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.

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.