The Princess's New Clothes

She showed Fred and Astra to adjacent rooms on the first floor [for American readers, that's the second floor]. Velus made to enter Astra's room, but she told him: "No! You share with Fred."

Astra saw that a large tin bath full of steaming water sat in the centre of her room, and that soap, a sponge and a towel had been provided. "Thank you," she said to the landlord's wife. "That's excellent."

"My pleasure, your ladyship," the woman said. "Is there anything else that I can do for you? I could launder your dress, perhaps, and have it ready for you in the morning?"

Astra scowled. "Are you making fun of me?" she asked.

The woman seemed upset. "I don't understand," she said.

Astra realised that her distress was genuine. "I'm sorry," she said. "Please forget what I said. This may sound like a strange question, but do I appear to you to be wearing a dress? What's it like?"

The woman's distress was replaced by confusion. "Well of course you're wearing a dress, your ladyship. It's a very nice dress, if I may say so. It's fawn, with long sleeves and almost floor length."

"Thank you. I don't want it laundered, but it was kind of you to offer."

The innkeeper's wife left, and Astra bolted the door of her room. Then she climbed into the bath and luxuriated in the hot water. As she did, she thought about what the woman had said. It seemed that the dragon must have cast an illusion spell on her, so that it would look to everyone apart from Fred, Velus and herself that she was wearing clothes. Presumably that was intended to make their mission easier. But why hadn't the dragon told her that he was doing that? Perhaps he had just forgotten, as she would have been bound to find out before long.

The illusion of clothes was almost as good as being able to wear the real thing. Since her reason for agreeing to work for the dragon was to get her curse lifted, perhaps she should now give up on the mission? She could even go home if she wanted to, though she wasn't sure that she did, given how she had been treated by her family.

Perhaps the dragon's illusion had a time limit to it, though? Her imaginary clothes might disappear in a couple of weeks, being intended to last for only the duration of the mission. Then there was the point that imaginary clothes didn't provide any warmth. She would be very cold in the winter.

1. Astra decides to continue with the mission.
2. Astra decides to inform Fred that she is abandoning the mission. Since he has only come along to help her, she expects him to abandon it as well.

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