Porcelain Princess (22 page)

‘
Ferena!’ Carey cried out in shock as Ferena continued to
rise.

Neris twirled
faster and faster as her dress unravelled.

‘
I
don’t know why she’s doing this,’ she wailed, ‘but someone please
get me a new dress before I have nothing to wear!’

‘
And
rope; bring back a
rope
!’ Ferena shouted back down to
everyone. ‘
I’m
going to be the one who ties our rope!’ she
added with a satisfied grin at Durndrin.

*

By the time
Ferena had reached and landed safely if a little ungainly on the
balcony rail, she was exhausted. But she still had work to do. She
had to haul in the long thread, gradually bringing up behind it the
rope that Peregun had brought back from the caravan. As soon as
Ferena was safely on the balcony, he’d tied the rope to his end of
the thread, which he’d snapped off what was left of Neris’s
kimono.

Neris had
disgustedly cast aside the new dress he’d also brought back with
him.

‘
I’ll
stick with the shorter version of the kimono, thanks,’ she’d
declared haughtily. ‘Who knows, it might even set a new trend
amongst girls who’ve got the legs for it?’

‘
Done
it!’ Ferena wheezed from the edge of the balcony. ‘The windows are
open, and the rope’s firmly tied up here. You can climb up
now.’

It wasn’t as
easy climbing up the rope as Carey had thought it would be but,
using first the wall and then the wall of the tower itself, she
found it was easiest walking her way up towards the balcony. The
far lither Peregun and Neris, who had both gone up before her,
helped her clamber over the rail.

‘
Er,
bit of a problem here,’ Dougy barked up from below. ‘I’m not
exactly built for rope climbing. As for Grudo’s suggestion that he
can tie me to the rope and you can haul me up; well, is there
anything more humiliating you can think of?’

‘
Here’s
another
suggestion then!’ Grudo shouted up
disgruntledly. ‘Peregun? You remember
The Pirate and Fate’s
Necklace
?’

‘
I
most certainly do!’ Peregun shouted back gaily as, slipping out his
samurai sword from its scabbard, he ran at, grabbed, and
athletically swung up the long, flowing curtains. Although it
wasn’t sharp, the sword’s blade was good enough to slash away the
loops of material holding the curtains in place on the
rail.

‘
No
no, wait,
I
remember that show too!’ Dougy protested as,
down below, Grudo firmly took him by his front paws.

‘
Aaaaahh! No no!’ Dougy uselessly pleaded as Grudo began to
whirl him round and round in the air, as if they were both taking
part in some bizarre version of the throwing the hammer.

‘
Ready Peregun?’ Grudo cried out.

‘
Ready!’ Peregun yelled back.

‘
No
no, what if you get – aaarrrggghhhhhhh!’

Grudo had let go
of Dougy, sending him twirling through the air up towards the
balcony.

‘
Arrggghhhh!’ Dougy continued to cry in fear, even as he
landed in the safety net that his friends had made of the
curtains.

‘
You
next Grudo!’ Carey shouted down from the balcony as the shaken
Dougy gratefully slipped down to the floor from the curtain’s being
held by his friends.

‘
The
gates Carey!’ Grudo yelled back up towards her. ‘The
gates
are
opening
!’

*

The huge gates
opened silently, without even the slightest creak.

Grudo watched
their opening apprehensively. On the balcony, everyone stopped what
they were doing to stare worriedly at the opening gates.

Even before the
gates were fully open, there was a thunderous clattering of hooves
and iron-rimmed wheels on cobblestone. The black carriage hurtled
through the widening gap, the dark horses’ pumping muscles
glistening in the light like the finest velvet.

For a moment, as
it pounded across the square, Carey feared that the carriage was
going to career into their caravan. But without any change of
course, it narrowly avoided any collision, rushing past the caravan
close enough to send the theatre’s flags and pennants rippling in
its passing wake.

As it continued
on its way down the winding streets, townspeople suddenly finding
themselves in its path nervously jumped aside. They stared after it
in shock, shaking their heads as if they had never seen such a
thing.

‘
I
thought the black carriage only came out to play at night?’ Peregun
whispered in awe.

‘
So
did I,’ Carey agreed thoughtfully.

‘
Carey, I thin–’

Ferena sound so
weak and terrified that everyone whirled around to see what was
troubling her. She was moving slowly, an expression of deep regret
on her face.

‘…
used up too much fuel…’

Her voice was
faint and fading. Her moves were so slight now, they were hardly
noticeable.

Carey fell to
her knees by Ferena’s side.

‘
Ferena, I filled it only–’

‘…
my
flying, it–’

Ferena abruptly
froze.

‘
Ferena! No! This can’t be–’

‘
Look
out!’

With the angry
snap of splitting wood, a large table leg came flying towards them
all from somewhere inside the darkened room. As Carey protectively
wrapped herself around Ferena, everyone else ducked. The leg
whirred harmlessly across the balcony, the rope tied to it writhing
in the air like a frenzied serpent.

‘
Grudo!’

Rushing to the
balcony’s rail and staring down towards the square, they were
horrified to see Grudo spread-eagled across the cobblestones. The
rope lay coiled about him, the wooden leg lying off to one
side.

‘
He
was trying to climb up! It couldn’t take his weight!’ Durndrin
howled anxiously.

‘
Grudo!’ Carey screamed.

‘
It’s
all right, it’s all right Carey!’ Grudo shouted out reassuringly,
rising to his feet and shaking off the rope snaking about him. ‘I’d
only got a few feet when it snapped!’

He looked down
despondently at the broken leg and the rope tied to it.

‘
Looks like you’ll have to go on without me,’ he cried out
resignedly.

Carey sadly
glanced back at the frozen Ferena.

‘
He’s
right; we’ll have to come back for them.’

She leaned over
the balcony rail, shouting out to Grudo once more.

‘
We’ll be back, once we’ve sorted all this out!’

Grudo gave them
a gloomy wave; then they disappeared into the room.

He was left
standing on his own by the bare, white wall, looking lost, worried
and forlorn.

*

‘
Watch out for moving floors!’ Carey warned as soon as they
entered the room.

Carefully, they
all placed their feet tentatively down on the floor, ready to
snatch then back as soon as the floor began to try and whisk them
away. After a while, after they hadn’t encountered a single section
of moving floor, they all began to feel just a little
foolish.

‘
You’re sure about this, Carey?’ Peregun asked doubtfully.
‘Moving floors?’

‘
Well
every time
I’ve
been here, they’ve moved!’ an embarrassed
Carey insisted indignantly.

‘
Shhussshhh!’

Neris was
glaring at them with wide, chiding eyes, her finger up against her
mouth in a sign to stop talking. She pointed off to another part of
the large room.

It took Carey a
moment to realise what she was pointing at. It was the Princess,
slumped lifelessly in a chair, her white dress making her look much
like the white lace upholstery of the furniture, the large flower
displays of blinding white blooms.

‘
We’ve already made enough noise to wake the dead!’ Peregun
irritably whispered back. Yet, like the others, he was tiptoeing as
quietly as he could towards the Princess.

Carey nervously
reached out to touch the Princess.

‘
Perhaps she’s also run out of – yaarrghh!’

Everyone
instinctively jumped back as the Princess abruptly sat up in her
chair.

‘
Sorry, sorry,’ the Princess exclaimed breathlessly when she
saw how she had shocked them all. ‘I just needed a nap; I’ve been
so
busy lately, what with – well, I’ve been
so
busy
for years and years, come to think of it!’

‘
Princess,
I’m
sorry for waking you up like this,’
Carey stated firmly. ‘But
none
of us want the Illuminator to
publish a book about our visit here!’

‘
Oh,
but didn’t you see the carriage leave?’ The Princess seemed a
little puzzled. ‘It’s already on its way; I can’t think of anything
that can stop those horses once they have a task to
complete!’

‘
The
carriage was taking
our
book?’ Carey wasn’t sure whether to
be outraged or amazed. ‘But…but that’s
ridiculous
! What sort
of book ends with me in the porcelain room with you, or with our
play?’

‘
Besides,’ Durndrin added, trying to find a fault in the
Princess’s reasoning, ‘I thought the horses didn’t leave until
midnight with any book!’

‘
Normally they don’t; but the Illuminator realised you’d
refuse permission to publish if he waited.’

‘
We
don’t
give our permission!’

‘
Well, there you are, you see,’ the Princess said breezily.
‘And now, as for Carey’s question – about it being ridiculous to
end the story on our meeting in the porcelain room – naturally, I
completely
agree!’

‘
Then
why has it gone?’ Neris asked. ‘You’ve sent out a book that you
admit ends ridiculously!’

‘
Oh,
it doesn’t end
there
of course!’ The Princess gave a grin
that implied it would be crazy to think otherwise. ‘It ends sort of
happily, of course! Otherwise, it would have been called
The
Porcelain World
!’

‘
A
“sort of” happy ending?’ Peregun frowned quizzically.

‘
Even
I
don’t know how he’s ended it
exactly
,’ the Princess
admitted, adding with a sad bow of her head, ‘and I’m afraid that
many of these stories don’t always end up how
some
people
would like.’

‘
I
suppose she means that even a happy ending isn’t a happy one for
the bad guy,’ Neris observed with a scowl.

‘
So
now
we’re
the bad guys?’ Carey frowned
petulantly.

The Princess
looked appalled.

‘
Oh
no no; you’re the good “guys”, if that’s the way you want to put
it!’

‘
Erm,
she’s
the one dressed in
white
.’ Peregun pointed
out.

‘
None
of this makes any sense anyway,’ Dougy growled. ‘I mean, how does
he create an ending to something like this, something that’s really
happening?’

‘
That’s right,’ Durndrin snapped accusingly at the poor
Princess. ‘It’s going to be the wrong ending, no matter how he ends
it!’

The Princess
smiled, totally unfazed by Durndrin’s aggression.

‘
He’s
amazingly good at
guessing
the right ending!’

‘
Guessing?’ Carey laughed bitterly. ‘So now he thinks he can
predict our future?’

‘
But
we all see into our future just a
little
bit Carey! Whenever
we start to say a sentence, we don’t have to stop and think about
what we’re going to say, yet we always begin it with the right
words and make it all come out sounding right. The Illuminator just
stretches that ability, anticipating our regular patterns of
behaviour.’

‘
So
you’re saying we’re all “Oh so predictable”?’ Neris stepped closer
to the Princess. ‘You know, I’m not sure we can believe a
single
word you say. You say you’re just like us, a
flame-driven puppet; but I’ve been watching you, and you move as
smoothly as a
ballet
dancer, girl!’

‘
I
assure you, Neris,’ replied the Princess, at last sounding
affronted by the accusation, ‘that I
do
have a flame, just
like you.’

To prove that
she was telling the truth, she was already opening up her dress,
together with the compartment where her heart should be.

‘
There!’ she said proudly, displaying her flame to the curious
Neris. ‘Now do yo–’

The Princess
froze as Neris blew out the flame.

‘
Hah,
didn’t I always say I was the greatest living actress?’ Neris
declared confidently as she stood back from the motionless
Princess.

‘
Depends on what you mean by
living
I suppose,’ Dougy
said drily.