The Princeless Bride: From the Chronicles of Daventry, Part VII

The Princeless Bride: From the Chronicles of Daventry, Part VII is the novelization of KQ7 from the King's Quest Companion and the King's Quest VII: The Authorized Player's Guide. It is written from the perspective of an unknown author, the framing story is that Valanice and Rosella were telling their story of their adventures in the Realm of Eldritch and Etheria to King Graham upon their return from the adventure.

The novelization is actually designed as a walkthrough that can be followed to win the game. It follows the main path through the game (as designated by the game developers).

The subtitles of each part originates from the original KQVII Authorized Guide (the companion omits the subtitles and instead just elipses included at the end of each part).

The Princeless Bride

Part the First...: Through the Looking Pool

"It all started," Queen Valanice of Daventry began, "when I was counseling Rosellaon the advisability of making an advantageous marriage with one of those charmingyoung princes who...""It all started, Mother," Rosella interrupted, "when you were boring me nearly tosleep reciting the good points of Prince Throckmorton, or whichever of those wearisome,uninteresting, uncaring... ""l don't care where it started," said King Graham, "just stop interrupting oneanother and tell me everything that happened to you while you were gone, though itscarcely seemed you were gone at all, if you must know the truth." "Time passes much more quickly in the Realm of Eldritch, dear Graham," Valanice reminded him, patting his hand in an affectionate and familiar gesture." But I can assureyou from my point of view it took long enough to get back. There I was, separated from my darling child, my only daughter...""And there I was, imprisoned in a stone cell, transformed into a troll!" Valanice heard her husband's sigh of impatience. Graham was no stranger to adventure both strange and true himself, having won both his crown and the hand and love of his queen by deeds of bravery and heroism. He wanted only to hear their tales of the adventure, and how she and Rosella had found their way home again from theland of Faerie, not all of which was as lovely and serene as its name might suggest (for Faeries are a fair and peaceful folk). She looked at her daughter. "Shall I continue,Rosella?""Oh, all right," Rosella said with a playful toss of her head, "I'll let Mother begin.After all, if she hadn't jumped into the pool and gone through the door after me, I mightnever have come back from Eldritch at all, and poor Edgar might never have beenreunited with...""Rosella, you were going to let your mother tell the story," King Graham promptedSently."I only said that I'd let her begin," his daughter teased. "It's my story too, you know.""Of course it is, dear" her mother assured her. "Let's tell it together. I'll recount the story of my adventures on the other side of the door to the Realm of Eldritch, and youcan tell of yours. Now, as I was saying, it all began when I was telling Rosella about that nice young Prince Thomas of Morton..."Rosella sighed audibly, rolling her blue eyes in both resignation and impatience,but Valanice went on as though she hadn't heard."She wasn't listening to me-her thoughts had better things to dwell on, Isuppose-and when I tried to get her attention, she was very suddenly gone from myside!""It was a dragonette! It was singing the loveliest song, and it flew right past myface and through the surface of the pool and into a door. And the door was about toclose!"Valanice saw the smile beginning to form on her husband's lips and knew heunderstood that his adventuresome daughter was entirely incapable of passing up achance for the excitement of a chase. She motioned Rosella to hush."Oh. I forgot," said Rosella. "Go ahead, Mother.""Very well, then, I will," said Valanice, and she began her tale:Rosella had vanished. All I could see was her comb lying on the ground. I pickedit up. But when I looked into the pool we had been sitting beside, I could see her asthough very far away, through a door that was very nearly closed. Her voice shook withemotion as she recounted the moment of her decision. I gave no real thought to the wonder,or the possible dangeq of what I saw; I immediately iumped in and followed her.Then something grabbed Rosella and snatched her away! There was a murk allaround, and I couldn't see where it took her. Then the murk became a whirlingwind-hot and filled with yellow dust. When I could see again, I fell out of the sky intoa vast desert under a blazing sun. So strange were my surroundings that I thought at first I must be dreaming-that I had somehow imagined everything that had happened.But I could taste the dust in my mouth, and the smell of the earth baking beneath the sun assured me that I was quite awake. Also, while I did land on my feet, I did not land sofrIy. I began immediately to look for Rosella, thinking she must have come here iustahead of me. But Rosella had not come to this desert.It was a dreadful place, but not entirely devoid of its own sort of beauty. The rockshad been sculpted by wind and sand into tortured shapes quite unlike any I had everseen. There was no water evident anywhere, and many of the plants were covered withneedle-sharp spines. I caught my skirt on one and kept the piece of cloth, hoping I'd beable to repair the skirt late. But, as it turned out, I had no time for such a luxury.I had hardly arrived and begun to take stock of my situation when I saw a strangecreature-something like a large rabbit with very long ears, but on its head were horns like those of an antelope.King Graham laughed heartily. "Surely you imagined it! There could be no suchanimal in all of Daventry!"'Might I remind you, dear husband, that it was not this world in which I foundmyself, but another plane of existence entirely," said Valanice, wounded by Graham'sobvious amusement."I'm very sorry, my dear. Please go on."Valanice nodded, somewhat mollified by his apology, and went on:The creature was laughing an insane laugh and chasing anothe! smaller animalnearly as strange as himself-a sort of a rat with long hind legs that leaped like akangaroo! No, don't tell me how inconceivable that creature is as well, for that's the verything I was thinking when I saw him. And as if that weren't difficult enough to believe,the rat was wearing a pair of reading glasses and carrying a blue bead in its mouth! Loudand raucous yips and yells accompanied them as they raced by me to disappear in somerocks.I continued looking for Rosella, and after a time I saw footprints leading away intothe desert. They didn't look quite like Rosella's, but I surmised that they could possiblyhave belonged to whoever had abducted her. I followed.The footsteps led to an enormous stone head-a colossus of peculiar design-themouth of which would have been large enough to walk into, as through a doorway, hadit been open. But it was not. The footsteps led up to the stone mouth and disappearedas though their owner had walked directly through the stone.I looked for a way to get inside the stone head, but was unable to find one. As Iexplored, however, I noticed several things that intrigued me greatly, and made mewonder about their possible significance. In places, semi-precious stone had been inlaidas part of a great design. One of the inlays, just below the lower lip, seemed to be missing,perhaps taken by thieves, or perhaps only having fallen victim to the relentless windand sand. I couldn't help wondering if the missing piece still existed somewhere, andif the stone head wanted it back. I know that seems silly, but the silliest thought did notseem out of place here. I continued to look around the area near the head. There was a bush, of sorts-covered in sharp spines, like much of the plant lifethereabouts-and on it grew little round fruits. I wondered if they might be edible. WhenI approached the bush to look closer at them, I saw something most alarming.Tracks. Footprints like those alizard might leave, but the little jewel-green lizards in our palace gardens would never grow to such enormous size. I feared to meet the beast that had made them, and quickly took my exploration in another direction.As I wandered deeper into the desert's sands, searching for any trace of Rosella'swhereabouts, I glimpsed a bizarre apparition. It was a man, pale in color and surpassingstrange in appearance, who seemed to come from nowhere. Not seeming to notice me,the man walked away deeper into the desert haze, but I called out to him, and finallyhe paused and spoke to me."Leave me be," he said in a haunting, parched voice, "fot I am driven mad by thisburning, everlasting thirst." He...he said he was not sure what that thirst would drivehim to do. When I saw him closely, his face as pale as ash, I knew beyond a doubt thathe was no living man, but a ghost. I began to tremble. He said he had died in that desert,and that I, too, would never leave it.Unnerved as I was, I gathered my courage, and asked him: "Siq have you seen mydaughter? An impetuous, lovely young girl with long, blonde hair, dressed in blue silk."I showed him Rosella's comb, "This is hers.""I have not seen her," he told me, "nor any living creature 'cept yourself. Thesesands are as death to all that live."My courage flagged, then. His eyes burned so, and he seemed to shimmer in theheat. Then he drifted away, fading into the distance like the ghost he was. My heartbegan to pound. This was such a perilous place, where one might die of thirst or perishin a scouring sandstorm, or fall prey to who knew what inimical animal or plant life,and never be seen alive again. Would such be my fate-I who had been so recently happyand content in my own home with my beloved family about me? No. I would not givein. As long as there was breath in my body I would search for Rosella, and, failing tofind her here, I would travel by whatever means possible to whatever strange placenecessary to rescue her and bring her home again. I would learn the secrets of thiswilderness and use them to continue my quest.To the east of the stone head, tall cliffs loomed; quite the strangest cliffs I'd everseen, as these were incised with weathered figures that seemed to tell a kind of storythat I might understand if only I could decipher their meaning-the story of a full welland an empty one. But I could not divine the truth of it then. And then I saw the mostcurious thing yet in that deadly place-a little patch of damp sand at the foot of thecliffs."But how is that possible?" Graham asked.I'm not sure, but I surmised that the land beyond the cliffs above might containan aquifer-a great underground pool of water trapped between layers of stone-perhapscollected from the sparse desert rainfall over many years. If that were so, then it might also be possible that a tiny bit of water might find its way down through the layers andto the bottom of the cliff. Whatever the explanation, the sand was quite damp. I looked for any sign that there might be enough water nearby to quench my thirst or to take tothat poor, parched phantom who still wandered the sands, but there was only that tinybit of dampness, and nothing more.Nearby, I had seen a dead vine with one dried up gourd still attached. I thoughtit might serve to hold a little water, but it was desiccated and of no apparent use. If Iwere here long enough, even this might look like nourishment, but I was not yet sodesperate as that. As I stood up from my examination of the shriveled gourd, a largeopening in the cliff face caught my eye-a place to escape the burning heat of the sun,arrd who knew? Perhaps even a place to find some clue as to how I might recover Rosellaand return us both safely home.So I explored the interior of this cave. Far from being empry as I had secretlyfeared, it contained a number of interesting things. There were four pots of clay, suchas might have been used for cooking or carrying water, but only one was sturdy enoughnot to fall to pieces as soon as I touched it. I kept that one.There was also a little basket with its own lid, cleverly woven of desert grasses. Itcontained an ancient dried kernel of corn, which at first I must confess I consideredonly as a possible defense against starvation. But as I turned it over in my fingers, Ithought of how life can be held in suspension, waiting for the right conditions to comeabout. This little seed might have waited there for its opporrunity for hundreds of years,preserved by the perfect dryness of the desert. I wondered if it might yet yield up itshidden life if only I could find a place to plant it.I thought to myself that when I returned to Daventry-I wouldn't allow myself tothink that I might not return, and with Rosella safe beside me-I would plant it here inthe castle gardens."And did you bing it back?" Graham inquired.I did not, I fear. For no sooner had I thought this than I remembered the patch ofdamp sand outside the cave. I hurried there and made a hole in the sand with one finger,then placed the kernel inside the hole. "I hope I'll be home again before you sprout," Itold the seed, but to my astonishment a corn seedling sprang up from the ground atonce and was a full-grown plant within seconds! Graham guffawed in surprise. "A magical seed? I discovered one of those once. Turned into a beanstalk. There was a giant and a chest of gold at the top. Imagine you finding one too!" Perhaps. Or perhaps it was a magical place. Remember, I had already seen much that was quite out of the ordinary. At any rate, I picked the ear of corn that grew on the plant. At the very least, I could eat it later and it would be far more nutritious than thekernel from whence it sprang. Tlastier, too.The magical stalk of corn so interested me that I returned briefly to the little cave,intent upon finding more kernels to plant. However, a close search of the interior yielded no tangible results, and I departed, somewhat disgruntled that my efforts had been fornaught.As I prepared to resume my search for Rosella, I noticed that the shriveled gourdhad split open-whether due to the heat of the sun or the shock of the cornstalk's suddengrowth I shall never know. Intrigued by this oddity, I again bent to examine the wrinkledsquash, and lo and behold! Inside was a single seed, quite dry and obviously dead. As Iexamined the seed, it suddenly struck me that, for a short time at least, I had entirelyforgotten my quest. I quickly stood, absently pocketing the little seed as I dusted off myskirts and scolded myself for being so foolishly distracted. Fortified with a new resolve,I began my wanderings anew.South and west of the cave, I finally found a pool of water. But something waswrong; I wondered why there were no tracks of animals nearby, for surely such readilyavailable water would be eagerly sought out by the wildlife hereabouts. Then I noticedthat the rim of the pool was sparkling with salt crystals. I tasted the water, and it was assalty as sea watet and I spit it out, revolted by its briny taste. It would do neither thelocal animals nor me any good whatsoever. However, I recalled something I had onceheard about the body losing salt if one perspires excessively. With this in mind, I bentover and retrieved a few of the crystals, hoping all the while that I would be gone longbefore I found any need to use them.A fallen stick from some strange desert growth lay near the pool; it was the onlything I had seen since coming there that suggested a weapon or tool, though it didn'tseem terribly effectual. I took it anryay, worried that it might soon become necessaryto use it to fend off some hungry desert creature bent upon devouring me.Looming above the pool was a large statue, carved of sandstone, of a kneelingman. Perhaps it was some god of the people who had once lived here. On its base wereanother series of odd-looking pictures, very like the ones I had seen on the cliffs. Oneseemed to represent the pool of water, with skulls over the water that might be a warningnot to drink it. The second carving showed a crying face, with tears falling into a bowlheld by a disembodied hand. The bad water was also shown falling into the bowl. Therewas a drop shape with a skull inside, and next to that another hand held an ear of corn.The last carving was a bowl of water being raised to a smiling mouth. If I could decipherthese drawings, I wondered, would the information I gained be of any use in my searchfor Rosella?At the thought of Rosella, I became quite melancholy. I took out her comb-theonly thing I possessed of her-and the sight of it caused me to begin sobbinguncontrollably. Some of my tears fell into the stone bowl that the statue was holdingwhich, when I finally composed myself, made me think about what sort of god thismight be. Surely the most important thing in such a barren Iand would be water, andhe was indeed holding a bowl that ought to hold something in its turn. The pictureshad shown water falling into a bowl. Maybe they were there to tell me---{r anytraveler-an important secret. The only water I could see besides my own tears in the stone bowl was the pool of brine. Very well. If it was water the god wanted for his bowl, I would provide it. It might not be good for drinking, but it was unlikely this great statue was going to be drinking anything anyway. Even the pictures on the altar and on the wall showed the combining of waterand tears. I know it seems terribly strange, but after hearing all the tales of your adventures-this to Graham-and yours, my dear-she laid a hand on Rosella's sleeve-I have come to the conclusion that strange is an inadequate word indeed to describe the things this family has encountered during its adventures in sometimes alien landscapes. Graham and Rosella nodded their understanding. This might have been Valanice's first real adventure, at least the first in which she was not a helpless captive, but her daughter and husband were no strangers to faraway places and heroic deeds. "Go on, Mother," Rosella urged. "What happened when you put the water into thebowl?"Well, nothing at first. Then I thought to look at the pictures again. One was of ahand holding an ear of corn. Surely it was more than coincidence that I had picked anear of new corn only a short time before-a quite miraculous ear of corn, as you'll recall.Now I must decide what the pictures were telling me to do with my ear of corn. I tookit out and held it in my hand, but nothing happened. Then I noticed that while one ofthe water god's hands held the stone bowl, the other was entirely empty. I placed thecom in it, feeling more than a little foolish, I confess, but there was no one there to seeme, and if nothing happened again, I would simply take back the corn and be none theworse off."Andwere you embanassed?" urged Rosella.There was a rumbling, grinding noise, like the cracking of stone. The hand of thegod closed around the corn. When I looked into the bowl, the bad water had beentransformed into sparkling, clear, sweet water the likes of which I had feared I mightnever again behold. I saved the water in the little clay pot, knowing I would surely needit later, and with a final nod of thanks to the statue of the nameless deity, continued onmy search for you.As chance might decree, I soon encountered the desert wraith again. He seemedso parched that I offered him a drink of my water. His nearly transparent hands shookas he reached out to take the pot. He drank deeply of the water, and almost immediatelyhe seemed stronger, more substantial than before."In slaking my thirst, you have broken my curse. You have freed me; now I mayfind true peace. How can I ever repay you, blessed traveler?" the once-man asked. He nolonger seemed so fear-inspiring. In fact, I now felt only the deepest pity and empathyfor the poor spirit.I didn't even have to think about what I would say. If Rosella were not in thisplace, then I must find some way to Ieave it and find where she had been taken."Can you help me escape from this desert?" I asked.

"The portal out of the desert is through the great head of stone," he told me, "butit has been magically sealed by an evil enchantress. Because of her, I am...as I am." Heglared bitterly at the sky for a moment, then leveled that burning gaze on me once more."However, lady, there may be something more that I can do for you. Follow me."With those words, he turned and strode toward the horizon.The spirit stopped walking iust as we reached the edge of a wicked sandstorm, a tiny tornado, really, which looked as if it could flay the flesh from my body. He made amotion with his hand, and the storm seemed to obey his command. It moved awayfrom us to reveal the thing he had brought me there to find.Valanice paled a little at the memory of what she had seen there, and her husbandand daughter leaned forward anxiously, waiting for her to reveal it to them in tum.His dead bodyl A pile of bleached bones, some scraps of rags that had once beenhis clothing, and a leather pouch."That is all that remains of Colin Farwalker, the great adventurer. That is all whichremains of me," the spirit said sorrowfully. "Now, hurry. I wish to give you a gift, inthanks for the service you have done me."Then the spirit pointed down at his earthly remains, and the pouch opened up.Inside were a length of rope and a little vial. "You may choose but one of the two," hesaid. "Whichever you take, may it serve you well."I could take one, he had said. But which might serve me best? How could I evenguess? And what might befall me if I chose unwisely? I took the vial, and the ropevanished. I thanked my supernatural benefactor. This goodly man-no matter what hehad been in life-had died a lonely and frightening death, but his death might yet bemy salvation. He began to fade away until he was as immaterial as a dream, and thenfaded from sight altogether. I silently prayed that he might find peace eternal anddirected my steps in the direction of the sealed rock door.I moved north, still thinking of the spirit and little minding my steps. This is why,I suppose, I tripped over something in the sand. Something solid. I bent to examine itand found a brass hunting horn, tarnished and weathered. I felt certain it must havebelonged to Colin. However, since he had no more use for it, I carried it along with meas I continued on my way. It was just like as your father always told you, Graham."Indeed," the King laughed. "Take anything that isn't nailed down. It might come inusefiil sometime.""And if it is nailed down," seconded Rosella, "Iook for loose nails!"Laughter momentarily reigned. Then Valanice continued.Not far beyond the spirit's final resting place, I encountered an edifice nearly asastounding as the stone head. It was much like a pyramid composed of gigantic steps.There was a doorway of carved stone-quite intricate and lovely, but far different fromour own architecture-and on either side of it were stone statues that seemed to guardthe entrance. More of the spiny plants I had already observed grew here and there aroundit. I walked inside and... Here her voice began to shake with remembered tenor, and the audience of twowaited, wide-eyed, to hear whatwas waiting for Valanice on the other side of that doorway. At first there was only darkness, and the raspJike scrabbling of chitinous feet fromacross the room. Then, as my eyes adjusted to the gloom, I could make out a terrifyingshape emerging from a dark hole on the far side of the room-a scorpion larger than anox! At the end of its tail I could see a sharp, jutting stinger, which would be the end ofme unless I could avoid it. Words can't describe my utter terror. I was certain I wouldnot live to leave the room.I backed up against the wall, and the horrible creature advanced closer with aterrible rattling. The smell of it...like acid and vinegar...Valanice shuddered, the color draining ftom her cheeks.I was certain I was doomed. My hands clenched helplessly. I felt the little vial thatthe spirit had given to me digging into my palm. The scorpion scuttled closer. With ashriek, I hurled the vial at the hideous beast.I realize that sounds rather silly-throwing a tiny bottle of glass at a monstrouscreature like that. But I was desperate, and wild with terror. The bottle broke open, anda fine powder dusted the back of the horrid creature.Valanice paused and took a sip of water from her silver goblet."And then what?" asked Graham, eyes wide."Did the scorpion cease its attack? Tell us!" Rosella insisted.And with a smile, Valanice replied:Of course it did. If it had not, we would not be having this convenation. To myutter surprise and infinite relief, the beast began to shrink! It grew smaller and smaller,until it was the size of a mouse, and it skittered away. I sagged against the wall for theIongest moment, trying to catch my breath, and silently thanking Colin for his gift.Whatever it had been, it had been the gift of life.When at last I could breathe normally again, I began looking around andtentatively exploring the place where I was. It turned out to be some sort of a temple.There was a square stone altar. On the wall behind it was a carving of the sun, withrays of light that writhed like snakes, and it had such a fierce, human face. I surmisedthat it might represent a sun god of some sort. one of his eyes was wide open, while theother was only a slit with a beam of sunlight coming through it from the other side ofthe wall.On top of the altar was a statue of a little man, or perhaps another god of thepeople who once lived here. He squatted on top of the altar, one hand facing up andthe other down. The beam of sunlight fell right onto the palm of his hand, and thenon a carving of a corn plant.The altar was quite covered on the top and on one side with carvings. Most seemedto be about water, sun, and plants. Perhaps this little fellow was a harvest god.The altar was composed entirely of a grayish sort of stone, into which the pictureshad been carved. The only spots of color were three gemstones-a red and a yellow stone on the top surface of the altar, and a blue stone on the front. All three were set intoshallow depressions in the altar stone. I could see another such depression, such as mighthold such a stone, in the center of a picture of the sun.I began to touch the carvings, hoping to understand them better with my fingersthan I could with only my eyes. When I touched a carving of an upside-down raindrop,I heard a click, and the three gemstones rose up iust a little from the surface of the altar.When I touched a gemstone, it came loose in my fingers. I thought perhaps the yellowstone was meant to go into the hollow in the sun picture, but it wouldn't fit there. Thered one did, however, and when I had placed it there, the light in the room brightenednoticeably. I looked up to see the sun god on the wall. Both his eyes were wide open,and the beam of light that had been coming through the slitted eye was now very largeand bright.There were no more empty hollows in any of the altar pictures, so when I tookthe bluish-green gemstone, I decided to give it to the harvest god and placed it carefullyin the palm of his upraised hand. As I did, the beam of light now turned blue. Whatmight happen if I gave him the yellow stone as well? When I put the yellow stone inthe little god's lower hand, the light shining on the corn plant turned a brilliant green.Then the corn carving sank into the altar and rose back up again. Only now, on top itwas an arrow-shaped piece of blue stone-turquoise, as I recall. I picked it up, thinkingthe shape familiar.I knew I could not stay within the temple any longer. The need to find Rosellaburned in me as thirst had burned in the ghost of poor Colin. Leaving the temple, Ipushed north, again in the direction of the cliffs, and, at last, came to a small sign that read:

for the curious

(and the curiouser)

Beneath it was a tiny door. Perhaps someone lived inside who might be able tohelp me. And I was also quite lonely for the sound of a human voice. When I knocked on the door, a nervous little creature, whom I recognized as beingthe curious---or was it curiouserl-rat I had seen earlier, poked his head outside, shaking like a leaf, and squeaked

Who can that be?

I cannot see!

I cannot flee!

I do decree!

The little rat had been wearing spectacles when I first saw him, but now he waswithout, and apparently unable to see at all. "Is there a problem with your eyes?" I asked. He replied in verse.

Normally I'd trade with you,

But since I'm blind, my day is through.

I cannot cope!

That awful, rotten jackalope

Has swiped my glasses,

And I can't even come up with a word that rhymes!

Or in a proper meter! Hmmpf!

And without saying so much as good-bye, he slammed the little door. "What a rude creature!" exclaimed Graham. "How utterly uncivil!" Rosella ageed. "My very thought at the time," Valanice said, nodding in agreement before resumingher tale: But he was the soul of good manners compared to what I encountered next, for no sooner had the kangaroo rat gone back into his burrow, but that ill-mannered jackalope creature leaped out of a hole in the ground, laughed a hideous laugh, andkicked sand in my face! Then he made a rude sound like this... She stuck her tongue between her lips and blcw explosively.Rosella burst into giggles, but a look ftom Valanice silenced her. "Sorry, Mother," she mumbled, putting a hand to her lips to stifle her mirth, but her eyes twinkled with anamusement Valanice did not share. I was never so insulted, but I was not so upset that I didn't notice that the spectacleshe was wearing were the same ones I had seen earlier on the rat."So that's what the ratkin was trying to teII you," said Graham, "that those were hisglasses the jackalope was wearing. How droll!""Droll? I did not find it so," Valanice snffid, still stinging from the remembered insult, and she resumed her tale:I determined then and there to put a stop to that little thief's antics, if there wereany way possible to do so. A rather wicked thought crept into my head. The hole whichthe half-rabbit, half-antelope had leapt from was one of a pair leading into and out ofhis underground home. I blew on the old hunting horn I had tripped over in the desertonce to clear it of sand, and, feeling quite naughty indeed, I placed the bell of it overone of the jackalope's twin holes. I filled my lungs with air, and blew with all my might.You should have seen the result! The wretched little creature shot up from theground with a shriek. The rat's glasses flew from his face! He slid back down into the hole as if his bones had turned to rubber. I know it was wrong, but I felt such a sense ofsatisfactionlI picked up the glasses, as well as a tuft of some fur that had come loose in hisstartlement.Rosella and Graham clapped loudly and Valanice acknowledged the applause witha queenly nod.The rat had said he would be open to a trade of some sort if he regained his glasses.I didn't have much, but it could be that something l had could be traded for somethingmore useful. At any rate, it won't hurt to try I thought.When I knocked again at his door, the near-sighted rat answered at once and toldme to go away; but before he could retreat again, I brought out his eyeglasses and placedthem firmly on his nose. I wish you could have seen how happy he was! He squeaked his joy:

Would you like to trade with me?

You never know what you might see!

A crook, a hook, a stylish hat,

It's always time to deal with the Kangaroo Rat!

Now, I didn't believe a deal of what I'd seen already, but that seemed beside thepoint. Patting my pockets for something appropriate to trade, my hand came upon thelittle gourd seed that I had distractedly picked up so long ago. Seeing no other use forit, I tentatively offered it to the Kangaroo Rat. He seemed delighted, though I can'timagine why, and exclaimed:

For a wrinkled seed, I have a need

Would you accept my offer of a lovely blue bead?

And with that he handed me a lovely turquoise bead. It seemed a fair trade, butfrom the greedy look he gave me, he obviously felt he had gotten the better of the deal.I didn't know what possible use a turquoise bead could be, but it reminded me ofthe color of Rosella's eyes. And at least I had established a friendly relationship with one of the local citizens, even if he wasn't particularly eager to make conversation once ourtransaction had been concluded. In fact, he gave me no time to offer another exchange.He slammed the door to his burrow and disappeared, taking the seed with him. With little reason to stay where I was, I wandered east from the Kangaroo Rat'strading post, but found nothing but apparently endless desert before me. I was afraidto chance a crossing, not knowing how far it might be to the next source of fresh water,so I doubled back until I came once more to the pool of the water god. I couldn't help wondering who this craven being was and what he had seen in his centuries of watching over this place. I reached up and touched his face, then jumpedback as I heard the sound of stone grinding on stone. The water god's head turned slowly around to reveal a second face-from all appearances a sun god, with brilliant rays protruding from all around its head.I looked closer at the two-faced deity. For the first time, I noticed a collar beneaththe head, studded with three turquoise gems. When I touched one, a portion of thecollar turned, moving the stone into a new position relative to the other two. I touchedthe collar again, to see if the stone would move back into its original place, but insteadthe collar twisted around to form a completely different configuration.Quite curious now, I touched the collar a third time. The three stones now linedup in a straight line. All this must be to some purpose, I thought, but what that purposemight be, I could not say. So far, the head, the collar, and the free hand had all changedposition when I had touched them. Might the hand holding the bowl be capable ofmovement, too? I reached out and touched it, almost afraid to know.The hand holding the bowl turned over, and the bowl was now upside-down,letting the dregs of the good water drain out onto the sand. I heard the sound of runningwater behind me, and I turned quickly to see the salt-water pool emptying itself. I hurriedto the side of the emptying pool and peered over the edge. As the water retreated, stonewalls were revealed, still dripping wet and covered with algae. There were steps comingout from the stones in a spiral down to the bottom.As the last of the water was sucked from the well, I saw a figure: an odd little idolkneeling on a pedestal at the very bottom. There was a sort of headdress on his head,and in imitation of the statue above he was holding out a shallowbowl. I climbed downthe steps to the bottom of the well to have a closer look.Inside the idol's bowl were two pieces of bright blue turquoise, like the one fromthe altar in the pyramid, but shaped unlike one another. One of them was shaped much like an arrowhead missing its shaft. It looked as if the stone I had found within thetemple would fit snugly into it, and that the two stones together might fit into a thirdshape, one that seemed somehow familiar. Of course! It finally dawned on me that itwas the same shape as the design on the lip of the great stone head. I had thought atthe time that something might once have fit inside the design, and here might be thevery pieces that were missing, fitting together like the pieces of a puzzle.I was just about to take the blue stone, but something about the look on the littleidol's face seemed to be warning me. It wouldn't be polite, I thought, to take the pieceof stone without offering something in its place, but what did I have that he mightconsider fair trade? I settled on the turquoise bead I had gotten from the Kangaroo rat.Perhaps it would do. I placed it in the bowl and took the stone. It was much heavierthan it had appeared, but fitted perfectly like the puzzle pieces I had imagined.It was a puzzlement that confronted me, indeed-the puzzle of how to leave thisbizarre desert and find Rosella. The spirit of Colin Farwalker had said the way out was through the stone head, and that the way had been magically closed by an enchanttess.Perhaps the two pieces of stone made up the key!I rushed up from the well and across the sands to stand before the gigantic headwith the two stone pieces in my hands. I pressed the pieces together, and they fitperfectly, forming a crude arrowhead shape. This shape and the size were a perfect matchfor the hollow space in the lip. I'm sure my hands trembled as I placed them in theirplace, and I know my heart pounded when I heard the sound of moving stone and sawthe mouth grind slowly open, revealing a tunnel into the side of the cliff.At last, I thought, I will be free of this place! At last I can find Rosella and bringher home!Inside was a dark corridor of stone, part cave, part tunnel. I thought I could see alight at the other end, and hunied toward it, so intent on my purpose that I didn't hearthe sound of claws on rock until it was right behind me. I turned and saw..."What?" Rosella gasped."What?" Graham cried.An enormous, swollen lizard, lumbering toward me, its mouth gaping wide, thedim cavern light glinting on a thousand razor-sharp teeth!

Part the Second...: Trolled!

"What happened?" Graham gasped."What happened?" Rosella insisted, leaning forward eagerly to hear the outcomeof her mother's encounter with the enormous reptile.Valanice yawned delicately behind her hand. "I declare, I'm so exhausted withtelling my story, and poor Rosella has scarcely been able to get a word in edgewise. It'sher adventure, too, you know."Rosella could not believe her mother was going to stop now in the narrative ofher adventure-not now of all places! "Of course I want to tell my part of the stortMother, but not before you tell us what happened in that tunnel with that awful beast!""Oh, all in good time, dearest daughter," Valanice said sweetly. "I think we're allanxious to hear whatyou experienced on the other side of the garden pool."Rosella knew there was no arguing with her mother when she put on thatparticular honey-coated manner. It meant she expected to be given her way, andsomehow that's the way it always seemed to turn out. There was nothing for it but totell the tale of her own wondrously strange and dangerous journey-a iourney that hadtaken almost no time to pass in Daventry. Recalling her adventures, Rosella began:I was falling. I wasn't in the beautiful land of clouds following the dragonettes,but a strange and alien place where I could swim through the air as though I were a fishin water. Then something grabbed me. I remember a pulling, pushing, stretching feeling-not at all pleasant-and then a kind of a plop, and I was in an enormous cavern, more splendid than any picture book. The walls looked as though they had melted, likecandle-wax, and had formed shapes in rock like none you can imagine.I heard a voice behind me, saying, "Welcome, Oh most wondrously beautiful ofall princesses. Welcome to my kingdom!" It was a pleasant, friendly voice, but when Iturned around, imagine my surprise-the person who was speaking to me was a troll!"A troll?" said her father. "Was it as hideous as the tales tell?"At the time I had little to compare him to, but he seemed as hideous as any trollwould need to be. He was somewhat shorter than me; very muscular and portly as seemmost of the troll folk, with oversized pointed ears that drooped over only to be helpedpartially upright by the clumps of coarse hair growing out of his ears. There was moreof the stuff growing from his too-broad nose, on the backs of his powerful hands, andon the tops of his bootless feet. In all, his appearance suitably matched the fearsometusks iutting upward from his lower lips. Later I would come to judge him quitehandsome in comparison to most others I encountered. But at that moment, all I couldthink was that I must surely be seeing things. This was hardly the beautiful castle in theclouds I had seen through the door in the garden pool.To be fair, the troll seemed as shocked at my appearance as I was at his. For all Iknew, by troll standards of beauty I would be considered quite homely!"I am King Otar Fenris III, grand high ruler of the underground kingdom of Vulcanix, Overlord of the Underworld," he proclaimed. "You are most certainly theprincess Rosella of Daventry? Am I correct?"At least that was one thing I was certain of, though I wasn't certain of much elseat the moment, and I had no idea how this odd person might think he knew me. Hekept staring at me with his huge green eyes in the strangest way, and finally said "I wasn'tquite expecting fhis."I had had just about enough of this nonsense, I can assure you. But after all, he was royalty and I supposed I ought to mind my manners, so I simply said: "Your majesty,I was not expecting this either. Why am I here? What's going on?" as politely as I couldmanage under the circumstances."I wasn't expectinS you to be so...Iovely, my lady," he said. "You will be the mostradiant bride in all the underworld. Nay, the most beautiful in all the multiverse! Weare to be married in three days'time."I was sure that was notwhat he meant, but I had more things on my mind at themoment than trying to second-guess a troll. Not that I would have been inclined tomarry a troll no matter how well acquainted we might become. In fact, he made PrinceThrockmorton seem quite attractive by comparison. I turned around, determined toleave by the way I had come, but there was a large mirror in the way, and there was atroll in the mirror, and it was wearing my dresst.That's when I realized what had happened. My throat constricted. I managed tosqueak out two words, and that was all.

"Oh my! "Then, after endless moments, "What's happened to me? I've turned into a...a...""A troll, my dearest princess," said the King Otar, as though he might becommenting on the color of my hair, or how the color blue went with my eyes. Asthough being a troll were the most everyday, ordinary thing in the world! Of course, forhim, being a troll, that must have been quite true."Please don't be upset, sweet princess," he begged. "It does so ruin your lovely greencomplexion. After all, you make quite a beautiful troll! Simply gorgeous."As you can imagine, this was not at all what I wanted to hear. What I wanted tohear was that I was not a troll at all, but the mirror told me the awful truth."But...how? Why?" But there seemed to be no explanation forthcoming."Allow me to escort you to your sleeping chamber," the Troll King offered. "Rest abit. Perhaps you'll feel better later." The only thing that was going to make me feel anybetter at all was nof being a troll, but I was too dejected then to,argue the point. I lethim lead the way, and I followed behind.The troll cavern was hung with banners and spears and shields, and a stone thronerested in the middle. There were tunnels and alcoves, and a few trolls were about, butthey paid us no attention at all. At length we came to a doorway. King Otar ushered methrough to a bedchamber and closed the door behind him, saying again that a little restwould brighten my outlook.It was the strangest bedroom I had ever seen. Stone walls and a stone floor, andstalactites and stalagmites that had grown together into pillars that were the four postsof a bed, making it look like there were fantastic shapes and faces in the stone. It wasn'tthe sort of place I would be likely to fall asleep in. And there was a dressing table witha little stool and a mirror, but I didn't want to look in another mirror-not right then,anryay. I gave myself a pinch on the arm. It hurt!"So you weren't iust imagining things?" asked her mother."And you were really a troll?" asked her father, honified.uWell, I'm not one any longer, so stop looking at me that way!" Rosella told him."Yes, I was really a troll." She quickly retumed to her story:I knew that the most important thing I could imagine was to find some way to regain my true shape and become human again. In three days, if I did not succeed infinding a way to escape, I might well end up the bride of the Troll King.As the door to my room was not locked, I set out to explore Vulcanix. Back in thegreat hall, I found a short, plump troll matron knitting in a carved stone rocking chair.As soon as she saw me she threw down her knitting, leaped out of her chair, and blockedmy steps."Stop right there, whoever you are! Whatever you are. Why are you in our caverns? You're a human, not a troll. You smell human. I can see right through you." I hoped shecouldn't. It was a honid thought, and I'd had quite enough horrid thoughts for one day. "What were you doing with King Otar? What do you want ftom him?" shedemanded. Of course, I didn't want anything at all from King Otar, and I wanted tomake this clear to this rather menacing troll woman. I tried to explain how I got there,but I wasn't that sure myself what had happened. She seemed so certain I was there tosomehow steal the King's throne.Suddenly, it was all iust too much for me. I am somewhat ashamed to admit it,but I broke down and began to sob uncontrollably. As I did, though, her attitude changedcompletely and she became quite kind and concerned."I didn't mean to be so cross," the troll told me. "But that horrible...womanhasbeen snooping around again, and King Otar hasn't been acting himself lately. It's enoughto make anyone suspicious. Especially me." I wondered what woman she meant, butshe was already on to the next topic.The troll woman introduced herself as Mathilde. She said she had been King Otar'snursemaid back when he was just a tiny little troll and had stayed to help out with theother trollkin ever since. This was all very well and good, as such things go-but thenshe told me that she knew how to turn me back human again!"Can you do it now?" I exclaimed in delight."No. I must brew a special potion-a magical one-first. And you must be the oneto gather its ingredients. But before I tell you what they are, promise me first that whenyou are changed back, you will do something for me.""I will do anything that is honest and within my power," I vowed."In the world above this kingdom," she said, "is a dark and sinister land called OogaBooga." She shuddered when she said the name, as though it were something too awfulto think about."Our kingdoms have never been very warm to each other, but we have never beenenemies. We had what you might call a civil relationship. Or we did until sfte camealong." I wanted to ask who she was, but thought better of interrupting."Now they attack any of the troll-folk who dares show face above ground," shecontinued. "Once you've taken the potion, and you're human again, will you go to OogaBooga and investigate? I feel in my old bones that our kingdom is in terrible trouble."I could tell Mathilde was stalwart and strong of heart, and I truly wished to helpher, especially if she could return to me my true form. At once I promised her that if shecould restore my human form, I'd go above and see what I could learn about theproblem. I tried not to think too hard about going to some place called Ooga Booga andconfronting beings who weren't afraid to attack trolls. Beings that, judging fromMathilde, were terrible enough to cow even the stoutest troll. One thing at a time,however. First the potion, then Ooga Booga, whatever it might turn out to be.My promise made Mathilde very happy. She gave me a list of ingredients for the potion: baked beetles-ytrk!-a crystal dragon scale, water of emerald, a silver spoon,and a golden bowl. This would not be easy, I was sure, but neither was being a troll. I bade Mathilde farewell and was setting out to find the ingredients when I wascrashed into by a little troll-girl. Her attention was on something in her hands, and shewas mutterinS, "Stupid old toy rat!" over and over. From her loud complaining, I learnedshe'd received the rat as a present. But what she'd really wanted was a battle-ax! Canyou imagine?Then a voice from somewhere called her to lunch, so she stamped her furry littlefoot, stuck her lip out on either side of her tusks and dropped the rat to the floor. I didn'tthink the rat was all that terrible at all, so when the little girl left, I picked it up and wenton my way. It turned out to be a wind-up toy, and I thought it looked quite dear.By this time, I was beginning to feel a little better about things. Mathilde had beenso helpful, offering to mix up that magic potion and all, and even King Otar had beenvery considerate and respectful, even if he did plan to marry me, and where had thatbright idea come from, anyway? I was beginning to revise my earlier opinion of trolls,but I still wasn't interested in remaining one. Or marrying one, either.I looked around the great hall. Here and there, I could see alcoves and hallwaysgoing off in various directions. One of the alcoves was giving off a sort of warm red glowthat was almost welcoming right then. I went to take a closer look and saw that a poolof bubbling mud had been set into the floor iust inside the doorway. Two trolls, onevery large and fleshy, the othervery little and thin, were lying comfortably in the boilingmuck as though it were nothing more than a pleasantly warm bath. It looked more tome like Troll Soup, and that was not the most appetizing thought I'd had all day.Just as I was about to speak to the trolls, a tall, slender woman in a flowing gownof pink and black came walking from the other side of the room, carrying an extremelyugly little dog. She was definitely human, which was a surprise. She was not a youngwoman, perhaps of an age near yours, mother, and quite beautiful in a haughty, arrogantsort of way. Her hair was the color of midnight; her skin that of new snow; and her fulllips the same shade as the dark roses of Daventry. Her eyes, too, tinged dark red, the largest I have ever seen, and their gaze cut as cold as the iced peaks of the Impossible Mountains. The woman's appearance seemed to frighten the trolls, for one of them let out aninvoluntary belch as he looked at her with nervous eyes. She glared at him in the mosthateful way, called him a foul name, and strode arrogantly off. I thought the poor trollwould die of terror. His companion teased him quite mercilessly about that, but I hadthe feeling he feared the strange woman as well.When I asked the trolls who that had been, they told me her name was Malicia,and that no one around there really knew who she was. It was all quite mysterious, andthey seemed afraid to say more. Malicia, I concluded, was the mysterious she thatMathilde had snarled about earlier. I grew impatient and left the tvvo to their mud bath.The trolls' kitchen was located through a doorway on the right side of the greathall, and that's where I decided to look for the baked beetles for the potion. Even before I had quite arrived, I could smell something cooking, and it didn't smell anything likedinnertime in Castle Daventry! And what a sight greeted me when I walked inside.Rosella stoppeil for a moment, seeming to recall the incident with amusement,before going on:There was a chef-a large, furry troll chef-and he was talking to his stew, callingit pretty names and making kissi4g sounds over it. And drooling. From the looks of theconcoction bubbling on the stove, I wouldn't have been surprised to hear it talking back.Oh, it was the most awful kitchen, with the most horrid smells that you could imagine.And the chef was bemoaning the fact that he was lacking a bat or a rat to complete therecipe! I was reasonably certain I'd never be hungry again after seeing the trolls' stew,and I hoped with all my heart that I'd be safely human and safely out of the Vulcanix Underground before dinnertime! I'm afraid the sight and the smell of it caused me to make some sort of noise of disgust, and that's when the chef noticed me.I tried to apologize, but he took three troll-size steps and picked me up by the backof my neck and threw me out of the kitchen."Out of my kitchen, you dreadful peasantl, before you spoil my stew, mortify myroast, or deflate my souffl6 in its embarrassment," he shrieked. Brushing his hands ofme, he went back to crooning at his disgusting concoction.I knew there had to be a way to get him away from the kitchen so I could look forthose baked beetles. All I had were my wits and a wind-up rat. Of course, the chef waslooking for a rat, so I went back to the doorway, wound up the toy and turned it loose.It even squealed as it moved.How the chef's eyes lighted up when he saw the rat speeding toward him.'Just what I need for my most wonderful of stews!" he exclaimed, and chased therat round and about the kitchen, through the pantry door, and out of sight. A momentlater, the rat came whizzing back into the kitchen, alone. For whatever reason, the chefhad stayed behind-maybe he was searching under the counters for the furry littlemechanical rodent. This was precisely the opportunity I'd been looking for; so I pickedup the toy and put it back in my pocket, then stepped back into the kitchen and beganto search.It was a large kitchen, and probably a very nice one, by troll standards, but as youmight imagine, I found it disagreeable in the extreme. Still, I might find somethingMathilde needed here, so I gritted my teeth, wrinkled my nose, tried hard not to breathetoo deeply, and began searching. I did my best to ignore the stew, still bubbling in aparticularly unpleasant way.Almost immediately, I found a baked beetle dispenset so I suppose it's a commonspice in most troll cookery. In a cupboard were two gold-colored bowls; I wasn't sure ifeither was true gold, but when I looked at the bottoms of the bowls, one said "Brass,"the other u14 K.u I took the latter."Very good, my dear," said Valanice with pleasure. "Always check for the karatstamp."

"Yes, Mother," said Rosella dutifully, and continued on:Anyway, there was no sign of a silver spoon---or anything else on the list-in thekitchen, so I set about to discover other parts of the underground. Those first two itemshad been almost too easy-I didn't fool myself into thinking that I'd just be able to walkup and take everything I needed for Mathilde's magic potion.As I crossed to the far side of the great hall, I passed the mud bath room again,and this time two troll women were relaxing in the boiling muck. One of them wascomplaining about her insomnia. Her friend suggested that she use a wet lump of sulfuras a cure.'Just put it in the fireplace when you go to bed. You'll have no trouble sleepingthen. Knocks me and the hubby right out," she told the other. "It's my secret for having a perfect marriage!"Once again it became quite plain to me that trolls are very very different from humans!I thought perhaps they might know something more about Malicia, but all theywanted to talk about was my impending wedding to King Otar, and I didn't much carefor fhaf subiect of conversation. If that wasn't bad enough, they both burst into tears atthe thought of my wedding gown! I quietly excused myself.As it turned out, my suspicions about the difficulty of filling Mathilde's magicalshopping list were perfectly accurate. The next place I visited was the forging room,where a big, strong troll with lots of overdeveloped muscles was hammering out metaltools and implements next to a blazing fire that he made even hotter with the aid of agreat leather bellows. Sparks were flying everywhere, and I was worried about my dressor hair catching fire. There was a bucketful of nasty-looking brackish water by his feet,and I gave that a pretty wide berth, as well. It reminded me too much of the chef'sprecious stew."Pardon me, sir," I said to the forger, "but I was wondering..."The forger put down his hammer and grinned at me-not the prettiest sight you'veever seen, I can assure you. "Wonder no longer, sweetness," he said. "Instead, let mefulfill yer wildest dreams."Rosella's mother and father laughed menily at her imitation of the troll forger. Rosellaioined in the laughter, but she remembered how little amusement she had found in hisactions at the time.He tried to kiss me, but I managed to break free of his grasp and remind him thatI was engaged to the King. Horrid thought, but true, and useful at the moment. He wentback to his work, but not until giving me what he obviously thought was a captivatingwink.Now I began to notice that over the roar of the fire I could hear a sort of tap-tappingsound. In a far corner, a mild looking little troll was tapping at a gemstone with ahammer and chisel. He looked quite absorbed in his work, but not a bit happy about it.When I tried to talk to him, he jumped quite out of his skin in surprise. "I didn't mean to startle you," I told him."Oh, no, no, " he said. "I really don't mind being interrupted, especially by someoneas beautiful and charming as yourself." I swear, he was the most polite troll I've evermet! His name was Oppi Goldworth, and he was terribly lonely-he could barely toleratethe company of most other trolls.'He didn't like other trolls? How very odd," said Valanice.It was sad. He said he'd do anything to leave the underground and go to Etheria,but he had no coin, only an old, chipped hammer and a gem chisel. When we werethrough talking, he went back to work. Then I saw another doorway, one that didn'ttake me past the amorous forger, so I decided to explore in that direction for awhile.Maybe when I came back this way, the dirty old troll would be out to lunch or something.I could only hope.This doorway led into a short corridor and back out again to a larger cavern witha most...disfinctive odor. The first things I saw were pits of this bubbling green guck. Inaddition, I was becoming more and more aware of a dreadful stench in the air with eachpassing second-rather like rotten eggs. Strangely, it didn't seem to be coming from thepots.There was a lantern half-buried in the dirt of what appeared to be a collapsed mineshaft-just the thing I'd need if I wandered deeper in the underground. By the time I'dtaken it, I had almost gotten used to the stench, except for the way it made my eyeswater, so I decided to explore what looked like a deep pit in one corner of the cavern. Itglowed, and gave off such heat, and you couldn't see to the bottom of it, and there werehorrible winds howling in its depths."It sounds," her mother said, "like a perfect place to stay away ftom.""Oh, I agree," said Rosella. "And under other circumstances that's what I would havedone, but," she continued:On the far side of the pit I could see a pile of rocks emerging from the wall asthough there had been a tunnel there. I thought I ought to explore it as a possible wayout-should one be needed, of course.There was a ledge around the pit, and I started across, mindful of my footing, whena sudden downdraft tried to suck me down and into the pit. I threw myself back againstthe wall and regained my footing. This was obviously going to be harder than I hadanticipated! I worked my way around the ledge to the cave-in, and there was a big,gloppy, yellow wad of wet sulfur stuck up against the wall. It became obvious to me thatit was the source of the dreadful smell.A naughty but very practical idea occurred to me: hadn't the troll woman said sheused sulfur to put herself to sleep? If the sulfur would knock her out, maybe it wouldput that conceited forger out of commission long enough for me to get by him and seeif there was anything around that forge I might be able to use. At worst, the sulfur wouldserve as an excellent payback for that attempted kiss. I took it, hoping I could get rid ofthe smelly stuff as soon as humanly (or troll-Iy) possible. When I'd gotten safely back on the right side of the pit, I noticed another littlepot full of green liquid. This one looked different somehow, and as I walked I could seethat rather than a viscous welter of bubbling ooze, this one contained a beautiful,shimmering green liquid. I thought about my magical shopping list from Mathilde.Emerald water! Could this be it? I decided it couldn't be anything else, and scoopedsome into the golden bowl.The forger was still hard at work when I got back to the forging cavern. He waspouring molten metal into a mold, and when I asked him about it, he explained that itwas a spoon mold."I poured de hot silver in dere, ya see?" Rosella said in her best troll imitation, "an'when it cools, I have me a pretty spoonl"A silver spoon! That was just what I needed. I pulled the horrid glob of wet sulfurfrom my pocket and surreptitiously tossed it into the forge. It made a terrible hiss andsizzle, and the forger leaned in closer to see what was making all the noise. I backedaway, and iust in time, because a big yellow blast of sulfurous smoke came whooshingout of the fire. The unsavory forger had his face right in it!"Did it cure his insomnia?" asked her father, smiling at his ioke."Completely," said RoseIIa. 'He fell over like a big tree, stuck a thumb in his mouth,and went right to sleep!"The mold was much too hot to pick up with my hands, but I found a set of tongson the wall that did the job, and I set the mold down in the bucket of icky water. Whenthe water stopped boiling, I reached back in with the tongs and took out the spoon,which had come free of the mold. My list of ingredients for Mathilde's magic potionwas almost complete.I looked at the lantern I had taken from the other cavern and realized it wouldn'tdo much good if it wasn't lit. The fire had died down quite a bit, but I remembered howhe'd heated it up before and pumped the bellows a few times until the flames rose highagain, then caught a spark in my lantern. Now I wouldn't worry about any dark tunnelswhile I was searching for that crystal dragon scale.Back in the great hall, I looked around and spied a tunnel winding eastward.The tunnel led to yet another cavern room, and running through the room was alittle road that led to still another tunnel on the other side. There was a terrible river offire going through the cavern, and a little stone bridge over the river. Between me andthe bridge, however, was something very interesting-an old wooden structure thatappeared to be some sort of elevator. There was a rickety wooden scaffold surroundinga metal bucket on chains. There were pulleys, but no rope to pull the bucket up anddown, and someone had nailed up a crudely-lettered sign that read, "Condemned,"which was probably a good thing, considering everything. Despite its decrepitappearance, I decided I'd be willing to try it if I had a rope-any way out of theunderground and my impending marriage was not to be scoffed at.

Since I didn't have a rope, I didn't give this any further thought and kept walkingtoward the far side of the bridge. Just then I heard a slurping, splashing, wef sort ofsound, and an enormous, wart-ridden troll scrambled up from beneath the bridge andglowered nastily at me. He was a particularly loathsome shade of off-green, and hisgigantic stomach bulged out over his belt. His breath stank hideously of rotten meatand onions."Was he really that much more horrible than all the rest of the trolls?" her fatherasked.'Truthfully, it wasn't his appearance so much as his attitude," Rosella recalled. Herefused to let me cross the bridge unless I gave him a thousand pieces of lead and a rat ona stick."Both her parents laughed heartily at this.Needless to say, I didn't have his toll on me at the time, so I began thinking howI might get across without it.In a far corner of the cave, resting at the top of a slight slope, was a little cart thatappeared to be stuck up to its axles in the mud. It was missing a wheel as well, but whenI walked up to it and looked down the way I had come, I could see that it was a straightpath from here to the troll bridge, then iust a bit of a turn to the spot where the trollwas arrogantly slouched. So, I couldn't cross his precious bridge? We'd see about that.You see, when I'd been looking at the decorations back in the great hall, I'd noticeda spiked small round shield hanging on the wall, and now I wondered if it might be theright size to replace the missing wheel. I went back to have another look, and it lookedto be so. It was also, fortunately, easy to reach by standing on tiptoe, though I did haveto stretch a little.When I got back to the bridge troll's cavern, I held the shield to the cart andexamined the combination. The shield was round, all right, and about the proper size,but how was I going to fasten it onto the cart securely enough to make it work as awheel? That's when I noticed that the metal spike in the center of the shield seemedquite loose. With a little effort I was able to unscrew it. Heaving with all my strength, Ipulled the cart from the mud, and then fit the shield-wheel to the axle. I attached thespike to hold it in place, and stood back, proud of my handiwork. It looked like as gooda wheel as an, and easily the best I had ever constructed. All I needed to do now wasget the cart out of the mud.It took me one good push to get it on to the road, and another got it rolling, whichwas a good thing. I don't think I had another push left to give. I jumped in as the cartbegan rolling, and barreled down the muddy rock path, picking up speed as I went,down the slope and around the corner and over the bridge."And what of the troll?" asked her mother."He never knew what hit him," Rosella replied smugly. "And when I reached the otherside, I hopped off and continued on my way.""Did he die in the flames of the river?" asked Graham.

"I think not," Rosella answered. "He clearly lived quite close to them, inwhatever denhe occupied below the bridge, and they didn't appear to be buming him. The last I saw, hewas sputtering and cursing as the current washed him down the river."Feeling quite full of myself, I crossed the bridge. I have never seen anything sobeautiful as the cave of the Crystal Dragon, unless it was the dragon herself.Imagine if you can an enormous room, as big as the entire royal palace of Daventry,composed entirely of shimmering, glittering crystal. Floors of crystal, walls of crystal,ceilings of sparkling, glistening crystal. And in the dragon's sleeping cave-preciousgems-heaps and mounds and little hills of brilliant gemstones twinkling with a millionrainbow lights. That was the place I entered next. And taking up much of that space wasthe crystal dragon herself. She seemed to have been formed from the very stuff of hersurroundings. Covered in scales of radiant crystal, the slightest movement of her mightyflanks sent glitters of reflected light across the immense cavern. She was huge, largeenough to crush me with a misplaced step, but somehow I wasn't afraid. How could Ibe afraid of something so utterly beautiful? At first I couldn't bring myself to believethat this unearthly creature was truly a dragon.And imagine my surprise when I saw that she was crying-beautiful emerald tears!I asked what had made her so sad, and she replied, "I have lost my will to live. My sparkis gone, and with it has gone all that makes this life worth living. My world has growncold and dark. Go, leave me alone to my sorrow and emptiness, little troll."I thought my heart would break for the sad crystal dragon. I considered her words.Her spark. Fire? All dragons that I know of breathe fire, steam issuing from their nostrilsas they exhale. But I had seen no steam or flame from this crystal dragon, and she seemedterribly cold. Then it dawned upon me-l had fire. "You mean fhis kind of spark?" Iasked, and held out the lantern with the glowing spark."Here, here, let me have it!" she cried, and opened wide her mouth. I held up thelantern and the spark leapt down inside her gullet. Immediately, a blazing crimson flameshot out from her mouth, over my head. The crystal dragon roared to the cavern's fardistant roof in her ioy."I am indebted to you," she told me, and she reached into her pile of preciousstones, drawing forth one enormous, perfect diamond. "Take this stone as a token of myeternal gratitude, trollkin. With it you can live as well as a princess."I thought it might be rude to point out that I was already a princess-after all, thedragon had no way of knowing."Thank you," I said, "It's lovely. But might I instead ask for one of your scales?" Sosaying I held forth the magnificent diamond so that she might reclaim it.Waving a single claw, the dragon spoke again. "Keep the stone, mortal. It is but atrifle, and when I return, you shall also have a scale."She then roared again, "But now I must fly! Now I must truly live again!"And fly she did, soaring maiestically up through the top of the cavern, dwindlingto a shining spark in the distance. I stood Iooking up, awed. Realizing I had no choice but to come back to the dragon's lair later, it occurred to me that I knew someone whocould make much better use of the dragon's gem than I."Why, whoever could that be?" her father wondered."You recall the little jeweler, Oppi," said Rosella.'Indeed. The one who wanted to leave the underground.""Yes," said Rosella, "but he had nothing but his jeweler's tools. If he had but the gem,he could use it to leave and go to Etheria."That thought gave me such pleasure that I rushed straight-away to his workbenchby the forge. In my excitement, I even ignored the lewd whistles and amorous winksthrown my way by that obnoxious forger, awake again and no more couth for thenapping.When I gave the gem to Oopi, his eyes got very large, like saucers, and he gave methe biggest smile I've ever seen. "How can I ever thank you? You've given me a chanceto make my dreams come true, and for this I am indebted to you a thousand fold. I shallthrow out these old, worn tools, buy new ones, start a new life!"A hammer and chisel might be iust the thing for chipping away a crystal scalethough, so I asked if I might have his old tools, since he seemed to have no interest inkeeping them. "Enioy them, my dear, enioy them. May they serve you as well as theyhave me, although I must say that I cannot imagine what you might do with them."Thanking me yet again, he nearly flew from the room!I hurried back to the dragon's cavern. The crystal dragon had indeed returned, butshe was fast asleep, exhausted perhaps after her flight. Nothing I did would rouse her,so, somewhat embarrassed, I used the chisel to chip away a small scale from her tail. She had said I could have the scale, after all, but I still felt bad about taking one. With a final,silent, "Thank you," I backed out of her cavern. Now I was so happy! This was the lastingredient I needed-Mathilde could make her potion, and I would be human again. Icould leave the underground, I could try to find my way back home. After fulfilling mypromise to Mathilde, of course."I suppose I should be happy I didn't know how much longer it would be before Ireturfled," Rosella srghed. "I would have become quite downhearted.""Well, you're home now," said her father, "and that's all that matters to me.""And you never would have given up, ml dear," her mother assured her. "That's notthe way you do things.""I'm sure you're right, Mother. I never ilid give up, though things got worse beforethey got better. Of course, before all of that, Mathilde had to make me her potion.When I returned to the Great Hall, I handed over the golden bowl and my little collection of ingredients. Mathilde put each one in turn into the bowl, and stirred theodd smelling concoction with the silver spoon. When it began frothing, she handed itto me to drink, which I did, trying not to think too hard about the baked beetles. It feltunexpectedly cool and smooth going down, and tasted surprisingly tangy, not at all bad.As I lowered the bowl, I didn't feel as if anything had happened, but maybe the change wasn't something one could feel. I hadn't, after all, felt the change when I became a troll."Am I human?" I asked Mathilde. My voice sounded strangely hollow in my ears."Well, not exactly, dear," she replied, with the strangest look on her face. Then shesuddenly snapped her fingers, crying out, "Of course, of course! I had forgotten. We needa troll hair!" And with that, she yanked one from her own head, dropped it into the bowl, and stirred it again with the silver spoon, which began immediately to dissolve. I drank again. This time the potion was hot and pungent, and burned like a drinkof liquid cinnamon. This time, there was a definite effect-a sort of shimmering an dtrembling from my head to my feet. Mathilde clapped her hands, and I took a little silverpellet from my mouth-all that was left of the silver spoon! I decided then and there tokeep that little piece of silver as a souvenir of all my adventures in the underground,and placed it carefully in a pocket."That potion was even stronger than your tea, Mother."Valanice sniffed.Just then, the King walked in. In my excitement at becoming human again, I hadquite forgotten about him. Were we still engaged now that I wasn't a troll any more? Icertainly hoped not.But the Troll King seemed to like me even better as a human! I iust couldn't believeit. He was going on and on about how lovely he thought me when that woman in theflowing gown-Malicia-appeared in a sulfurous puff of smoke. She didn't look at all happy. ,f iust stood frozen in surprise at her arrival."I've had more than enough of your distracting the King, you annoying little human snip!" Malicia shrieked, her beautiful face distorted by a wicked grimace. Sheraised up her hands like she was about to use some kind of magic on me. I stepped backnervously, and the Tioll King tried to grab the woman's arms and stop her, but it wastoo late. There was a flash of blindingly white light, the smell of ether, and the mostcurious wrenching feeling I have ever known. The next instant I was back in mybedchamber-and this time, the door was firmly locked! I could hear Malicia's voiceechoing in my ears, saying, "l'll be back to dispose of you before you know it, my pretty!"There didn't seem to be any way out of the bedroom. The walls were made of solidstone. and it looked like I'd be there until Malicia came back to... I didn't know whatshe was planning to do to me, but I was sure it would not be for my enjoyment. I hada few choice words for the portrait of the purple-eyed Troll King that hung on the stonewall, I can tell you. If he hadn't decided we were engaged....Rosella sighed and shook her head."Maybe by that time, Prince Throckmorton wasn't looking so bad, hmmm?" hermother said, eyes twinkling."I refuse to comment," said RoseIIa, crossing her arms.Actually, I scarcely had time to think about it, because when I looked at the portraitI could see steam coming out of the nostrils. Either Trolls painted very realistic portraits, or there was an opening of some kind leading into the wall. But I couldn't reach theportrait to look behind it-it was too high up.Despair set in, and I collapsed onto a footstool in front of my wardrobe. I sat therefor several minutes, by turns frustrated then angry that escape, so close at hand, wasbeing denied me. As I banged my fist against the cushion of the stool, an idea struck mewith sudden clarity-I was too short to move the portrait, but if I stood on a stool...? Iimmediately dragged my seat over to just under the portrait and stood upon it. Still toolow, but now I was thinking again. I quickly hauled over my bedside table and, with agrunt and a heave, placed the stool atop it. The resulting structure looked tall enough,but just to be sure, I added a fat cushion to the very top of the stack. Climbing carefullyto the top of the furniture pile, I was able to remove the King's portrait, which I droppedto the floor with a look of distaste. Sure enough, behind where the portrait had hungwas the beginning of a low tunnel, iust large enough for me to squeeze through.Escape at last. I wriggled through the opening, putting several small rips in mydress in the process. All I could think about was getting away before Malicia, returningto "dispose" of me and finding an empty bedroom, could figure out where I had fled.Then I saw two eyeholes in the wall, at about head level. I heard someone slamming adoor on the other side, then heard the Troll King's voice, followed by Malicia's. Theywere talking about me, and about a volcano.I peeked through the eyeholes and saw a room full of technology-fantastic metalmachinery. There were pipes, cog wheels, levers, and coils, and the lot stank horribly ofgrease and oil. The King was sitting in a large seat facing what looked to be controls ofsome sort, looking tenibly unhappy. Malicia and her awful little dog were there, too,glaring at King Otar."Listen to me, you weak minded troll," Malicia was scolding. "If your fixation withthat meddlesome little human snit disrupts my plans again, I'll have you skinned. Boiledalive. Maybe both. Have you figured out how to work the volcano mechanism yet, ormust I motivate you again? Time is wasting."The King mumbled something about how he had indeed figured out the controls, but was concerned about the fate that would befall Ooga Booga and someplace called the Bountiful Woods when the volcano erupted.My brain wanted to erupt itself at the horror of which I was overhearing: A volcanothat was to erupt? A machine to make the volcano erupt? A machine controlled by Maliciaand King Otar? A volcano that Malicia wanted to erupt?Malicia wasn't in the Ieast concerned. Smirking evilly, she stated "What are a fewvillages and townships? Who cares about most of those people? Who's going to be leftto miss them? They are all just unimportant pawns in the game that we play. At leastthe blight of Etheria will be gone and my vengeance will be complete!" Her little muttyapped to emphasize her last point as Malicia spun on her heel and strode from theroom in a swirl of her cloak. I felt chilled to the bone. The woman was undeniablv evil. Yet, I felt sorry for the Troll King right then. It was obvious he didn't want to goalong with Malicia's plans, but he seemed so confused, as though he were trying toremember something that iust wouldn't come to him. But if Malicia had her way, hewould use his knowledge of dread technology, of the machines in that room, to explodea volcano, raining hot ash and molten destruction down on the surrounding lands.Something had to be donelI could see an opening at the other end of the tunnel. I crawled toward it until Icould poke my head and shoulders through, and then suddenly I was sliding down thewall and into the great hall, knocking down a shelf as I tumbled, finally landing, plop,upon the royal throne directly on my...dignity. Thank heavens no one noticed.I got down as inconspicuously as possible and picked up some Iittle ornament thathad been on the shelf that had fallen down with me. It was a silvery statue of a littletoad-like thing, with scales and large spines running down its back, something like thoseon a dragon. It was sort of cute, actually. It made me smile, and not too many thingshad been able to do thatLately.I could hear voices again-this time it sounded like Malicia and Mathilde arguingabout the King. Mathilde was saying, "Don't you dare hurt him, you wrinkled old hussy!"And Malicia was commanding her to mind her own business: "...or you'll spend all of eternity regretting the day you were born! Or, was it hatched?"Mathilde was accusing Malicia of doing something to King Otar to make himdifferent. Malicia wouldn't admit to her what it was she had done, but I got the feelingthat whatever it was, it was only the beginning of her plans for the people of theunderground and the whole world thereabouts-what she called the Realm of Eldritch.A moment later Mathilde came stomping out of the doorway. A ferocious blast of ill magic hurtled down the tunnel, and she barely dodged it with a loud squawk. Poor Mathilde. Her shoulders seemed to sag. She walked slowly to her rocking chair and sat down, slumped over her knitting like a woman condemned. Feeling nearlyas bad as she did, I warned Mathilde that she should be careful in confronting Malicia.Mathilde told me that she was convinced Malicia had done something sorcerous to KingOtar, something that had changed him in some way. She sat, slumped and defected, hernormal fire gone, seeming to have Iost all hope. To cheer her, I took the funny littletoad-thing from my pocket, hoping that the sight of it might make her feel better. Ididn't realize how well it would work!"Otar's dragon toad!" she exclaimed, suddenly enthusiastic. "This was the King'smagical guardian when he was just a wee one. When little Otar got into a scrape, itwould run home and tell me where he was! I had thought it to be lost Iong agol"It certainly didn't look very lively now, but Mathilde explained that the dragontoad was alive, but had been dormant for years. She pulled a handful of powder fromher pocket and sprinkled it over the toad, which began to shimmer, and which openedone of its eyes. Mathilde asked it where King Otar was, and the toad replied in a low,unlikely, but sonorous voice, "Imprisoned deep in the land of Ooga Booga." Its vital energy apparently exhausted, the little toad creature then sank back into slumberwithout elaborating further on the King's predicament."Ooga Booga? But...that means the King who's been in cahoots with Malicia is notOtar, he's an imposterl I knew it! I knew the real Otar would never do anything withthat frigid strumpetl" Mathilde exclaimed. I figured that more bad news couldn't hurtat this point, so I related what little I knew of Malicia's plan to unleash the volcano."If Malicia can ignite the volcano, the entire Realm of Eldritch will be destroyed,flooded in lava or drowned in ash!" Mathilde's face became pale as death. I had no reasonto disbelieve her. From beneath her apron, she brought forth what she claimed to be amagical rope and begged me to use it to travel up to Ooga Booga to find and save thereal King Otar.Just then, I glimpsed a flash of movement-Malicia coming back. Quickly I duckedbehind a prominent rock, praying silently that I had not been noticed. She was peeringabout, looking for me, and she might have found me too, but as she neared the rock Ilay behind, a bat flew out of the kitchen-probably one of the ingredients escaping thestew-and swooped past Malicia's head.You should have heard her squeal! "Plague-carrying, mange-ridden, nasty, smellyverminl" Rosella cried in her most revolting Malicia-voice, "Someday I'll come up witha way to annihilate every bat, rat, and snake in existencel" I got the distinct impressionshe was unhappy.At any rate, despite her continuing threats to verminkind, she quicklyleft through the door to the forging room. This might be my only chance to get away.I hurried towards the cavern that contained the decrepit mining elevator, but nosooner did I reach its entrance than Malicia appeared out of thin air-again! I was gettinga little tired of that trick of hers, although I must admit it was quite impressive. If onlyI knew then how much more tired I'd become of it before this was all over!Frantically, I dived behind another rock and hid. As Malicia stepped past me, stillmuttering about rats, I took out the little mechanical rat that I still carried, rapidly woundit up, then turned it loose in her general direction. I nearly laughed aloud when the ratran right up her skirt! She screamed very loudly, kept on screaming, and disappearedmore quickly than I would have thought possible. As I dashed for the elevator, I couldhold back my laughter no longer.With Mathilde's rope, I was able to fix the elevator, or rather the rope was ableto-all I had to do was unravel it, so I guess it was magical after all. I got into the littlemetal bucket and began pulling on the rope, raising myself up to the ceiling that led tothe dark kingdom of Ooga Booga. I was almost to the top of the cavern when I heardan awful cracking and crumbling around me.The whole elevator shaft was beginning to fall apart around me!

Part the Third...: I Would if I Could

"Oh, my goodness!" Valanice exclaimed. "Were you hurt?""She doesn't look as though she was," Graham assured her. "What happened then,Rosella? Tell us!"Rosella smiled sweetly at Valanice. "You were absolutely right, Mother. Thisrecounting of one's adventures is tiring in the extreme. I fear I can speak no more untilI've rested." She placed one hand delicately against her forehead and sighed.Valanice put her hands on her hips and raised one eyebrow.Rosella broke into giggles in spite of, or perhaps because of the silly pose she washolding, and the mock-serious look on Valanice's face. "Your turn, Mother," she saidwhen she had recovered. "I've talked long enough. Now tell us what happened whenyou were face to face with the giant lizard."Valanice knew when it was pointless to argue with Rosella any longer, and evenGraham seemed to agree with their daughter. "Tell us, dear wife," he said, eyes twinklingwith humor, "were you eaten by the beast?" Turning serious at the question, Valanicecontinued her tale:I very nearly was. It certainly looked hungry enough, and I knew I had nothingto offer it that it might prefer to me as a meal. I was still very near the entrance-themouth of the stone head-so I took a chance and ran back toward the light. Once safelyoutside, I realized my knees were absolutely weak with fright. But this was the only wayout of the desert, and I had to get out if I was going to find Rosella. And that meant Ihad to find a way past that scaly monstrosity.I noticed that the bushes growing near the stone head looked much like pieces ofplant matter I had seen on the floor of the cave-some of which had appeared halfchewed. Perhaps this prickly plant was a staple of the reptile's diet. He might even preferit to Filet of Queen of Daventry, if luck were with me!I used my stick to knock one of the thorny red fruits from the cactus bush, thenpicked it up carefully and returned to the tunnel, hoping my guess about this fellow'sdietary habits proved correct. In moments he was back, and eyeing me ravenously,tongue flicking in and out of his toothy maw. I tossed him the fruit and he snatched itup with a quick twitch of his neck, and then he retreated back into his hole in the wall.You can't imagine my relief! Now I could continue on my way, leaving behind theendless desert and the blazing sun. How pleasant it was when I reached the other endof the tunnel and stepped out into a lovely, deep wood.The trees were ablaze with fall color. There were flowers perfuming the air withtheir fragrance, and buzzing hummingbirds... It was quite the loveliest place I'd everseen-next to Daventry, of course. There was a river bank just ahead, with barely a trickleof water running through it, and on either side of it were giant marble statues. The one on the near bank was of a maiden with a water iug that she appeared to be tipping intothe river, while on the far bank was another maiden holding a cornucopia as though tospill its contents out onto the ground. But both the pitcher and the cornucopia wereempty.Nearby, it looked as though an arched stone bridge had once spanned the river,but it was shattered, and only the bases of it remained, jutting majestically from theriver banks. I tested the mud of the river bed, and found it dangerously soft and deep-nodoubt it could suck me down in a moment if I were to be so foolish as to venture out init. I was stranded, it seemed, on this side, and I began meandering westward into thetrees.The woods were even lovelier further along, if that were possible. There was abeautiful clearing with an ancient, majestic oak, surrounded on all sides by tall trees, allin their fall finery. Someone had pounded a large iron spike into the trunk of the oak,and sap was running down from the wound like blood. A stag lay at the base of the tree,showing no fear at my approach and wearing an expression of deep sorrow on his nobleface. As I watched, a tear slowly trickled down his furry muzzle. He stood slowly, turnedhis hand some head towards me, and spoke in a clear, human voice."Turn ye back, my lady," he warned me. "These magical woods are under the pall of a horrible curse, and none are safe here now. Turn back while you still can."I told him I appreciated his concern, but that my mission was so important thatI had to continue on, no matter what perils lay in wait. He then told me that the oaktree had once been his wife, Ceres-Mother Nature herself. He himself was Attis, Lordof the hunt, but an evil enchantment had turned him into a stag, and he had beenunable to save his lady from her fate. "Only the faerie nobles of the high court of Etheriahave such power," he said, "but for one of them to have done this is unthinkable. I fearthat my lady may perish of that wicked wound, but I can do nothing to save her withthese clumsy hooves."I tried to help, but try as I might, I wasn't strong enough to remove the spike. Iasked Lord Attis what would happen if Ceres were to perish of her wound, and he replied,"I believe that these ancient woods will perish along with her-as will I." I turned to leave, but he called after me to wait. The stag told me that to the westIay the Were-Woods, which I must avoid or risk being devoured by creatures too horridto think upon. I thanked him again for the warning, but I knew I had no choice but tocontinue my search. "Is there nothing that can break the enchantment over you andyour wife?" I asked."Perhaps," he replied, "the Rock Spirit might know something, if he could beawakened from his eons-deep slumber. But I can no longer recall the ritual necessary toawaken him. I am becoming a stag in truth, and the forest sings to my blood." My heartached for Attis. I promised I would help if I could find a way. Then I remembered I hadnot asked him about Rosella. I hoped he would still be able to remember if he had seenher. I showed him the golden comb, and he said, "I have not seen her, nor have anyin this forest, but from those birds that still bring me news from afar I have heard thatshe is to be married to King Otar, troll lord of the underground."My darling daughter was to be married to a troll? I knew I must waste no timerescuing her; after all, I did think Prince Throckmorton was a muchbetter choice. Attistold me the only known portal to the underground was west, beyond the dreaded woodof the Were Folk. He also recalled a merchant in the town of Falderal who sold a salvethat could give one safe passage through the Were-Woods. Falderal lay to the northwest,and so I knew that was the way I must go.I began north and soon encountered a bend in the muddy river bed again. It wasplain to see that the way was closed to me until I could find a way across the soft,dangerous mud. I turned west, hoping to find a crossing further upriver.The woods to the west were darker, somehow less welcoming and more menacingthan the forest behind me. I walked a few steps farther, but I imagined I could see pairsof glowing eyes staring at me from the dark places under the twisted trees and contortedbushes. Staring hungrily. I decided it would be better if I didn't go back in there until Ihad the protection Lord Attis had spoken of. Instead, I went northward.In time I came again to the banks of the river. The mud was as treacherous hereas it had been at the bridge, but there were stepping stones iutting from the river bedthat I could use to iump across on. It required care and patience but, my long skirtnotwithstanding, I made it across. On this side was a path that led between two trees,and stretched across it was the largest and most frightening spider's web I had ever seenor hope to see again, and at its heart a tiny hummingbird fluttered, crying out for help.A bloated red spider was walking across the web toward the hummingbird,dwarfing it in size. I tried to free the bird before the spider could harm it, but the birdscreamed a warning about the spider's lethal venom.The spider glared at me. "Back off!" he growled in a nasry chittering tone. "You letthat poor little bird go!" I ordered the spider, but he was evidently not accustomed toobeying whomever came along and tried to deprive him of lunch. "Get away if you valueyour life, tidbit!" it snarled, this time clicking its fangs for emphasis."Weren't you aftaid of the spider?" Rosella intemtpted."Afrer all, the bird said it was poisonous," Graham remarked."I was afraid of the spider," Valanice assured them, "but I couldn't iust walk awayand let it kill the hummingbird, either. You may remember I had brought a little basketwith a lid ftom the desert, and now I knew the perfect use for it."I clapped the basket down on the spider and slammed down the lid! Oh, youshould have heard him curse, the nasty little devil! Such language! Then I tossed thebasket into a nearby bush and with a little care, I was able to extricate the hummingbirdfrom the sticky strands. "There you are, my feathered friend," I told her. "Safe and sound.""Thank you for my life, O kindest of travelers," piped the hummingbird. "If I cando you some good in the future, I promise that I will." And with that she flew away. It was a sweet thing to say, but how unlikely it seemed to me that such a tiny creaturecould aid me in my quest. Still, I thought it would be nice to see her again in my travels."And did you, Mother?" asked Rosella."Petience, my dearest daughter, pztience," said Valanice, knowing full well that ofall Rosella's many virtues, that one was not the most prominent.I continued on my way down the path and soon came to a city wall that seemedto run as far as I could see to left and right. There was an enormous, gaudy red gate setin the center of it, with a gigantic gilt knocker hanging on it. As I approached the gate,a sliding panel near its top slid open, and a pair of small, suspicious brown eyes blinkeddown at me. A huge, booming, yet whiny voice called: "Halt! Who goes there?" Iidentified myself, and the voice said, "By decree of the Powers that Be, you may onlyenter the great city of Falderal if you bring unto me a golden-haired fruit snake!""That's ridiculous," said Graham. "There's no such thing!'"That's exactly what I told the gate guard."He said that if I was going to let a little thing llke that stop me, I didn't deserve toenter his city! Well, I wasn't about to give up so easily. I banged the knocker against thegate again."Have you brought me that golden-haired fruit snake yet, human?" the guardwondered. "No, of course I haven't! There isn't one, you silly creature!" I replied. Heslammed the door panel shut again.I was about to knock one more time when my attention was caught by the sightof a little door set unobtrusively in the wall just to the right of the gate. No sooner hadI reached for the handle than the gate panel slid open with a bang."Entry through that portal is expressly forbidden! You can't go through there!" theguard screamed, "there's an enormous, drooling purple cockroach waiting on the otherside! You just wait and see!"Even with all the strange things I had seen so far, I thought I could calculate theodds of that.Tralled by the gatekeeper's frustrated exclamations, I stepped through thedoor into the oddest little city you could imagine.There was a plaza with oddly shaped buildings, the lot of them constructed fromwhat appeared to be gigantic slabs of eldrich basalt, all painted in overly bright pastelcolors. The trees, too, seemed unnaturally slick and polished, and a meanderingcobblestone street haphazardly connected all of it together. A little white dog withbulging eyes, walking on his hind legs, wearing a lavender waistcoat and walking canetrotted out the front door of the largest building, barking at me in a high-pitched,yapping voice."Thtop in the name of The Powers That Be! I, Archduke Fifi le Yipyap of Falderal,do so order it! Thtop!"Valanice's family was more than a little amused at her imitation of the Archduke,but she swore to its accuracy. "You are a thtranger here," he insisted. "You have no buthineth being in beautifulFalderal! Why, I should have you imprithoned for illegal thide-door entry! Explainyourthelf ere I call for the guardth!"I really couldn't bring myself to take this ridiculous little beast seriously, but everytime I tried to walk around him, he stepped in front of me and barked again. Perhaps itwould be better to reason with him after all. I begged his indulgence and told him I wason an errand of great importance. He was not inclined to believe me until I showed himRosella's golden comb and told him the sad story of my search for her.To my utter surprise, the Archduke's eyes began to fill with tears. "Tho tragic, thotragic! I cannot in good conthence try to thtop you from carrying out thuch a noblemithion, Madam!," he wailed. "Enioy your thtay in Falderal. If you go to the Faux Thop,my lady, remember to try and take it with a grain of thalt. Farewell, and good fortunein thy motht noble of quethts!" Then he blew his nose wetly into an embroidered hanky,and turned away, sobbing.As if all this weren't curious enough, at that moment a Iittle yellow fowl wearinga great sunbonnet came dashing down the street, squawking at the top of her lungs,"The sky is falling! The sky is falling!""Pay her no mind, my good lady," the Archduke said. "She'th really very thilly,alwayth threaming about dithathters and whatnot." As though hewas any judge of whatwas silly!My immediate task was to find the merchant Lord Attis had spoken of-the onewho could provide me with the ability to cross the Were-Woods unharmed. I strolledeast down the street and almost immediately I saw an odd little cart packed with jarsand bottles, baskets and boxes. The chicken I'd seen only a moment before was standingin front of the cart, still squawking about the sky. I walked closer to hear what she wassaying."Why won't anyone believe me? Why?! You'll all regret it eventually, you will!When you're all crushed under the weight of the heavens, then you'll wish you'dlistened!" The chicken was wailing to a green, scaly snake-man who was coiled behindthe counter of the cart. The snake seemed to be trying to sell her something, but shedidn't appear interested. In fact, the little chick was only growing angrier and moreagitated, and a moment later, she was screeching again as she ran away down the street.I approached the cart with a certain amount of trepidation. This person was notonly a snake, but evidently some kind of salesman, and I'm automatically wary ofsalesmen."I was told of a merchant who sells an item that can get me through the Were-Woods, safe and unharmed," I said to him. "Would that perhaps be you?" Oozingcharm from every scaly pore, the salesman stretched his long neck from the cart, stickinghis face so close to mine that I could smell his rather sour breath."That would be me indeed, dear lady," the snake-man hissed. "I have the ssstuffyou desssire; a magical sssalve of great power and potency, almossst completely unavailable in this remote area. However, I am willing to sssell it, and for a meresssmidgen of itsss true worth to one asss charming asss you...However...I will only takeone very ssspecial item in exchange for this sssalve. This item isss a magic ssstatuette; alovely depiction, though of little worth, of a nymph gazing into a foressst pond." "You don't say. Just where can I find this magical statuette?" I asked."The Archduke hasss it." "You can imagine my reaction to that," Valanice said to Graham and Rosella." Howcould I take something that belonged to the Archduke, as though I were some common criminal?"But the snake salesman went on to explain that the statue was said to belong toTitania, Queen of the Faeries, though no one knew for sure, and that he had been hiredto "reacquire" it for her. It seemed a weak story, but I could only hope he was right,because I had to have the statuette to obtain the salve, and I had to have the salve to cross the Were-Wood, and I had to..."Yes, yes, my darling. We understand," said Graham, patting her hand. "Whathappened next?"I questioned him further about the statuette and its powers. He told me that if oneplaced an object belonging to another person on the statuette, that person's location would be revealed, swirling in the nymph's pool. I could only imagine why he wouldwant it, but I suddenly knew how very valuable it could be to me.As it happened, when I returned to the Archduke's combination mansion and town hall, musing more on the ethics of my possible theft, I found a sign posted on the door. It read

town hall closed by the imperial decree of the powers

thatbe!

come back a little later for the archduke's super secret

birthday party and masquerade ball!

A party seemed a perfect opportunity to gain entrance, and a masquerade ballwould provide wonderful concealment, but it also meant I needed a mask. Where inthis strange little town would I find one, and how would I pay? I had no money, andnot all merchants were so noble as to accept barter. And I did not expect to find onelying about willy nilly. Well, the party wouldn't start for a while-there was time toexplore Falderal some, and perhaps find the answers to these questions.The first establishment I entered was a china shop. Inside were hundred of piecesof the loveliest and most fragile china, and behind a glass counter filled with wonderful,delicate knickknacks was a hulking black bull, crying softly and dabbing at his eyes witha dainty lace handkerchief.

"Welcome to my shop, dear lady," he said in a soft voice that seemed wholly outof place coming from his massive frame. "I am Fernando Bullforth, proprietor. I wouldnormally wish you a good day, my lady, but today is not a good day. Oh, no. It is a dayof sorrow and tragedy, for some cruel and heartless soul has stolen my Treasure.""How awful," I said. "Surely the thief could not have gotten far lugging a trove ofsilver and jewels.""My Tieasure is not of metal and gems, lady," he replied, "Treasure is my preciouschina bird." Then he went on to tell me how he had loved his little bird more than allthe stars in the sky. "She is my only true friend. And now she's gone, stolen by ruthlessthugs and villains," he sobbed, and dabbed at his eyes some more.The only bird I had seen was a mockingbird who had his nest in a tree near thefountain pool, and was wont to hurl insults at whomsoever walked by. I was certain hecould be no relation to Fernando's friend."1, too have suffered a loss. My daughter was taken from me," I told him. "She is apretty girl, with long golden hair and mischievous blue eyes, dressed in blue silk. Haveyou heard word of her?" Fernando brightened, iust a little. "l have just read of theupcoming marriage of King Otar of Vulcanix and a blonde-haired, mystery princess.Could she be your daughter? Although I must say that you look little like most trolls"said Fernando. He seemed to enjoy the subject of society."Now it's true, Rosella, that I'd been encouraging you to marry, but this was the second time I'd heard the rumor that you were engaged to a troll, and I feared more than ever that it might be true.""I hope you knew it wasn't an engagement of my choosing," said Rosella indignantly."It seemed unlikely that it was," Valanice assured her. "After all, you had seemingly been snatched away before my very eyes and taken away-kidnapped. My only thought was to save you." Rosella's head hung, and her cheeks flushed with guilt. Valanice smiled, just a little. As I was leaving I happened to notice a lovely mask hanging on one of the walls of the shop. I inquired as to its price. "The price is one hundred gold coins," the bullsaid, "but I'll sell it to you for eighty. I just don't care about wealth any more, now thatTreasure is gone." And he started crying yet again. I could have also-eighty pieces ofgold was still eighty more than I had.As I walked away from the China Shop, a curious thing happened. I saw thechicken again-the one who'd been so perturbed about the sky. She was running downthe street once more, screeching about the usual thing, but this time she ran up to me,grabbed me by the front of my dress, and screamed right into my face: "Did you hearme, Lady? Did you?! I said the sky is falling! Listen to me, damnit!"I didn't know exactly what to say, so I asked her how she knew it was so."I know the sky is falling because we've been placed under a foul curse by an evilfaerie sorceressl" the chicken shouted at me. "The whole thing's gonna flatten us at anym inute! Run! Run! Women and children first!"

Again, an evil magic-wielder. I wondered if it were the same one who had sealed the stone head in the desert and cursed Attis and Ceres back in the forest. I had nochance to question the foul little fowl further, for she ran off again, still screaming. Itwas all most curious, but I had no idea at the time how much more cuious it was tobecome.As I wandered about Falderal, I returned to the cart where the snake-salesman pliedhis trade, but this time I saw something I had failed to notice before: a bird cage, crudelyconcealed beneath a coarse woolen blanket. Taking care not to be seen, I approachedand pulled back the cover. A beautiful, delicate white china bird was cowering inside.Treasure?I opened the cage door, but the bird backed away. I spoke softly to her, and whenI mentioned the name Fernando, she brightened considerably. "Will you please take meback to him? Please?" she asked. Then she hopped onto my finger and together wequietly returned to the China Shop. The snake seemed more interested in counting cointhan in queenly perfidy."Mother!"'Wife!WelI, I did need some practice for my grand theft. And the pale bird did need to beretumed to its rightful home."Fernando hadn't moved from his place behind the counter, and he still sighed anddabbed at his tear-filled eyes. "I know someone who can make you feel better, Fernando,"and I held up my hand to show the bird perched on my finger. The bull clapped hishooves and cried out in joy, "Treasure! My darling, you have returned!"The bird fluttered around her friend's head, chirping and trilling, landed on hisshoulder and pressed her feathered cheek to his. "I cannot thank you enough, goodlady," Fernando said. "I know you admired this mask. Please, allow me to present it toyou, with my compliments and gratitude."I thanked Fernando for the beautiful mask. How perfect for a masque ball-and Iknew lasf where to find one. I hastened back to the Archduke's and knocked upon thegreat front doors. A short little badger, wearing a breastplate and carrying a halberd, notunlike...actu ally, not at all unlike the obnoxious guard at the town gate, greeted me with a welcoming smile. Bowing low, he motioned for me to enter. This was certainly awarmer reception than I'd gotten at the gate! I strode past him with my very best regalmanner and entered the ballroom.To say the Town Hall was decorated for a party would be the most outrageous ofunderstatements and a totally inadequate description of the profusion of flags, streamersand bright balloons that crowded the room, enough for a dozen parties in any othertown. An immense cake took up most of the dining table, and the gaudily costumedcitizens of Falderal, all seeming of the kingdom of animals, yet quite civilized, weredancing to a waltz conducted by the somewhat inebriated Archduke himself. It wasterribly bright and terribly crowded and terribly noisy, but that was the way everyone' seemed to like it. For my own part, I wanted only to leave the ballroom as quickly aspossible and search for the magical statue of the nymph.No one was paying me the least bit of attention, and so I was able to surreptitiouslypoke around a bit under and behind things. Some hanging birthday flags at the back ofthe room concealed a narow door. I slipped through.On the other side was a roomful of stairways-but not any ordinary stairs. Thesestumbled off in every possible direction. Some even hung upside-down, and when Iwalked on them, I too was upside-down! It was most unnerving. Beyond the stairs, I could see a pair of rounded doors. Perhaps what I sought was behind one of them, butit was impossible to tell which stairway would lead me there. It was discouraging, I cantell you.After many frustrating attempts to make sense of those stairs, I found the end ofa stairway and the door I sought. But when I opened the door, a monstrous white powderpuff thrust itself through the doorway and covered me in dusting powder! Then thedoor slammed in my face!"Doubtlessly the door to the powder room," chortled Graham. Valanice snorted indistaste, rushing on as if he had never spoken.I hoped everyone didn't have to go through thatevery time they tried to go inside.The second time I tried the knob, though, I got inside without further incident, ordusting.The room itself was monstrously overdecorated, with an overJarge fountain,gold-framed mirrors, and cherubs all over the wallpaper. There was even a chubby,gold-plated cherub on the vanity table, poised on one fleshy foot, with its little mouthopen in an'O'. On its base I could see an inscription of some sort, unreadable for tarnish.Well, that ugly thing certainly couldn't be mistaken for a nymph.The mirrors lining the walls were quite odd. As I passed each one, I saw myreflection, but oddly distorted-short and squat on one, impossibly tall and thin inanother. It was amusing, but not very useful. One mirror, however, showed a perfectlynormal me, except for the fact that I was upside-down. "That's odd," I wondered as Ireached out to touch the mirror. That's when my reflection grabbed my hand and pulledme through to the other sidel"And what was on the other side, Mother?" Rosella asked excitedly, rememberingvividly her own experience with the minor into the underground."A very normal room," replied Valanice. "Or at least," she recalled with a laugh, "anormal room for the town of Falderal."It was as silly and overdone as everything else I had seen, and decorated withenough fancy scrollwork to outfit an entire royal palace! A large desk occupied most ofthe space, and there was a poorly done portrait of the Archduke himself on the wall. Itlooked to be the Archduke's office. I began to search it as thoroughly-and quickly-as possible.

I began, logically enough, with the Archduke's desk. There was a drawer in theside, and when I opened it, the golden statuette of the nymph was inside. I turned it inmy hand, then placed Rosella's golden comb on it as the snake-salesman had said."Please...show me where my daughter isl" I asked.The nymph on the statuette was gazing into a pond, and now that pond began toshimmer and change. A picture was forming, but at first I couldn't tell what it was. Thenthe nymph looked up at me and spoke: "Your daughter is in dire peril of her life in thedark land called Ooga Booga," she said. Now I could see the image quite clearly: Roselladangling in some kind of large bucket, high above the ground, and it was collapsingaround her! In fright, I picked up the statuette and ran through the office room's dooras fast as my feet would carry me, and ignored the meaningless stairs, and the lessmeaningful party, in my haste.At last I found my way out of the Town Hall. I was hurrying down the main street,intent upon giving the snake-merchant the statue, obtaining the magical salve andcontinuing on my journey to rescue Rosella, when I heard a familiar commotion."The sky is falling! The sky is falling!" It was that silly chicken again, but I couldn'tbe bothered to spare her any thought. My thoughts were all on how to find my child.Suddenly a shadow fell over the pond, growing larger and larger by the second.Then a large... You really must believe me when I assure you it was a wheel of greencheese that fell into the pond. It splashed the mockingbird and sent him squawkingaway from his nest and into the sky. It splashed me and everything around, too."Bagaaawk! | told you so!" The chicken was still screeching. She reached into thepond with her stubby wings, as if to rescue the cheese. "Please, that cheese is ruinednow," I advised her. "Certainly you can buy yourself another wheel of green cheesesomewhere in town.""Green cheese?" the chicken shrieked. "Green cheese?l That's not green cheeselThat's the moonl The sky has fallenl!!" And she flapped away, screeching incoherentlyat the top of her lungs."The moon?" echoed RoseIIa.uMade of green cheese? Is that possible?" asked Graham."All things are possible, and apparently more so in Falderal," Valanice told them.I looked into the sky, but there was no moon in sight, and I was certain it hadbeen there before. True, it looked like cheese, and it did seem a bit tiny for being themoon. Still, things seldom are as they appear. Could the chicken possibly have beenright all along? It was all too confusing, and the last thing I needed then was anotherconfusion in my life.The mockingbird still hadn't returned to his nest, and I couldn't help but wonderwhat might be in it. If there were eggs, he wouldn't have been so quick to fly away. Ipeered inside and saw what appeared to be a coin made of wood. Heedless of advice Ihave heard many times, I took it. I couldn't imagine what use the mockingbird would have for it, and in a town as topsy-turvy as this one, this unreal currency might iust beas genuine as any.And where better to test my theory than the shop nearby? Its sign read:

faux shop

fakeries, falsehoods and genuine counterfeit imitations

friends and foes alike welcome

What a perfectly perfect place to spend a wooden nickell I opened the door, walkedthrough-and discovered the shop to be nothing more than a facade. I walked backaround to the front, quite irritated. Then I remembered something."Be sure to take the Faux Shop with a grain of salt," the Archduke had told me.Well, I still had some salt with me from the pool in the desert. On impulse, I swallowedit. Ugh! The Faux Shop suddenly shimmered for a moment. I reached for the door,opened it-and discovered that an entire shop had appeared on the other side!The shop was crowded from top to bottom with the strangest goods of every kind.There were some lovely plants in one corne! but on closer inspection, I was dismayedto see that they were cheap wood, not real at all. There were glass eyeballs, wooden legs,and stuffed, wind-up animals strewn throughout the shop. In fact, everything I couldsee was fakel An odd little turtle busied himself behind one of the counters.I learned that the turtle was named Ersatz de Faux, owner of the shop. He wasproud of his large selection of totally artificial merchandise, proudly claiming that hewas himself a mock turtle. It seemed fitting, somehow."What can I buy with this?" I asked, showing him the wooden nickel. "Why, forthe price of one wooden nickel, you can buy this fabulous tome of ancient, eldrich lore!"he exclaimed, "The Wit and Wisdom of Falderall" Something about the idea of any kindof wit or wisdom being associated with this queer little town struck me as infinitelyamusing. And I would be paying for it with a wooden nickel. How droll. I gave the nickelto Ersatz de Faux, and he handed me the book.I wasn't quite ready to give up the pleasures of examining this odd boutique,though, and continued looking through more of Ersatz's merchandise. I couldn't helpnoticing three plucked chickens hanging by their feet from the ceiling. They were sorealistic that I reached out and touched one to confirm that it was, in fact, a syntheticbird, not a real one. It smiled at me and waggled its eyebrows. Even live chickens don'tdo that!"This is the finest and stretchiest rubber chicken I've ever seen," the turtle told me."If you wish to purchase it, I will require something rare, odd, and special in exchange."I wasn't sure I had anything very special to offer, especially something fake, but then Inoticed the empty rack behind the counter. The sign read "Masks," but all the pegs were empty. "Everyone wanted a false face so that they could attend the Archduket birthdayparty," Ersatz explained in response to my inquiry. "I don't have a single one left I'mafraid,"Well I did, and I had no further use for it that I could imagine. I showed the maskto the turtle in a silent offer of barter."In exchange for such a fine mask, I'll give you the rubber chicken that you showedso much interest in," he said happily. The chicken grinned, showing me its teeth! Teeth?I gasped, then remembered my manners. "Thank you, Ersatz," I replied.I couldn't think of any possible use for such an unusual item, but he offered it insuch goodwill that I was unwilling to refuse it and risk hurting his feelings. I looked thechicken over very carefully, making sure he could see how much I admired it. That'swhen I saw what appeared to be a genuine feather on his, er...posterior. I didn't think Iought to tell Ersatz about that, so I plucked out the feather. To my surprise, the faux fowlsquawked angrily and glared at me! Embarrassed, I put the feather in my pocket and bidthe mock turtle good-day. As I left the shop and passed the fountain, I noticed that themoon was now bobbing in the pool.Graham laughed. "I've seen many amazing things in my travels," he said, "but surelythis town of Falderal is the only town in all existence where such a perfectly silly thingcould happen!""I'm sure I saw things as odd in Ooga Booga," Rosella assured him, "and they werea lot scarier, besides."Valanice could tell Rosella was becoming anxious to teII more of her adventures, butshe was not quite through talking yet, and Rosella had promised not to intemtpt. She gaveher daughter a stem, motherly look, and Rosella subsided a bit, saying, "Please go on,Mother." Valanice thought that she sounded almost as though she meant it, too.I wished there were something I could do about the moon-evenings would neverbe quite the same without it-but I couldn't imagine what. Something to hook it andbring it to the side of the pool where it could be lifted out would be useful, but I hadseen nothing in the Faux Shop-or the rest of Falderal-that would be of any help.Besides, I had other business to attend to-I still felt obligated to find a way to help Attisand Ceres before I continued with my own quest."Mother! You were searching for me! Why?" Rosella cried."Because they seemed such kind folk that I could never have lived with myself had Iiust abandoned them without making the slightest attempt to assist them. And I knew Iwould be searching for you at the same time."I left Falderal-without being harassed and badgered by that asinine guard-andwalked back to where I had freed the little hummingbird.This time I did not cross the river, but ventured east until I found the rock spiritLord Attis had spoken of. Oh, at first I did not realize it was an entity; indeed, I pausedto lean against it and rest. That was when I noticed the strange cast of the stone; it hadthe shape of a great, craggy face, complete with mossy eyebrows and mustache. The sides of this rock head vibrated slightly, as if the entire thing were slowly breathing, asif asleep. At any rate, it was he who knew the way to heal the woods of their curse, andI felt that if there was something I could do for Lord Attis and Lady Ceres, and everythingthat lived here, then I must do it. I had not lost my determination to find Rosella, ofcourse, but I felt there was something greater going on-something that could affectthe lives of thousands of creatures.To awaken the spirit, I removed the chicken feather from my pocket and placedit under its nose, and proceeded to tickle him. The rock spirit snorted once, almostblowing the feather from my grasp, then began to snore. I tickled him again. He sneezed,and blew the feather right out of my hand. "What foolish mortal dares to awaken mefrom my eons-deep slumber?" he demanded in a voice like granite slabs grinding slowlytogether.I told the spirit of the terrible fate that had befallen the woods-about the riverceasing to flow and about Attis transformed into a stag and Ceres into an oak. "You muststart the River of Life flowing again, or all shall perish. Pour the sacred drink into theRiver Maiden's pitcher. Replenish the cornucopia with the sacred food of the gods. Onlythen shall all be made whole again." His eyes began to grind close as he fell asleep again,and, try as I might, I could not re-awaken him. Musing over iust what w4s the sacrednectar and the food of the gods, I returned to Attis and his imprisoned love.The Mother Oak that had been Lady Ceres still stood, though sap still oozed fitfullyfrom the cruel spike wound in her trunk. There seemed nothing I could do there.I continued on from the oak to the water maiden statue the rock spirit hadmentioned. I knew that I must find the sacred drink to refill her vessel, but where? Andhow? I didn't even know what the rock spirit had meant by "sacred drink," and I hadhad no chance to ask him. What did gods drink?, I wondered.The phrase "nectar and ambrosia" recurred to me from a childhood story that mymother had told me once when I was very small. Nectar was sacred drink, and ambrosiawas sacred food. And nectar came from flowers. Of course! I looked all around me, butthe only flowers I could see grew high on a cliff, and I could find no way to climb up tothem.I heard a low-pitched buzzing sound over my shoulder, and when I turned to look,a tiny, lavender hummingbird hovered there, looking at me with one bright eye. It wasthe same bird I had freed from the spider's web."Do you desire some of the sacred nectar?" she asked."I do!" I told her. She asked me for a vessel, and I took out the little pot I had carriedfrom the desert. "Hold it below the flowers, so that you will not lose a drop," the birdtold me, and I held the pot as close as I could to the bright-colored blossoms.The hummingbird flew up to the flowers and tipped one over. A trickle of nectarfell from the flower and into the pot. I thanked the hummingbird, and she kissed mycheek gently before flying away. So a tiny creature hadbeen able to help me! I vowedto never again think of such a one as insignificant. Carrying the pot of nectar carefully, I climbed up onto the water maiden statueuntil I could reach the pitcher and emptied the contents of the pot into it. To myamazement, the nectar turned from a trickle to a stream, and the stream poured out ofthe pitcher and into a river. Soon the space between the banks was filled with beautiful,clear wateq and the River of Life began again to flow. As this happened, a rainbow formedbetween the broken ends of the ancient bridge, seeming to become a part of the shatteredspan. While I stared in wonder as these magical changes occurred, the stag I had spokento earlier came walking towards me, out of the woods."Lord Attis," I called to him. "The River of Life is flowing again! perhaps a drinkfrom its waters will give you the strength to shake off the evil curse that is upon you."The stag walked quickly to the river's edge and drank deeply of the clear water,and as I watched, Attis was transformed from a stag into a tall, surpassingly handsomeman clothed entirely in green and black, with black hair and beard."I am myself again," he said in a wondering tone. "Though I wish to thank youproperly for this deed, I have no time. Ceres stands dying and I must try to save her!"When we reached the great Mother Oak, Lord Attis took the iron stake in bothhands and, with a great heave, pulled it out and flung it aside. The flow of sap from thewound ceased for a moment-then resumed as a flow of red, red blood! Ceres did notregain her true form. Instead, her branches drooped even more, and she appeared nearto death."The curse is of a power greater than my own," said Attis in an angry voice. "But Iwill not let her die. I cannot stop, even if it costs me my life. But, I must offer you, too,such aid as I can."Attis told me he had learned of a terrible monster that dwelled in the murky watersof the swamp outside of Ooga Booga. He said he could help me evade the monster, butfirst he had to try to save his beloved Ceres. A vibrant green glow enveloped him, andhe slipped into a trance with his hands on the trunk of the tree.I knew Attis wouldn't be able to help me more just then. I would return soon,before I iourneyed to Ooga Booga, and learn how to evade the swamp monster, andmeanwhile I would put my time to good use. There had not been anything in the FalderalFaux Shop that would help me get the moon out of the fountain pool, but I knew anotherplace, not too far away, where a rather odd assortment of treasures was to be found.South of the River of Life was the entrance to the great stone head-the portalback to the burning desert wastes. I soon found myself back in the tunnel where I hadseen the giant lizard, but there was no sign of him now. Perhaps the thorns on the pricklypear I fed him were giving him a case of indigestion. In any event, I hurried throughthe tunnel and out the open mouth of the colossus, then proceeded east to the burrowof the kangaroo rat.The rat opened his door at my knock, stared up at me, and recited his rhyme. Bynow I had deduced that the little fellow only traded for things that rhymed with oneanother, and I hoped to trade something I didn't need for an object that might help me to rescue the moon-perhaps a hook. Looking through my possessions, I noticed thebook the mock turtle had traded me for the wooden nickel. This might be just perfect!I offered it to him.Aha! You wish to trade to me a book.In return, I'll give to you a pawn and a rook.I frowned in disapproval.Well, I can see by your irkish look,You'd rather have a shepherd's crook!And with that he ducked into his burrow. I couldn't believe my luck. In a momenthe was back with a long, straight rod that ended in a sort of hook. This would dowonderfully! The kangaroo rat tipped his hat to me, and slammed the door.This time my walk back to Nonsense Land was simpler and less fraught with peril.As I walked through the woods I saw Attis, still deep in his healing trance. I hurriedsilently past and didn't stop until I came to the Falderal town gate, where I banged theknocker against the gate. "Go away, you gate crasher," the badger guard shouted downat me. "You have no respect for the authority of The Powers that Be!" I supposed he wasright, especially considering that I was going to enter the town through the same littledoor he'd forbidden me to open once before."No!," he shouted. "You're sfi// not allowed through there! There's a giganticcarnivorous cactus waiting on the other side!" I laughed and walked through anlrway."Oh, big fat hairy rafs!" muttered the guard. I almost felt sorry for the pompous littlefellow. Almost, but not quite.As I had expected, the moon was still lying in the fountain pool. Using the crook,I fished around in the pond, trying to get a firm grip on it. After a moment I was ableto pull it toward me and get my free hand around it. Being made of cheese, however,the rnoon was very slippery, and was about to fall from my hand and back into the pool.I let go of the crook and grabbed the moon with both hands. The crook fell into thepool, but now I had the moon, safe and sound.I heard a noise behind me and turned to see the badger guard and the Archdukemarching toward me. They didn't Iook particularly friendly."l thaw what you jutht did, you wicked, wicked creature!" the Archduke sputtered."You jutht thtole the moon! We've caught you red-handed, you, you...commoncriminal!""You are now placed under arrest for all of those reasons that his great highness,Archduke Yipyap has stated," said the badger, "plus the heinous and wicked crimes oflittering and illegal side-door entry into the sovereign town of Falderal."

Theseize her!"Archduke pointed his furry white paw in my direction, and cried "Guards,

Part the Fourth...: The Boogeyman Will Get You!

"And did the guard arrest you?" Graham asked, shocked."He did indeed," said Valanice, "but you must wait to hear it until Rosella has hada chance to tell more of her tale. She's been waiting patiently-well, nearly-all thistime, haven't you, dear?""Well, let's see," said Rosella, looking up. "Where was I when my story ended?""You were in a crumbling elevator shaft," said her father. "And you were in dangerof falling to your death in the cavern below." He was obviously very interested in hearingwhat came next."So I was," said Rosella, nodding. "The elevator was falling to pieces, and at anymoment I would be plunged a great distance to the hard, jagged stone floor.""Well, what happened?" cried both her parents in unison. Rosella laughed. "Wouldyou believe me if I told you I fell to the floor and was smashed flat?""No," said her father.Her mother only raised an eyebrow in a gesture Rosella knew all too well, andtapped one royal foot."Oh, all right," Rosella admitted. "I didn't fall." And then she continued with hertale:I thought I must be about to, but when I looked upt a very strange-looking man,large and hunched and lumped, was holding out a shovel to me. So I grabbed it. Hepulled me up out of the elevator shaft, and a moment later the whole thing wentcrashing to the cavern floor in a thousand pieces. If I left this place it wasn't likely to bethe way I had come. Just the same, I heaved a sigh of relief at finding myself on solidground again. "Thank you, kind sir," I said to the man. He simply nodded wearily andwent back to his work.It appeared that I was in-not again!-some kind of a cemetery. I could seestrangely twisted gravestones, and what looked like a tomb. The strange-looking manwho had rescued me was digging what seemed to be a grave, using an impossibly smallshovel."Drats, but I'm never gonna get this done at this rate," he muttered. "Stupid, uselesslittle shovel!" He seemed quite irritated. I wasn't sure whether I should interrupt him."Thank you again, kind sir," I trilled loudly, still trying for his attention.He eyed me wearily, then hopped out of the grave and strode up to me, holdinga measuring tape. He did a quick measurement of my height, and said, "Okay, miss, Igot your measurements. I'll get to work on diggin' your grave tomorrow. Sorry about the delay, but there's been a real backlog of orders lately-people are just dyin'to get inhere.""Thank you anyway, but I don't think that I'll need a grave any time soon, I said,"but please, could you tell me if this is the land of Ooga Booga?" He told me that it was."Pardon my saying so," I went on, "but shouldn't you be using a larger shovel foryour work? The one you have now seems far too small." "You're absolutely right," hereplied. "I just don't have the right tools anymore. Here, come an' take a look at this."He trundled over to the tomb and threw open the doors, revealing a bizarre contraption.It had a pair of arms in front, and rotating paws and teeth. It seemed perfect for digging.I had to admit I was impressed at the design, even though the whole thing was a littlescary, like the gravedigger himself. In the center of the machine, I noticed, there was anempty rodent wheel."This baby is a fully automatic, mostly automated, steam-driven, rat-poweredgrave digging machine," the gravedigger told me. "Made it myself. It worked great untilthose derned kids broke in and swiped my rat!""Why don't you iust get another rat?" I asked. A great sadness came over his coarsefeatures. "lggy's special," he said. "Iggy's the strongest, smartest, best trained rat I've everknown, and I don't think another one could come close to replacing him. Nope." Hewiped his eyes with the back of his grimy hand. I was touched."I'm sorry. He must have been very important to you," I commented. "He was,Miss. He was," said the gravedigger, his voice just a little unsteady. He didn't seeminterested in any further conversation, and I had work to do. I had promised Mathilde,the Troll King's nursemaid, as you'll recall, that I would find out what happened to thereal King Otar. I supposed it was time to get out there and meet some people who mightbe inclined to help me.From the graveyard, I walked to the south and west until I came to a spooky oldhouse covered in vines, with an iron fence, topped with sharp points. As haunted as itappeared at first glance, I could see someone moving about inside. There was a nameon the mailbox: Dr. Mort Cadaver. That made me more than a little nervous.The house was very old and ill-kept and more than a little frightening. There wasa black cat sitting on the porch, though she looked harmless enough. Someone hadhung strips of some sort of flimsy white paper all over a dead tree in the yard, andpictures-not very good ones-had been drawn on the walls. I could see drawings of askull, a bat, and a spider. A tremendously ugly little child with ghastly green skin wasdrawing on the wall. A very short little old man in a badly wrinkled black waistcoatopened the door and shouted at the child, "Get out of here, you little menace! Get away,I say!" He sounded scared to death. The child shouted "Boo!" and the little man and thecat iumped back into the house. It certainly wasn't the sort of place I usually like to visit.I opened the gate, which made a horrible shrieking kind of noise, and went up tothe house. The little man opened the door a crack and looked up at me. "Um, hello sir,"I said. "I don't think we've met. I'm Rosella of Daventrv. Would vou mind if I ask youllu some questions?" "Please do, Miss Rosella, I'll be glad to offer any assistance that I may,"he said most civilly, and he invited me in. His parlor was cluttered with so many thingsI could scarcely see them all. There was laboratory equipment, a sewing machine, dozensof books and bottles and jars-even a silk-lined coffinl "My name is Cadaver, Dr. MortCadaver. I am the chief medical practitioner! coroner, and undertaker of Ooga Booga,"he told me. "How may I be of service?"His skin was waxen and his eyes were sunken but he seemed like a good fellow atheart, despite his almost corpse-like appearance. For some unfathomable reason, Itrusted him. I told Dr. Cadaver that I was looking for the King of the Trolls, who mightbe held captive against his will somewhere in Ooga Booga."l would presume that the enchantress Malicia is at fault, Miss Rosella. She is everup to no good," he said. He told me that Malicia had been responsible for the destructionof a Count Tsepish, who had once been the ruler and defender of Ooga Booga. Sincethen, the Boogeyman had taken over, and the ghoul kids (one being the hideous littlegreen fellow I had seen earlier) were out of control. "I fear, now, even to venture out ofdoors!" he exclaimed.I didn't even want to think about what the Boogeyman might be, so I madeconversation. "If you're having trouble with kids, why don't you do something to stopthem?" I asked. "Threaten to tell their parents that they're misbehaving." "I'm iust thecoroner and doctor, " he replied. "I catalogue the dead, take care of the living, and performthe occasional operation. Why, iust last week I gave my spine up to a woman who hadbroken hers falling off a cliff. Now I haven't the backbone to stand up to a bunny rabbit,let alone a ghoul.""He had no spine at aII?" asked Valanice, horrified."None at all," Rosella replied, "which is why he was so short and his coat was sowrinkled."He had been much taller before. I asked him if he could get his old spine back, buthe wouldn't hear of it. "In medicine, the patient's welfare must always come first," hesaid gallantly. But I could tell that he badly wanted another one nonetheless.Then I asked him about the children who were terrifying him so. He said they'dbeen children for the past one hundred and thirty yearsl And he warned me to stay awayfrom the Boogeyman, a tall, stick-like figure who had become completely evil andvicious under Malicia's influence."If you see him, run! If you think you see him, run! To be safe, just run anytimethat you're outside," he told me. For one brief instant, I was filled with an inexplicable,nameless terror, a crawling, creeping dread the likes of which I had never known. Isuddenly decided that the doctor's advice was probably the best course of action.The good doctor seemed rather busy, so I left him to his work and walked eastuntil I came to the strangest house I had ever seen. It was in the shape of a great,grimacing orange jack-o-lantern sitting up in the twisted branches of a dead tree. Therewas some sort of web or net connecting the house to a big hole in the ground, and there was a pulley elevator with a metal bucket, something like the one in the underground,but smaller-and hopefully more stable.There were two very odd-looking children on a deck in front of the treehouse, andthey were playing with a rat. Playing catch with a rat, actually, and the rat didn't lookat all happy about it. I recognized one of them as the little vandal from Dr. Cadaver'shouse. As they tossed it back and forth, they chanted a rhyme:

When e'er the branch shaped like a snake

Is pointing up, for heaven's sake,

Run away! Run away!

Neep, neepl Neep, neep!

Go and hide! Go and hide.

The bogeyman will be inside!

When e'er the branch is pointing down,

The Boogeyman has gone to town.

And we'll stomp and play all over town!

It was a very strange rhyme."Hello, kids!" I called up to them. "Hiya, lady!" said one child, and he held the ratup by its tail. "Would you like to have your head shrunk or your kidneys punched?" theother one wanted to know "No, but thank you for the offer," I told them, and I triedhard to sound very friendly and cheerful. "That's a great rat you've got to play with.""This is the most bestest rat in Ooga Booga, lady!" the first child said. By this time,he was swinging the rat over his head by the tail. I asked if they'd like to sell him, butthey weren't interested. They said they might be willing to trade...if I could bring thema really spooky pet in return. Something with big teeth and bad manners."What do you kids do for fun around here anyway? Besides tormenting DoctorCadaver and your rat," I asked them. "Aw, we always run around an' jump in opengraves,'r the first child said. "You always find a grave surprise in them.""Yah, we talk to the Woman in Black, too" the second child added. I made up mymind then and there not to do either of those things, if these little monsters thoughtthey were fun. I had never encountered kids so unrepentantly rotten. I felt terribly sorryfor the rat, and wanted to see him returned to the poor gravedigger where he'd be lovedand cared for, but how on earth was I going to find a weird pet to trade the little beasts?I was pretty curious about what was in that treehouse, but I didn't feel exactly safegoing in when the kids were there. I went away for a little while, and when I came back,they were nowhere in sight. The elevator was down, and I used it to raise myself up tothe treehouse. Inside, it was several times more weird than it was outside, if you canbelieve that. There was a row of shrunken heads on a shelf and a mummy was propped up in the corner. Even the jack-in-the-box didn't look much like your everyday toy, andI had absolutely no desire to turn the handle.I noticed what looked like a backbone stuck in a knothole in the floor, andsomeone had been playing ring toss on it with slipped disks. I looked around quicklyfor anything else that might be of use, not wanting to be caught here when those awfulkids came back. I knew I wanted a backbone for Dr. Cadaver, so I pulled it free. It lookedto be about the right size. I was sure that he'd be quite pleased to get it.I looked on top of a pile of bizarre toys and saw a bag of some kind. I looked insideand shuddered. I didn't see it quite clearly, but I'm sure there was a foot in there!"How horrid!" cried Valanice.Indeed. I set it back down hurriedly, but after a moment I reluctantly picked it up.I told myself, "I suppose a girl never knows when she'll need a foot in a bag...especiallyin a place called Ooga Booga!" I didn't see anything else I wanted, so I let myself backdown and hurried back to Dr. Cadaver's house and knocked at the door.When I arrived, the doctor was seeing a patient in his parlor, and what a patienthe was! Dr. Cadaver called him Mr. Bugbear, and the strange, squat little fellow fit rightin with all the other truly strange things I had seen in such a short time.Mr. Bugbear had a broken heart-Iiterallyl He looked very unhappy about it, asyou might imagine, but Dr. Cadaver fixed it up as good as new with some staples andglue, and put it back, and the little fellow was all smiles again. It was easy to see whyhis patients-even the heartless ones-loved such a kind-hearted man, and I was happyto be able to do something nice for him."Doctor, I wonder if you can find a use for this?" I said, and held out the backbonefor him to see. Dr. Cadaver admired the backbone for a moment, then stood up, openedhis mouth verywide, and swallowed the spine like a sword swallower. His body stretchedupward, and he became quite tall and thin. "Thank you, Miss Rosella," he said. "I wasfast becoming tired of being such a spineless old fool." He looked about at the itemscrowding the shelves in the room, and found a black box that shook and twitched andmade distasteful little noises. Of course, he gave it to me."Here. It doesn't come close to squaring my debt to you, but here is a little companion to make your travels in this dark land a little less lonely. I made him myself."I opened the top of the box to peek inside. I immediately wished I hadn't. I thanked thedoctor again and hurried back to the tree house. I had just the thing now to trade thoseghoulish kids for the gravedigger's rat."Hey, kids! I found something to trade you for your rat! It's the creepiest pet you'llever see!" I yelled up to them, and that was no exaggeration. The kids didn't believe me,so I lifted the lid and showed them the pet, being careful not to look again myself. "Dropit on the lift!" cried one kid. "Why dontcha bring it up yourself?" said the other kid, andthey both laughed in a particularly awful way.There was no way I was going up to that treehouse while they were in it! I put thebox on the elevator, and they pulled the bucket up. A few moments later, the rat leaped from the window, and landed in my arms. I was horrified for a moment-it was, afterall, a rat-but then the dear little creature kissed my cheek. My heart melted. "lt'll beokay, little fella," I said. "Let's get out of here!"I found the gravedigger still scratching pitifully away at the half-dug grave withhis tiny shovel. I walked up to him and held out the rat. "Excuse me, sir, but look whoI found!" The gravedigger turned around, and when he saw his rat his normally somberface broke into a huge grin. "Iggy! You found my Iggy!" The rat squeaked in delight andleapt into the gravedigger's arms.The gravedigger was so grateful, he promised to dig me a grave anywhere, anytime.He handed me an antique horn that he pulled from a large pocket like a rabbit from acap."I'll hear this horn whenever you blow it, and when I do, me an' Iggy'll come alongand dig you a nice, deep grave." Then he put the rat inside the wheel of the gravediggingmachine. The rat started to run, and the machine started up with a rattle and a roar, anda lot of other noises I couldn't quite place. When I left the graveyard the two of themwere tearing up dirt right and left, happy as could be. On second thought, I returned topick up the gravedigger's shovel-if a girl can find an excuse for a foot in a bag, imaginewhat I might do with a shovel!The next time I walked by the treehouse, the ghoul kids appeared to be havingsome sort of funeral. They were standing in front of a little coffin, all dressed in black,and there were terrible yowling noises coming from inside the coffin."Ashes to ashes, dust to dust," one of them said, "we are gathered together for thesomber purpose of burying our kitty. Alive! We need a shovel to bury her properly!" the other kid cried maliciously. "Come on, let's go grab one from that stupid old gravedigger!" squealed the first. "lt's not like kitty's going anywhere!" They laughed evilly andran off. They were trying to bury a poor cat alive!I tried to open the coffin but it was sealed shut. The hammer and chisel that Oppihad given me worked well, though, and when the lid sprang open, a little black catjumped out. "Kitty, kitty, are you all right?' I asked."l think so," the cat said. She walked closer to me and miaoed."I heard you ask my friend the coroner about the King of the trolls," she said. "Heis imprisoned in the lair of the Boogeyman, inside the fastness of the deadfall. However,before you seek him out, I wish to give you something in return for saving my life." Shetouched my hand with her paw, and gave me a pulsating golden ball of light. It hummedagainst my skin and felt warm like a living creature."This is one of my nine lives. I feel that I owe it to you; a life for a life." I protestedthat I could never accept so valuable a gift. "You must," she whispered urgently, thenran away.I walked west, past the doctor's house, and soon encountered another cemetery.It seemed to me by that time that most of the real estate in Ooga Booga was devoted tocemeteries. I would have found that odd anywhere else, but somehow it seemed ratherllu fitting there. Oh, and the inscriptions on the gravestones were so amusing...let me seeif I can remember one of them:

The debonair Archduke von Drake

Was always a bit of a rake.

He chased a maid through the grass,

But when he caught up with the lass,

She kicked his bum into the lake.

Valqnice and Graham laughed. Rosella grinned, remembering. "Of course, some of them were of darker tone, as seemed to benefit the grim nature of that land. For example, one read:

Mr. Kurtz, he dead.

And immediately under that was inscribed:

The horror! The horror!

Then I noticed a particularly large and elaborate crypt. A woman dressed all inblack stood in front of it, and she was weeping so grievously that I was sure that herheart must be broken! There were dead flowers everywhere on the ground in front ofthe tomb, as though someone had been bringing them here and leaving them for a verylong time. I felt sorry for the woman, but I didn't think it would be right to disturb herin her grief, so I went on my way.I had turned south, and in a short time I came to the deadfall the cat had told me about. One tree stood here, dead and dry but not yet fallen, and behind it was animmense pile of warped, sun-bleached sticks. Or were they bones? As I looked again, itseemed almost impossible to tell. One gnarled branch on the tree looked amazingly like a snake, which led me to remember the rhyme those awful kids were singing when Ihad first seen them. How did it go? I tried to remember, knowing it might be important.

When e'er the branch shaped like a snake

Is pointing up, for heaven's sake,

Run away!

Run away? But why? If only I could remember! Run away...

Run away!

Go and hide!

The Boogeyman will be inside!

Yes, that was it! If the branch pointed up, the Boogeyman would be at home, and Dr. Cadaver had told me always to run from the Boogeyman. Well, the branch was pointing downward now.

When e'er the branch is pointing down,

The Boogeyman has gone to town.

That was how the rest of the rhyme went, I was sure. With any luck, that meantthat the Boogeyman-whoever or whatever he was-was away. Now to get downbeneath the deadfall, where the cat had said King Otar was being held prisoner. It lookedlike I would have to dig, but I had nothing but my hands to dig with, and the groundwas thickly laced with stones and tree roots. Then I remembered that I knew someonewho had iust the thing I needed! I took out the gravedigger's horn and blew on it.A moment later the gravedigger came riding up on his amazing machine. "Dig there," I said, and I pointed to the edge of the deadfall. The gravedigger gave me such afearful look. "You don't want to be buried there, do you miss?" he asked. I handed himback his horn. "Yes, I'm afraid that I do." "All right," he sighed. "It's your funeral. Standback."I moved as far away as I could from the machine. The gravedigger started theengine and the machine started digging wildly. In only a few minutes, he had finishedthe grave and, with a fearful glance backwards, drove hastily away.I tried to climb down carefully into the hole, but the steep side crumbled and sentme falling down, under the ground and the deadfall. When I opened my eyes I was ina small, dark space under the dead tree. There were roots protruding from the ceilingand the walls. It was like being buried alive.I tried climbing back up the way I had fallen down, but the way was too steep. Ihad to find another way out, though it seemed obvious such a way didn't exist. Thiswas no time for giving up; I determined to examine my surroundings as carefully aspossible and hope a way out presented itself.A big coffin took up much of the space in the grave, and it was wrapped in heavychains, which were held together with a lock. Wanting to think of anything but feelingtrapped in this close, unpleasant place, I took a closer look at the lock. Like everythingelse in Ooga Booga, it was weird. It looked like a lock, but instead of a key, it had a dialwith pictures of spiders and snakes and other creepy things. Some of them lookedfamiliar, somehow.llu I thought about this while I looked at the pictures. Here was a picture of a skull.Where had I seen one like it? True, skulls were not exactly rare around here,but...suddenly I remembered. The pictures on the side of the doctor's house! What werethey? One was a skull. Of that I was sure, or nearly sure. I turned the dial to the skulland thought harder. What was the next picture? A cat? A rat? A bat! I turned the dial tothe bat and pictured the doctor's house in my mind. When I was certain, I turned thedial to the third picture, of a spider. The lock fell open in my hand. I felt as though Ihad accomplished something, even though it was a way out of the grave I needed, nota way into a coffin. Quickly, I pulled the chains apart and opened the coffin, scarcely daring to thinkwhat might be inside. To my utter amazement, it appeared to be the troll who wantedto marry me! In truth, despite being in a coffin, he was more alive than anyone I'd metsince I came here. He looked as surprised to see me as I was to see him."Are you really King Otar," I ventured, "of the Vulcanix Underground?""Indeed I am!" said the troll. "And who am I to thank for my..." Oh, joy! It wasn'tthe troll who was looking for a wife. Before we could get any farther into introductions,an alarm hooted nearby, and Malicia appeared, somehow managing to look bothannoyed and triumphant at the same time."l do so hope that the two of you get along well," Malicia sneered, "since you'reboth going to rot together in the Land of the Dead for all eternity!" I stumbled backward,desperate to get away from her, and fell backwards into the coffin! The door slammed.I could hear the chains winding back around the outside of the coffin, and I could hearthe earth falling in on top of them, and far above, the scrabbling of dry branches--orbones!Rosella shuddered at the memory and continued on:It was dark. Terribly, horribly dark. A flash lit the darkness, quick as lightning, andwas gone. The next flash remained, and I could see a little ball of light hovering overthe Tioll King's hand. I took a deep breath and found my composure. We were able tointroduce ourselves without any further interruptions, and I told him the story of howI had found myself in his kingdom, and how I had come here looking for him, withMathilde's help."You are as brave as any troll, Princess, and I wish to thank you for all that you'vedone. However, I am afraid that your efforts will amount to naught, and for this I wishto apologize.""Don't worry King Otar, we'll find a way out. We have to." The truth is, I wasn'tat all certain that we could, but I didn't want to make him feel any worse than he didalready.We suddenly were assaulted by a deep, awful rumbling sound, like the dooropening into a massive crypt. We could hear pounding, scratching noises, and soundslike someone, or something, was trying to claw its way into the coffin, which had begunto shake and tip under the beating. "I hope you are prepared to sell your life dearly, Princess," the King shouted over the noise, "for unless you have a plan I fear that we aredoomed." I didn't, really, but I did have a sort of an idea. I took out the dragon toad Ihad brought from the underground and offered it to King Otar. "Can this help us?Mathilde said it was your magical guardian.""My dragon toad! Such luck! The magical gem that will bring him to life is set inmy armband!" King Otar pulled at the jewel, but it would not come free. I brought outmy hammer and chisel and tapped at the stone until it came loose from its setting.Then King Otar set the stone into a hole on the dragon toad's head. The toad beganto shimmer, and his eyes opened up. The King put the toad down on the earth floor."Save us!" he commanded. "Dig! Dig!" The dragon toad began to burrow into the soil,and soon made a tunnel, and vanished into it. King Otar followed him down the hole,and I didn't hesitate to follow.We came out into yet another graveyard, cloaked in fog. King Otar gave the dragontoad a message for Mathilde. "We are coming! If Malicia enters the underground, do nottry to fight her, but stall her for as long as possible! Keep faith, for we come with haste!"Then the King told me we were still in mortal danger and must disguise ourselves. Hehanded me a strange metal wand and told me to point it at him, and so I did. There wasa strange sound, and some sort of beam came out of one end of the wand and struckthe King. Otar disappeared, and where he had been standing, all I could see was aminiature scarab beetle! "Your Majesry what happened? What have I done?" I wailed."Fear not, Princess," the beetle said in a husky voice. "I have merely changed myform so that I may travel safely and unnoticed through this nightmare realm. You mustalso disguise, as..."Just then there was an ear-splitting shriek from the direction of thedeadfall. It was Malicia. She had discovered our escape, and she didn't sound very happyabout it.There was another flash of magical light, and I saw a black veil-more a cloak,really-hanging in a nearby tree. "Quicklyl Hide yourself ere she comes!" said the King.I scooped up both the magic wand and the beetle King, then took the veil from the treeand put it on. "You now look just like the Lady Tsepish," piped the beetle.We hurried north to Dr. Cadaver's house, and banged on his door."Ah, Lady Tsepish," the doctor said when he saw me. "Have you lost your mindagain? I can replace it for you again, of course, but really! Three minds a week is a terriblewaste."When he saw it was me, he pulled me into the house, slammed the door and boltedit. "Miss Rosella! Malicia and her Boogeyman are hunting for you even as we speak! Youmust leave Ooga Booga quickly, before they find you." "l'd like nothing better than toget out of here, " I assured him, "but I don't know how to go about it. You see, the entranceto the underground that I arrived from has collapsed, and I know of no other way toleave this land.""That does present something of a problem then, Miss Rosella," said the doctor.He told me we'd have to leave through the main gate, but that Malicia had put a nasty swamp monster on guard there. Rummaging through some bottles on his shelves, hefound a little bottle with an atomizer on top. "Thke this. It's a defoliant that willabsolutely kill any plant life that it comes in contact with. Go now, and may luck speedyou in your travels. It has been an honor to know you, miss Rosella." I kissed the doctormy thanks and hurried away.Southeast of his house I found the gate that leads from Ooga Booga into the woods,by way of the swamp. I didn't like the sound of the "swamp" part, but I pushed openthe gate and stepped through. The gate slammed shut behind me, clanging ominouslylike a funeral bell. I turned at the sound, and when I looked back, a gigantic moist greenthing was shambling toward me, dripping swamp muck, reeking of mold and loam. Itwas hideous!"Believe me, I know," said her mother."Yolr do?""In good time, dear. Don't stop now."As quickly as I could, I brought out the bottle of defoliant and sprayed it all overthat awful green monstrosity. The potion stank something awful, but it made the swampthing disintegrate right in front of my eyes until all that was left was this tiny Iittlegobbet of goo that oozed back into the vastness of the swamp. My knees-andstomach-were shaking, but I had to go on.I continued east until, at last, I came to a gray stone house, almost like a smallcastle, with turrets and towers, and even a stone gargoyle guarding the front door. Forall that, it wasn't a pretty house, but a rather unfriendly looking one, and I had no desireto get any closer to it.I began to walk past, but King Otar spoke to me from my pocket. "Be cautious,Princess," he said, "for this is the dwelling place of Malicia. Your disguise is good, but wemust tread cautiously near this evil." The King told me we must go inside and get adevice she had stolen from him-a device that might possibly be used to defeat her. Shehad taken it from Otar when she first captured him, but he had convinced her it wassome form of alchemical tool. After that, we could try to get to the town of Falderal,where there was a secret entrance to the underground. In fact, the entrance was so secret,even he had no idea where it was hidden.I wondered why we couldn't just take this device and end Malicia's reign of terrorthen and there, but evidently it had to be powered by a socket-whatever that was-inthe wall of the fearful mechanical room I had seen in the underground before it wouldwork. King Otar was very vague on what the device would actually do.Going into Malicia's house was not exactly my idea of. a good thing, but the Kinginsisted, and urged me to hurry. The house was dark, so Malicia probably wasn't home,but she could return at any time. I moved around to the back of the house, seeking aIess-obvious way inside than the front door.There was a huge, twisted vine growing up the back of the house, and a tangle ofits old, dead roots covered much of the exterior on this side. As I poked around in the roots, still being careful not to walk on the swampy ground, I saw a small hole underneath. Pulling a few of the roots away from the hole, I saw that it went right underthe house. This was my way in, or would be if the hole were larger-right now it wastoo small for me to squeeze through, and digging with my hands produced very littleresult.I cleaned my hands off on the front of my already ruined dress and thought abouthow one went about enlarging a hole. The shovel I had stuffed in my girdle providedthe easy answer.That shovel made it much easier to enlarge the hole enough to climb through. Ihung my black veil on a root, took a deep breath, and crawled in. A loose floorboardcame up easily when I pushed on it, and I found my head and shoulders poking up intothe room. Then I heard what I'd been hoping very hard I wouldn't."Ah, home again, Cuddle-Poo," came Malicia's voice. "Back home to our drearylittle shack in this dreary little swamp. How glad I'll be when all of Eldritch has ceasedto exist! Then I can begin anew, and construct a dwelling more suited to my greatness."I heard the little dog yapping, probably in agreement.Malicia! Rats! I ducked back under the floor, and the loose board settled downabove my head. I looked up. Directly above me was a large knothole, and if I lookedthrough it, I could see some of the room. Then all I could see was something black andwet-a dog's nose! Malicia's ratty little dog was sniffing through the knothole, and inanother moment he would probably let Malicia know I was here. For a moment I thoughtall was lost-then I thought of the hideous smell of the defoliant. Quickly, I sprayedsome of the defoliant through the hole, right into the little mutt's nose. The dog begansneezing and snorting and rubbing its nose with its paws.Malicia started cooing over the awful little thing in the most disgusting way. Thedog looked pitiful, but of course it couldn't tell her what was wrong. She scooped it upin her arms and took it away. I heard her say "Would Cuddles feel better if we found hima nice, juicy arm bone? How about some stupid peasant to bite?" Then I heard the frontdoor open and shut, and figured if I was going in, I'd better hurry. I pushed up and thefloorboards came up with me, opening up a way inside.What can I say about Malicia's house? It was simply full of those little touches thattell you about the personality of whoever lives there. Her furniture looked like somethingout of my childhood nightmares, decorated with skulls and spiders and carvings oftwisted, evil things. There was even a table with all sorts of alchemical equipment setup on it-jars of potions, a meat cleaveq and less recognizable items. I had no doubtMalicia felt right at home here, but I couldn't wait to find King Otar's device and clearout.King Otar told me that the thing we were looking for was made of brass, with somesort of crystal lenses. It was from Etheria-that was the land of clouds I had glimpsedthrough the garden pond in Daventry-and it had the power to destroy Malicia, thoughshe didn't know that. He had no idea where I ought to look for it, of course. I looked all over the house. The device wasn't on or under the bed, and it wasn'tanywhere on the floor or under the rug, as far as I could tell. I remember there was a talllamp with lots of crystals hanging from the shade, and the crystals made a sound almostlike a song when I brushed against them. One of the crystals fell off, so I picked it upand put it back on the lamp. I already felt like a burglar-there was no point in wreckingher house while I was about it, even if she did deserve it.The next place I looked was the chest of drawers by Malicia's bed. The first andsecond drawers were of no particular interest, but they contained a number of interestingand odd items of Malicia's undergarments, and a fantastic-looking metal object. "Thatis the oblect we require, Princess!" exclaimed the King, terribly excited.I put the device into my pocket and put Malicia's things back in the drawer. As Idid, a woolen stocking fell out of her clothing and onto the floor. It certainly didn't looklike the rest of Malicia's things, and there wasn't a mate for it. I stuffed it securely upone sleeve, closed the underwear drawer, pulled up the loose floorboard and crawledback into the tunnel under the house and out again into Malicia's back yard. The blackveil was still hanging on the root where I had left it, and, thinking it might be better tostay disguised, I quickly put it back on. The undergrowth was too thick to walk anyfarther east, so I walked back in the direction I had come.I'd gone nearly as far as the gate to Ooga Booga when I heard a voice right besideme, saying, "Hey, hey, my sweet, why don't you iust come on over so that we can get abite, er, look at you?" The voice came from a curious sort of plant with what looked liketeeth lining the edges of three green pods, one of which was open like a mouth andtalking to me, in honeyed tones. 'Just because we're vegetable matter doesn't mean thatwe don't know what we, et whatyou want. Besides, we can help you out, sweetmeat,"the toothy pod assured me. Then two more pods opened their mouths and chimed in."Yeah! Come a little closer so we can help ourselves, er, help you!"The plants were qvite helpful, telling me that if I wanted to get through the Were-Woods I'd better carry some silver, as Were-folk were frightened of it. Just the same,I didn't trust them; they continued to try to get me to come closer, and no matter howinnocent they tried to look, to me they just looked, er, hungryl I was afraid of whatmight happen if I agreed to get too close.Growing near the toothy plant was a lovely, fragrant orange flower. I could smellit from where I was standing, and I really wanted to pick it and be on my way, but I wasafraid to reach for it with all those big green plant fangs so near.I stopped and thought about it for a moment: If a plant would eat me, what elsemight it eat? That's when I remembered the grisly momento I had taken from thetreehouse, and I brought it out. All three heads started drooling at the sight of the foot,which only confirmed my suspicions. Throwing it to them, they began to fight over themorsel. I plucked the sweet-smelling flower, then backed away quickly before the plantscould finish their appetizer and proceed to the main course! There was no way else to go, so I was forced back along the path through theswamp, past Malicia's house, hoping to find my way back to the underground in timeto keep Malicia from setting off the volcano.The swamp eventually ended, and there was a forest, but it wasn't much morecomforting than the swamp had been. I thought I could see glowing eyes staring out atme from the shadows of the hideously twisted trees. No sooner had I taken a few stepsdown the shadowy path that led through those woods than an enormous, unnaturallooking hairy man-bear stepped out from between the trees. He was roaring and wavinghis paws. He must have been at least eight feet tall, with claws and fangs like sharpeneddaggers, its breath heavy with the gasping stench of carrion!I was too terrified to move, but I remembered what the plant had said about theWere-forest and silver. I gripped the silver pellet, pulled it from my pocket, and held itout before me. The bear hesitated-then took another step forward, growling low in itsthroat. I pulled back my arm to throw it at him, when I was struck with a wonderfulidea. I pulled out Malicia's woolen stocking, put the pellet into the sock and spun mynew sling over my head with all my might in what I hoped was the general direction ofthe bear. The pellet flew with much more force than I possibly could have tossed it byhand and hit the bear squarely on the snout! To my immense relief, the bear yelped andran off into the woods. I took off at a run, so frightened I didn't even stop whensomething snagged the black veil and pulled it from my face.When the forest began to seem more normal, I stopped running; there was no signof pursuit, and I was awfully short of breath, anyway. It was funny, but I had almostgrown used to the grim darkness of Ooga Booga, and this lovely green landscape seemeda little strange to me. I was pretty sure I'd get over it, though.A little further on, I saw a magnificent oak tree in a clearing. As I came near it, aman stepped out from behind it. He was dressed all in green and black, and he exudedan aura of power that made his noble countenance seem all the more handsome.However, for all of this he looked tired and sad, and in spite of my surprise at his suddenappearance, I felt terribly sorry for him. "Good day, sir," I greeted him. "l am PrincessRosella of Daventry.""Good day, my lady," he answered gravely. "l am Lord Attis, protector of the Bountiful Woods. Recently I have met with your mother, lady, and she wanders thisland seeking you.""Now, Mother," said Rosella, "you can imagine how shocked I was to hear that youwere in this strange place, too! The last time I had seen you, you had been sitting by thepond in the garden. I hadn't known until that very moment that you had followed me. Iasked Attis if you were well, and he replied that you had Ieft for Ooga Booga!""We must just have missed one another," said Valanice. "How much quicker all ourtrials would have been if our paths had crossed sooner. But that's not how things happened,is it?""That's never how things happen in this family!" said Graham.llll AII three laughed at that. "But do go on, RoseIlA," said her mother. "Since we did notmeet, we had further expeiences in the Realm of Eldritch, andyour story is notyet through."Well, I talked to Attis at some length and finally knew I must continue my ownquest to stop Malicia. When I mentioned her name, Attis recognized it immediately. Hesaid she was the sister of Titania, Queen of Etheria, and that she'd been banished longago for trying to usurp the throne. He believed it was she who had cursed his woods.He spoke of her enormous power and her boundless evil, and I shuddered to think ofwhat I might yet have to face. When I asked him about your whereabouts, Mother, hesaid, "I know not where she now is, but seek you the town Falderal to the north, theymay have word of her."I bid Lord Attis good-bye and continued on my way. In time I came to a fence witha tall gate. No sooner had I walked up to it than a shrill, demanding voice demanded:"Halt! Who goes there?" An officious badger looked down at me, wearing a scowl on hispointed, furry face.Valanice smiled. "You met that dreadful little fellow too!"'Indeed!'"My name is Rosella of Daventry, good watchmanl" I called out. "Is this the townof Falderal?""Yes, this is Falderal," the badger replied, "but it has been decreed by The Powersthat Be that you may not gain entry into our town unless you bring us a half-meltedhead of iceberg lettuce!" The guard was offended when I burst into giggles, and thingsjust went downhill from there, until finally he refused to let me in under anycircumstances. I might have been upset by this, but just like you, Mother, I spied thelittle door in the wall and decided to try that."Stop! Halt! Desist!" shouted the badger. "There's a horde of foaming field micewaiting right on the other side!" I opened the door, and as I suspected, not one foamingfield mouse-let alone a horde-was in evidence. Whatl did see was the town of Falderal,much as you described it, and a white dog in a lavender waistcoat who was runningaround in circles, chasing his tail. When he noticed me, he stopped running, came ovetand greeted me."Be welcome to the lovely town of Falderal!" he exclaimed. "My name ith ArchdukeFifi le Yipyap, Madame. Might I be tho honored ath to learn yourth?" "I am Rosella,Princess of Daventry," I replied. "Have you perchance seen my mother, Queen Valanice?She's a tall woman, middle aged, with brown hair and garbed in green.""Imagine, if you can, my shockwhen he told me you had been arrested!"'WelI, I wasn't anested for very long," said Valanice."Thzt's what the Archduke said. And then he went back to chasing his tail.Personally, I didn't believe a word of it."I noticed an impressive-looking white building with columns in front. Perhapssomeone here would be able to tell me how to get to the Vulcanix Underground, or even explain the unbelievable story I'd heard from that little dog of an Archduke. I openedthe door and walked in.The place was an absolute mess! It looked as though someone had thrown a party,and the cleanup committee had suddenly left town. There were half-inflated balloons,and wilted streamers, and ever so many cake crumbs. There was no one in sight to answermy questions, so I decided I'd look around on my own. Maybe I could find someonemore credible than "Archduke Fifi" to speak to.I found a door behind a curtain at the back of the hall, and, on the other side, thestrange staircases you described. After a few false starts, I found a door. Yes, it was thepowder room door, and as soon as I opened it, I was covered in powder!"And what did you think of the decorating scheme?" asked her mother."It was every bit as honid as you described it," Rosella assured her mother. But Ifound something there that you did not. It was on the cherub.""Oh, that awful, gaish little cherub!" moaned Valanice.It was awful. And it must have been some sort of revolted fascination that forcedme to look closer, but when I did I could see letters carved on its base, though the tarnishmade it impossible to read. I used Malicia's woolen stocking to scrub at the writing untilit became clear; then I read the inscription. Let me see if I can remember it now..No. I cannot. But it did state, quite clearly, that if one were to make an offering toit, the offering should be one of fruit. And it referred to an opening of some sort. A secretpassageway, perhaps?Fruit! I searched my pockets, but I had no fruit. I looked around frantically, forsurely the cherub's rhyme referred to the very thing I was looking for; the opening tothe Vulcanix Underground. All I could see that even resembled fruit were the goldengrapes on the columns. Artificial grapes for an artificial cherub. I had seen much strangerthings in Ooga Booga!One of the grapes was quite loose, but I couldn't budge it with my fingers. Myhammer and chisel yet again proved lust the thing, and when I had the grape in myhand, I placed it in the cherub's mouth and stood back. A huge bolt slammed across thepowder room door, and I was shut inside. That wasn't at all what I'd hoped mighthappen-I was trapped inside!Then the cherub spit out the grape, which bounced around the fountains andfinally landed inside. I heard a grinding noise, and the fountain began to open up, butbefore the opening was large enough to squeeze through, the fountain ground to a halt.I tried with all my strength to enlarge the opening, but the fountain wouldn't budge. Iiust wasn't strong enough, and there was no one here to help."Oh, but there was!" said her father."Yes, and I remembered him just in time," Rosella said.I took the scarab King Otar out of my pocket, pointed the magic transformationwand at him, and changed him back to his normal size and shape. "Your Majesty, thellu door to the underground cannot openl Perhaps with your strength, the portal might beforced!" I urged.King Otar pushed and pulled with his mighty green arms and opened the fountainwith little trouble. "We must move quickly, Princessl Malicia may already be activatingthe volcano mechanism!" he shouted, and leaped without hesitation into the hole. Ifollowed, and landed roughly into an underground tunnel. The Troll King was alreadyhurrying away. I followed him down the tunnel to a huge metal door cast in the shapeof a trollish face, studded with levers and the like."We must hurry! There may still be time to keep Malicia and the imposter fromthe mechanisml" said the King, and began manipulating the features on the metal face.Left eye lever, right eye lever, pull down on the center switch. I watched carefully, incase I should ever need to repeat the steps when Otar wasn't about. When he wasfinished, the door gave a strange hiss and swung open. I recognized the room beyondas the room of the strange, dreaded mechanical devices I had seen through the holes inthe steam tunnel.The false Otar was standing at the control panel, and when he saw th,e real Otar,he shrieked in freight and pulled on a switch. The real King threw himself at thecounterfeit, but it was too late. "You utter fool! What have you done?" Otar cried. Nosooner had he said it than everything went black.The cavern began to rumble and shake as though the very earth were quakingitself to pieces!

Part the Fifth...: Alone in the Clouds

"Oh, my goodnessl" exclaimed Valanice."Exactly my words at the time," said her daughter, "or very nearly. But really,Mother, I think we should hear the rest of your story now. You were trying to save the moon and they arrested you?!""Well, yes," Valanice said, "but you haven't told us what happened when the false Troll King started the volcano. That is what happened, isn't it?""I'll be glad to tell you just as soon as you tell us what happened to you after youfished the moon out of the pond and the Archduke arrested you," said Rosella sweetly."So go right ahead."And so, with a sigh, Valanice took up her story:I was taken to the town hall and tried in the room where only a little while before, I'd been attending the Archduke's birthday party. The Archduke himself was there, wearing a ridiculous little periwig, and there were a lury of those badgers and other silly creatures. Even the hysterical chicken was there, though she was somewhat calmer now.

In very short order, I had been convicted of moon theft, illegal side-door entry, defying The Powers that Be, littering, and several other things. No one could agree ona punishment for these heinous crimes until the chicken suggested that I be made toput the moon back into the sky. This seemed to make everyone happy.The Archduke gave me until sunset to replace the moon or be fed to a threehundred pound killer tomato."Were there such bizane beasts in Falderal?" Graham inquired."I sincerely doubted it, but I knew these silly creatures would dream up some equallyridiculous punishment if they couldn't find one. Meanwhile, if you recall, there was someunfinished business to attend to-I needed to take the magical nymph statuette to thesnake-salesman, who in retum would give me the salve I needed to get through the Were-Woods and find Rosella. First, though, I could not resist the urge to look into thenryph's pool one more time and see you, my dear, lost daughter."Rosella blushed at the sentiment.I placed the comb on the little statue and was first relieved, then horrified, to seeyour situation had changed. The nymph could not see you-you were in utter darkness.I was chilled to the bone. I must get the were-salve and rescue you from Ooga Booga.I hurried to the snake's cart, where the salesman snatched the statuette from myhand and replaced it with a tarnished silver jar. "Here'sss the ssstuff that you wanted,lady."Valanice's hissed imitation of the snake sent her family into peals of laughter."Sssmear it on your body when you want to ussse it, but be sssure to mix it witha bit of animal hair firssst."Animal hair? I was wondering which citizen of Falderal might be willing to givesome up when I though of the tuft of jackalope fur I had picked up in the desert. Thatshould work as well as any.I gave the matter of the moon a lot of consideration. How does one go aboutputting the moon back in the sky, anyway? I could throw it up in the air, but somehowI doubted I could throw it far enough and hard enough to do the job. Finally, I had aridiculous idea that might possibly do it. I swear to you, being in Falderal affects your thinking. I approached the tree near the pond, on which two of the branches formed a Yshape, rather like a slingshot. I held out the rubber chicken I had acquired at the FauxShop, and he obligingly grasped the branch in both feet. So far, so good. I handed himthe moon, and he clutched it in both his stubby little wings. Ersatz had said that this was the stretchiest rubber chicken in Falderal. He was quite correct. I pulled back on the rubber chicken until he was extended as far as I dared stretch him, then let go. The moon hurtled up into the sky and stuck there. The rubber chicken let go of the tree branch and ran off down the street, squawking loudly, and I headed back to the Town Hall to clear my good name with the local government.

Just as I approached the Town Hall, the Archduke came hurrying out and granted me a full pardon. Then he said that the volcano was smoking, and that he was off to hide in the basement in case of an eruption. That was the last I saw of him. I supposed I must be free to go now and so I left the town of Falderal the way I had come, by the little door in the wall. I entered the woods and walked to the beautifulmaidens of stone. The cornucopia in the arms of the large statue on this side of the river was still empty and I wondered where I would ever find sacred food to put into it, for I was surethat only then would the forest be completely healed. I hoped that I would find some somewhere on my quest. I crossed the rainbow bridge and turned toward the Were-Woods. As I went, the forest began to turn darker and more forbidding-trees twisted into unnatural forms, and the raucous, waiting silence increased tangibly. The wooden sign in the distance still warned me away, but I knew I had no choice in the matter-I must deny my fear, trust my fate to the snake-salesman's salve, and hope for the best. I mixed my tuft oflackalope fur into the salve and rubbed some of it into my skin.And then, the oddest thing happened to me. I began to feel very strange. A sort of warm, tingling glow spread over me, and as my body transformed itself in some magical way, I was seized with an uncontrollable urge to laugh maniacally! I ran into the woods more quickly than I would have thought possible when I had had only two feet. I think I saw a large animal standing by the side of the road, but I was by him sofast it was difficult to tell what sort of animal it was-everything around me had been reduced to a speed-induced blur. When I finally came to a stop and transformed back into my own form, I saw thatI was at the rear of an ominous looking gray stone house. It was Malicia's house, of course, but I didn't know that then. It was overhung by tall, dark trees, dripping longtrailers of slimy gray-green moss. There was a cold, unwelcoming light in the window, coming from a lamp hung with long, narrow crystals. The light didn't seem cheery, however nor did the house look welcoming. The overall result was that I had no desireto go around front and knock on the door.Suddenly, the moss on the trees began to form itself into a creature of slime anddecay that slithered down to confront me, bellowing in a thick voice and dripping withputrid muck."The swamp monster!" cried Rosella. "And you didn't have any defoliant!""No, but I had help from a very special plnce," said Valanice. "I was terrified, of course, but before I could draw a breath to scream, Lord Attis appeared between me and the moss monster and held out his hand toward it. A beam of bright green light shot out from his hand and struck the monster, who gave a high-pitched squeal and exploded. Attis smiled at me, and before I could thank him, he had faded away in a shimmer of geen. I knew it was his way of thanking me for starting the River of Life.'

I walked quickly past the front of Malicia's house, not liking the look of thetoo-lifelike gargoyle perched there, and west toward a gate in a fence. As I passed a clumpof tall, green plants, one of them spoke to me."Those awful plants!" Rosella exclaimed.They tried their best to convince me they were only being friendly, but I didn'tbelieve it for a minute. I walked past them and through the gate, and found myself inquite the most frightening place I had ever seen-it could not be anywhere else but thedark land of Ooga Booga. I ventured nervously past gravestones and what I would later learn was the house of the coroner. I rounded a corner, and there was a deadfall of sticks-or bones?-in my path, and a small, glossy black cat who seemed to have been waiting for me."Mrrrow! Might you be the human called Valanice of Daventry?" she inquired. I suppose I should have been surprised, but by that time nothing much was startling tome. I replied that I was. "I owe a debt of life to your daughter Rosella," purred the cat."I feel that I must tell you that she has left this dark land and is now deep in the heart of the Vulcanix Underground, at the roots of the great volcano. Soon the volcano will erupt, and then all will be lost-the land, the people, everything will choke to death on dust and fire."I begged her to tell me what I could do. "I know not what you can do, but if I mayadvise you: Seek help from the Faerie Court of Etheria," counseled the cat. "Their power is great, and they may be able to thwart even so great an event as the eruption. Count Tsepish, the former Lord of Ooga Booga, could once have taken you thither, but in death he has lost his head and become accursed. Yet despite his curse, he was a good man, andif you can help him, he will certainly aid you, for the survival of the entire Realm of Eldritch may lie in your hands." Then the cat turned and walked away, disappearing before I could ask her to elaborate further. The cat had not told me where to find Count Tsepish, and now it looked as thoughI would have to wander further in this frightening place to locate him and find my wayto Etheria. I skirted the awful pile of dead wood, and ventured north until I came to a burned-out house. As I wandered through the ruins, I heard a dog growling, and Ithought I saw a shadow creeping along the wall near me. A shadow with glowing redeyes! I turned to look, and the shadow became a large black dog, which leapt from thewall and came toward me, barking and growling savagely.I spoke sweetly to the beast, thinking to make friends with it, but the creature keptup his ominous snarling. I quickly backed away from the house, quaking just a bit fromthe encounter.East of the ruined house, I saw a treehouse in the shape of a huge, grotesquepumpkin. There was a large net of some kind reaching from the treehouse down to theground. As I approached, a very strange-looking little child emerged from the doorwayand threw an egg at me. Then another child joined the first, and they both made a rudenoise in my general direction. I wanted no further dealings with them, so I walked back the way I had come, but I was afraid of again meeting the black dog and soon reversedmy steps again. When I walked back to the treehouse, those awful children were gone.I was curious as to what might be inside that grotesque pumpkin treehouse, so Ilooked for a way to get inside. A rope elevator hanging from the tree above seemed thebest way. I climbed into the bucket and pulled myself up to the top of the tree. The topof the treehouse was hideous, as you already know, Rosella, but if there was anything Ihad learned on this involuntary adventure, it was that no matter in what strangecircumstances or surroundings one found oneself, there was almost always some usefulthing that could come in handy later. I would look around as quickly as I could, thendescend by the elevator.I thought the mummy particularly odd, only partly because it was wearing a wigand holding a leg bone in one hand. Its own, perhaps? I didn't even care to speculate.I reached for the bone and pulled, but to my utter surprise, the mummy pulled back. Iwas startled-all right, frightened-but angry, too. I pulled again, harder, and the bonecame loose in my hand, along with little bits of the mummy's hand. I had alreadythought of someone who might like this bone a great deal.When I had let myself down from the tree, I walked back to the ruined house. Theblack dog was still waiting there, growling, and I tossed the bone in his direction. Thedog eyed the bone suspiciously, then lay down to chew it."You're not a bad dog at all, are you?," I said, watching him enjoy his treat. Heraised his massive, noble head and looked at me with what can only be described ascanine amusement. "Nor are you such a bad human," he replied. "In fact, you are thefirst person to be kind to me since my master and mistress died. No one else was willingto face me down, even though my bark is in truth worse than my bite.""The dog spoke to you?" asked Graham."At that point it seemed the least miraculous thing I'd encountered that day," Valanicelaughed. "I fear I'd quite lost my sense of shock by that time. I asked the dog what hadhappened to his people, and he replied that Malicia was to blame.""Why am I not surprised?" Rosella sighed. "Was there ever any grief in the Realm ofEldritch that Malicia w*sn't at the bottom oft""Not any that I knew of personally," Valanice agreed ruefully.At any rate, the dog told me that his master was cursed to ride the heavens insearch of his head, which had been cut off by one of Malicia's gargoyles, and that hismistress had died of grief and was now a sinister phantom. Then Malicia had sent theBoogeyman to burn down their home, and the poor dog had been unable to defend it."Was his master Count Tsepish?" asked Rosella."He was indeed," said Valanice.And I asked the dog if I might help by attempting to recover his head. "That wouldbe a very noble deed if you can accomplish it," he replied, "but in the end, I do not know.We can only hope that it will turn out for the best." He then offered me his master's medal, which he wore about his neck, to help me in my search. I took the medalgratefully, uncertain iust what I should do with it."Might your mistress be capable of helping us aid your master?" I asked him."When she still drew breath, she was the most beautiful woman in all of Eldritch,"he sighed, "and she loved my master more than life itself. Now she is the most bitterphantom in the entire land, her undeath fueled by rage and grief. Now she hates theliving with every ounce of her considerable willpower. You would do well to avoid her."I walked south from the ruins of the Count's house and came before long to a largetomb, where a woman garbed totally in black was weeping piteously. A shadow passedoverhead, and I looked up to see a horseman riding by in the sky above me, a chilling,ghostly wind marking his passing. This would be odd enough in and of itself, but therewas more. This horseman had no head. This, then, was the poor soul whose skull I mustfind and return to him so that I could be shown the way to Etheria.I could not tell which tomb might belong to the Count, so I wandered among thegravestones, reading epitaphs. None seemed to refer to the late, beloved leader of OogaBooga. Perhaps it was the crypt where the woman in black wept, but because of the wayshe obscured the front of the tomb, I could not read the inscription, and I hesitated todisturb the poor soul in her grief.After a time the horseman returned, riding along the ground this time. I wasuncertain how he might react to me, so I stayed out of his path. At last, I decided thatthe woman in black must be the sorrowful widow of the Count. But hadn't the dog saidshe died of grief? Perhaps he only believed her to be dead. With some trepidation, Iapproached the woman and showed her the medal the faithful dog had given me. "Goodwoman, please take this medallion. It once belonged to your husband," I said.The woman took the medal, and, sobbing and wailing, glided away-several feetabove the ground, leaving a bitterly cold wind in her wake. "So the dog was right afterall," said Valanice with a shudder. Now that she was gone, I could read the inscriptionon the tomb:

"Count Vladimir Tsepish;

Lord Protector of Ooga Booga,

High Paladin of the Land."

There was a keyhole set into the tomb door, but I had no key. As I was wondering how I would get inside to search for the headless horseman's skull, I heard the soundsof an awful commotion coming from the direction of the treehouse. I heard the piteouswails of a cat, so, fearing the worst, I hurried to see if I could save it from those horridchildren. One of them was chasing after my friend the black cat with a string of papertubes, which sparkled with fire, but she was easily eluding him and seemed to be in nodanger. Some of the paper tubes fell off the strinS behind the children, and exploded!As they ran past, one of the lit tubes fell off the string and onto the ground just in frontof me, sputtering sparks. This might be iust the thing to try on that old keyhole,if only I could act quickly enough, before the thing exploded! I quickly-and fearfully-snatched it up and hurried back to the Count's crypt. I reached the tomb, and jammed the little sparkling tube into the keyhole-aperfect fit! Then I stepped back and plugged my ears. The tube exploded with a sharp,hollow boom, the lock was blown open, and the door swung outward with a haunting metallic wailing. I felt quite strange about violating a tomb in this manner-or at all,for that matter-but I felt certain that if the Count could have his head back, he wouldforgive me my transgression.In the center of the crypt was a large stone sarcophagus with a carving of a dogdraped mournfully over the lid-l recognized him to be a depiction of the Count's devoted companion. I knew I had no choice but to open the coffin and examine itscontents. Heaving with all my might, I was able to shove the lid aside.At the bottom of the sarcophagus was dust and a skull-the headless horseman'slost head. Shuddering, I averted my eyes and removed it. I walked outside to the spotin the road where I had seen the horseman touch down, and awaited his return. Heappeared presently, charging along like demons were at his back, bearing down on mewith alarming speed. I held the skull over my head and fervently hoped he wouldn'ttrample me. He may have been a ghost, but from that angle, he looked as solid asanything I'd ever seenl He reigned in his horse, stopping just short of me. He thenreached down and took the skull from my hands. Trembling, the headless horsemanplaced it on his shoulders. A ghostly face appeared over the skull-a handsome face,and not unkind-and the horseman looked down at me and smiled. He thanked me forlifting the curse.There followed a tender reunion between the Count and his dear wife, the detailsof which I will spare you as being of far too personal a nature. Suffice it to say that theirhappiness at being once more together moved me to tears of joy. Even the black dogwas reunited with his beloved master and mistress. Then the Count asked if there wasany favor he might do me in return. I replied without hesitation that I must find myway to Etheria."It is the least I can do for one who has helped us to find happiness and eternalpeace," he told me, and he gave me the use of his beautiful black horse-Necromancer-and a fife with which to call him an)'where on the ground, though he would not be ableto hear me if I summoned him from Etheria. He helped me onto the horse and beforeI knew it we flew off into the clouds, leaving the Count and his Lady and their loyal dogbehind. There followed the most fantastic ride I could ever have imagined.Valanice clapped her hands in ioy at the memory of it.We galloped through the sky and into an alien world suspended in the air. Lookingdown made me terribly dizzy, so I concentrated on the view ahead. The first thing I sawwas a sky-island suspended over four colorful rainbows, which arched out of sight anddown toward the ground below. The ghost horse slowed and stopped, kneeling low toallow me to dismount, then flew away. I gazed in wonder at the fabulous landscape offloating islands and suspended stones that the earth seemed to have no hold at all upon,and the strange and colorful plants that grew everywhere I looked. Walking east from the place where I landed, I came to a meadow full of brightflowers. In the distance, I could see a palace floating high in the sky. There were flowerseverywhere, and tiny creatures, which I first took to be dragonflies, buzzed around me,singing bits of beautiful melody. Upon closer inspection, I could see that they wereminiature dragons, each a different color. I tried to tempt one closer, but they wouldstay near only a moment before flitting off again."It was a dragonette that first lured me through the door to Eldritch," Rosellaremembered. "Now you understand, Mother, why I had to follow it. At least, I hope youdo.uValanice patted her daughter's hand. "Ofcourse I understand, Rosella. Still, not everyyoung woman would have dived into a pond to fall through a door into another worldsimply so she could get a closer look at a miniature dragon. Still, that's the kind of daughterI have, and I assure you I would not want any other."RoseIIa blushed. "What else did you see there, Mother?" she asked.Well, to the north of the meadow was a beautiful garden, and in the center of acluster of sweet-smelling roses was a silver-colored sphere that reflected its surroundingsin miniature, like a mirror on another world. There was a kind of harp beneath it, withdelicate golden threads stretched between the bottom and top. It was decorated withcarvings of the dragonettes. I plucked one of the strings and heard a musical note, veryclear and sweet. I tried another string, and it gave a different note. I was quite curious,and quite perplexed.I couldn't go any further in that direction, and as lovely as the garden was, itseemed to hold no clue to my quest. I went back through the dragonette meadow, andturned east until I came to the base of a mountain. A path led upwards, then dividedinto two. I chose the path that led up to a plateau, and a twisted tree.I heard a sound like blowing wind, then, and a horse rushed by. This was noordinary horse, but it would be difficult to describe him. He seemed to me to be madeof the wind itself. I heard no hoofbeats, and his passing bowled me right over and blewme onto the path below. By the time I picked myself up again, he was gone.Now I walked back up the path to the tree, hoping no other creatures of wind wereprowling about. A strange substance grew above the tree which intrigued me a greatdeal-it smelled delicious! I tried reaching it from the ground, but it was iust out of myreach. I hadn't climbed a tree since I was quite a little girl, but I supposed I hadn'tforgotten how. From the tree, I should be able to reach the growth and get a sample ofit for myself. I grasped the trunk and pulled myself up until I could reach the odd fruit,then broke off a bit, and carefully climbed back down.The fruit smelled sweet and lovely, but it wasn't like anything I'd ever seen beforeand I wasn't sure it was good to eat, despite the hunger I now felt gnawing at my insides.The dragonettes would certainly know if it were edible, I thought, and I decided to carryit to the meadow and see whether or not they ate it. When I returned to the meadow, I held out my hand with a bit of the fruit on it,and to my delight, a dragonette landed lightly on my hand and began to eat. As it ate,it hummed a tune-the same simple little song over and over. Then it cleaned its facelike a cat and flew away.That song-those golden strings-could they be important? I walked back towardthe garden with the gazing ball, humming the dragonette's melody. I intended to playthe melody on the strings of the gazing ball's pedestal and see what effect this mightproduce. I knelt by the pedestal and tried out the strings until I knew which onesproduced which notes, then duplicated the sweet little tune the dragonette hadhummed.Then I touched the silvery globe and my hand, my arm-my whole body waspulled inside just as if I were made of taffyl"Dear me!" said Graham. "What was inside the ball?"A whole different world. It seemed to be a plain of velvety blackness, with noground below and no sky above. I was suspended in the air! Three women sat in frontof me around a strange and magical thing that could only have been a loom, spinning,measuring, and cutting golden thread. They, too, were suspended in space, and theypaid no attention to me, but went about their work silently and gravely. "Pray tell me,good people, who are you?" I asked them, and my voice sounded preternaturally loud,echoing in that endless void."We are the fates," one of them replied matter-of-factly, and they introducedthemselves: "I am Clotho. My weaving spins the fates of women and men." "My nameis Lachesis. It is I who take measure of the fates of women and men." "You may call meAtropos. I am responsible for severing the fates of women and men." This last now cuta thread with her scissors, as if to illustrate. "And you, mortal. Tell us what you want ofus." I was quite overwhelmed, but I managed to find my voice."It is imperative that I see Lord Oberon and LadyTitania at once. I bring importantnews from the land below," I told them. "We are sorry but that is impossible," one ofthe Fates said. "The King and Queen have gone in search of their lost son, and noneknow where they can now be found. If your case is truly urgent, seek out Mab, the Ladyof Dreams. The way to Mab is difficult, for she resides on an Island of Dreams andNightmares; an island that cannot be reached in waking reality. This is all that we cantell you at this time." Then the woman with the scissors-Atropos-waved her hand,and I found myself in the garden once more, wondering how I could reach this Islandof Dreams.I walked back to the place I had first touched down upon the strange soil of Etheria.How I wished now for the Count's horse to carry me to someone who could tell me howto reach the Lady of Dreams! But the horse would not hear me call from here, or soCount Tsepish had told me. I would have to find another way down.I looked closer at the four rainbows. One of them, in deep blues and purples,reminded me of that strange land of Ooga Booga. Perhaps it was a path of some sort.

Perhaps someone there could help me to find the Island of Dreams, for I felt much tooanxious to sleep. I stepped onto the path, and an instant later I was sliding down withbreathtaking speed and the dreadful sensation that I was leaving my stomach behind.An instant after that, I was thumping down onto the ground of Ooga Booga.I wandered through that dark land, and soon found myself facing a very old, verydilapidated house surrounded by an ancient, decrepit iron fence. I opened the rustedgate, which shrieked at me almost like a human voice in pain. The name on the mailboxread: Dr. Mort Cadaver. It occurred to me that a doctor might be able to give me a sleepingpotion."My Doctor Cadaver?" Rosella cried. "Isn't he iust fhe dearest man?'l"He is indeed," said Valanice with a smile. "And a most helpful one, too, although Imust admit I wasn't too sure about his methods. When I had introduced myself, he invitedme into his parlor, which as you know was...odd."My name is Cadavel" he said kindly. "Doctor Mort Cadaver. How may I be ofassistance to you, Madam?" "I need to find the Lady Mab in Dreamland. Her islandcannot be reached through the waking reality, and I have no idea how to get to her," Iexplained, and the good doctor invited me to take a nap in his coffin. "This coffin islined with pure Dream Silk," he assured me. "Normally, it assures the dear departed aneternal rest, but in your case it will iust put you into a deep slumber.""You expect me to fall asleep in a coffin?" This was not a thought that appealed tome, but the doctor insisted. "Oh, don't worry it's very comfortable-I often nap theremyself. I'll make sure that you're not disturbed or buried, and I can wake you quickly ifyou encounter anything...unpleasant in the Island of Dreams." I was torn, but I reallyhad no choice. I had to trust the doctor. I climbed into the coffin and lay down. DoctorCadaver pulled a silk shroud over my face. "Sleep well, Madam!" he said. I found myselfslipping quickly into the dark abyss of sleep. Now I would find the Island of Dreamsand Lady Mab. I was getting one step closer to finding Rosella and going home.I felt that I was half-walking, half-floating through a hazy landscape somewherebetween sleep and waking. An ominous shadow hovered above me, blocking, no,sucking in the light, and a horrible monstrous thing appeared out of nowhere, reachingfor me. It was indescribable; it seemed an Eldritch sea-bottom horror, with tentacledprotrusions that seemed almost to shifr around its lunging, amorphous form. I tried torun, but the ground seemed to pull at my feet as if it had a malign intelligence andpurpose, slowing me to a crawl. This was the Island of Dreams ard Nightmares, I realized,and the creature I was running from was all my childhood nightmares rolled into oneawful form.I looked over my shoulder at the rapidly approaching horror, tripped and felldown, down through swirling mists and clouds of gray for what seemed like an eterniryscreaming noiselessly, until I landed with a silent splash in a fantastic green-blue sea. Iswam above the water without even trying, until I came to a tiny island upon which was a large temple. I glided out of the water and onto the beach, and-lo andbehold!-my garments were not even damp!The temple looked even larger on the inside. The air was thick with colored miststhat rolled among tall marble columns and above a marble floor, obscuring the detailsand true dimensions of the structure. I found myself floating toward the back of thetemple, deeper into the swirling mists. A solid block of ice came tumbling end-over-endtoward me. A green-skinned, black-haired woman was encased in the ice, frozen solid,her mouth open in a soundless, eternal scream. I screamed again, and the room twistedhorribly and faded out of one reality and into another. I was back in Doctor Cadaver'sparlor.As I sat up , the silken shroud fell from my face. The doctor was hovering over mewith a worried expression pasted across his drawn features. "Are you all right, Madam?"he asked. "I heard you scream and was about to wake you when you came to. Whathappened?" "l journeyed deep into the Land of Dreams, Doctor," I said. "The Lady Mabhas been frozen into a gigantic block of ice, and horrible things are stalking that land!Doctor Cadaver shook his head with a pained, worried look. "lt appears that things havebecome worse than you believed," he said. I thanked the good fellow for all of his helpand hurried back outside.I was desperate. Whatever could I do? The three Fates had told me where to findMab-perhaps they knew where to find the one who would be capable of unfreezingher. It was my only hope. I blew on Count Tsepish's fife, and his horse appeared. I quicklymounted it and flew away to Etheria. I hurried to the gazing ball in the garden, pluckedthe dragonette's song on the golden strings, and touched the reflective sphere.Immediately I found myself back inside that strange nothing-world inhabited by theFates."Mab has been frozen into a block of ice, cold and lifeless!" I exclaimed frantically.The three Fates turned and silently regarded me. Lachesis said, "Ice? But all ice mustmelt under the warmth of spring. Ask the Lady of Spring what is to be done." "She is theLady of the Flowers, she who melts the frosts of winter" added Clotho. "She resides inthe forest, and her power keeps it whole," said Atropos, and waved her hand. I was againpulled back through the ball and into the beautiful garden.She of the forest. Ceres! But Ceres was accursed, turned into a great, dying oak.How could I undo the evil that had been done to her? I had poured the sacred drinkinto the river maiden's pitcher as the Rock Spirit had said, and started the River of Life,but the healing of the forest had not been complete, and Ceres was still a tree, still dying.What else had the Rock Spirit said? To put sacred drink in the pitcher, and sacredfood in the cornucopia of the other statue maiden. But what was sacred food? I thoughtthat it was called ambrosia, but there my knowledge ended. But wait! I had seen a sortof food growing above the twisted tree at the base of the mountain-the odd fruit I hadgiven to the dragonette. Could that be ambrosia? It seemed impossible, but the impossible seemed to have a way of happening in the Realm of Eldritch. There was onlyone way to know for certain.After I had picked another handful of the fruit, I went back to the rainbows. Onehad led to Ooga Booga-might another one take me to the enchanted forest? Maybe itwas the one in shades of such deep and restful green-that seemed appropriate for sucha deep and peaceful wood. I stepped onto it and sat down.Moments later I found myself in the forest, at the clearing of the statue maidens.I hurried to the cornucopia and placed the strange fruit inside. The pitcher glowedmomentarily; then, instantly, fruits, vegetables, and grains began to overflow from thecornucopia, tumbling in profusion onto the ground. I had guessed right! The impossiblehad again happened! I reached out and took a dark red, luicy pornegranate. It was real,and so were the other magical foods. Had my act saved Lady Ceres? I hurried to see if atransformation had occurred.The great oak still stood in its clearing, its branches a little less green, a little morewilted. At its feet stood Lord Attis, playing a sorrowful melody on his pipes. "I havetraveled to Etheria seeking help, Lord Attis," I informed him. "But the King and Queenwere gone and Mab, the Lady of Dreams, has been frozen into a block of ice by somehorrible enchantment!" Attis stopped playing and looked up at me. He looked tired anddrawn, hopeless. Slowly he began to speak. "Were my beloved Ceres still able to speak,she might have been able to tell you. She is...was...the Lady of Spring, responsible formelting the snows and ice of winter. If only she were still human, she might be able tohelp." His voice trailed off, and he slumped forward tiredly. I showed him thepomegranate, and told him of replenishing the cornucopia.A sudden hope lit in his eyes. "ln ancient lore, the pomegranate was thought tosymbolize regeneration, rebirth," said Attis. If that was so, then perhaps it had not beenan accident that I had chosen it. I carefully placed the pomegranate in the outstretchedbranch of the oak, and held my breath. It worked! This began a magical transformationthat, when it ended, had changed the dying oak tree back into the surpassingly lovelyLady of the Forest.The Lord and Lady of the forest embraced one another happily, but each had workto do that could not wait. Attis said he must try to stop the eruption of the volcano, andCeres had to complete the healing of the forest. She thanked me most graciously, andwent to her work. I followed."I have traveled through Dreamland and seen the Lady Mab," I said to Ceres, "butshe has been frozen into a block of ice by some evil magic. Do you know of anythingthat could be done to cure her?" Ceres thought for a moment before answering. "Youmust fill a crystal shaft with pure sunlight and use this to thaw the ice that surroundsheq" she said. "However, you cannot take material obiects into Dreamland with youwhen you are asleep. Thus, you must find a way to travel into the Land of Dreams whileawake." "Can you tell me how to do this?" I asked. "No, I cannot," replied Ceres."However, there is little that the Fates do not know. Perhaps if you ask them, you willllll receive an answer." Bidding me farewell, she turned back to healing the stricken thingsof the Bountiful Woods. A crystal filled with sunlight. How in the world did one fiIl a crystal, and wherewould I find one to begin with? I seemed to remember having seen some... Of course!The lamp in the window of that ominous gray stone house on the outskirts of OogaBooga! I would have to go back there and find a way to get one. But first I would fly to Etheria for more ambrosia. It had proved useful twice noq and I had a feeling I shouldn'tgo on any extended trips without it.I called the horse and off we flew to Etheria. It took me only a few minutes to getanother handful of the ambrosia, and I was on my way down the purple rainbow andto the house in the swamp. The lamp with the hanging crystals was still in the windowbut this time it was turned off. I hoped that meant that whoever-whatever-lived therewas not at home.I felt a little strange about going into a stranger's house and taking a crystal fromthe lamp, but it was for a good cause. Going in by the front door still seemed extremelyunwise, so I searched for another way, and soon found it at the rear of the house-thehole you had made, Rosella, though I did not know then that you were responsible.When I came to the end of the passage, I could see floorboards over my head. Ipushed on one of the boards and was able to poke my head up and look around. ThenI heard a door open and a woman's voice, so I quickly ducked back under the floor."Tonight, vengeance shall finally be ours!," the woman was saying to someone."Tonight, the volcano will erupt and blow that thrice-cursed Etheria right out of the sky,and the rest of this puny realm of Eldritch will shrivel and burn to black ashes!" Isuppressed a frightened gasp. Now I knew it was Malicia3 house I had come to! AndMalicia was so deranged that she was planning to destroy everyone and everything. Ihad to leave here as soon as I had the crystal and warn someone-anyone. If only shewould leave so I could get inside the house!Suddenly a rctty little dog started sniffing and pawing at the knothole right overmy head, sticking his vile little nose right down into my face. I knew he'd alert Maliciato my presence here, and that was a complication I didn't need. What could I do todistract him? Then it came to me. All dogs love a treat! I reached into my pocket, tookout the chunk of ambrosia and pushed it through the knothole. The dog snatched ithappily and began chewing. Malicia strode over and tried to see what he was eating,but the little mutt swallowed it iust in time. "Come here Cuddles, you naughty creature!"she cried. "How many times must I scold you for eating those rat droppings? No matter.Come, Iet us go and watch all of Eldritch suffer in the heat of my wrath!" At that point,she swept the horrid little creature up in her arms and left the house.I waited breathlessly until I was sure they weren't coming back, then pushed upthe loose board again and climbed out into the living room. It was a particularly ugly,forbidding house, and I found nothing there of interest except the crystal lamp. I unhooked one of the crystals, then climbed back down through the floorboards andoutside.Now all that remained for Mab's cure was to fill the crystal with sunlight. Therewas no sun on Ooga Booga, so this was clearly not the place to look. I summoned thehorse once more, and on the sun-drenched plains of Etheria, held the crystal up to thesun. Although the sun reflected off the surface, it didn't seem to hold any of the lightinside. Perhaps there was another way, or perhaps what was needed was a special kindof sunlight. I remembered the shaft of sunlight in the desert temple that had had sucha magical effect upon the pictures carved into the altar. Maybe that was the kind ofsunlight I needed.I examined the rainbows once more. One of them seemed to be made of theyellows and reds of the desert. I gathered up my skirts and slid down, and sure enough,I landed in back in the burning wastes.I entered the stepped pyramid temple and walked directly to the little harvest god'saltar. I held the crystal in the beam of piercing sunlight that came from the eye of thesun god. Instead of reflecting the light this time, the crystal seemed to drink it up untilit glowed with its own inner brilliance.When I had summoned the horse and reached the land of clouds again, I wentdirectly to the gazing ball and performed again the steps that would take me inside. Ihoped Ceres was right-that the Three Fates would know the answer I sought."l have spoken to Ceres," I told them. "She says that I must enter the Land ofDreams while still awake, but she knows not how I might do this. Please, I beseech you,tell me how I may enter Dreamland while still awake." "To enter the tand of Dreams, youmust ride on the wings of a dream," said Lachesis. "There is only one who can help youto do such a thing," added Clotho. "Our nephew," said Atropos, "the Weaver of Dreams."Lachesis handed me a curious obiect. It looked like a small net of some kind. "Youmay need this in your quest, for our nephew often surrounds himself with dark terrorsthat are best not spoken of." Then Atropos waved her hand, and I was back in the garden.The Fates had not told me where to find this Weaver of Dreams, but by now I was nostranger to exploring new places. In a short time my wanderings had taken me to thebase of the windy mountain once again, to the place where the one path became two.One of the paths led up to a cave in the side of the mountain, and I thought that lookedas good a place to investigate as any.As I approached the cave, an indescribably horrific figure emerged from the mouthof the cave. This was certainly one of the dark things the Fates had warned me about-itwas every bit as terrifying as the one in my dream, but more so. This one was real. Iwanted with all my heart to run, but I found myself rooted to the spot withheart-stopping terror. Bringing out the little net, I held it in front of my face in the vagueand panicked hope that it would protect me from that gliding, amorphous horror. Thecreature struck out, and I felt a moment of hopeless fear before the attacking creaturewas pulled into the net like so much smoke. I was still shaking when I entered the cave. How to describe what I saw there? In a place where unusual things were utterlycommonplace, this was still a sight to give one pause. A vast loom took up most of thespace in the cave, and attached to this loom by hundreds of tiny colored threads was acurious being-the Weaver of Dreams, I took him to be-who did not appear to noticeme. As I watched, something-a dream?-detached itself from the loom and flutteredupward through a hole in the ceiling of the cave.I called out to him, but the dream weaver didn't respond. I touched him lightlyon the shoulder, then stepped back in surprise as he turned his face to me, for his eyeswere every color of the rainbow, changing from one color to another in dizzying, almosthypnotic, succession."What is it that you desire?" he asked in a whispery, unnatural voice. "I requireyour assistance, Weaver," I said, not willing to show him how afraid I was. "Assist you?I help no one," he replied coldly. "Leave here, ere I call up another nightmare to flayyour flesh and drag your soul screaming into the eternal darkness." I showed him thedreamcatcher and told him what had happened to his last nightmare, still trying to hide how frightened I was. He seemed remotely amused. "A pity that I do not have a second nightmare, but they destroy one another on sight. A true pity."By this time, my fear had changed to anger, and I had had enough of his distant amusement. What I needed was help, and right away. "Lord Oberon and Lady Titania are gone in search of their son, and none can find them," I told him, rather angrily I admit. "And Mab has been changed into a block of icel I have to enter the Land of Dreams while awake to save her and you are the last person who can help me, but iudging from what I've seen of your personality, I think I can do without your assistance!" I turned to leave. His head at last turned toward me. "Mab accursed?" Now, it seemed, I had his attention. "She must be freed! You must go quickly, but wait a moment. I wish to give you something."That was more like it. I watched as he set to weaving a tapestry on his loom aseffortlessly as a child might make a cat's cradle. It floated up from the loom and hoveredin the air. "This will allow you to enter the Land of Dreams still clothed in your flesh,but be warnedl As you can enter in the flesh, so too can your flesh be harmed; you candie, for the Land of Dreams is not a friendly place. Now go!" The tapestry of dreamswhisked itself to my side and I took it. I watched for a few moments as the dream weaverset back to work. Now his weaving had a more ominous tone and darker hues. Therewould be nightmares in the world tonight, I was sure.At the bottom of the mountain, I dropped the tapestry and stepped on it. Therewas a strange, inner lurch, and then I was back in that place of swirling mists I had seenin my dreams. The tapestry landed, then flew away as soon as I had stepped off. I hopedthere was an easy way back to the world of waking reality, but whether there was or not,I resolved to do what I had to do here.Without warning, another nightmare fiend appeared, no less horrible than theothers, lunging viciously, ravenously at me. I held up the net that had caught the first nightmare on the mountainside, and hoped it would ensnare this one, too. To my utteramazement, the first nightmare poured itself out of the net and attacked the second,tentacles and pseudopods flailing. They fought furiously for a moment, then thenewcomer ran off with the first monster following in pursuit. I breathed a heartfelt sighof relief and walked away, finally noticing that I was not floating as I had on my previousvisit, but walking as if on solid ground.The ground didn't stay solid for long, but gave way again to nothingness. I fell offthe edge of reality and into the same awful, long fall I remembered from my dream, andsplashed down in the same ocean, this time a genuinely wet one! And I would drowniust as genuinely, I realized, if I didn't start swimming! I could see no sign of land, so Ipicked a direction and swam for all I was worth. Soon, I saw the island and the templeahead.It was iust as awful awake as asleep. The dark mists still flowed over the floor, andMab still floated, helpless, in her block of ice. I took out the glowing crystal andreverentially touched it to the frozen surface. Sunlight flowed from the crystal into theLady of Dreams, and she began slowly to come alive. The very air in the temple seemedto change, and the dark mists became light and lovely, glittering as if with the light ofthe sun. When it was done, the crystal shattered into a million pieces, which dissolvedthemselves into vapor.Mab, a formidable yet lovely woman, seemed to come out of a deep sleep. "Whoare you?" she asked when she noticed me. I told her who I was, what Malicia had done,and that Oberon and Titania were missing. Her eyes turned to steel. "So. That is why shecursed me. The evil hag wishes to destroy us alll We must stop her. I will go forth andtry to stop the volcano's eruption, and you must harness the wind and use it to findOberon and Titania, for without their power and assistance I cannot contain even afraction of the eruption for long." She handed me what looked like a horse's bridle."Harness the wind? Why? How do I do such a thing?" I was confused, and my questionsshowed it. "You must capture and harness the wind Sirocco," she continued relentlessly,"then ride him to the summit of the Mountain of Winds. There you will find KingLevanter, Lord of the winds, and he will certainly assist you in your search." I decidedSirocco must be the horse of wind I had seen at the bottom of the mountain."Now we both must go about our separate missions," said Mab. "May good fortuneand good dreams follow you." She then waved her hand, and I found myself once moreat the base of the Mountain of Winds. I climbed up to the plateau and waited.I had not long to wait before the horse of wind galloped past again. This time Ihad hidden myself behind a tree, and when Sirocco came past, I threw the bridle overhis head. He bucked wildly, then flew straight up, carrying me along as I clungdesperately to the reins, not on his back but flying out behind him like a flag!Rosella covered her mouth, stifling a giggle. Valanice glared.Soon we came to the top-a plateau of wind-sculpted rocks and twisted trees andplant life. I heard a terrible roar, and a big, dark, brawny man-or should I say wind-flewup with terrifying speed and attacked us. Sirocco bucked, and I was thrown from hisback and onto the ground as he flew away. The man, who was as ghostly and strangein appearance as the wind horse, laughed horribly and came toward me."Borasco! Stop this foolishness at once I sayl" came a woman's voice. "You are notto eat people, understand?" A woman appeared, dressed in flowing red veils that spunaround her in the wind she seemed to bring with her. She scowled at the monster. "Mom!"he whined. "I wasn't going to eat her, honestl I just wanted to scare her a little!" "Hah!That's just what you said the last time I caught you, you big bully!" she said, smackinghim about the head and shoulders.Just then, a regal-looking man of wind came sweeping down on them like ahurricane. "What is the meaning of all this commotion?" His eyes fixed on me. "You, human! Tell me the meaning of this intrusion lest I grow wroth!" he commanded. I wasin no mood for delay. "Your Majesty, might I first know the name of the one whocommands me to speak?" I asked him. He regarded me with what I assume wasamusement. "You are audacious, mortal. Very well. I am Levanter, King of the winds.Now, who mig|rtyou be?" "I am Queen Valanice of the land of Daventry, your majesty,"I replied. "Please, we must find a way to contact Oberon and Titania! The enchantressMalicia plans to cause the volcano to erupt, and if that comes to pass, all of Eldritch willbe doomedl"Levanter looked at me for a moment, then took a deep breath and called in a huge,booming, inhuman voice, "Come to me winds! Your King commands it!" The womanand the brawny young man sped to his side. A moment later Sirocco flew in, and fromanother direction a pale and wispy young woman came, bringing a gentle breeze."Borasco! Gharbi! Sirocco! Zephyr! Go forth and find the Lord and Lady of Etheria,wherever they might be!"Each wind took off in a different direction, making my hair and clothes fly withtheir passage. I waited, for how long I could not tell. At length, one of thewinds-Zephyr-returned, leading a beautiful man and woman in a magnificent flyingchariot, which landed atop the plateau of the Mountain of Winds.Without preamble, the pair of them turned to me, transfixing me in place withthe strength of their gazes. "Are you certain that Malicia has ignited the volcano,human?" the man asked. "Look for yourself, Lord Oberon," I said, and pointed in thedirection of the cone of the smoking volcano. "By the blood of all the gods!" Oberon exclaimed, going a little pale."We extend to you our deepest thanks, mortal," said Titania. "Without yourwarning, we would never have had a chance. Now we have one, though it is indeedslim." To Oberon she said: "Come, my husband. We must try to halt the evil that Maliciahas wrought." The chariot rose maiestically and swept off into the sky. I rushed to theedge of the mountain and called after the chariot, "Wait! My daughter! I must save mydaughter!" but no one seemed to hear. The chariot flew away, out of sight.

Part the Sixth and Final.../Part the Sixth: The Eyes Have It

"And I was Ieft standing on the mountain top," said Valanice, "not knowing if they would ever be back, or whether I would ever be reunited with my dear family." She couldn't help sniffling, iust a little, as she recalled the sorrow and anxiety of that awful moment."Perhaps you had better let your mother recover a bit and go on with your story Rosella," her father suggested."If that's all right with you, Mother," said Rosella."Oh, perfectly all right, my dear," her mother replied. "I'll be all right in a moment, I'm sure." She blew her nose delicately into a lace-trimmed handkerchief."All right then," Rosella began, "Where was I?""The real Troll King and the false Troll King were fighting in the volcano control room," said Graham. "What happened then?" Rosella resumed her story: It was suddenly very dark, as I may have mentioned. All I could see were two pairs of eyes, one set green and one set purple, flashing as the two trolls fought. One of them shouted at me, "Princess! Change the wand! Change the imposter to his true form!" About that time the lights came back on, but even then I couldn't tell one king from the other. Change the wand? What? How? I drew out the magic wand and began twisting at it, wondering just what Otar meant. I felt something turn at the tip of the wand, but I had no time to worry whether I had "changed" the wand or iust broken it. I looked back to the wild melee in front of me and knew I had to transform one of the two struggling trolls. What if I used the transformation device on the wrong one? There was only one difference between them-the eyes. I tried to think. What color were the eyes of my troll suitor, the one who saw me as a bride? Green! Time was running out! I pointed the wand at the troll with the emerald eyes, and he was instantly transformed. He changed into...Edgar! "Edgar," said her father. "That was an unexpected surpise, wasn't it?" "Much like the moon falling from the sky," Rosella replied. But that was only the first surprise. Let me tell you the rest. I was certain I must be imagining things. What did trolls have to do with Edgar, my friend and rescuer from far off Tamir? I blinked, but he didn't go away. "Edgar?" I said, astonished. "Is that you? What in the name of the world are you doing here?" King Otar seemed equally astonished when he heard Edgar's name. "What!?" he gasped. "Oberon and Titania's missing son?" My jaw dropped. I had always thought Edgar to be the son of the wicked faerie Lolotte. Edgar appeared as confused by all this as anyone. "What? Rosella? What are you doing here? Where is 'here'?" he asked as he looked dazedly from side to side. Edgar looked like someone who had just awakened from a long, deep dream. Before I could begin to explain, that is if I could have explained, Malicia herself burst into the room and saw me. Screaming angrily, she loosed a bolt of magical energy in my direction, butthe King Otar flung himself between the blast and my body. The bolt struck him, and he was flung against the wall, knocked unconscious. Before either of us could act, Malicia turned to Edgar with a venomous look. Withnot a word, just a wave of her hand, she conjured a fearsome wind that lifted Edgar up like a straw doll and blew him out the tunnel door! Then she looked at me, her eves still like those of a hungry snake-cold and victorious. "Ah, Rosella," she crooned. "So we meet again. And this time I will guarantee that you do not escape me, my pretty!" She gestured wildly at me. A flash, the odor of brimstone, and I wasn't in the control room any longer. There were walls of heated rock everywhere I looked, and a terrible heat from beneath, coupled with a fiery red glow. I had been transported inside the very heart of the volcano! I was to be perched on a narrow ledge above a rapidly rising pool of molten lava. I was so frightened, I almost fell in, but I managed to grab onto the hot, jagged rock of the wall behind me and keep my footing. As I hung on for my life, my hand encountered a little niche in the wall where I could stand further from the edge. Before I could feel any safer, however, the lava began rising! There was no doubt that soon it would immerse me! From beyond the walls, I could hear the sound of Malicia. She was laughing. I knew I had to find a way out, but felt that I was in a prison of solid rock. From somewhere deep within me, I found a bit of courage that I wasn't sure was still left. I might die even if I tried to escape, but I would surely die if I didn't. I clawed frantically at the scorchingly hot wall behind me, hoping to find any opening at all that might take me away from my certain death. Finally, I felt some of the rock give way under my hand. I had made a hole! I dug at the hole with my hands, but it was taking much too long, and the burning pain was almost more than I could bear. In my near panic, I had almost forgotten the shovel I had been carrying with me all this time! I attacked the wall with it. The volcano wall was not as hard as I had feared, and I quickly had an opening large enough to slip through. I wasted no time in getting through it and into the tunnel on the other side. I spent no time congratulating myself. How could I? Lava would be flowing through my escape hole soon and I still needed to be away. The tunnel branched into two, and I knew I had taken the correct branch when I saw the mechanical troll-face door at its end. As quickly as I could, I repeated the steps I had seen the King Otar perform to open the door, and in moments I was back inside the room where the Troll King still Iay unconscious on the floor. I took the device I had taken from Malicia's house at the urging of King Otar. "It must be inserted into a 'socket' for it to regain its power" he had told me. What was a"socket"? I felt the device over and discovered that it had a pair of prongs on its back, as if it were meant to be attached to something. I looked about anxiously-there were so many strange-looking mechanical devices, so much technology in the room. A moving pointer labeled "Volcano Pressure Gauge" was wildly swinging.I noticed an opening just to the side of Otar's unconscious form that looked as if it might fit the prongs on the device. I pushed them into it. At once, the globe began to glow. I hoped it wouldn't take too long to fill with charge, if that was indeed what it was doing, because I feared Malicia might return at any moment. I attempted to wake King Otar. I shook him, I spoke loudly into his great ear, but nothing seemed to have any effect. What I need are smelling salts, I thought. I remembered the sweet-smelling flower I had picked in the swamp outside the gate to Booga. There was something the lady trolls in the underground had said...It worked! As soon as I waved the flower under King Otar's nose, he came awake with a loud snort, frowning at the horrible smell of the flower. Then he jumped urgently to his feet and ran to the volcano controls. He turned dials and flipped switches, while the earth rumbled and shook. When he had done everything he could do to the controls, the rumbling got worse, and the shaking became a full-fledged earthquake. The King looked at me, and I could see in his eyes that all hope was gone. "Embrace eterniry Princess," he said, "for Malicia has destroyed us all." "I knew we were going to die," Rosella said, "and I would never see my family again."But the fates were kind. No sooner had I thought it, than the shaking stopped, and the gauge ceased its wild swings." And that's when you ran in, Mother, although I had no idea how you'd gotten there." "I had been standing at the top of the Mountain of Winds," Valanice remembered, "when a cloaked figure had appeared riding Necromancer, the ghostly steed that had first brought me to the cloudlands of Etheria. He offered me his hand, a strong one, and without fear or thought, I got on the horse behind him. I somehow knew that if I did, he would take me to you." "And he did," said Rosella. "But how?" "We came through Ooga Booga, through the place where the elevator had once emerged from the underground. The cloaked man raised his hands, and with a blast of fiery magic, reopened the hole down into the ground. He took my hands as we jumped into the abyss. Cushioned by his magic, we landed unharmed. From there we dashed through a series of hellishly shaking, crumbling caverns that led here. Once the very ground opened up right in front of us as if it were a great maw anticipating a feast! But Edgar-for that's who the horseman was-saved me and brought me to you."And I begged you to forgive me," rushed Rosella. "I told you about the door in the pool, and King Otar, and Edgar...""I couldn't believe what you were saying," Valanice remembered. "Edgar? It was all too unbelievable. But he pushed back his hood, and there he stood. Although I had never seen him before, your shout left no doubt as to who he was. And how happy you looked to see him, Rosella." King Graham raised an eyebrow at this, but his daughter ignored him, and went on with her story. Right then, Malicia rushed back into the room, and the heat of her anger made the fires of the volcano seem as ice in comparison. She lunged at me, but Edgar stepped between us, glaring. "Do not touch her, witch!" he said."The first time we met I enslaved your mind and body, but now your usefulness is over," Malicia hissed in return. "Prepare to die, worm!" Edgar only shook his head, never taking his eyes from her face. "Then kill me if you can, you withered hag!" Malicia raised her hands to destroy him, but a blast of magic came from his hands first, and she staggered back. He deflected her next bolt and blasted her again. She bent over in pain and Edgar lowered his hands. But it was a base and lowly trick! As soon as Edgar's guard was down, Malicia spun around and blasted him with a deadly burst of magical force. He dropped suddenly, limply, onto the floor-perfectly, horribly still, like a puppet with cut strings. I felt as if my heart were crushed in my chest. For a split second I was paralyzed... but you were there, Mother, and I couldn't let her harm you, too. I looked to the wall where I had plugged in King Otar's device. It glowed brightly, and I saw my chance to defeat the evil faerie if only I could but reach it. I dashed for the wall and came away with the device. Malicia turned to face me, black death in her eyes, energy crackling at her fingertips, and I raised the device and pointed it at her, snarling in defiance. Then a pulse shot out of it and enveloped the witch in a ball of bright light. What had I done? King Otar had said the device would destroy Malicia, but all I had really wanted to do was to keep her away from you, Mother. The magical energy ball shrank, and then it vanished altogether. There on the floor lay a tiny baby, right on the spot where Malicia had been standing. Malicia's obnoxious little dog ran up and sniffed it, obviously confused. I gave this a moment's thought. It had worked once-why not twice? I pointed the blasting device at the dog. The dog disappeared and was replaced by an adorable little furry puppy. It tottered over to Malicia-now a baby-and licked her cheek. Lowering the mysterious device and staring incredulously at what I had iust done, I whispered, "I got you my pretty. And your little dog, too." Edgar was still lying on the floor, unmoving and very pale. How unfair that he should lose his life while because of him, I still had mine. I knelt by his side and stroked his cold brow. My eyes filled with tears, my heart with heavy anguish. And then I remembered! I had a life to spare-the black cat's! Would it work on Edgar? I warmed the glowing life between my hands and touched it to Edgar's forehead. His eyes fluttered open, and he smiled at me. Rosella sighed and said, "That's when King Oberon and Queen Titania came in. "They'd been trying to help Lady Mab control the volcano," said Valanice. "I think they must have sensed something when Malicia killed Edgar, and they came to him there." "They were so happy to see him alive and well," Rosella remembered with a smile, "but they were a bit confused how Edgar and I knew one another, and we were all confused about how Edgar had been put in King Otar's place. I was also startled to hear that you, Mother, had played such an important part in saving us all." "And the most startling thing of all," Valanice added, "was that Edgar had been the son of the King and Queen of Faerie all along!" "Edgar explained it all as best he could," Rosella told her father. "He had been stolen as a baby by Lolotte. You remember her, Father," Graham smiled. "Not nearly as well as you do, I'm sure, Rosella." "Then he told about how we had first met, and aII that." "AIl that being how you rescued him and how he had never forgotten you?" her father reminded her."Yes, all that," said Rosella, and continued: Well, then he went home, only what we didn't know was that "home" was the kingdom of Etheria. Then Queen Titania-that's Edgar's mother, you understand-told us how happy they were to have him back. They held a ball in his honor, and he vanished again that very night! They set out to find him, never guessing until today that it was all a part of Malicia's evil plot! Queen Titania looked over at the baby on the floor. The baby reached her arms up to her. Titania hesitated, then picked her up. "Sister, something evil went wrong with you. Let us now make a new beginning," she said to the child. "This time, you will grow to love that which is good, and will frolic in the light instead of reveling in darkness." Through this, Edgar was looking at me strangely, acting as though he were ashamed of something. "l must apologize to you, princess Rosella," he confessed when we were alone. "It was I who cast the spell that lured you into Eldritch. / am responsible for your troubles here. Can you find it in your heart to forgive me? I beg this of you! "What a silly young man. How could I not forgive him? I pressed his hands in mine and asked if he would show me the sights of his realm. It was what I jumped into the pool for in the first place." Rosella sighed as she reached the end of her tale. "And did you get your tour of Etheria?" her father asked, his eyebrows raised in an expression Rosella knew quite well. "Yes, and it was even more beautiful than I could have imagined from my one in the garden pool. I think it's quite the loveliest place I've ever been." "Hmmm," said Graham thoughtfully. "And do you suppose you might be going back there sometime soon for a...visit?" Valanice laughed. "I suspect she just might at that. And I wouldn't be at all surprised to see young Prince Edgar visiting Daventry fairly frequently in the near future." Rosella knew she was blushing, but she didn't particularly care. Edgar had, in fact, asked her permission to come courting, and though she wouldn't have believed it herself when this whole adventure began, she was looking forward to it with a great deal of pleasant anticipation. The shadows were deepening in the garden, and the air had grown cool. One byone, the castle windows were illuminated with the golden glow of candles as day gave way to evening. The time of story-telling had ended in a glow much like the tapers. "Come, my dearest wife and daughter," said King Graham, rising to his feet and holding out a hand to each of them, "it's time we went inside, I think. You had quite a lot of amazing experiences in the world on the other side of that magical portal, but now I fear the adventures are over." Valanice nodded and turned her head to give Rosella a wink King Graham could not see. Valanice and Rosella looked at one another and smiled. "Yes, Father," Rosella agreed. "That adventure is over." "For the moment."

Behind the scenes

The above image taken from earlier Companions KQ4 chapter does not appear in the authorized guide.