"Disagree all you like, but you're not leaving the castle for another two days," Morwen said. She picked up a basket of muffins, took one, and passed the rest to Mother.
"Two days!"
Mother raised an eyebrow. "Is our hospitality unwelcome?"
"No, of course not, but… Cimorene, I have a tremendous amount to do if I'm to be ready for the wedding in time."
I hadn't heard about any wedding being planned, but I was carefully not looking at Shiara anyway. Then Father looked up.
"Wedding?" he said.
Morwen smiled. "Telemain and I are getting married."
Shiara and Father and I all said, "What?" at the same time, but we were nearly drowned out by a chorus of startled meows from Morwen's cats
"Yes, married," Morwen said to one of them. "And it has nothing to do with you, so you may as well be quiet and accept it."
The cats made unhappy noises for another minute, until Morwen frowned at them. Then they all got up and went over to a corner of the room, where they sat muttering to each other with their tails twitching.
Morwen watched for a moment before she nodded and turned back to the table. "They'll get used to the idea."
"Um, congratulations to both of you," I said.
Father was looking at Mother. "Cimorene, did you know about this?"
"Not exactly," Mother said, and smiled.
"I see." Father shook his head. "Well, congratulations."
"Thank you," Telemain said. He started to reach for a plate of sausages with his bad arm, and Morwen stopped him.
Two days later, Morwen announced that Telemain's arm was well enough for him to travel. She promised to invite all of us to the wedding, even the dragons, and then she and Telemain left the castle, followed by a string of disapproving cats.
Shiara and Kazul were the last to leave. I was a little taken aback when I heard. I knew that Kazul lived in the Mountains of Morning, but it hadn't occurred to me that if Shiara was going to be Kazul's princess, she would have to live there, too. I didn't say anything about it, though. I felt too silly for not having realized it before.
Father and Mother and I went out to see them off. Mother gave Shiara some advice about princessing, and Father told her that if she was going to glare at dragons, she'd have to learn to glare politely. Then they both went to talk to Kazul. Shiara looked at me.
"I'm beginning to wonder whether I really want to do this or not," she said. "Does he really expect me to practice glaring at people?"
"No, just at dragons," I said. "If he wanted you to glare at everyone, he would have said so."
"Well, I think it's-Nightwitch!" Shiara bent to retrieve the kitten, who had been investigating one of Shiara's bundles a little too vigorously.
"Where did you get all of this, anyway?" I asked as she straightened up. There were three bundles in the heap Nightwitch had been climbing, and I knew Shiara hadn't had any of them when we'd arrived at the castle.
"Morwen gave me that one, and Cimorene gave me the others," Shiara said. "She said I would need them if I was going to live with Kazul.
I don't even know what's in all of them yet."
I couldn't think of anything to say because just then I realized how much I was going to miss having Shiara around. The Mountains of Morning weren't exactly close to the castle, and I didn't think Kazul would be interested in flying back and forth every day.
Shiara frowned. "What's the matter with you?"
"I was just wishing you were going to be living a little closer to the castle," I said.
"I don't see why. I'm going to have to come here a lot anyway, at least until you get that stupid politeness spell off of me so I can use my fire magic.
So what difference does it make? I'M the one who has to do all the traveling back and forth." Shiara looked toward Kazul. "I think they're ready to go.
Come on, Daystar."
She picked up one of the bundles and started walking. I didn't say anything, but I felt a lot happier than I had a few minutes earlier.
Getting rid of that spell didn't sound easy, and until it was gone Shiara would have to spend quite a bit of time at the castle. I was sure that if I had enough time, I could think of some reason for her to keep visiting after the spell was gone, and even if I couldn't, Mother would be able to. Smiling, I picked up the other two bundles and followed happily after.