The Lady Vanishes

The newly appointed Allarian ambassador to Aqualaria blinked in astonishment. A moment earlier he had been dancing with the very beautiful Princess Astra, and reflecting that the customary tedium of life as a diplomat did occasionally have its compensations. Now his arms were empty.

He looked down at the ballroom floor, as though he thought that the princess could somehow have sunk through it. Then he looked up at the ceiling. But neither the highly polished wood of the floor nor the ornately decorated ceiling yielded him any clue as to how the princess could have vanished from out of his grasp.

People were beginning to notice that the princess was missing, and were crowding round him, angry expressions on their faces. "It wasn't my fault," he squeaked.

"If you've harmed Princess Astra, then you can forget about diplomatic immunity," a woman in a deep red gown growled. She was tall even by Aqualarian standards. The ambassador vaguely recalled being introduced to her earlier, but in his current state of panic he couldn't remember her name or her function in the court. (With a shudder, he imagined a possible quotation from some future history book: "The bloodiest of all the bloody wars between Aqualaria and Allaria was the so-called War of the Missing Princess".)

"She just vanished from out of his arms," someone said. "I happened to be looking in their direction and saw it happen."

"Magic, then," the tall woman said. With the air of one accustomed to giving orders and having them obeyed without question, she added: "Send for the court sorceress. Perhaps she can tell us what has happened to the princess. And send for Her Majesty too, of course." (The Queen had hosted the earlier banquet in the ambassador's honour, but had left before the dancing.)

1. The court sorceress arrives on the scene.
2. Back in Corona, Governor Gilder is wondering just how he should respond to Astra's seeming come-on.

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