| "Well, will we be meeting Belboz soon?" Annafrid asks. "We probably
will if we take the right-hand entrance," Joan replies. "I ran into him
pretty soon after going that way. [16] That's the way I want to go, so
I can settle my score with him."
"I've heard a lot from various Freds and Astras about their addventures," Andrea says. "Unlike you, most of the Freds seem to have taken the left-hand entrance. When they did, almost all of them discovered a Princess Astra, chained to the wall by the dragon. Belinda, is it possible that your sister might have suffered the same fate? If so, we ought to go that way and rescue her before doing anything else." "Well," Belinda responds, "it doesn't seem very likely. Firstly, of course she isn't a princess in this reality, so that's one big difference. Also the very idea of a warrior woman is almost unthinkable here - though knowing my sister like I do, I could just imagine her becoming one if she had ever had the opportunity. She's always been something of a tomboy. Also, like myself, she had some secret weapons training from our father and uncle, and proved very good at it. But that she would set out on a quest to try to kill the dragon seems almost unimaginable." "So if she isn't questing after the dragon, what is she doing?" Jarlath asks. "If she's anything like her analogues, I can't imagine she'd be content to just sit around at home all day, waiting for some young nobleman to propose to her." Belinda smiles. "You're quite right. She's four years older than me,
of course, and she flew the nest a couple of years ago. The careers open
to women in Allaria are strictly limited, and most of those that there
are aren't very suitable for someone wanting anything at all challenging.
But Astra's always been good at languages, and she managed to get herself
a position as an interpreter with our embassy in Maracca, the capital of
Califie. So you see, she won't have been anywhere within
"When did you last hear from her?" Andrea asks. Belinda says she last had a letter from her sister four months ago. "But she has never written home very frequently," she points out, "so there's nothing at all worrying about that." They eventually decide:
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