Nada turned to her, as they stood outside the castle moat. "I wish he would marry you," she said.

"I know." But they both knew that their preferences didn't count. Only Dolph's counted. He would choose, and the one he chose would marry him. That had been understood from the outset, ever since Queen Irene had declared that he could not marry both. One man with two wives? It just wasn't proper, for some reason.

They gazed at the castle. It looked ordinary, but the drawbridge was up. That meant that they couldn't just go in.

They exchanged most of a glance. Good Magician Humfrey wasn't here now, but Grey Murphy was doing his best to substitute in the interim. He had the Book of Answers and all the collections of vials and spells and things, and Ivy to Enhance him when he needed it. He had done well enough, all things considered, these past three years, though Electra understood he sometimes had to scramble for a difficult Answer. He had set up the same rules Humfrey had maintained: any applicant had to pass three challenges to get into the castle and then to give one year's service or the equivalent. That was to weed out those who weren't really serious. Even so, there were quite a number of folk with Questions. Several were sitting by the bank of the moat now, evidently trying to make up their minds whether their Questions were really important enough to warrant the price required for the Answers. That explained why the drawbridge was up; otherwise those folk might simply have walked on in.

Nada nodded, and her gray-brown tresses bobbed prettily. Electra's tresses were brown too, but somehow they never bobbed; they just hung there listlessly, no matter how she tried to fix them. "I think Grey can't afford to play favorites," she said.

Electra agreed. No favorites! Nada's other best friend was Ivy, and even Ivy got a trifle nervous when Nada got too close to her fianc , Grey. Why Ivy and Grey were affianced, while Dolph, Nada, and Electra were betrothed, was a question none of them had ever quite worked out. So Grey couldn't afford to let Nada in without challenge, while others watched.

"Maybe I can go in alone," Electra suggested.

"Alone?" Nada's brown-gray eyes were beautifully perplexed. Electra's eyes were forgettable, whether perplexed or excited. Even she could not remember their color, if they had any.

"No one will notice if I go in."

" 'Lectra, are you going into another inferiority tizzy?" Nada demanded severely.

"Well—" Electra said guiltily.

"I won't have it! You're a great friend and a great girl, and only an idiot wouldn't notice you!"

"How about Dolph?" Electra asked wryly.

"He is an idiot!"

Then they both laughed, appreciating the painful truth of that.

"Anyway," Nada said after a moment, "it's not you or me, it's that the drawbridge is up and we can't ask favors. So we'll just have to forge in any way we can, just like anyone else. We do have a Question, after all."