The Two Princesses of Bamarre Read Free Page A

didn’t like them either!
    He started down the stairs again. I smiled at his back. “Thank you.”
    He stopped and turned again. “You’re welcome.” He bowed, managing to be dramatic, even in the cramped stairwell.
    I had to curtsy too, and then we set off again.
    After a few steps he said over his shoulder, “In sorcerers’ years I’m a bit older than you are, but not a great deal older. I’m seventy-eight. If I were human, I’d be just about seventeen.”
    Seventeen at seventy-eight! How long did they live?
    “I envy human children. You learn everything you need to know so quickly. We can speak and even fly when we’re born, but beyond that we learn almost too slowly to bear.”
    We reached the bottom of the stairs.
    He bowed yet again. “I must leave you now. I look forward to speaking with you again.”
    He did? So did I!
     
    Back in the nursery Bella was alone, crocheting. I picked up my embroidery, but I was too distracted to work on it. My thoughts kept revolving from Trina to Rhys to no more spiders and back to Trina again.
    In half an hour Meryl came in from her swordplay and stood at my shoulder, looking down at my work. She laughed. “I like that! What made you think of it?”
    Usually I embroidered scenes from Drualt , but this embroidery showed a close view of one of the dozens of gargoyles that adorned Bamarre castle. The rest of the castle was visible in the background—the coral-colored stone walls, the blue tower roofs, the slitted upper windows, and the vaulting arches between tower and buttress.
    The gargoyle in the foreground was a gryphon’s head, with fierce bulging eyes and a bone in its cruel beak. Next to it a real gryphon hovered in the air, its beak hanging open in astonishment. The real monster appeared much less dangerous than its twin in stone.
    “I don’t know why I thought of it,” I said. But I did know. I had invented the scene to comfort myself, to tame one monster at least.
    I changed the subject. “Has anyone ever caught the Gray Death and lived?”
    Bella answered, “Your father hears about cures now and then, but it always turns out that the person didn’t have the Gray Death in the first place.”
    “Do you think the fairies could cure Trina?” I said.
    “I have no idea.”
    “Bella!” Meryl said. “Certainly the fairies can cure the Gray Death. They can do anything.” She picked up her thick book about battles with monsters and sat in our gilded throne chair.
    Fairies hadn’t been seen by humans for hundreds of years. They were believed to have retreated to their home atop the invisible Mount Ziriat. They still visited the elves and sorcerers and dwarfs occasionally, but never humans.
    They were sorely missed. We used to have fairy godfathers and godmothers. Fairies had known our best selves better than anyone else, and they’d encouraged us and given us a boost when we were in trouble. There were fairies in Drualt , and the hero himself was believed to have visited them on Mount Ziriat. But that might have been fable. We had no certainty about any of Drualt’s life—or even whether he’d lived or not. He might have been merely the invention of a long-ago anonymous bard.
    Meryl said, “Someday I’ll find the fairies and persuade them to come back to us. If I haven’t found the cure by then, I’ll get it from them.” She turned a page in her book. “Addie . . . do you want me to search for them now so they can save Trina?”
    My heart skipped a beat. No! No, I didn’t want her to search. I didn’t want her to go anywhere.
    Bella exploded. “Search for fairies! You’re a princess. Not a knight, not a soldier, a princess!”
    “Do you want me to, Addie?”
    “No,” I said quickly. “I think Trina will rescue herself. She promised to consider my method.” Under my breath I added, “Besides, you can’t go. I’m not wed yet. We have a bargain.”

Chapter Four
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    A FTER DINNER THAT NIGHT I returned to Trina’s chamber, but she was