Sunrise

Fred quickly fell into a heavy, dreamless sleep.

At dawn he was jostled awake by Edwin. He sat up, and felt aches in his muscles. Edwin pointed to the pedestal.

Despite his desire to get more sleep, Fred stood up, and said, "Princess?"

The stone princess was moving! Not clumsily as he had expected, but the movements were as agile as that of any normal human. But Astra was still a shade of pinkish white, as marble. Her eyes were like, and indeed may have been, sapphires, pools of brilliant blue set in ivory. She brought a hand over her eyes to block out the rising sun, and then looked as if she had tried to speak - but no words came out. She made a motion with her finger over a flat palm, as if she were writing.

The men looked around. There was no paper, wax tablet, or other way of writing things. Edwin started to walk toward some underbrush. Then there was another stirring. Thomas was slowly rising. Thomas moved like a tired and sore man. One of the men, Marius, went to assist him.

Fred approached the pedestal with some of the other men. The problem was, how was he to get Astra down? She was going to jump. The men backed away, and she landed on her feet.

Astra started to gesture. She pointed to her eyes, and ears, and nodded her head. She could see, and could hear. She pointed to her nose and then brushed one hand across the other arm, and shook her head. She could not smell, and could not feel pressure. She then shrugged her shoulders, and touched her fingertip to her tongue, and nodded her head. So she could taste as well. Then she pointed to the pond. The men got out of her way.

She walked to the shore, kneeled down, and cupped her hands for some water. She drank one handful, and then another. Thomas was now standing up and walking gimpily toward the statue of Anselm. Edwin emerged from the underbrush with a section of a broken branch with a pointed end. He ran toward the shore, and said, "Princess, do you wish to write something in the sand? I have a stick that might help."

She still knelt, but took the branch from Edwin's hand. In the sand, she wrote, "I am alive. What happened?"

Fred spoke for the group. "Simon and the dragon are dead. After you had been turned to stone, Simon and Anselm were bargaining with the dragon. They were offering the dragon a spell to control your will, and allow you to move, in exchange for other magic and help in setting Simon up as a king in Aqualaria. The dragon agreed, and Anselm started to cast a spell. But something went wrong. There was a great fireball, and the dragon was ripped apart, as you can see. I ducked into the water, and emerged. Simon was still there, on fire, looking for something. He ran toward the water, said that he was sorry, and then died."

George replied, "It was strange. He did stay in that fire longer than I would have. I remember that, even though I was a long way off. It was almost as if he were talking to Thomas, and then to Anselm. I thought that he was ignoring the fire."

Edwin said, "Anselm was not a wizard. That is the one thing that does not make sense."

Another man spoke up. "I wonder if Simon had stayed in the fire to cast a spell on Thomas and Anselm to protect them."

Fred replied, "Maybe. But why would he not protect himself first? And why would he not cast the second spell himself, instead of letting Anslem do it?"

Astra turned toward George, and asked held out her arms in front of her, as if cradling comething. George could not quite understand. Astra made a motion pointing to him, and then a motion across one outstretched arm.

"Do you want me to lie down in your arms?"

Astra smiled and nodded.

George did exactly that. Astra lifted him up with no more difficulty than if she were lifting a bolt of fine silk. She gently knelt down and placed him back on the ground.

George said, "You are warm, Your Grace. Your skin is fair, like marble, but it gives way a little. It is like rock in some ways, but not in others. And your strength is amazing."

1. Then Marius said, "Hey! Come here."

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