scare them silly.'
'Typical princesses,' Mendanbar muttered, but without any active dislike. He didn't seem to mind foolish princesses much anymore, as long as he didn't have to marry one. It was amazing what a difference being engaged to Cimorene made.
'They aren't as featherbrained as they sound,' Cimorene told him.
'They just act as if they are.'
'I don't think I like the sound of that,' Mendanbar said. 'Are you sure they won't want to be bridesmaids anyway? Maybe we should just elope.'
'No, it's too late for that,' Cimorene told him. 'Don't worry about it, though. It will work out fine.'
'If you say so,' Mendanbar said, but he was not really convinced.
The note Cimorene's mother sent to acknowledge the engagement only increased Mendanbar's misgivings. I am delighted to hear that you are going to be properly settled at last, Cimorene dear, ran the note. I am enclosing a list of relatives and family friends who ought certainly to be included in your wedding plans, however unconventional those may be. Your father wishes to know which half of the kingdom your betrothed would prefer, as he is anxious to get the paperwork out of the way as soon as possible.
'Half the kingdom?' Mendanbar asked cautiously.
Cimorene looked more than a little put out. 'It's the usual reward for rescuing a princess from a dragon. I hoped they'd forgotten about it, but I should have known better. Mother would never do anything so incorrect.'
'Well, I don't want it. One kingdom is more than enough for me.'
'Then you'd better write them immediately and tell them so,' Cimorene advised. 'Otherwise they'll have all the forms and documents and records written out, signed by twenty noble witnesses, and sealed by every member of Father's Council, and you'll never be able to get rid of it.'
'I'll see to it at once.'
'Good.' Cimorene picked up the long list of names that had been enclosed with the note. 'I'll take this in to Willin, so someone can start addressing the invitations.'
'Do we have to invite all of them?'
'We might as well,' Cimorene said. 'We're asking everyone else. And most of them are family.'
'I think it would be easier to elope,' Mendanbar said.
The guest list was enormous. Almost all the dragons were coming, and so were a great many of their princesses, past and present. After some initial misgivings, Cimorene's entire family decided to attend, including all six of her sisters and their husbands, her fourteen nieces and nephews, her parents, three of her aunts, two uncles, seventeen cousins, and her fairy godmother. Queen Alexandra was also coming, along with all twelve of her daughters. Mendanbar couldn't help feeling a little nervous about that, out of habit. All the kings and queens and princes and grand dukes who lived around the edges of the Enchanted Forest had had to be invited, and so had most of the odd and unusual people who lived inside the forest itself. Even the ogres and trolls had agreed to behave themselves if they were allowed to be present. In fact, the only people who hadn't been invited were the wizards.
'This wedding will be the best and most prestigious event in years!'
Willin said happily as the acceptances poured in.
'It's certainly going to be the biggest,' Mendanbar said, gazing at the stacks of paper in mild amazement. 'Where are we going to put them all?'
'You are not to worry about that, Your Majesty,' Willin told him sternly. 'It is my job to oversee the preparations, and that includes arranging an appropriate place to hold the ceremony and the reception afterward.'
'I really think it would have been easier to elope,' Mendanbar grumbled.
In the end, they decided to hold the wedding in Fire-Flower Meadow.
The gargoyle in Mendanbar's study complained about the decision long and loudly, because it would obviously be unable to attend, but the meadow was the only open area in the entire Enchanted Forest that would be large enough for the enormous crowd of guests.
'I bet you think that makes it all right,' the gargoyle told Mendanbar and Cimorene several days before the wedding. 'Just because you want to have hundreds and hundreds of people at your wedding, I'm supposed to smile and say I don't mind being left out. Well, it isn't all right and I won't do it!'
'I wouldn't expect you to smile about anything,' Mendanbar muttered.
Cimorene studied the gargoyle thoughtfully. 'If you're that eager to come, I suppose we could take the molding in that corner apart and find someone to bring you down to the field to watch,' she offered.
The gargoyle looked down at her in alarm. 'Take me apart? Oh, no, you don't! I'm not stupid. I know what would happen. Even if you managed to get me out of here without damaging me, you'd forget to put me back afterward, and I'd spend centuries in a storeroom somewhere. Dust and dry rot!'
'Well, then I'm afraid all I can do is stop in before I leave for the ceremony,' Cimorene said. 'Unless Telemain can fix up a spell on one of the windows so you can watch from here.'
'I don't want that magician messing around with anything in my-wait a minute, did you say you'd stop in? You mean, here? In this room?'
'That's what she said,' Mendanbar told it.
'I wasn't talking to you,' the gargoyle said. Looking back at Cimorene, it went on, 'You mean, you'd come and see me before the wedding?'
'That's right,' Cimorene said, nodding. 'Right before? All dressed up and everything?'
'Of course,' Cimorene promised.
'Hot dog!' said the gargoyle. 'I'll take it! Oh, boy, I can hardly wait! This is going to be even better than going to the wedding.'
'It is?' Mendanbar said suspiciously. 'Why?'
'Because I'll get to see her all dolled up before you do, that's why,' the gargoyle answered smugly. 'Everybody knows the groom doesn't get to see the bride on the wedding day until the ceremony. And she's going to stop in here first! Oh, boy, oh, boy!'
Mendanbar looked at Cimorene.
'He's right, you know,' Cimorene said apologetically. 'And I've promised.'
'He's never going to let me forget this,' Mendanbar muttered and left to talk to Telemain about setting up Fire-Flower Meadow for the wedding.
Despite Willin's determination to handle the wedding plans himself, there were a number of things only Mendanbar could do. Among the most important was making sure that Fire-Flower Meadow and the area around it stayed firmly in one spot on the day of the wedding, so that all the guests could find it. This was not an easy thing to arrange. Even with Telemain's help, it took Mendanbar several days' worth of work before he was positive no one would miss the wedding because of a shift in the forest.
The night before the ceremony, Mendanbar and Telemain went over the whole field an inch at a time, to make certain that all the fire-flowers had been picked (so that none of the guests would get an accidental hotfoot) and to take care of any lingering minor enchantments. They found two princesses who had been turned into pinks, a frog prince, and a hedgehog that had once been somebody's groom. All of them were grateful to be disenchanted and very happy to be invited to the wedding.
The day of the wedding dawned bright and clear. Telemain had spent most of the previous week making sure that it would, while explaining to anyone who would listen that weather magic worked best if one set it up over a long period of time, which was what made it so difficult.
The guests started arriving early, and Mendanbar was kept busy greeting them.
A large corner of the field had been roped off as a landing place for dragons, and for most of the morning the sky was full of flashing green wings. Ballimore and Dobbilan-who had come the previous evening to make sure their Cauldron of Plenty would have enough time to produce a proper wedding dinner for so many guests-directed traffic, as they were the only ones large enough for the dragons to see clearly from a distance amid the growing crowd.
Jack was early, too. He parked his wagon in a corner of the field and did a brisk business selling seven- league boots, cloaks of invisibility, and magic rings(along with wrapping paper and tape) to those who had forgotten
