The queen hurried her through the ornate halls into a vast dining room. Girl had a quick glimpse: six chandeliers lit the cathedral-shaped hall. Tapestries and mosaics filled the marble walls. At one end, Girl saw a two-story grandfather clock.
“Sit, sit,” the queen said. Obeying, Girl climbed onto a throne at one end of a banquet table. Her toes barely touched the floor. She wondered how it could be dinnertime. Shouldn’t it be morning? Had she slept through the day? Or had she only slept an hour or two and it was still night? Neither choice felt right. It had felt like morning when she woke. She tried to see around the pyramid of melon slices in front of her. The prince sat at the other end behind sculptures made of bread and pastry. “Here is the true princess!” he shouted. “She has passed the test! She is worthy to be my wife!”
Girl stared. “Wife?”
Smoke billowed from the center of the table. Spilling fruit platters, a boy solidified in the midst of the smoke. He swished midnight blue robes as he strode across the table toward Girl. “No, I forbid it!”
“Where did he come from?” Girl hissed to the cat. “Who is he? Do I know him?” But the cat was no longer in sight. “Boots? Where are you, Boots?” The magician grabbed Girl’s wrist and hauled her to her feet. “Ow, hey!” she said.
“She is my beloved,” the magician said. “I will have her!”
The prince climbed onto the table. “I challenge you to a contest for her love! For I am an enchanter, and I have magic at my disposal!”
Girl tried to twist out of the magician’s grip. “Let go.”
“Very well, prince,” the magician said, releasing her. Girl fell back into the throne. “What are your terms?” he said.
Rubbing her sore wrist, Girl stood up. “Wait a minute here. Don’t I have a say?” She was not marrying anybody. She barely knew the prince. She barely knew herself. And who was the kid in the wizard hat? The hat had a tag dangling in the boy’s face.
The prince puffed out his chest. “We shall have a magical duel. Whoever creates the thing that pleases the princess most shall have her for his bride.”
Magical duel? With her as the prize? She didn’t want to be a prize. She didn’t want this pimple-faced magician as her husband. She wasn’t even sure she wanted the cute prince. What she wanted was her name. She headed for the door. “Boots? Boots!”
The prince pushed his royal sleeves to his royal elbows and said, “I shall begin, since I was first to claim her hand.” He waved his arms in the air. “I summon the birds of the sky!”
As Girl reached the door, it slammed open in front of her. Birds flooded into the hall. Covering her head, she ran back to the banquet table as dozens of parrots dive-bombed her shoulders. She stooped under the table.
The birds dove around the hall chirping: “Beautiful, beautiful princess. Beautiful, beautiful princess,” until the echoes shook the chandeliers.
Cautiously, she peeked out. Green and red parrots swooped in figure eights.
“Ha!” the magician said. “You call that magic? Come, singers of the slime, dwellers of the mud! I summon you!” He waved his arms, and frogs poured through the windows. Hundreds of frogs piled onto the floor and hopped across the banquet hall. She jumped out from under the table and climbed on top of her chair.
Conducting them, the magician led their croaking as he bellowed out aria style: “Admirable princess, do you think it kind or wise, in this sudden way to kill a poor magician with your eyes?” The frog bellows reverberated like an orchestra of bass drums.
“Honestly, I don’t . . .” Girl started to say.
But it wasn’t over. Wading through the frogs, the prince-enchanter stabbed the wall with a butter knife. It sprang a leak. Soon, cracks spread across the wall, and water poured through onto the floor. Frogs hopped right and left and the birds flew toward the ceiling as the waterfalls engulfed the walls.
Okay, this was not fun. Even the queen lifted her skirts as the water level rose in the hall. Girl climbed onto the table beside the cheese.
At the prince’s command, barges came through the wall on either side of the grandfather clock. One by one, the boats squeezed narrow to fit through the cracks, then popped out into their full size. The barges drifted beside the banquet table.
Lying on one of the barges, a woman with seashells in her hair leaned over toward Girl. In place of legs, the woman had a long fish tail with shimmering scales. She handed Girl a pearl and said, “You are even more beautiful than I.”
“That’s nice,” Girl said, “but I don’t want this.” She tried to hand the pearl back, but the mermaid floated out of the hall.