che without help, and that was almost as bad as the other part was good. Nada's emotions were getting so mixed up they were like scrambled spaghetti.
She watched Electra spy the cookie. "She found it!" the girl exclaimed, delighted. One of the qualities of Electra was the way she saw things: she had not been glad for herself, but for Nada. She was the best friend a girl could have.
But then Electra paused. "But maybe I shouldn't follow," she said. "It isn't as if I have a future, anyway."
Oh, no! Electra was getting the same notion Nada had! She thought Nada was headed out of the gourd, so she wanted to remain in and solve the Betrothee problem. That wouldn't do!
"But she'll need my help, handling those goblins," Electra decided, and ran on past the cookie, which vanished as she passed it.
Nada relaxed, but somehow she didn't feel much better. Electra had decided to go ahead because she wanted to help Nada fight the goblins. Nada had thought of that with respect to Electra, but had decided against it. That showed how much less caring she was. She felt terrible.
She slithered forward, tempted to follow the girl before she got out of sight. But by the time she reached the spot where the cookie had been, Electra was already out of sight. She moved so rapidly, with her slender, healthy body! One would never catch Electra languidly eating grapes on a couch; she would eat the grapes while zipping all around the castle.
Nada tried to see where the girl had gone, but it was no use; all directions were similarly unlikely. So she gave it up as a bad job. She would feel guilty no matter what she did, either for not making it possible for Electra to marry Dolph or for deserting her in the struggle against the goblins. Or both.
She turned and slithered toward the Crystal River. She moved right out onto it, not caring whether it was liquid or solid. Serpents could swim, after all.
It turned out to be in between; the crystals bobbed around when she touched them, floating individually on the water. They were cold, though. In fact, they were ice crystals. So she moved on through as quickly as she could. Her serpent body did not have a mechanism to maintain heat, and she could slow until she froze if she didn't get away from the ice soon.
She made it to the far bank. Here there were no horseshoes, just people shoes of all types and sizes, their tongues slurping around. This would be where the centaurs got their supplies for their game of people shoes. But Nada still didn't see how such things would make bad dreams. But of course there was a lot she didn't know about dreams.
She would have to learn it, though, if she worked here. First she would have to find the Night Stallion and ask for work in the dream realm. She did not expect to enjoy making sleeping folk unhappy, but she hoped to muddle through somehow. Now where would the stallion be?
She spied a city ahead. It seemed to be in the shape of a cross. Maybe there would be a night mare there, or someone else she could ask.
She reverted to her natural form, which was the best one for both travel and dialogue. It wouldn't be any good to turn human, because she might be mistaken for a nymph without her clothes, and anyway it just wasn't princessly to run around nude. When she had been younger she had done it, but her years at Castle Roogna had impressed on her the human way, especially with respect to panties. So her natural form was the one, until someone told her otherwise.
As she slithered closer, she saw that the city's buildings were all in the shape of crosses too. They had cross-shaped doors and windows, and cross-shaped chimneys. She wondered whether this was the place for cross people. Maybe this was where all the cross actors lived, for dreams where anger and meanness were required. She hoped she didn't encounter any of those!
She smelled something delicious: she was passing a patch of hot cross buns. But she knew that if she tried to eat one it would either burn her mouth angrily or try to switch her posterior.
The intersections were crosses too. Nada decided to slither straight on through; she would ask for information at some other place.
She entered the main intersection at the center of the city—and suddenly someone was charging toward her from the side. Nada hissed in surprise and drew back her head, fearing what this denizen of Cross City would do.
"Nada!" the other cried, gladly.
"Electra!" Nada exclaimed, instantly recognizing her.
Electra threw herself down and embraced Nada, not caring about either her form or the dirt of the street. "Oh, I'm so glad I finally caught up to you!" she exclaimed. "I was afraid something had happened to you!"
Nada opened her mouth, but nothing came out for a moment. Electra didn't even realize what Nada had done! Her innocence and goodwill was such that she had no suspicions of her friends. Nada was ashamed. "You're such a decent girl!" she said, her tears flowing again.
"No I'm not! I almost didn't follow you, because—"
"You weren't following me," Nada said, unwilling to have this lie between them any longer. "I didn't take the cookie trail. It was just coincidence we met here." But as she spoke, she realized that it might not be. This was Cross City, where all paths might cross, including theirs.
"But—" Electra said, round eyed.
"I deserted you, 'Lectra. I left you to face the goblins alone. I'm so sorry." Nada could hardly see, now, because of her tears of remorse.
"Because you wanted me to be the only one to leave the gourd," Electra said, "so I could marry Dolph."
"That, too," Nada confessed.
Electra squeezed her tightly around her serpentine neck. "Oh, Nada, how could I marry Dolph when you were lost? You were so generous, but I'm not worthy of it, honest I'm not! This isn't the way!"
"This isn't the way," Nada agreed, relieved.
"Promise me not to do that again!"
There was no help for it. "I promise." Then, after a pause: "But you are worthy of it, 'Lectra."
Electra shook that off as a kind overstatement. "Now we can go after those goblins together," she said enthusiastically, her bright spirits returning as if never dimmed. "And if anything happens to one of us then—"
Nada nodded. Sweet, innocent little Electra did understand the underlying reality. Perhaps their problem could be honestly settled, by chance. Goblins were mean creatures, and only an ogre could go into an encounter with them with any equanimity, and that was partly because ogres were so stupid.
They resumed their trek. The trail of cookies led them to a great wall, and to an alcove in it. When they entered the alcove, suddenly they were by another river, and there were cookies growing all along its banks.
"How can we find our way now?" Electra asked, dismayed. "There are so man
y!"
Nada was similarly baffled. She turned around, to check for the last vanished cookie, in case there was some misunderstanding. But there was nothing but the peephole of a giant gourd. She averted her gaze just in time to avoid being trapped in it.
Then she made the connection. " 'Lectra! We're out of the gourd! This is the With-a-Cookee River—the real one!"
"Oh!" Electra cried, thrilled. "Now we can rescue Che!"
"First we have to find him," Nada reminded her. "And watch for the goblins. We had better surprise them instead of having them surprise us."
Electra suffered a flash of seriousness. "Yes. I can shock only one. We'll need your jaws."
"I can bite only one at a time. What we'd really better do is find them, then blow the whistle to summon the others."
"But won't the goblins hear the whistle too?"
"Ulp! I had forgotten about that! We won't dare alert the goblins, because they might dump him into the pot immediately."
"Maybe the sparkleberries," Electra said. "It's pretty dark now, so they'll be visible. If the goblins don't realize what they are—"
"Yes, those will be fine. So now we had better move, because it is evident that Che isn't here anymore. The goblins must have taken him to their camp." "Can you sniff out the trail in your serpent form?"
"I should be able to." Nada assumed full serpent form and flicked her tongue about. Immediately she picked up Che's scent—but also the scents of many goblins and something else. It was almost like elf, but not quite. She didn't think she had smelled that creature before.
She resumed Naga form. "Is there an elf elm near here?" she asked.
"I suppose there could be," Electra said, "since we don't know exactly where we are. But the elves wouldn't foal-knap a centaur!"
"There's the smell of one elf, almost," Nada said. "But no elm tree scent. It's almost as if this elf didn't come from an elm."
"But that's impossible! All elves live in elf elms, and they get impossibly weak when they stray too far from them. If one did stray, his companions would bring him back; elves don't desert their own."
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