"I think I have a notion. When Grey and Ivy and I went to Mundania, there were similar boxes hanging above the roads. They always flashed red as anyone came near, and that meant that everyone had to stop. After a while they would flash green, and then it was all right to go. Maybe this works that way."

"What happens if we go when it is red?" Nada asked.

"I don't know. Something awful, I think, because we always stopped and cursed at the red light."

Nada pondered briefly, and decided it was best not to risk it. She hoped there wouldn't be trouble if she didn't curse; that was another unprincessly thing.

After a minute the rose abruptly faded and a bright green lime flashed. Nada was ready to proceed, but Electra held her back. "We haven't seen the cookie," she explained. "I wonder—"

Sure enough, after only a few seconds the yellow window brightened, and it was a big vanilla cookie.

They hurried on before it could change its mind.

Nada glanced back, choosing her moment when Electra was proceeding eagerly ahead, for a notion was percolating through the reptilian aspect of her mind. Sure enough, the next time the light flashed yellow, it was no longer a vanilla cookie, but a lemon. The marker was gone.

This was a one-way trail, or at least a one-use trail. The moment a marker was used, it disappeared.

Now they were on a spiraling path that Nada somehow hadn't noticed before. It squished as they walked; in fact it felt swampy. But there was nowhere else to walk. So they followed it around and down, squishing all the way.

"It's a corkscrew swamp!" Electra exclaimed, catching on. She enjoyed squishing, of course.

The thing seemed to continue interminably. Nada's royal slippers were getting horrendously soiled. "I've had enough of this," she declared at last. "I'm changing."

She looked around to make sure no one was watching, then quickly got out of her clothing and handed it to Electra.

It would be devastating if any man were to catch a glimpse of prin-cessly panties, but Electra would guard them with what was left of her life. Then Nada assumed her natural form: a serpent with her human head. Now she could slide along the muck without any problem.

"I saw! I saw!" someone cried just behind them. It was a man in an eerie cloak with hair standing straight out from his head. "I saw your pan—"

Nada shifted to full serpent form and whipped her head back, striking at the awful man. But her jaws passed right through him. Her momentum carried her on over the edge of the spiraling swamp path, and she started to fall.

"Nada!" Electra cried, diving to catch hold of Nada's tail. But too much of Nada's body was over the edge, and Electra was hauled along with her as she fell.