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"Only he can't find home again," Che finished. "But I have a good memory. Once there, I will know the
way back. I I
"But I wasn't asking the two of you to take this horrible risk!" Gwenny said. "This is something I must
do myself."
"I am your companion," Che said firmly. "I shall not desert you in your hour of need."
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"And I am Che's companion," Jenny said. "And Sammy is mine. We are all with you, Gwenny, until you
are chief. After that you will be able to dismiss us if you wish to. I will be going to the Good Magician's
castle anyway.
"In my place," Gwenny said. "I already owe you so much! I just can't ask you to risk your life this way!"
"And you didn't ask us to," Che said. "We decided."
Jenny nodded agreement.
Godiva looked at him. "You are the truest of companions, Che. Because of you my daughter has had two
years of life on the surface which has surely been a delight for her, and has received an excellent
education." She glanced at the elf. "And because of you, Jenny, she now has her magic lenses and a way
to find the River Lethe. I have not yet properly demonstrated my appreciation, but I shall do so in due
course."
"And so will I, somehow," Gwenny said, her eyes glistening. The lenses she wore were invisible; her
eyes seemed entirely natural and beautiful. In fact the whole of her was the same. He remembered how
nice it had been to kiss her, even in play. With his new understanding of the Adult Conspiracy, he
realized why that was. Of course theirs would always be what the elder centaurs called a platonic
friendship, because they were of different species, and crossbreeding was frowned on. His granddam
Chem had scandalized the centaur community when she bred with Xap the hippogryph to produce the
winged centaur filly Chex. The goblins had been similarly scandalized when Glory Goblin had married
Hardy Harpy and the stork had brought them Gloha, the winged goblin girl. But there was more reason
than scandal: he had a duty to preserve and extend the species that had come into being. But where
would he ever find a winged centaur filly?
Che hauled himself back from the nebulous clouds of speculation to reality and turned to Godiva. "I
assume that Gobble will be helpless as long as the wand keeps him floating, away from any handholds.
But I suspect this trip to the River Lethe will be arduous. What happens when the tunnels become too
narrow to keep him away from the walls? What happens when we have to sleep?
How do we feed him without having him grab on to us?"
"I do not know the full route, but I know how it begins," Godiva replied. "There is a great vent in the
stone, a veritable nether chasm. Only with the help of the wand will you be able to cross that. Once you
are across, Gobble will not be able to return alone, and he will know it.
Then you will be able to give him some freedom, because he will depend on you. He will of course try
to steal the wand when you sleep, but he will not be able to use it.
So that aspect should be satisfactory. No, what concerns me more is the danger of the Lethe itself, and of
those dread deep caverns. You will have to start by traversing callicantzari caves."
"The callicantzari!" Gwenny cried, horrified. Che knew why: those creatures were like huge, stretched-
out goblins with their muscles tied on backwards, and they cooked and ate any creature they caught.
They were so bad that even the goblins loathed and feared them.
"And perhaps worse beyond," Godiva said. "I shall not minimize the risk, my daughter, because you
must understand it before you undertake it. I fear you may never return. But if you do, you will be fit to
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lead this tribe. Of that, no one but Gobble will doubt. You must consider whether you would prefer to
give up this ambition and go into exile, allowing Gobble to become chief. I am sure the centaur family
will accept you."
"It will," Che said. He could not say more; this was Gwenny's decision.
"Oh, I wish my father had waited a few more years to die!" Gwenny cried with no pretense of affection
for the departed. "I am not ready for this!" Then her pretty jaw firmed. "But I will do it. I must save our
tribe's children from violation of the Adult Conspiracy, and I must save Goblin Mountain from the
horror of Gobble's chiefship.
But most of all, I must fulfill the destiny for which I came to be: to lead the goblins into decency. If I
possibly can."
"I had almost hoped you would choose otherwise," Godiva said. "Come, then; I will take you aside and
attune the wand to you. " She glanced at Che and Jenny.
"No offense; if Gwendolyn then chooses to inform you of its secret, that will be her privilege. But I must
keep the covenant I made with my own mother."
"Naturally," Che said. The only way to keep a secret was to keep it, and much of the wand's power lay in
the fact that no illicit party could use it. Smash Ogre had discovered the key to the wand and given it to
Goldy Goblin, long ago, and it had served her and her daughter well ever since.
There was food and beverage on the table. While Gwenny and her mother were away, Che and Jenny
sampled them. " Hey-this is Tsoda Popka! " Jenny exclaimed, tasting from a bottle. "Do you think we
should-?"
"We're not children anymore, technically," he re-.
minded her regretfully. "We have to set a good example..
No more food fights."
"Too bad," she agreed.
Gwenny returned, holding the wand. "Now I must test this," she said wickedly. She pointed the wand at
Jenny., and Jenny rose into the air. Then Jenny descended and the wand pointed at Che. He rose up,
made a little circle, and dropped back to his hooves. The wand evidently worked.
"Now to use it on Gobble," Gwenny said. "This is going to be unpleasant, but I have to do it now, before
he realizes. Mother will see to it that the children are confined so he can't corrupt them. We shall have to
depart immediately. Mother is fixing us packs with food and tools.
"Grab a bite to eat," Che recommended. "It may be long before you have another chance."
Gwenny smiled and did so. Then she led the way through the labyrinth of the mountain toward Gobble's
chamber.
"He is gorging himself on cookies while waiting for everyone to agree that he must be chief tomorrow,"
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