章節 7: Henry’s comeback

It was a full moon night. As usual Lica was standing and feasting her eyes on the starry sky through the window. A year has passed since she attended the Prince's Night ball. But as yet hasn't she been able to forget Edward. However, sometimes it seemed to her that it had been only a dream. But doubts vanished as soon as Angelica, opening the wardrobe, saw her beautiful white ball dress, which she was wearing at the Prince's ball. The dress was absolutely real and the girl began to hope that one day she would meet Edward again!

"Lica, you are not going to bed again?" she heard her mother's voice behind the door.

"I am… I am going to!" the girl answered.

She was about to lie down when suddenly something large and dark struck the window outside and then slipped down onto the sill. It was the eagle-owl!

"Henry?!" Angelica whooped.

She immediately opened the window and brought the bird into the room. The owl had no signs of life. The girl put it on the carpet and began to sob:

"Henry! What have you done? How could you beat into the glass with all over the fluff?"

Some of her tears fell on the owl's head and it suddenly started up. Then he shook his head and one small feather fell to the floor. At the same moment the Prince Edward's old servant appeared before Lica.

"Henry! You're alive!" Lica was happy.

She rushed to the old man and hung around his neck. The Prince's servant smiled but then said with serious face:

"Angelica, a young lady ought not to behave like a cur! In addition I'm not feeling very well after a collision with your window."

"Oh, Henry, I'm sorry," she apologized. "I was just afraid that you had died. And when I saw that you had been alive, I was so happy that I could not resist! But why didn't you notice the closed windows?"

"Tonight the moon is so bright that apparently it had blinded me. So I had miscalculated a bit."

Lica offered the old man to sit down on the chair and began to interrogate him:

"Well, how are you? How is the Princess? Because I was not there when you had returned from the Nightmare Forest."

Then a little girl hesitated but then continued:

"How is Edward?"

The Prince's servant stared at Angelica and began to speak:

"I and the Princess got out of the forest safely; although we had met some nasty nightmares, we reached the castle without any incidents. And then the Prince told us everything. He explained the Princess everything and asked her to let him go. Admittedly, the Princess held with dignity. She promised not to hinder Edward. The only thing that she regretted about was her blindness. And my lord is the man of honor. Therefore, he vowed that he would return the Princess the ability to see, whatever it would cost him! So Edward went to a very powerful witch, who lived on the edge of our kingdom after Goblins' City. And we had not received any news from him for ages. But recently he had come back. The witch gave him a magic potion that returned the Princess her eyes. The girl can see now and has gone back to her country. But strangely something has happened to the Prince. He has completely changed. He does things that he didn't use to before. He became arrogant, sarcastic and cold. His thirst for power began to frighten me! The other day he told me that he would like the whole world to be plunged into eternal night and he would have become absolute ruler of the night. You know, Lica, I have known Edward since his childhood and I can state with full responsibility that after his visit to the witch he has become a totally different man. But the strangest thing is that he does not remember many things. For example, when I reminded him about the annual ball for Admirers of Night he was very surprised and then he just charged me to do it. However, he used to invite guests to his ball personally! Then I reminded him about you. And he said without batting an eye that he did not understand who you were. With the help of a magic mirror I had to show Edward last year's ball, where you were dancing with him in the center of the room. Seeing him with you the Prince smiled wryly and said: 'Well, Henry, if you want you can invite this girl! Withal, she's pretty sweet.'"

"What?!" Angelica exclaimed. "Pretty sweet?! He told me that I was beautiful!"

She jumped out of the bed and began to pace nervously from one corner of her room to another.

"Lica? Are you still awake?" she heard her mother's voice behind the door.

"I am sleeping! It's just a bad dream!" she replied.

"It is very suspicious how the Prince has changed," Henry continued, "that's why I came here to take you with me to the ball for Admirers of Night. And there together we shall understand everything somehow!"

"Let's fly!" Angelica agreed.

"But are you going like this?"

The girl looked at herself in the mirror and saw her standing in pyjamas.

"Yeah..." she drawled. "I am not ready for the ball. But I still have that white ball dress, which Edward had given me as a present!"

"You know, the Prince doesn't like bright colors any more. Now he prefers black, dark brown, dark blue and burgundy. So let's fly in pyjamas and in the castle I'll find something for you."