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Cimorene had been to royal weddings before, of course; attending the weddings of neighboring royalty was an unavoidable consequence of being a princess, and she had gone to Alianora’s wedding just last year. She had even helped to plan a royal wedding before, since she’d been a bridesmaid for all six of her older sisters. But somehow, she had completely underestimated how much work it would be to organize her own wedding.
Not that she was doing it all herself. Willin in particular had been a godsend, and seemed determined to make up for all the formal events Mendanbar had cancelled by working around the clock to make this one perfect. Morwen and Telemain were pitching in, too, and Kazul as well, whenever her duties as King of the Dragons permitted. But there was still so much to be done that Cimorene didn’t know how they were going to fit it all in, and Mendanbar was starting to mutter about eloping again.
“I know he doesn’t really mean it,” Cimorene confided to Morwen as they were addressing the towering stack of invitations, “but I understand how he feels. It would have been so much easier to elope. Even for a royal wedding, this is going to be big.”
“Well, it’s the wedding of the King of the Enchanted Forest and the King of the Dragons’ princess,” said Morwen. “It will be the social event of the year. I expect you’ll be setting the fashion in royal weddings for the next decade.”
“I hope not,” groaned Cimorene. “I’m sure I’m making most of these decisions on far too little sleep. And when I do sleep, I dream about flower arrangements and cake flavorings.”
Morwen shot her a sympathetic glance. “You’ve been under a lot of stress lately. Burned out on wedding planning?”
“Maybe a little,” Cimorene admitted. “I like being in charge and organizing things, but I haven’t had a moment to myself in weeks.”
“Maybe you need to take a break,” said Morwen. “Go do something fun. You’ll feel better.”
“I don’t have time for a break when there’s still so much left to do,” muttered Cimorene. She glanced at the clock. “Oh, no! Kazul will be here to pick me up any minute now, and we’re not nearly finished yet.”
“Leave the rest until tomorrow, then.”
“No, tomorrow I have to interview applicants for the pastry chef position. The Cauldron of Plenty will take care of the wedding dinner, but…”
“…it’s notoriously bad at desserts, I know,” said Morwen. “Here, give me the rest of the invitations. I’ll finish up and you can go home with Kazul.”
“Are you sure?” said Cimorene doubtfully. “I don’t like to dump it all on you.”
“Half the reason you never seem to have enough time lately is that you’re shuttling back and forth from the Mountains of Morning every day,” said Morwen practically. “The sooner you finish moving out of Kazul’s caves, the better. Go home and finish packing.”
“Thank you,” said Cimorene with relief. “I’ll see you tomorrow, then.”
Cimorene was delayed getting down to the courtyard. She arrived to find Kazul waiting for her. “There you are,” said Kazul. “What took you so long?”
“Sorry,” said Cimorene. “I stopped to say goodbye to Mendanbar, and—”
“Ah,” said Kazul knowingly. “Say no more.”
“Not like that!” Cimorene said hastily, blushing a little. “He and Willin were having another argument about the wedding and I got drawn in.”
Kazul rolled her eyes. “What was it this time?”
“Apparently Willin had decided that we should release fifty white doves during the ceremony,” said Cimorene. “It took both of us to convince him that it wouldn’t be worth the mess they would make.”
“Human weddings,” Kazul grunted. “I’ve never understood them. Dragons manage everything much more sensibly.”
“I’m sure you do,” said Cimorene, climbing up onto Kazul’s back. “You can tell me all about dragon weddings on the way home.”
By the time they made it through the Caves of Fire and Night, Cimorene was starting to feel tired. Her busy days and lost sleep were catching up with her, and she still had to make dinner and try to get some more packing done. At least she was only cooking for herself tonight; Kazul was meeting with Roxim and some of the other dragons on royal business, and had left again immediately after dropping Cimorene off at their cave.
Cimorene rubbed her eyes tiredly as she made her way to the kitchen, which was why it took her a moment to realize that it was occupied by possibly the last person she wanted to see.
“Antorell?” said Cimorene disgustedly. “You’ve got a nerve, showing up here. How many times does Kazul have to ban wizards from the Mountains of Morning before you can take a hint?”
“Ah, but Kazul isn’t here now, is she?” Antorell said, grinning unpleasantly. “I happen to know that she’s gone out and won’t be back for hours. And now, Princess, I can finally have my revenge on you for all the times you’ve thwarted me!” He pointed his staff at her.
As he paused dramatically, Cimorene kicked the staff out from under him. Antorell stumbled and fell over, giving Cimorene time to reach behind the door for her emergency bucket of wizard-melting soapy water with lemon juice. Her plan hit a snag when she realized that the bucket was empty.
“Aha!” cried Antorell, managing to look smug even while he was lying on the ground, disentangling himself from his own robes. “Thought you would use that old trick, did you? This time, I found your blasted soapsuds and poured them down the sink before you got here. There’s nothing you can do to save yourself now!”
Time for a new plan, Cimorene thought. Maybe she could wrestle the staff away from him. She suspected he wouldn’t be much use without it. Unfortunately, the thought had barely had time to cross her mind when Antorell made it to his feet again. This time, he skipped the dramatic pause and simply aimed a spell at her. Cimorene ducked, and the spell left a nasty scorch mark on the wall behind her.
On second thought, this might be the time for a tactical retreat. Cimorene ran back into the corridor. If she could just make it to the library…
“You can’t escape me, Princess!” Antorell called as he pursued her. She ducked another spell. Finally, there was the library. She ducked inside.
When Antorell followed her in, he saw her peering out at him from behind one of the shelves. He laughed. “Really, Cimorene? Surely you could have found a better hiding place.”
“Maybe,” said Cimorene. “But I know something you don’t know.”
“What’s that?” said Antorell suspiciously.
“I keep a bucket of soapy water in every room. Just in case.” She pulled the bucket from behind the shelf and threw it at him.
“Noooo!” cried Antorell as he melted. “Curse you, Cimorene! I’ll get you for thiiiis…” Then he was gone. His staff thumped to the ground atop the pile of blue and brown wizard’s robes.
Cimorene grinned down at the soggy mess. Adrenaline pumped through her veins, and she suddenly felt better than she had all day. She hummed cheerfully to herself as she went to get the mop. Morwen had been right. What she had really needed was a break to do something fun.