I slipped Christine's shawl around her shoulders as she left Masson sleeping.
"What is this?" she glanced from me to Reza.
"Full moon; walk with me? I found a reliable nanny."
"At your service," the daroga beamed.
"Alright…"
We strolled silently for some time.
"I'd forgotten how you love Paris at night," Christine murmured finally.
"I love Paris at night with you," I corrected, kissing her temple. Her hair smelled lovely, as always. "Mmm; lilacs."
"Sometimes you are so easy to be with," she confessed.
"I am sorry about the other times."
After a few more moments of easy silence, her head found its way onto my shoulder. It was a perfect moment. I reflected that it was a shame Christine, Masson and I could not be all alone in the world.
"Did Reza tell you about Darius?" she asked.
Drat; so much for a perfect moment.
"He did."
"We can't leave Reza, Erik; he's family."
"I understand. I think Reza would say that Darius is family too."
"You don't suppose that Anci would try to use Darius to get to you?"
"Christine, I am walking in the moonlight with the girl of my dreams, in the most beautiful city in the world—"
"I know, I know," she squeezed my arm. "Just let's have done with this, and then we can enjoy our lovely, romantic walk."
"Alright…you were saying?"
"You don't—"
"Ah, yes. No; sadly, I don't believe that she's clever enough to think that way," I admitted.
"Neither do I. But Darius deserves a loving wife," Christine announced firmly.
"What are you thinking?"
"I'm thinking that if you were to see Anci again, you may be able to determine if she is sincere about Darius. If she is, then I don't see that we have a problem."
"You don't see that we have a problem?" I was nonplussed.
"I trust you."
"Why?"
"Why shouldn't I?"
"Because I've not proved trustworthy! Have I?"
"Erik, we both know what Anci's attraction was. She's not really your sort of girl," Christine confided.
I glanced around quickly to see we were alone and pulled Christine into an embrace. "Really? And what is my sort of girl?" I wondered, nuzzling her neck.
"Stop, you fool!"
"You squirm, but you don't release me," I noted smugly.
"It's your own fault for being fiendishly irresistible."
"I am grateful you find me so." I caught her hand and drew her onward. "Come."
"Where? Where are we going?"
"You'll see," I promised. In a minute we were at a service entrance to the new opera house. I turned the knob and the door opened easily.
"Erik! How do you—"
"Ssshhh; this is my theatre, always." I led her inside.
"I can't see," Christine giggled nervously.
"Trust me. Listen." As I led her through the darkened halls and up the unfamiliar staircases, I whispered a fairy tale.
"Once upon a time, there lived a princess so lovely that flowers blushed to bloom in her presence. Her voice was so exquisite that birds could not bear to sing as she passed by. So gentle and kind was this princess that all the woodland creatures, no matter how timid, would leave their hiding places to bask in her smile.
You might imagine that all was joy and light for our matchless princess, but such was not the case, for she had never known her mother, and her father had died when she was but a child. The king had been all in the world to her, and since his death, it appeared to her friends and courtiers that she had found no other confidante. The princess seemed unable to share her innermost thoughts with any of them; they did not know why, but it puzzled them. About all this, the princess remained silent, but she did not seem unhappy; rather, she seemed dreamy and far-away.
While our princess had many friends, she had still more admirers. Princes came from the far corners of the earth to woo her and try to win her hand. And while she was always most kind in her refusal, refuse them all she did.
'Child, you've been courted by every prince in all the lands in all the worlds! What are you waiting for?' the courtiers exclaimed.
'Not what; who. I'm waiting for my best friend,' smiled the princess.
'But where can he be? Surely your best friend is somewhere among these finest of men!'
'He'll come,' she replied patiently.
The princess lived in a very large and beautiful palace, and she never tired of exploring its endless caverns below ground. She had begun her explorations in those empty days just after her father died. She was never afraid in the damp and darkness, for to her it felt like a velvety black cloak about her shoulders. She would go underground to be alone with her thoughts, and she felt herself wrapped in its welcoming comfort.
One day, the young princess turned onto a newly-discovered passageway and ran smack into a large, stony something. She held her lantern up to see what it was that blocked her way. There, in the middle of the corridor, stood a massive gargoyle; but this was not just any gargoyle. This was a gargoyle more hideous than any the world had ever seen. Now, the castle had been built by the people of the kingdom as a wedding gift for their beloved king and queen. The people could not bear to ruin its fine facade with such a horrible stone apparition, so they hid it away in the caverns below, where no one would ever have to look upon its wretched ugliness.
As our princess gazed at the poor abandoned gargoyle, her heart opened in friendship.
'Hello,' she smiled. 'Are you all alone here?'
The gargoyle said nothing.
The princess slipped her tiny hand into the gargoyle's massive stone paw.
'I am all alone, just like you. Do you miss your parents, too?'
Still, the gargoyle said nothing.
'Now, you are shy, because we have just met, but we are friends nevertheless. I shall come and visit you, sing and speak to you, and someday, you shall sing and speak with me. I shall wait for you, my friend," the princess promised.
The lovely princess was as good as her word, and she visited the gargoyle she had befriended. She brought an old cape of her father's to wrap around the gargoyle's shoulders in winter, and in summer she would pick flowers for him, since she thought it sad that he had never seen flowers or sunshine. She told the gargoyle of her hopes, dreams, and fears, and as the years passed, she came to regard him as her confidant and dearest friend.
One day, when the princess was at a festival in a nearby town, a great fire began in the palace. When the fire had destroyed all the furnishings and tapestries, everything inside the castle was reduced to charred ruins. The royal architects informed the princess that it was unsafe for her and her courtiers to return to the castle, because while the structure was stone, the heat of the fire had likely made the mortar brittle. When she heard this news, the princess wept bitterly.
'Do not worry, your Highness. We shall construct you a new palace, lovelier than the last,' the royal architects assured her.
The princess could not tell them that she did not weep for the castle, but for her dear gargoyle, alone and waiting for her beneath the charred castle.
'But I do not want a new palace! I want that palace!' the princess whispered.
As she and her courtiers and the royal architects stood gazing at the smoking ruins, they heard an ominous rumbling sound. In the next moment, the entire castle crumbled to a pile of rubble before their eyes. The princess fell from her horse in a faint, overcome.
The courtiers carried the princess to the home of the royal physician. She was put in the finest room in the house—and it was a very fine house indeed. The royal physician examined the princess while the courtiers and royal architects waited anxiously in the very fine hallway. Finally, the royal physician appeared. He cleared his throat most officially and said:
'Her Highness has had a tremendous shock today. She merely needs a bit of rest and she will be well. Come back in the morning."
The courtiers and royal architects were very relieved to hear this news, and they went to a tavern to discuss plans for the new palace they would build for their beloved princess. When they returned in the morning, however, the royal physician greeted them with a solemn face. Again, he cleared his throat most officially and said:
'Apparently her Highness is still suffering from her tremendous shock. She merely needs a bit more rest and she will be well. Come back in the morning.'
The next morning, the same thing occurred. And the next morning, and the next; until soon it had been ten days, and the courtiers were out of patience.
'See here,' they said, 'it's time you called in other physicians! There must be something that can be done for our princess!'
All the finest physicians in the land were summoned, but each day the same thing happened. They would appear with solemn faces, clear their throats most officially and say:
'Apparently her Highness is still suffering from her tremendous shock. She merely needs a bit more rest and she will be well. Come back in the morning.'
Needless to say, all the people of the kingdom were very troubled by this. No one wanted to even think of working on the new palace while their beloved princess lay motionless in the finest room in the royal physician's house. Everyone was so sad that they never even noticed what was happening on the hill. For each night, the old palace was being rebuilt, stone by stone.
One day, when the princess had been lying motionless in the finest room in the royal physician's house for five years, the royal physician's son happened to be playing in the yard, chasing butterflies. One especially beautiful butterfly caught the little boy's eye, and he was determined to follow it until it landed, so he could have a good look at it. He followed the butterfly all along its meandering way, until what do you know, but the butterfly alighted on the side of a great stone wall?
Hang on, what is this great stone wall doing here? Wondered the boy. As he drew away, gazing ever higher and wider, he realized it was not a stone wall at all, but the wall of the rebuilt castle!
Well, of course the boy ran all the way home, calling 'The castle is rebuilt! Look!'
All the people of the kingdom, physicians and courtiers ran outside to gaze up the hill in amazement. They all agreed that the newly-rebuilt castle was even more magnificent than it had been before. Finally, the royal physician found his voice. He cleared his throat most officially and said:
'Let us take the princess up to the palace. Perhaps having its beloved walls about her once more will revive her.'
So the people bore the princess lovingly up to her palace. They walked right in to the great hall, for there was no new wooden door in place. As they set the princess down on her litter, all the people gasped in horror. For there, in the middle of the great hall, stood a massive gargoyle, more hideous than any the world had ever seen. Some of the older people remembered this gargoyle from the initial construction of the palace, but they recalled that it had been placed deep in the recesses of the caverns beneath the castle. They could not imagine how it had come to be in the great hall of the grand, reconstructed palace. The younger people were simply horrified by the gargoyle's wretched ugliness, but in either case, everyone ran away, leaving the sleeping princess alone in the great hall with her old friend the hideous gargoyle.
Presently, the lovely princess began to stir. She stretched as if simply awakening from a short nap. As she set her feet to the floor, she gazed around the great hall of her beloved palace.
What is this? She wondered. I am certain I saw my castle in ruins; could it have been an awful dream?
But as the princess noted the bare walls and floors, no front door and no furniture, she saw that it was true: there had been a fire; her home had been destroyed.
But how can this be? She asked herself.
Suddenly, the princess spied the gargoyle, and instantly she knew that somehow, he had rebuilt the palace. She raced to him and threw her arms around his stone neck. But her first words to him were not of gratitude for her rebuilt home; no.
'Oh, my most precious friend! When they told me I could not return, and I realized I would never see you again, I felt certain I should die of grief! How happy I am to see you!'
And the princess pressed her lovely rosebud lips to the twisted stone lips of the gargoyle. Suddenly the great hall was suffused with a rainbow light. Lo and behold, the gargoyle's arms slipped around the princess's waist as he turned into a flesh and blood man!
"Thank you for waiting for me," the gargoyle said. Though he was no more beautiful made of flesh than he had been of stone, the princess found his voice the most glorious sound she had ever heard.
'I told you that someday you would sing and speak with me,' she smiled. And speak he did. The gargoyle told her of his horror when he realized the castle was burning and he was powerless to come to her aid. But somehow, out of his great love for her, he was able to will his stone limbs to life when the moon shone, and so rebuilt her palace, stone by stone.
So he led her through the castle, showing her every room meticulously reconstructed. When they emerged on the rooftop, the moon was full. Gazing out over the kingdom, the princess rested in her gargoyle's arms, and they talked of how very happily ever after they would live."
Christine and I were on the roof of the opera house now; we gazed out over our glorious city of lights, and dreamed of our own happily ever after.