"Oh!" she said as he turned. "You're-you're stone."
"I know," the prince said. "It's part of that long story I mentioned earlier. I haven't gotten used to it yet." He stepped through the gate, and it closed noiselessly behind him.
"I'm afraid I don't have time to listen to stories just now," Cimorene said politely. "I have a rather urgent errand to run, so if you'll excuse me-" "Can't I come with you?"
Cimorene stared at him. "Why do you want to do that?"
The stone prince looked down at his feet with an embarrassed expression.
"Um, well, actually, I'm lost. And you seem to know your way around down here." He glanced hopefully at Cimorene's face, then sighed. "I suppose I can just wander around some more. I'll have to find a way out eventually."
"You'll run into a dragon and get eaten."
"I don't think it will hurt stone," the prince said. He sounded almost cheerful, as if he had only just realized that being made of stone might have some advantages.
"Maybe not, but you're sure to give the dragon indigestion," Cimorene said. "Bother! I don't have time for this!"
"I could wait here if you're coming back this way," the stone prince suggested.
Cimorene brightened, then frowned and shook her head. "No, one of the dragons might need to get into the Caves of Fire and Night, or it might be the turn of those dratted wizards. You can't stay here."
"Then-" "I know! You can wait in the serving room, just off the banquet hall," Cimorene said. "It's close, there's plenty of room, and I know no one's using it today because I checked the schedule for Alianora yesterday. I can take a shortcut out the back to get to Roxim's without losing any more time.
Come on."
"I really appreciate this," the stone prince said as they started off.
"You don't know what it's like, being lost in the dark in these caves."
"How did it happen?" Cimorene asked.
The stone prince's expression became gloomy once more. "It's all that soothsayer's fault," he said.
"Soothsayer?"
"My father didn't think it was appropriate to invite fairies to a prince's christening, so he invited a soothsayer instead," the prince replied. "The soothsayer took one look at me and said that I would grow up to do a great service for a king. I've been stuck with his blasted prophecy ever since."
"It doesn't sound so terrible to me," Cimorene said.
"It wasn't, at first," the stone prince admitted. "I had special tutors in all sorts of interesting things to prepare me for being of great service to a king. My father even sent me to a special school for people who're supposed to do special things."
"Did you do well?"
"I was the top of my class," the stone prince said with a flash of pride.
His face fell again. "That's part of the problem."
"I don't understand," Cimorene said. "This way. And can you walk a little faster, please? I'm in a hurry."
"It's been three years since I graduated, and everyone's still waiting for me to do something spectacular," the stone prince said, lengthening his stride. "The rest of my classmates are already making names for themselves.
George started killing dragons right away, and Art went straight home and pulled some sort of magic sword out of a rock. Even the ones nobody expected to amount to much have done something. All Jack wanted to do was go back to his mother's farm and raise beans, and he ended up stealing a magic harp and killing a giant and all sorts of things. I'm the only one who hasn't succeeded."
"Why not?"
The stone prince sighed again. "I don't know. At first it seemed as if I wouldn't have any trouble finding a king to serve. Every time there was a war, both kings asked me to lead their armies, and every king for miles around who'd lost his throne to a usurper sent a messenger to my father's court. It should have been simple, Only they were always so worried about whether I was going to side with their enemies that it was easier not to pick anyone."
"I see," said Cimorene. Privately she thought that the stone prince had been rather wishy-washy.
Some of her opinion must have crept into her tone because the stone prince nodded glumly. "You're right. It was a mistake. As long as I didn't pick a king to serve, all the messengers and ambassadors and envoys stayed, hoping to persuade me. The inns around the castle were stuffed with them.
It got to the point where I couldn't show my face without at least three of them pouncing on me.
"Finally I couldn't stand it any more, and I ran away. It was a relief at first, not having everyone hovering over me waiting for me to do something great. But after a while I started feeling uncomfortable.
Then I realized that even if nobody around me expected me to do anything special in the service of a king, I expected me to do something.
"I was so flustered that I ran up to the next palace I saw and asked whether the king needed any services done. It turned out that he was ill, and his doctors had told him that the only thing that would cure him was a drink of the Water of Healing from the Caves of Fire and Night. So I left to get it at once."
"So that's what you were doing!" Cimorene said.
The stone prince gave her another gloomy nod. "I should have known better. That king had three sons, and the first two had already gone off to get the water and failed. Anyone with sense would have seen that the youngest son was the one who would succeed; it sticks out all over. But I was too eager to do my great service and get it over with, and I didn't stop and "What happened?"
"It took me a long time to find the Caves of Fire and Night, but once I did, it wasn't hard to find the Water of Healing. The chamber's getting crowded. All the princes who've tried to get the water and failed have been turned into slabs of rock."
"I know. I've seen them," Cimorene said. "Watch out for your head; the ceiling is low along here."
"Then you know what it's like, and you've seen the two dippers on the wall by the spring." The stone prince's shoulders sagged. "I knew I should use the tin one. It was one of the first things we learned at school. But I thought it wouldn't do any harm if I just looked at the gold one, so I took it off the wall. And as soon as I touched it, I started to stiffen up."
"Um," said Cimorene. The stone prince was obviously well aware of how foolishly he had behaved. She saw no reason to make him feel worse by pointing it out to him again.
"So I stuck my arm in the spring," the prince said.
"You stuck your arm-oh, I see! That was clever," Cimorene said.
"Do you really think so?" the stone prince asked anxiously. "I thought that since the water from the spring is going to turn all the slabs of stone back into princes when someone finally succeeds in the quest, then the water ought to keep me from turning into a slab of stone in the first place.
Only it didn't work the way I expected," he finished disconsolately.
"I can see that," Cimorene said. "But at least you can still do things. It would be much worse to have to lie there waiting for the right prince to come along and break the spell."
"I wouldn't have had to lie there very long," the stone prince said.
"That king's youngest son is going to arrive any day now, I just know it.
Anyway, if I were a slab of stone, I wouldn't know about it until it was all over and I'd been turned back into a prince again."
"How do you know?" Cimorene demanded. "Have you ever been a stone slab?"
The stone prince looked startled. "No, I haven't. I never thought of that."
"Well, start thinking now," Cimorene said tartly. "Here's the service room. Wait here for me, and don't go wandering off if I'm late getting back.
I don't know how long this errand is going to take, and it would be very awkward for me if the dragons found you roaming through their tunnels."
"I'll remember," the stone prince promised. "But what do I do if someone comes in?"
"Duck into the banquet area," Cimorene said, showing him. "And if someone comes in there, too, curl up in the corner and pretend you're a rock."