One for the Morning Glory Read Free

half a morning a week, if ceremonial duties were allocated to the Chancellor." The Chancellor was a cousin of Cedric's, whom he had always disliked.
    "Done, then," the King said. "Naturally you will be expected to find a suitable permanent person for the post, but you will continue to draw full salary for both positions, and after you return to the job of Prime Minister perhaps we can discuss how such things ought to be handled in the future."
    Privately Cedric resolved to do so good a job as Captain of the Guard as to be irreplaceable.
    The feeling of having made that resolution gave him the courage to venture one more remark to the King. "And the job of Prince's Personal Maid? Who will perform that function, Majesty?"
    "Well—ah—" The King thought for a long moment. The Prince's Personal Maid had to be someone of impeccable conduct, not because the Prince was expected to be so, but so that the Prince would know what it was. Historically the position was usually filled by an ugly princess with a great love for children and no dowry.
    Unfortunately every princess within a full year's ride the King could think of was either attractive and therefore marriageable, or else was somebody's wicked stepsister and thus extremely unsuitable.
    "Well," the King began again, delaying, and then again, "Well," until finally, not before the Prime Minister's beard had virtually disappeared into his madly chewing jaws, he said, "I suppose I could—uh, that is, I shall —tend the young fellow myself. Nothing to it, really, I should guess. Have to get a couple of our ladies to show me the, er, fundamentals, but after that I can't imagine the job will be one whit worse than slaying the Dragon of Bat Mountain—which I did as a prince—or any more complex than commanding the army at the Battle of Bell Tower Beach, just last summer."
    The Prime Minister, who had raised several children, was frantic to say something to the effect that the job was a bit more complex and demanding than it appeared to be, but by now Cedric was gagged by his great thatch of spit-soggy whiskers, so by the time he had wrenched his jaws open and hauled out the sloppy mess of hair, the moment was past. He might have tried all the same, but just then someone finally looked at Prince Amatus and shrieked.
    He was indeed, and obviously, half a person; everything to the left of center (if you took the bridge of his nose as the center) was quite gone. Yet it seemed to do him little harm. He was giggling and clapping his right hand against his nonexistent one. He seemed unaware that his left side was lacking, and was chortling happily, but no sound emerged from his mouth.
    "Why can't we hear him, do you suppose?" King Boniface asked, after an extremely long awkward pause.
    "Er—" The Prime Minister was now recovering rapidly, for it was only being shouted at by the King that he feared, and since that apparently was not going to happen, his competence and efficiency was reasserting itself. "It would seem to me, Majesty, that his chortling is being drowned out by the sound of his clapping, and since of course we cannot hear his clapping—"
    "Because he is only doing it with one hand. I see. Well, what there is of him seems to be perfectly fine. You don't suppose he is merely half-invisible, in which case a good coat of paint might alleviate most of the problem?"
    Cedric shook his head solemnly. "If that were the case, we should hear both hands clapping. And notice as well that his right eye is focusing, so his vision is binocular, yet we do not see his left retina, and if we can't see it, then it is stopping no light and I don't see how it can be seeing us." As he had been saying this, he had been slowly, gingerly, approaching the young Prince, and finally he scooped him up in his arms. The Prince giggled. As he carried him back to the King, Cedric added, "You see, Majesty, only half of him is here. I feel no ghostly arm or leg, and my hand passes directly through the space