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chief,” Metria said.  “Does that mean your tribe of goblins will start acting civilized?”
    “Yes.”
    “I can see that there will be no entertainment there. But of course you may not win the chiefship, in which case the goblins will continue to be interesting.”
    “Yes.”
    “That must be what Che Centaur is fated to accomplish: getting you to be chief.  That certainly would change the history of Xanth.”
    “Yes.  Now what do you have interesting to tell?”
    The demoness made an expansive gesture.  Her arms seemed to jump from one position to another in a series of placements, instead of smoothly the way mortal arms did.  “Only that there is another group of three traveling to see the Good Magician.  They are Mela Merwoman, Okra Ogress, and Ida Human.  Only the other two don't know yet that Ida is to be part of their party.”
    “Mela Merwoman,” Che said thoughtfully.  “Isn't she the one who-?”
    “Yes, the color of whose panties represents the Question the Good Magician couldn't answer.  It seems the time is coming for her to don them.  She doesn't know this, of course; she's entirely innocent, which is a paradoxical appellation to apply to such a brute.”
    “Such a what?”
    “Animal, beast, critter, freak, monster-”
    “Creature?”
    “Whatever,” Metria agreed crossly.  “How come you didn't stumble over 'paradoxical appellation'?”
    “I am a centaur.  Such vocabulary is natural to me.”
    “Well, I stumbled,” Jenny said.  “What does it mean?”
    Metria was pleased.  “It means that this is the only way in which Mela is innocent.  When it comes to males, she oops, just how old are you?”
    “Fourteen,” Jenny said, just as crossly as Metria had been before.  “I haven't joined the Adult Conspiracy.”
    Metria looked her over.  “But you're about to.  It isn't just a matter of age.  After all, mice grow up and join in a matter of weeks.”
    “But why should Mela Merwoman's excursion be of interest to us?“ Che asked.
    “Well, she isn't, of course.  Your kind has no interest in panties, and the girls already know about them.  But Okra Ogress is of interest to Jenny Elf.”
    Jenny was startled.  “She is?”
    “Yes.  Aren't you aware of the rationale behind your arrival in Xanth?”
    “It was an accident.  I was trying to catch Sammy, and we wound up in Xanth.”
    “It was no accident.  You were chosen to come here. Someone had to be Jenny in Xanth, and you were the one.”
    Jenny was flustered.  “I don't understand.”
    “There were two finalists:  a foreign elf and a local ogress.  The elf was chosen, so you were guided through the hole in Xanth, and the ogre girl was dumped.”
    “Chosen?” Jenny asked, bewildered.
    “Someone wanted a Jenny here, so she was brought.
    That's why the Muses were so interested; they hadn't done it.
    “But then the ogress-”
    “Had to take whatever name and role were left over.
    So Okra Ogress is a minor character, and not too pleased about it.  It should be interesting when you two meet.”
    “When we meet!” Jenny exclaimed, appalled.
    “Maybe it will happen at the Good Magician's castle. Ida, of course, is even more remarkable, in a weirder way. So the future of that trio is a good deal more intriguing than your future.  With that interesting news I leave you.”
    Metria faded out.
    “You were right,” Gwenny said.  “We don't like her truth.  Who wants to meet an ogress?”
    “Nevertheless, we learned something unexpected,” Che said.  “When I started to ask about Mela Merwoman, I was thinking of the way she kidnapped Prince Dolph, intending to marry him when he came of age.  But Metria told me something of which I had no inkling; it must be known only to the demons.  Now at last we know the Question the Good Magician could not answer.”
    “But that's such a simple Question,” Gwenny said.
    “Any magic mirror could answer it, just by looking ahead.”
    “There must be more to it than