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.