Yet Nada felt a tear flowing down across her snoot. That was odd, because as far as she knew, serpents didn't cry. This was the last time she would be seeing Electra. She hated what she was doing to her friend, though she knew it was best for her. Electra would never understand what had happened, and would be upset about taking advantage of the situation and marrying Dolph. Electra was horribly sweet about things like that. Yet at the same time Electra would be struggling to rescue Che without help, and that was almost as bad as the other part was good. Nada's emotions were getting so mixed up they were like scrambled spaghetti.

She watched Electra spy the cookie. "She found it!" the girl exclaimed, delighted. One of the qualities of Electra was the way she saw things: she had not been glad for herself, but for Nada. She was the best friend a girl could have.

But then Electra paused. "But maybe I shouldn't follow," she said. "It isn't as if I have a future, anyway."

Oh, no! Electra was getting the same notion Nada had! She thought Nada was headed out of the gourd, so she wanted to remain in and solve the Betrothee problem. That wouldn't do!

"But she'll need my help, handling those goblins," Electra decided, and ran on past the cookie, which vanished as she passed it.

Nada relaxed, but somehow she didn't feel much better. Electra had decided to go ahead because she wanted to help Nada fight the goblins. Nada had thought of that with respect to Electra, but had decided against it. That showed how much less caring she was. She felt terrible.

She slithered forward, tempted to follow the girl before she got out of sight. But by the time she reached the spot where the cookie had been, Electra was already out of sight. She moved so rapidly, with her slender, healthy body! One would never catch Electra languidly eating grapes on a couch; she would eat the grapes while zipping all around the castle.

Nada tried to see where the girl had gone, but it was no use; all directions were similarly unlikely. So she gave it up as a bad job. She would feel guilty no matter what she did, either for not making it possible for Electra to marry Dolph or for deserting her in the struggle against the goblins. Or both.

She turned and slithered toward the Crystal River. She moved right out onto it, not caring whether it was liquid or solid. Serpents could swim, after all.