Bring Me the Head of Prince Charming

"Where can I get some really good eyes?" Ylith asked.

"Eyes," Skander mused. "Why, there are eyes everywhere. Why do you bother asking me?"

"You know where the best ones are. All dragons do."

"Yes, of course," Skander said. "But I'd really rather not discuss eyes, if you don't mind."

"You don't want to discuss eyes?"

"Just superstitious, I guess. Sorry."

"Care to tell me about it?"

"All right," he said. "Long ago, in China, I saw that when­ever the court artist painted dragons he always put in the eyes last. When I asked him of this, he told me that this act gave the painting a special sort of life, and it wouldn't do to summon this life until everything else was done. A wise man had told him that the eyes of my kind are the focus of the spirit. They hold the life, they are the last things to go. I looked up that wise man then-an old Taoist monk-and he assured me that this was true. He also prophesied that a witch asking after eyes in my presence represented a total reversal of Yin and Yang."

"What does that mean?"

"Rosebud..." he answered, and closed his eyes.

She waited, but he did not continue. After a time, she cleared her throat.

"Uh, Skander? What then?"

There was no reply.

"You asleep, Skander?"

Silence.

Finally, she moved forward and held her hand before his nostrils. She could feel no breath. Moving even nearer, she placed her hand between the scales of his breast. There was no heartbeat.

"Oh dear!" she said. "What now?"

But she already knew.

When she had done, she stroked the dead dragon's nose, a thing it had loved feeling in life. Poor old dragon! she thought. So old and wise, yet reduced to this, a mound of cooling flesh in a mountain cave.

She knew that it would be evening soon, and that was not a good time to be about in a foreign country. Local demons were apt to be abroad, and they could cause some rare mischief if they were of a mind to. There was no love lost between European and Asiatic demons in those days, and the wars be­tween the two still awaits their chronicler.

The eyes she wrapped in a small silk handkerchief, then placed in a casket of rosewood which she kept on hand for the transport of delicate and precious objects. Then she turned and departed the cave.

Ylith stood tall as the light of the falling sun bounced off the ice peaks of the highest mountains. She shook out her glorious black flag of hair, mounted her powerbroom, and soared away into the west, the land of the dragon dwindling beneath her.

Chapter 7

It was still daylight when Ylith arrived in Augsburg, for, with a favorable tail wind, she had managed to outrace the sun itself. She came down near the front door of Azzie's mansion and banged hard with the big brass knocker. "Azzie! I'm back! I've got them!"

A cavernous silence followed. Although it was a summer afternoon, there was a chill in the air. Ylith felt faintly uneasy. Her witch's sense warned her that something was amiss. She touched the protective amulet of amber she wore around her neck. She knocked again.

At last the door was opened. Frike stood there, meager face screwed into an expression of grief.

"Frike! What is the matter!"

"Alas, mistress! Things have gone very wrong indeed!"

"Where is Azzie?"

"That, milady, is what has gone most wrong. He is not here."

"Not here? But where could he be?"

"I do not know," Frike said, "but it wasn't my fault!"

"Tell me what happened."

"A few hours ago," Frike said, "the master was preparing a solution to wash the hair of Princess Scarlet, since it had become dirty and tangled. He had finished it, and I was drying the lady's hair. I recollect it was somewhat past the noon hour, for the sun was full and high when I went out to gather fire­wood- "

"Get on with it," Ylith said. "What happened?"

"I came in with the firewood and Master Azzie was hum­ming a merry tune as he clipped Prince Charming's finger­nails-he always takes great care with details, you know. All of a sudden he stopped humming and looked about. I looked, too, though I had heard no sound. Master Azzie looked entirely around him, and when his gaze rested on me again, I could swear he was a changed demon. Some of the fire had gone out of his hair, and he had grown pale. I said to him, 'Did you hear something, master?' and he said, 'Yes, a keening sound, and it will bring me no good. Quick, fetch me my Master Spell Book.' And so saying, he slumped to his knees. I rushed to do his bidding. He had not the strength to open the book -it is that very large brass-bound one you see on the floor near your feet. He said to me, 'Frike, help me turn the pages. Some cu

"All?" said Ylith. "What do you mean, all?"

"All that he said, mistress."

"I understand that well enough. But what happened?"

"He vanished, Mistress Ylith."

"Vanished?" Ylith said.

"Before my very eyes, he vanished entirely out of sight. I was beside myself, knowing not what to do. He had left no instructions. So I went into hysterics for a time, then decided it best simply to await your arrival."

"Describe to me the ma

"The ma

"Yes. Was it a smoke vanishment, in which he dwindled quickly to nothing? Or was it a flash vanishment, in which he disappeared with perhaps a small clap of thunder? Or did he shrink down to the size of a point first?"

"I know not, mistress. I shut my eyes."

"Shut your eyes! You are a fool, Frike!"

"Ah, mistress, but I peeked."

"And what did your peek tell you?"

"I saw the master become very thin and slide off sidewise."

"Which side?"

"The right side, mistress."

"Did he slide away smoothly or with a sort of up-and-down motion?"

"With motion."

"This is very important, Frike. Did he at any time change color before vanishing completely?"

"You've got it, Mistress Ylith! He changed color indeed, just before he slid away into nothingness!"

"What color did he change into?"

"Blue, milady."

"It is as I thought," Ylith said. "Now let us look at his conjuring book."

Frike lifted the heavy volume to a lectern where Ylith could read it more easily. It was still turned to the page Azzie had regarded just before his disappearance. Ylith bent over it and quickly translated the runes.

"What is it?" Frike asked.

"It is a General Unbinding, Frike," she told him. "This is the spell that demons use when something or someone is trying to conjure them. It is called the Grand Counterveillance."

"Was he too late?"

"Obviously."

"Conjured!" said Frike. "But the master is a conjurer him­self!"

"Of course he is," Ylith said, "and a very good one. But all who conjure, Frike, are subject themselves to conjuration. It is one of the great laws of the Unseen Realm."

"So I have heard," Frike said. "But who could conjure the master away like that?"

"There are many possibilities," Ylith said. "But given the sequence of events, it is most likely that it was some mortal- a witch perhaps-or an alchemist, or some other demon-who had a hold of some sort over Azzie, and thus was able to call him away without his consent."

"But when will we see him again?" Frike asked.