"Bull's-eyes!" Nada exclaimed. "I've heard of that. They aren't really animals, but big painted circles. Maybe if we make one of those, the shells will go for it."

It seemed worth trying. They scrounged around, and found a giant white pillow from a pillow bush, and a patch of Indian paint brushes. They used one of these to paint Indian designs—it wouldn't paint anything else—in a big circle that looked somewhat like an eye. Then they floated this in the moat, the eye looking up.

Sure enough, the shells went for it. And while the shells were distracted by the target, Nada and Electra quietly swam across and emerged on the castle side. The only one to see was another man beyond the moat, and he promptly went rigid and keeled over the way the first had. Nada did have that effect on men, even without her pink panties.

Nada dressed. Electra's knapsack was watertight, so Nada's dress was nice and dry and fresh, while Electra looked like a damp zombie. But she knew that even if her clothes had been fresh, and Nada's sodden, Nada would have been a sight for sore eyes, while Electra would have been a sight to make eyes sore.

But hardly were they through, when the next challenge was upon them. A swarm of flying red objects charged them. Each was roughly heart-shaped but not properly symmetrical; there were ugly tubes protruding from the tops, and great swollen veins around their bodies. Each pulsed horrendously.

"Oh!" Nada cried daintily as one of the grotesque things whammed into her shoulder. Even when under attack, she was ladylike.

"Yuck!" Electra grunted in unladylike fashion as another sailed at her face.

"What are they?" Nada asked, trying to avoid another that was threatening to splatter her nice dress with juice exactly the color of blood.

"Monsters of the next challenge!" Electra replied, as the thing missed Nada and scored on her own dress. Bright gore dribbled down it and dripped to her feet.

Nada became a big snake and reared up at the next red blob, her dress hanging awkwardly on her new body. In a moment she slithered out of it. She opened her mouth, showing formidable fangs, and hissed. The blob veered to the side—but another splatted her from behind. Her head whirled to snap at that one—whereupon the one in front splatted its gore on her.

"There are too many of them!" Electra cried. "We can't fight them; we'll just get hopelessly gored. We have to figure out the key to this challenge!"

The snake slithered down into the moat to wash off the splat. That left Electra as the main focus of attention. A huge blob smashed into her chest, trying to knock her down.

She grabbed it, and lifted it up, ready to hurl it into the moat. But she knew it would just loop around and attack her again. The thing was slimy with leaking blood, and worse, it was warm and pulsing. Just as if a living heart had been ripped from—