"Your situation is different. You are not just in it, you are generating it with your song. You have to keep singing, making your scene, and if you don't, the scene goes. The others are passive, while you are active, so you have control."

Jenny found that a little complicated to understand, but she was coming to respect the centaur's power of reasoning, so she accepted it. "So then the others can't leave it, because they don't want to—but they can be jogged out of it. But since we can't get them into it unless they are close enough to hear the song but aren't paying attention to it, it won't work on them when we need it to."

"Perhaps it will work. Grotesk was distracted when someone asked him about the wood, and he joined the vision before another goblin jogged him out of it. So if you are singing, maybe you'll catch the goblins anyway, the moment they aren't paying attention."

Jenny thought about how hard it was to pay attention to something steadily, even when it was important. Her mind was always drifting into other fancies, and sometimes she had gotten in trouble for it. Goblins didn't seem any better than other creatures in this respect. So maybe it would work.

Except that if there were constant distractions, there were also constant reminders. Grotesk had been distracted, then reminded, so his presence in the fancy hadn't lasted. "I don't think it will work well enough when there are many goblins," she said. "Some of them will always be paying attention."

Che nodded. "That is true. I wish we could do it when they are asleep. Then any who heard us departing would join the vision, and any who did not hear us would continue sleeping."

"Why can't we?" she asked, her hope rising.

"Because we can't get out of this hut. The mud is too tough for us to break, and the door is barred from outside."

Her hope sank again, to land with a silent thud on the floor. He was right. They would have to wait for a goblin to come to open the door, and then it would probably be morning.

They pondered a while. "Perhaps when the next goblin comes," Che said, "you can sing and lead me out, for I will not be doing anything of my own volition. If we are lucky, the others will not be paying attention, and we can escape before they realize."

"It's worth a try," Jenny agreed doubtfully. She had nothing better to offer.

Then she sang them to sleep. They had learned a lot, and saved themselves from hating and boiling; now all they could do was catch up on their rest.

The sound of the bar being knocked out woke them in the morning. Jenny wiped the sleep from her eyes, trying to orient; where was she? But all too quickly she remembered: she was in trouble.