68 Garden Pardon (2/2)
Asbolus answered for her.”I think you will find that Lady Nelda's intuition is wont to be true.And that you were woven into the tale in a way that fits your purpose as well as our need.”
Typho looked from the seer to Nelda, and she smiled in a way she hoped was reassuring. ”Don't worry about us,” she said with entirely false bravado.”I am sure we'll be meeting again when the time is right.But please, you need to put it out of your mind until you've found your place in this world.You can't be in two places at once—so remember to be entirely where you are, right now.”
[Oh god.If this whole thing depends on me trusting my instincts, why choose a neurotic woman whose mother hated her and whose life was going right down the crapper to be in the center of it?Someone's having a laugh.]
HoneyBeard went last.”I'll do my best,” he told her wearily.Then he crossed the bridge pulling a pre-occupied BugleHead with him.
”Mead-oos-a,” BugleHead muttered.”Me-deuce-ah.”
”I'm not at all sure I should be sending them with the basilisk and not the horn,” Nelda remarked to Asbolus.
The centaur replied, ”The horn works as well with the rest of the blessed beast attached.Better in fact.And they'll come to no harm biding awhile in stone if it comes to that.”
[That's really not reassuring.I'd have preferred a simple: Oh, I'm sure they'll be fine.]
Jen came to jin them, and in the small space next to the gate, she was obliged to press her pony body next to Asbolus's somewhat larger frame.Not that she seemed to mind.
”So it's just the two us on Team Unicorn,” Nelda remarked,
”Oh, I don't mind,” Jen replied. She was looking as Asbolus, not Nelda.Not that the centaur seer seemed to notice.His perspicacity seemed to have its limits.
[These are the day of our lives…]
”It is not my role,” Asbolus said, it must be noted with a slightly pretentious tone, ”to be directly involved. My part is to be an advisor.”
Jen beamed in replied.The that's perfect.This is the time we are in the most need of advice. Nelda, bring the spell…”
”Ritual” interjected Asbolus as if the distinction was important to him.
”Ritual,” Jen amended, ”and let us determine what our next steps must be.”