Isle Of View (17 page)

“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 just 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 tike 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.

Nada woke because Electra had stopped moving. She had become accustomed to the steady irregularity of the struggle through the jungle, so this abrupt stillness was alarming. She poked her head out of the pocket.

Ahead was a gulf like that of the Gap Chasm. No, it only seemed so; she had forgotten to allow for her small size. It was actually a cleft, a miniature Gap, too wide for a human being to hurdle and too deep to risk. The trees grew up to within a reasonable distance of the brink, but left a clear space at the edge, as if not trusting their roots too close to that emptiness. The moonlight wafted down, brightening the ground, but hesitating to plumb too deeply in the cleft.

Electra was hesitating, and Nada knew her well enough to know that something was on her mind. So she slithered out of the pocket. Electra felt the motion and put her hand up. Nada crawled onto it, and Electra set her on the ground. Then Nada assumed woman form. “What's up?” she inquired.

“This looks a lot like the Gap,” Electra said.

“It's too small. The Gap is a hundred times this big.”

“But could it be an offshoot of the Gap? A crack branching off?”

“I suppose. There are a lot of them. What about it?”

“Then one end must go to the Gap, and the other just gets smaller until it quits.”

“Of course. What's your point?”

“It would be hard to cross, toward the Gap, but easy toward the end.”

Nada was getting impatient. “So what, 'Lectra? Just walk along it until you find where you can cross.”

“But if we rescue—when we rescue Che, the gobs'll be chasing us. So—”

“So we find a good crossing point first,” Nada said. “Now I get your notion. Very well, I'll check one direction, you check the other, and we'll return here and compare notes.”

“No,” Electra said.

“Now look, I'm not going to jump in!” Nada said. “I promised, remember?”

“ 'Snot that,” Electra said. Nada shuddered; she would have to get the girl to stop using such expressions, even if she wasn't a princess. It conjured a vision of a leaky nose.

"Isn't there time? The moon's still out, so it's not dawn yet.''

“'Snot that either.” Ouch! “If they're chasing us, we don't want an easy crossing.”

“But we can't afford to be delayed, if—” Then Nada understood. “The goblins! To stop the goblins!”

“Yes. If we can get across, and they can't, we'll be safe or at least get a good head start. I thought with Godiva's wand—”

“ 'Lectra, that's brilliant!” Nada exclaimed. “This cleft can be better than pineapple bombs! So we need to find a good wide section they can't cross, and then come to that.”

“But they probably know this cleft pretty well, and maybe they have crossing places,“ Electra said. ”So maybe we need to find those and get rid of them, so they can't cross."

“Yes indeed! Very well, we'll split up and explore, and see what we find. We have to move quickly, though, so we have time to get together with Godiva.”

“Right.” Electra headed off along the cleft, running, though she must have been tired. Nada assumed the form of a black racer and zoomed in the other direction.

As it turned out, she had the Gap side. Before long the cleft joined another cleft, and Nada had to detour around that until she found a place narrow enough for her human form to hurdle. Then she snaked on down until she came to the Gap itself. She had observed no suitable crossings; the goblins evidently didn't mess with this portion of it.

She zoomed back, hoping she hadn't delayed Electra. She was heartened by this discovery. She could lead Che to this cleft, and Godiva could loft him across, and the gobs would be stuck on the other side.

So would Nada.

She pondered that as she sped along. But then she realized that it should be no problem, because no goblin could keep up with this racing form. She could get clear. In fact, she might not need to; she could assume small snake form, and Che could hold her in his hand, and take her across with him.

Then she remembered the elf girl. The one who had tried to rescue Che before and gotten captured herself. What would happen to her?

Maybe mere would be time to loft her across after Che was safe. Nada hoped so, because she wanted to know more about that elf.

But where would Electra be, at that point? She couldn't change form and slither away. So—she would have to remain on the other side of the cleft to help guide Che while Nada slithered around. That would have another advantage: if the gobliness turned out to be untrustworthy, someone would be there to protect Che.

Reassured, Nada zipped on to her rendezvous with Electra. Soon enough she made it, somewhat to this side of their point of separation. Electra had evidently completed her survey and come back to find Nada.

She slithered up and assumed girl form. “My end is the Gap,” she said. “No crossing places. You found one?”

“Yes—just a little way up,” Electra said breathlessly. “It gets very narrow, and the gobs have made a log bridge— a tree fallen across it. I looked beyond, but it's a good long hike before it peters out. So if we can take out that bridge—"

“Good enough! Let me look at it.”

They went to it, and Nada studied the situation. It looked as if a person with a lever could wedge the log off the narrow place, so it would drop into the cleft. It would take the goblins a long time to get another log for the crossing. It looked very good. They might even be able to use the crossing themselves, then push off the log before the goblins reached it.

They resumed their progress toward the horde camp. Now the first signs of dawn were just beginning to think about starting to show.

They were going to be late. “They must be ahead of us,” Nada said. “Maybe Idiot is whistling, and we can hear it.”

They listened, and after a moment heard the conservative cadence of the bird in hand. They hurried toward that hoping it wasn't a real bird.

It wasn't. Idiot was hiding against the trunk of a tree, and Godiva was nearby. “I was afraid you were—lost,” the gobliness said, relieved.

“Or had run out on you?” Nada inquired.

“It is true I do not know you well, and our relations with the Naga folk are not ideal.”

Nada was getting to like Godiva better. The woman seemed to be playing things straight. “We found an offshoot from the Gap Chasm that we think will balk the goblins— if we destroy their bridge after using it. So if we can get that far without being captured or killed ourselves—"

“Wonderful! We found nothing; the horde seems to have scoured the region clean. We have been here for an hour, observing, fearing that you would not come. We believe the horde has the foal and elf locked in a hut together; there is a guard pacing near it. There are other guards elsewhere in the camp; if we took out one, the others would hear the commotion and rouse the rest. So we have been unable to act, but we fear they mean to do their thing at dawn.”

“I can go in and free them,” Nada said. “But it won't do any good, if the whole camp is roused.”

“Agreed. So I think I had better distract them. It's a faint chance, but all we have.”

“Distract them?” Electra asked.

“With a dance.”

“How could a dance distract goblins?” Electra asked. But Nada had a notion, and gave her a let-it-be signal.

“When I do it, you slither in quickly and rescue them,” Godiva said. “Perhaps you will get away.”

“But what happens to you?” Nada asked.

“Oh, they will no doubt have a great deal of fun with me, before they kill me. But once the foal is safe, perhaps I can be rescued.”

Nada was chilled by her realism. “Maybe we should summon our help now.”

“And set off the horde for sure! No, we had better try it this way. If I don't make it, you must bargain in good faith with my henchmen for the disposition of the foal.”

Nada sighed. She feared disaster for them all, but they seemed to be stuck with it. She turned to Electra. “If I don't make it, you must be the one to bargain. Stay clear, and lead the party to the crossing. Che will follow you if he sees you.”

Tight-lipped, Electra nodded.

Godiva turned to the three males. “If I am lost, you support these two. If you win the foal, take him home.”

The three nodded grimly.

Dawn was encroaching. But before Nada could go in, one who was evidently the goblin chief marched with a group of henchmen to the hut. The rescue effort was too late!

“We'll have to watch our chance,” Nada said. “Maybe this isn't the end.”

They watched as the two captives were led out. The gobliness was right: that was the biggest elf Nada had seen. Neither was tied, but the elf seemed to be gagged. That was curious. “Does she have spoken magic?” Nada asked.

“Not that I know of,” Godiva replied.

The goblins clustered around the captives, but it wasn't clear what they were doing. Then Che reached out and yanked the elf's gag down. Immediately the chief drew back his fist and swung at her, but the elf ducked.

“She must have magic!” Godiva exclaimed. “See, most of the men are just standing around, not helping their chief. So we must not listen.” As she spoke, she was stuffing hanks of hair into her ears, to dull her own hearing. “I'll distract them visually; you get in there and get them out.”

Nada changed to small snake form and slithered toward the group. She saw Godiva step out into the camp clearing, dancing and swirling her hair around her body. She was good at it; that hair was like a living cloak, that allowed parts of her torso to flash into view briefly before disappearing.

A goblin spied Godiva. “Look at that!” he cried, staring.

Nada didn't look at that; she concentrated on Che and the elf girl. She would slither right in close, then assume human form, and tell the two to run. Then she would assume large serpent form and bite any goblins who looked dangerous. She might get killed, just as Godiva might, but between them they might indeed give Che his chance to escape.

An increasing number of the goblins were standing frozen, and not all of them were looking in Godiva's direction. Could it be true that the elf had some kind of spoken magic? If so, that made Nada's job easier. She continued to concentrate on the two captives, allowing nothing to distract her from her immediate mission.

The chief was still trying to punch the elf, but she was ducking out of the way, and the goblins who were holding her seemed to be in a daze. It must be magic, because normally goblins' first interest was in hurting others.

Nada reached the group. She assumed woman form. “Che!” she cried. “Run for the forest!” Then she became a monstrous huge-fanged serpent and reared up before the chief. If she took him out first, the others might be disorganized.

But the chief's face had also gone blank. There was no point in biting him if he wasn't functioning. She turned to look at the others, and found them all standing slackly, slight ungoblinish smiles on their ugly faces. What was going on?

Che and the elf girl ran, and the elf seemed to be singing. Nada could not distinguish notes very well in her serpent form, so judged by the girl's open mouth. Well, if that was doing it, good for her!