Prince charming's Arc

Chapter 30 of 30

That night Prince Charming could not sleep. The three drivers were home by now, sitting at their own tables with their own wives. The farmhand was somewhere in the valley too, telling whatever version of the story he chose. Prince Charming had shown the boy the dragon and threatened him into silence, but silence was not the same as a matching story. If the farmhand said the dragon breathed fire on him, and the drivers said it stayed calm on a ledge, the difference would draw hunters faster than either tale alone. He needed to know what the farmhand was saying before a mob decided for itself. At dawn he rode to the tower. The princess leaned on the rail with a jewel bird on her wrist, feeding it seed from her palm. He told her what he needed. He could not walk onto the farm himself; his face was known there now. But a bird could cross the fields in an hour and come back with what it saw. She frowned and said the birds carried objects, not words. He said he did not need words. He needed to know if the farmhand still worked the yard, or if he had gone to town, or if strangers were gathered at the gate. They worked it out on the platform floor. She would send three birds in turn. If the farmhand was at the yard alone, the first bird would return with a straw from the barn. If he was gone from the farm, the second would return with a stone from the road. If a crowd had gathered, the third would return with a scrap of cloth torn from a coat. She tied a length of red thread to each bird's leg so she could tell them apart. Prince Charming watched the flock lift from the birdbath and scatter east across the fields. The first bird came back before noon. It dropped a dry yellow straw into the princess's hand. She held it up to him without speaking. The second bird came an hour later with nothing at all, only its empty beak and its red thread. The third did not come until the sun was low. It landed on the rail and dropped a piece of brown wool, frayed at one edge, into the bath. Prince Charming picked it out of the water. He turned it in his fingers. A crowd, then. Gathered at the farm gate while the farmhand himself stood in his own yard, telling them whatever he was telling them. He put the wool in his pocket. He told the princess to light the smoke and send a bird with her earring. He would ride down to the farm road before dark and stand between whatever was coming and the treeline. The dragon would be on the ridge when he got there. If the crowd came up the road tonight, they would meet both of them at once.