* * * * *
“The Land of Flowers?” The Princess smiled sleepily as the Sun’s daughter helped her to rise, and guided her towards the Palace of the Morning. “It sounds like a beautiful place. But why should I go there?”
“Because the Blackbird said that your father had hidden your love away beyond the farthest star, and that is where the Land of Flowers lies.” The Peaceful One laughed softly. “I think he was very foolish, for why would he send a man he wished to punish to such a beautiful place, where two people could be so very happy together? But then,” she added in a more sober tone. “When you are alone in a place where you have been happy with someone else, that is quite a terrible punishment. And even though he sleeps, surely his dreams are lonely, for you are not there with him.”
“But I will be.” The Princess raised her eyes to the sky, where one red Star glowed ever brighter, as the Sun’s daughter led her within the Palace. “I will be.”
“So you will,” the Peaceful One assured the Princess, helping her to lie down on the bed in the room given over to her. Then the Sun’s daughter ran back outside to greet the Star, who was just stepping down from the sky into the garden of the Palace of the Morning, and who looked very like the Peaceful One herself, though she was gowned in red instead of green.
“What can you tell me, sister?” the Peaceful One asked breathlessly. “Is he there, where the words of the Plover and the Blackbird placed him?”
“He is there, of course,” the Star assured her twin, her eyes twinkling bright with happiness, very like their father the Sun’s. “When did you ever know our dear Birds to be wrong? And I have seen it for myself as well. In a frozen tomb in the heart of the Land of Flowers lies the beloved of the Winter Princess, and his sleep is fretful and unhappy, for even in his dreams he searches endlessly for his lost love. But she is no longer lost, for we have found her, and with her help we shall divine the incantations which will set him free, and then we will be able to break all the evil spells cast by the Winter King and Queen, and give the lovers the Land of Flowers to be their own kingdom forever…”
Star of Wonder Page 27