Isle Of View (18 page)

Che and the elf ran to the side, where Electra stepped out, calling something. They followed her into the forest.

Godiva stopped dancing. The goblins remained standing in place. Nada slithered after Che, and after a surprised moment Godiva wrapped her hair around her and followed.

Then the goblins came back to life. But for a moment they were confused. It was almost as if they had not seen the captives flee. Nada and Godiva hurried into the forest, in effect forming a rear guard.

The party kept moving. Evidently Electra was showing them the way, and Che trusted Electra, and the elf trusted Che. Good enough; if they stayed ahead of the horde long enough, they could cross the cleft, dump the tree down, and be safe while they signaled for help.

But now the goblins were getting organized. Godiva turned her head, evidently hearing them, and in a moment Nada heard it too, as a roaring noise.

They passed a narrow section of their path, where two great trees encroached from the sides. Nada whipped to the side, and curled around the tree, climbing in a spiral, while Godiva ran on.

In a moment the first of the goblins charged up. Nada struck out from the tree, hissing fiercely. She knocked him back with her snout. The goblin wasn't really hurt, but he was terrified. He screamed and scrambled back—just as the second one was arriving. The two collided and tumbled in the path—just in time for the next one to plow into them.

In a moment there was a sizable tangle of goblins. Satisfied, Nada assumed black racer form and shot along the trail, gaining on the others. She had bought them a little more time.

It seemed to be enough, for the party made it to the log crossing before the horde goblins caught up again. Godiva's henchmen were prying at the log, and it was nudging over. They paused, seeing Nada coming. But the log was too far over; it continued moving. They jumped on it and ran across just before it fell.

Nada pulled up at the brink, too late. Behind her was the noise of the horde.

Then she found herself floating in the air. She wriggled violently, afraid she was falling into the deep cleft. Then she saw Godiva, waving her wand. The gobliness was bringing her across!

She floated over the cleft and landed softly. She assumed her natural form, with her human head on her serpent body. “Thank you,” she said. “I could have gone around, but it would have taken time.”

“You helped me by slowing the pursuit,” Godiva said.

Now the goblins of the horde charged up to the other side of the cleft. Moron, Idiot, and Imbecile stood at the edge and made faces at them, while the rest of the party got organized. “Maybe we had better exchange introductions,” Nada said. “Che, I believe you know us all.”

“Certainly,” the centaur foal said. He looked somewhat worn, unsurprisingly, but retained his composure. “This is Jenny Elf, from the World of Two Moons. These are Princess Nada Naga and Electra. I gather you and Godiva have made each other's acquaintance.”

Nada looked at Jenny. “You are not from Xanth?”

“No,” the elf said. She held up a four-fingered hand.

“See, my fingers are different from yours and my ears. But, please, have you seen Sammy?”

“Who?”

“Her cat,” Che said. “He finds things, magically.”

“No, we have seen no cat of any kind,” Nada said. “Look, Electra and I came to rescue you, but we have learned that Godiva did not mean to hurt you, Che. She wants you to be her daughter's companion. We made a bargain to work together to rescue you from the horde. Now we have to settle where you are to go.”

“But you can't keep Che from his mother!” Jenny protested. She was indeed the foal's friend. She was goblin size, which was still only half human height.

“We had to compromise,” Nada said. “The alternative was to let the horde keep you.”

Che nodded. “I understand. I must abide by your compromise.”

“But first we had better get away from here,” Godiva said, “before the horde moves around the cleft.”

Indeed, the horde goblins were already running to the side in the direction of the next available crossing. It would take them a while, but not long enough to be ignored.

“Then we had better travel down to the Gap,” Nada said. “That's in the direction each party is going.”

“I'm not sure of that,” Godiva said. “See, some of them are going that way too. There must be a crossing you didn't see.”

Nada saw that it was true. “Then north,” she said.

They formed a line and started north, through the jungle. They were all tired, but it was no time to rest. Nada led the way, in large serpent form, because she was able to force a passage best.

Then suddenly there was a roar ahead. Nada drew back, alarmed. It was a huge fire-breathing dragon, and it was bearing right down on them!

Dolph, in nighthawk form, flew west through the night toward the With-a-Cookee River. Unfortunately Metria had not told him exactly where along the river his Betrothees were. That left him somewhat at a loss.

Well, all he could do was start at the source, assume fish form, and follow the river down until he found them. There must be a goblin tribe along it somewhere. Then he could assume dragon form or ogre form and smash the gobs to smithers and rescue the damsels. The notion had a certain appeal.

With his nighthawk eyes he could see clearly no matter how dark it was. But not only did he not know exactly where the girls were, he also did not know where the river was. Except that it was west of here. He almost wished the demoness was along, in case she could give him a better direction. But she would probably just give him the wrong direction, out of mischief.

In due course he spied the river. At least he thought it was the river. He flew down close and saw a clump of ginger cookies that snapped viciously at him; one had to be careful of ginger snaps. But this verified that it was the With-a-Cookee River, flowing generally north and west.

Maybe he could just fly over it, along its length, until he spied the girls and goblins. No, the jungle overhung it in places and was so dense that he could not see the ground. He would be better off as a fish—a big fierce one with sharp spines, which an allidile wouldn't attack. But first he had to find the river's source, so he didn't miss anything.

He followed it up until it reached a big messy morass. He knew what this was: the Half-Baked Bog, that had not yet ripened into a full-fledged swamp. When it did so, the products that grew along the river would be adult breadfruit and butter, instead of juvenile cookies, and they would have to change its name. He hoped it never grew up!

He came to land where the first trickle of river leaked from the bog. The bog didn't like giving up its water, but the river demanded it, so this was where the issue was fought. Dolph knew that when it rained, the bog sometimes wasn't quick enough to incorporate all the new water, and the river managed to suck more of it away. Sometimes the river got so full of it that it swelled up over its banks. That was the nature of juveniles: they had no restraint. Dolph was sorry he would not be a juvenile much longer.

He assumed his human form for a moment, so as to use his most familiar senses just in case the girls were near here. It would be awful to miss them and swim down the entire length of the river, while they got boiled by the goblins!

“Well, look at this!” a raucous voice screeched. “A bare-bottomed young whippersnapper!”

Dolph whirled, startled. But it was only a harpy, one of the dirty-bodied dirty-mouthed birds of the wilderness. “Get out of here before you poison the water," he said.

“Oh is that so, stink-face!” she screeched, flapping up close. “I have half a mind to poop on you, son of a woman!”

“You have half a mind, period,” he retorted, stooping to pick up a stick.

“Are you threatening me, Prince?” she screeched, outraged, “I'll bury you in spit!”

Dolph swung the stick at her, but she flapped out of the way. “Clumsy! Clumsy!” she screeched harpily.

But then something percolated through his mind. She had called him Prince—but he had never identified himself, and certainly his costume did not give anything away other than his masculinity. How did she know?

“Metria!” he exclaimed.

The harpy became the demoness. “Oh, heck, I was just beginning to have fun,” she complained.

She certainly had been! She hadn't even used any useful fowl words, because she knew he was still technically a juvenile. A real harpy would have delivered a barrage of obscenities that might have represented an intriguing education. She had been teasing him on two levels, as was her delight.

“Get out of here, spook!” he yelled, swinging the stick at her. Naturally it passed right through her torso without resistance. But she obligingly disappeared. What was the point in her remaining, once he had discovered her identity? He was no fun, by her definition, unless she was fooling him in some demonic way.

He turned back to the river. What was the best fish form to assume here, where it was so small? He worried that a minnow might be snapped up by some unseen predator. Of course he would immediately change to some larger form and chomp the predator right back, but still it was an inconvenience. Maybe he could be a small water snake and become a larger one as the river got larger.

“Meow.”

Dolph looked. -It was a cat, an orange fluff ball, lying on the ground. What was it doing here? Xanth hardly had any straight cats—just odd variants—but Dolph recognized the type because he had seen pictures of the mundane breeds.

Oh—the demoness was still having her sport, trying to see if he could be fooled again. “Quit with the games, Metria,” he snapped. “I'm not going to give you the satisfaction.”

The cat merely looked at him, not moving. He knew it was the demoness, but somehow he had just a bit of doubt. So he called her bluff by assuming the form of another cat: a big black one. “Say something in cat talk,” he meowed, suspecting that she couldn't. He was a Magician, and could speak and understand the language of any form he assumed, but she was a demoness, who merely imitated the forms.

“Something,” the cat meowed clearly in cat talk, swishing his cat tail.

That surprised Dolph. But it occurred to him that Metria might have learned just a few feline terms to fool him. Maybe she had just imitated his last word. Well, he would require the cat to say something that wasn't that.

“What is your name?”

“Sammy.”

Dolph was impressed But still, he had asked an obvious question, so it could still be the demoness, bluffing. “Where are you from?"

“Home.”

“You aren't much for dialogue, are you!”

Sammy merely shrugged, hardly moving.

“Why are you here?”

“Help.”

“You're here to help me?”

“No.”

“You want my help?”

“Yes.” It seemed that the laconic animal refused to expend any more than the minimum energy on anything. This was not Metria's way. Dolph was becoming convinced that Sammy was real. But that only made a new mystery.

"Well, I have to go help someone else right now, so it will have to wait.''

Now the cat showed some agitation. “But Jenny needs help!”

“Who is Jenny?”

“My person friend.”

Now Dolph remembered something else Metria had said: that a foreign elf and a foreign cat had come through the hole in Xanth. And that the elf was trying to help Che. “Is Jenny an elf?”

“They called her that,” Sammy said a bit defensively. “But she's really a person.”

Yet Metria was the one who had told him, so this was no verification. Still, his belief was overwhelming his doubt. “And you two came through the hole?”

“I didn't notice.”

“Why did you come through it?”

“For a feather.”

Metria hadn't told him that. Still, he wasn't quite sure. “What feather?”

“A big one."

Dolph resisted the urge to get annoyed, knowing that the demoness would like it if he blew his top. “How did you know where it was?”

“I just knew.”

“But wasn't it hard to find a big feather?”

“No.”

She was still testing him! “How did you know where to find me?” That should trap her into some giveaway response.

“I just knew.”

Was he getting anywhere or just wasting time—exactly as the demoness wanted. “Do you know who I am?”

“No.”

“Then why did you look for me?”

“I didn't.”

“But you said you came to me to get my help.”

“Yes.”

“How could you do that if you didn't know who I was?”

“Jenny told me to find help, so I found it.”

“You didn't know what you were finding, just help?”

“Yes.”

Dolph was stumped. Every time he thought he was getting somewhere, he wound up nowhere. He suspected that he should just leave the cat and head down the river. But suppose the cat was legitimate?

Metria appeared. “I can't stand watching you fumble any more!” she declared. “I'll have to help you get on with it, or we'll be here all night.”

“But I'm not sure whether he's you,” Dolph protested, forming his cat mouth into just enough of a human mouth to speak human words.

She stared at him. “Are you trying to fool me into thinking you're even duller than you are?”

Dolph looked from her to the cat and back. How could she be the cat when she was herself? “How would you proceed?”

“I'd ask him exactly how he finds things.”

Dolph looked at Sammy, but the cat just lay there without moving.

“Dumbbell!” Metria snapped. “Ask him!”

“But he heard you.”

“I didn't speak in feline talk. I can't. You have to translate.”

Oh. “Sammy, how do you find things?”

“I just do.”

“He just does,” Dolph said to the demoness.

“How does he just do it?” she asked.

“Sammy, how do you just do it?”

“If I'm interested.”

“If he's interested.”

Metria looked as if she were controlling a monstrous aggravation. It made Dolph's heart glad. “How else?”

“How else, Sammy?”

“Someone tells me to, and I do it.”

“When someone tells him to,” Dolph reported.

“Then tell him to find Nada Naga!”

“Sammy, go find Nada Naga.”

Suddenly the cat was in motion. “After him!” Metria cried, floating in that direction.

Dolph started to run, but immediately slipped in the mud and took a resounding spill.

“You're such a grab!” Metria called.

“A what?” Dolph asked as he hauled himself sloppily up.

“Hold, snatch, grip, seize, entangle—”

“Embroil?” he asked.

“No! Gear, wheel, engage, limited-slip—”

Dolph had heard about something the Mundanes used. “Clutch?”

“Yes! You're such a clutch!” Then she paused. “No, I'm not sure.”

“You mean you're not going to insult me?”

“WILL YOU GET MOVING, DOLT!”

Oh. Dolph assumed red racer form and slithered at top velocity after the disappearing cat. He knew the demoness was annoyed, because she had gotten his name wrong. That was some satisfaction.

It turned out to be some distance. Sammy, evidently tired, soon slowed to a walk, but remained intent on his objective, and Dolph was glad of that. This was certainly a better way to find Nada than swimming down the river would have been, especially since they were going directly away from the river. The cat must have had a difficult journey to find Dolph, and now was traveling again.

That was an interesting talent Sammy had. Dolph had not known of many animals with magic talents. It showed that just about anything was possible.

But this business of a foreign elf coming to Xanth—that was something he had never heard of before. What business could she have here?

Another thing bothered him. They seemed to be heading for the territory of the Goblinate of the Golden Horde. Dolph had encountered Chief Grotesk and his evil minions before. If they had captured the girls—

He shoved that thought away and let it drift off behind him. Fortunately his thoughts seemed even tireder than he was, so could not keep up with his body.

Dolph was as tired as the cat looked by the time dawn approached; they had been traveling most of the night! But they must be getting closer to Nada; and with luck Electra and Che would be with her, and Dolph could rescue them all. If the cat's direction was right. It had to be!

There were sounds ahead. The dim uproar of angry goblins and some nearer crashing, as of more goblins forging through the brush. Nada must be running from the horde!

Dolph changed into fire-breathing dragon form and summoned his last strength. He leaped ahead of the cat to intercept the charging party.

He encountered a huge serpent. Behind it were several goblins! This was worse than he had feared to hope! But if Nada was in danger—

He inhaled, about to scorch the serpent's head off its body.

“Dope!” Metria screamed. “That's Nada!”

Startled, Dolph choked back his fire and changed to serpent form, matching the species of the other. He felt backed-up smoke sifting between his teeth; he had changed form, but it hadn't. He coughed.

Nada appeared in her natural form: a serpent with her human head. “Dolph!” she exclaimed gladly.

He changed again, to his human form. "Nada! I almost—''

She became human. “I know!” Then they embraced.

Somewhere in the background he heard a lesser dialogue: “Sammy! You found help!”

“Meow.” Dolph was no longer in feline form, so could no longer understand cat talk, but it wasn't hard to guess. Sammy never uttered two words where one would do.

Then he became aware of several things. The first was that they were both naked, because their clothes didn't change with them. The second was that Nada was the most wonderful armful of woman he could imagine, especially this way. He had never before gotten to hug her like this, for reasons that had to do with his mother's odd notions of propriety. The third was that they were not alone.

He looked around. He saw nine pairs of eyes focusing on him, belonging to four goblins, one Betrothee, one centaur foal, one elf, one demoness, and one cat. The eyes of the cat didn't bother him; he knew Sammy didn't care. That left—well, he wasn't sure how many eyes, math not being his strong point, but he knew it was about eight pairs too many.

“Uh, let's change to naga form,” he murmured in her ear.

Nada glanced around. Her lovely lips pursed. She turned naga. He followed, so that they were twined together but relatively sanitary.

“Uh, what's going on here?” he asked, still somewhat at a loss, and not just because of the strangers he saw.

“The Adult Conspiracy forbids an answer,” Metria replied. “If she had had panties on, we would have had to lock you up and swallow the key.”

Nada's head turned to cover the demoness. “And who is she?”

“Uh, she's Metria,” Dolph faltered. “Demoness Metria. She—”