Then Mika led her away, a little worried as to what Flumpdoria was going to say to this.
3
THE ENCHANTMENT
Mika and Gloria rode home on a cloud, because Mika thought Gloria would be more comfortable traveling this way than riding the wind. They had one minor accident. Mika forgot that Gloria needed help in order to sail through the air so easily and let go her hand for a moment to point at something beneath them. He just barely managed to catch her as she began to fall.
Gloria was so upset by this that she insisted on tying their wrists together, in case Mika should become absent-minded again. It made moving about rather difficult, but Gloria said she liked it that way, and didn’t mind the inconvenience. There wasn’t much use in moving about on the cloud, anyway, as it was all just alike.
After not many days they came to the valley, and the cloud settled to the ground near a large rock.
“You sit on this rock and wait for me, darling,” Mika said, “while I go and see about our wedding. I’m sure it won’t be very hard to manage.”
“Wait here?” Gloria exclaimed. “All alone?”
“I can’t take you with me, sweetheart,” Mika said. “Wear this bracelet, and I’ll draw a ring around you, and nothing can get in to hurt you.” Mika drew a circle around the rock, and said, “El bingo swozzlebop bingo el,” very fast. Then he kissed her hastily and disappeared before she could answer.
He reappeared again a moment later, though, to kiss her goodbye again, and then was gone. Gloria waited a few moments to see if he’d come back again, but this time nothing happened.
She looked all around, but nothing was in sight but trees and grass and the mountains that ringed the valley.
“I hope this turns out all right,” she thought. “I’m sure I could never find my way home again.” She slipped the bracelet he had given her onto her arm.
Immediately she began to see things she hadn’t been able to see before. All about the rock, just outside the ring Mika had drawn in the grass, were horrid little men about a foot high, looking at her curiously and making faces.
Gloria was terribly frightened, and took the bracelet off quickly, but put it on again right away.
“I wish I hadn’t put it on,” she thought. “But I’ll have to wear it now, for since I know they are there, it’s more uncomfortable not to see them.”
“Who are you?” she called to them. “What do you want?”
They didn’t say a word, just danced around her and shook their fists. But they never came inside the ring, so at last Gloria wasn’t frightened any more, and she got tired and went to sleep.
In the meantime Mika was causing a good deal of excitement in Fairyland. He went first to Flumpdoria and told her that he simply had to marry Gloria, and couldn’t she please do something about it.
“I knew something would happen,” Flumpdoria said. “Your father will be simply wild. But we’ll have to try to get his consent. It will be very difficult if we don’t.”
“She’s of royal birth,” Mika said hopefully.
“She’s a mortal, isn’t she?” asked his godmother scornfully. “That’s what makes it hard. And she may not agree to the conditions. However, let’s go and see your father. I’m quite certain he won’t be any help at all.”
They jumped into Flumpdoria’s chariot and rushed to the palace. King Klux was sitting on his throne, listening to the report of the royal gardener.
“Good day, Your Majesty,” said Flumpdoria. “Mika wants to be married.”
“Well, well,” said the King, “I’m glad you’ve finally decided to be sensible. I have your wife all picked out.”
“I’ve already selected one for myself,” Mika said. “A princess.”
“I’ll have to see her myself,” said the King. “Still, if she’s a princess…”
“The only trouble is,” Flumpdoria put in, “she’s a mortal, so of course we’ll need your help.”
“A mortal!” roared King Klux. “Are you crazy? Go away! Get out! You can’t marry a mortal, and that’s final! Of all the idiotic, senseless, impertinent…”
“It can be done, you know,” Flumpdoria interrupted.
“It won’t be done!” cried King Klux, jumping up and down in a frenzy. The royal gardener retired with no noise at all, to spread the report among the fairies that Prince Mika wanted to marry a mortal.
“You don’t want him marrying one of those swamp princesses, do you?” said Flumpdoria. “Imagine having the damp creature slithering around the palace!”
“I will not consent! To think that a son of mine could be so…”
“We’d better go,” said Flumpdoria to Mika. “I knew it wouldn’t do any good to consult him. Come with me and we’ll solve the problem some way. He’ll be too busy to interfere much, because he’ll soon be in a war with the Swamp King. He had your marriage arranged for, you see, with the eldest Swamp Princess, and your refusal to marry her will surely lead to a battle.”
“I told him ages ago I wouldn’t marry her,” said Mika.
When they arrived at Flumpdoria’s house she went to the attic and began dragging old dusty books from the shelves.
“I’ll have to look up the magic,” she said. “This hasn’t been done in a long time, if ever.”
She sat down at a table, with books piled high around her, and began looking through them rapidly, searching for some information concerning marriage with mortals.
Dust rose from the books and swirled about her, dancing and glittering wherever the light struck it.
Mika leaned over her shoulder curiously, repeating softly to himself some of the incantations he read there. At once there were faint rustlings and sighs in the air.
“Stop, stop!” Flumpdoria cried. “You silly thing, do you want all the jinns and genii in the world bumping about in this room? Don’t say those spells aloud. And stop looking over my shoulder. It gives me the creeps.”
“Sorry,” said Mika. “I didn’t think.”
“If you want to help, take this book and go over there and see what you can find in it. If there’s nothing here on the subject, we’ll have to consult Glauz.”
Mika didn’t read aloud any more, and for a while the silence was broken only by the turning of the leaves of the big books. Every time a leaf was turned, clouds of dust rose in the still air, for these books were not used once in a thousand years. The magic in them was very strong, for special occasions, and only an accomplished magician knew how to use it.
After a while Flumpdoria stood up with a sigh. “I have it,” she said. “I thought it was here. But I’ll have to get Glauz to help me. I don’t think I can do this by myself.”
So she and Mika got into the chariot again, and swiftly rode to Glauz’s house. Glauz was the foremost magician of the kingdom, and knew about all kinds of magic.
He lived in a beautiful rose-crystal cave, with many rooms hung with wonderful tapestries. As Flumpdoria and Mika descended from the chariot he came to meet them and took them into his reception room.
“I have something really interesting to consult you about,” Flumpdoria said. “Mika wants to marry a mortal.”
“A mortal!” The old magician looked at Mika severely over his square spectacles. “Young man, you’re going to cause a good deal of trouble if you continue to have notions like that.”
“I won’t have any more like it,” Mika said, “if we can just get this one worked out.”
“The King won’t like it,” said Glauz.
“He’s in a dreadful pet already,” Flumpdoria said. “We must hurry, before he takes steps to prevent the marriage.”
Flumpdoria beckoned to the footmen on the chariot, and they took out the huge book of magic and carried it into the crystal cave.
“Bring it into my workroom,” Glauz said. “I think better in there.” The workroom was almost entirely filled with books, so that there was hardly room left for a table and chair. They sent Mika outside.
“You’re only in the wa
y. We’ll call you when we’re ready.”
Mika wandered around outside, kicking at stones and trying to be patient. He hoped Gloria wasn’t getting tired of waiting.
After a long time Flumpdoria came out of the crystal cave looking very tired.
“I had to promise him one of my best and oldest books on deep blue magic,” she said, “to get him to help us.”
“You’re an old darling,” Mika said, kissing her on her ear, which always tickled her and made her jump.
“Stop it. No nonsense! We must go to Gloria this minute.”
They entered the chariot, and Glauz hurried out and got in too. He had the strangest collection of things with him: three small purple flowers, two very young tadpoles, a red feather and a blue one, a bottle of something labeled “Magic Sprinkle,” two unwieldy rainbows that kept knocking them in the head, and so many other things that they could hardly find room for all of them. They packed them all in, though, and set out for the valley where Mika had left Gloria.
Gloria was sleeping soundly, curled up on the rock, when they arrived. She sat up quickly and looked around. There, standing beside her, were an old woman dressed in beautiful robes, Mika, and an old man with his arms full of all sorts of things. His face was mostly white whiskers, except for the piercing green eyes behind his spectacles. The goblins were gone.
“This is my godmother,” Mika said, kissing Gloria, “and the great magician Glauz. They’re going to help us.”
Gloria slipped off the rock and curtsied.
“Do you really want to marry him?” Flumpdoria asked.
“Yes,” Gloria said timidly.
“There are conditions you must both agree to. You, Gloria, will never die. You will live your natural life here with Mika, and then you will come to Fairyland.
“Mika, you will be changed to a mortal, more or less. You’ll have to stay the same large size. You will have no wings. And you cannot return to Fairyland for a thousand years and seven days. After Gloria comes to Fairyland, she will begin her education, and will study all the fairy things she doesn’t know, until the thousand years and seven days are over, when you will come back to Fairyland and be reunited forever. Do you agree?”
“It seems an awfully long time,” Gloria said, “but I agree.”
“The time will pass much more quickly for you in Fairyland than it will for Mika among the mortals,” Glauz said. “Mika?”
“I agree,” said Mika, wondering what he was going to do with himself for a thousand years and seven days.
Then Glauz and Flumpdoria waved their wands and drew a circle in the grass. A brilliant light shot up from the center of the circle, and Glauz put into it one by one all the things he had brought with him, and every time he put in something else the light changed color.
It was very beautiful, and, when they were told to, Gloria and Mika repeated some words they didn’t understand and hand in hand stepped into the center of the circle. All about them was the brilliant changing light, enveloping them, so that for a few moments they could see nothing else.
Then, suddenly, the light was gone and the circle was gone, and they were standing on the grass beside the big rock.
“Look behind you,” Flumpdoria said. They turned, and there was a beautiful castle, with flags flying from the turrets, and servants running about making sure that things were ready for them.
“Well, you’re married,” Flumpdoria said, sighing. “If your father makes too much fuss, I may come and visit you for a while. There’s a library there, Mika. You might spend some time studying. I’ve lent you some of my best books.”
“You may have trouble with goblins,” Glauz warned them, “living so near the goblin country. Be careful. You’re a nice child,” he added to Gloria. “When you come to Fairyland, I shall take great pleasure in instructing you myself.”
Gloria turned to thank them, but where Flumpdoria and Glauz had been standing, there was only a faint glow, and this disappeared while she looked at it.
Mika put his arm around her waist and they walked slowly toward the castle.
“It’s much finer than my father’s palace,” Gloria said.
They walked across the lawn and into the great hall, where the servants, standing in a line, curtsied to them, smiling. You could hardly tell they were not mortal, Gloria thought, except for the fact that they all had such very bright green eyes. They were all as large as she was.
They explored the castle, which was furnished with lovely things, and got settled in it very quickly. The fairies made Gloria beautiful clothes, because she had come away with nothing except what she had on.
They were very happy and silly, because they loved each other so much, and the time passed quickly. Mika, as Flumpdoria had suggested, spent some time each day reading magic in the library.
After a while they went on a visit to King Ferdinand, as they had promised. He was overjoyed to see them, as was Queen Katrina, Gloria’s mother. She liked Mika, and forgave him for taking her daughter away so suddenly.
They went to parties and balls, and enjoyed their visit very much. After that, they would visit each other every once in a while, but Queen Katrina was never very comfortable in the fairy castle, and her servants never got along very well with the fairy servants. Besides, she didn’t like the idea of being transported halfway around the world in a few seconds, although the King always said he thought it a very sensible way to travel.
Sometimes King Ferdinand came by himself, and he and Mika spent long hours in the library. The King got to be fairly proficient in the simpler forms of magic, and became quite famous in his own country as a magician.
Michael stopped talking, and Lucy sat quietly, watching the shadows and thinking of all the things she had heard. The longer she watched them, the more the shadows seemed to move and circle about her in a haze.
“It’s not comfortable when it’s so quiet,” she said at last. “The air gets purple.”
“It does, doesn’t it?” Michael said. “The first time Gloria came up here she said immediately that there was something strange about this room. They didn’t know about the shadows then.”
“Did they live happily ever after?” Lucy asked. “Had they any children? Are they in Fairyland now, this minute?”
“Gloria is. She’s still there, waiting for Mika. You see, the thousand years and seven days aren’t up yet.”
“Ooooh! And that’s why she gets tired of waiting. And does Mika ever come and see her shadow? Can she talk? To him?”
“No, she can’t talk to him,” Michael said. “If she had her shadow with her, it would do everything she does, as shadows always do. And that’s what it does in this room. Mika comes sometimes and watches the shadow to see what she’s doing, but it makes him homesick. He wants to see Gloria, and of course he can’t. When it’s a cloudy day in Fairyland, there isn’t any shadow in this room.”
“Who are the other shadows, Michael?”
“They are shadows of the members of Mika’s and Gloria’s family, who are now in Fairyland.”
“So they did have some children?”
“Yes. They had two. A little girl named Meira, for the Queen, Mika’s mother, and a little boy named Robin. Of course when the children were born—they were twins—King Klux forgave Mika for marrying a mortal and came to the great feast to celebrate. Things almost went wrong again, though, when they didn’t name the boy Klux.
“But Gloria said she wouldn’t consent to his having a name like that under any circumstances. Mika told his father that, really, since all his forty-seven older brothers had named their firstborn after the King, it would avoid confusion to have him called something else.
“King Ferdinand, who was there, too, pointed out that they hadn’t named the child after him either, so King Klux was comforted, and said no more about it. He and King Ferdinand took quite a liking to each other.
“Queen Katrina came, of course, and brought with her a woman who had been Gloria’s nurse when she was a baby. Her n
ame was Nancy Belle, and she was to look after the babies. It turned out she wasn’t much use, but Gloria liked having her around. Nancy Belle couldn’t tell a grasshopper from a fairy, but she was a good old thing.”
“Are Robin’s and Meira’s shadows here?”
“That’s Robin over there. See that young man waving a wand? I think he’s performing some kind of magic. Robin had an unfortunate experience with goblins, and later became interested in the subject of goblin magic, and specialized in it. He knows more about that kind of magic than anyone in the kingdom.”
When Michael stopped talking, the shadows became darker, and Lucy watched the shadow of Robin making strange motions with his wand. It was queer to think that she was seeing the shadow of something that was actually happening right this minute. Something in Fairyland!
“Could you tell me about Robin’s unfortunate experience?” she asked.
Michael got up and went to the window, pushing aside the vines to look up at the late morning sun.
“I’ll tell you about it,” he said. “It’s early. Time seems to go very slowly today.”
Lucy sat very still and quiet, waiting. The strange purple light seemed to grow dense. The shadows looked almost solid, as though they were real people. They passed and repassed each other, and it was hard to keep her eyes on one shadow.
Then Michael began to talk softly, and the light became less purple, and the shadows seemed thinner, until Lucy wasn’t seeing them at all, but thinking of the castle as it used to be, with things happening in it.
4
GOBLINS UNDERGROUND
This is something that happened to Robin when he was little (Michael said). It was on Midsummer’s Eve, when all the fairies have great feasts and celebrations. The morning after there are always dozens and dozens of rings in the grass where the fairies have been dancing.
This particular time King Klux had decided to hold his celebration in the valley in front of the castle, so Mika and Gloria could see the festivities. Gloria, being a mortal, of course couldn’t attend the ball, and both of them were far too large anyway, because Mika couldn’t go back to his fairy size until the enchantment was over.
Shadow Castle Page 3