"My goodness," she said, "you certainly do have a lot of space."

"Alianora!" the gold-crowned princess said sharply, and the princess with the pearl circlet flushed and subsided, looking unhappy.

"This way," Cimorene said hastily, and led the three princesses into the kitchen. "Do sit down," she said, waving at the bench beside the kitchen table.

The gold-crowned princess looked at the bench with distaste, but after a moment she sat down. The other two followed her example. There was a brief silence while Cimorene filled the copper teakettle and hung it over the fire, and then the gold-crowned princess said, "I am remiss in my duties, for I have not yet told you who we are. I am the Princess Keredwel of the Kingdom of Raxwel, now captive of the dread dragon Gornul. This"-she nodded toward the princess in the silver crown-"is the Princess Hallanna of the Kingdom of Poranbuth, now captive of the dread dragon Zareth. And this"-she waved at the girl in the pearl circlet-"is the Princess Alianora of the Duchy of Toure-on-Marsh, now prisoner of the dread dragon Woraug."

"Pleased to meet you," Cimorene said. "I am Princess Cimorene of the Kingdom of Linderwall, now princess of the dragon Kazul. What sort of tea would you like? I have blackberry, ginger, chamomile, and gunpowder green. I'm afraid I used the last of the lapsang souchong this morning."

"Blackberry, please," Keredwel said. She gave Cimorene a considering look. "You seem to be most philosophic about your fate."

"Would that I had so valiant a spirit," Hallanna said in failing accents.

"But my sensibility is too great, I fear, for me to follow your example."

"if you don't like being a dragon's princess, why don't you escape?"

Cimorene asked, remembering that Kazul had said that three princesses in a row had run away from the yellow-green dragon, Moranz.

Keredwel and Hallanna looked shocked. "Without being rescued?"

Hallanna faltered. "Walk all that way, with dragons and trolls and goodness knows what else hiding in the rocks, ready to eat me? Oh, I couldn't!"

"It isn't done," Keredwel said coldly. "And I notice that you haven't tried it."

"But I'm enjoying being Kazul's princess," Cimorene said cheerfully.

"I suppose I might have been upset if I'd been carried off the way you were, but I can hardly complain as it is, can I?"

Alianora leaned forward. "Then you really didn't volunteer to be Kazul's princess?"

Keredwel and Hallanna turned and stared at their companion. "Where did you get that ridiculous idea, Alianora?" Hallanna said.

"W-Woraug said-" Alianora faltered.

"You must have misunderstood," Keredwel said severely. "No one volunteers to be a dragon's princess. It isn't done."

"Actually, Alianora's quite right," Cimorene said as she set the teacups in front of her visitors. "I did volunteer." She smiled sweetly at the thunderstruck expressions on the faces of the first two princesses. "I got tired of embroidery and etiquette."

Keredwel and Hallanna seemed unsure of how to take this announcement, so they made polite conversation about the tea and asked Cimorene questions about the current fashions. Alianora didn't say very much, and the few times she tried either Keredwel or Hallanna jumped on her.

Cimorene felt rather sorry for Alianora.

The princesses swept off at last, still somewhat puzzled by Cimorene's attitude. Cimorene gave a sigh of relief and set about cleaning up the kitchen. She was just rinsing the last of the cups when she heard someone hesitantly clearing her throat behind her. Cimorene turned and saw Alianora standing timidly in the doorway.

"Hello again," Cimorene said. "Did you forget something?"

"Not exactly," Alianora said. "I mean, I told Keredwel I did, but actually I just wanted to get away from them for a while. I hope you don't mind."

"I don't mind at all as long as you don't expect more hospitality," Cimorene assured her. "I have to get back to work on the library."

"What are you doing?" Alianora asked. She seemed really interested, so Cimorene explained about the fireproofing spell.

"It sounds like a wonderful idea," Alianora said when Cimorene finished.

"The dragons are careful around us, but it would be nice not to have to depend on them not to lose their tempers." She hesitated. "May I help?" don't think Kazul would mind, Cimorene said. "But you'd better change clothes first. The library isn't very clean, I'm afraid." Alianora looked down at her silk gown, which was embroidered heavily with silver and pearls, and giggled. Cimorene took her into the bedroom and found a plain, serviceable cleaning dress in the magic wardrobe. It took two tries before the wardrobe figured out that she wanted a dress for someone else, but once it caught on, it provided a splendid selection in Alianora's size. Then they went to the library and got to work.

Cleaning was much more enjoyable with Alianora for company. By the time they finished dusting and straightening the last bookcases, the two girls were fast friends, and Alianora was comfortable enough to ask Cimorene straight out how it was that she had come to volunteer for a dragon.

"It's a long story," Cimorene said, but Alianora insisted on hearing it.

So Cimorene told her and then asked how Alianora had happened to be carried off by Woraug.

To her surprise, Alianora flushed. "I think it was the only thing left that they could think of," she said, not very clearly. "My family, I mean."

"I don't understand," Cimorene said.

"It's because I'm not a very satisfactory princess," Alianora said. "I tried, I really did, but .... It started when the wicked fairy came to my "She put a curse on you?"

"No. She ate cake and ice cream until she nearly burst and danced with my Uncle Arthur until two in the morning and had a wonderful time. So she went home without cursing me, and Aunt Ermintrude says that that's where the whole problem started."

"Lots of princesses don't have christening curses," said Cimorene.

"Not if a wicked fairy comes to the christening," Alianora said positively.

"And that was only the beginning. When I turned sixteen, Aunt Ermintrude sent me a gold spinning wheel for my birthday, and I sat down and spun. I didn't prick my finger or anything."

Cimorene was beginning to see what Alianora was getting at. "Well, if you didn't have a christening curse…"

"So Aunt Ermintrude told Mama to put me and a spinning wheel in a room full of straw and have me spin it into gold," Alianora went on. "And I tried! But all I could manage was linen thread, and whoever heard of a princess who can spin straw into linen thread?"

"It's a little unusual, certainly."

"Then they gave me a loaf of bread and told me to walk through the forest and give some to anyone who asked. I did exactly what they told me, and the second beggar-woman was a fairy in disguise, but instead of saying that whenever I spoke, diamonds and roses would drop from my mouth, she said that since I was so kind, I would never have any problems with my teeth."

"Really? Did it work?"

"Well, I haven't had a toothache since I met her."

"I'd much rather have good teeth than have diamonds and roses drop out of my mouth whenever I said something," Cimorene said. "Think how uncomfortable it would be if you accidentally talked in your sleep! You'd wake up rolling around on thorns and rocks."

"That never occurred to me," Alianora said, much struck.

"Was that everything?" Cimorene asked.

"No," Alianora said. "Aunt Ermintrude persuaded one of her fairy friends to give me a gown and a pair of glass slippers to go to a ball in the next kingdom over. And I broke one before I even got out of the castle!"

"That's not so surprising," Cimorene said. "Glass slippers are for deserving merchants' daughters, not for princesses."