“It doesn’t suit you.”
“It sure does. If you’ve noticed, I’m as black as the darkness of night.”
“You are like a firebrand from a furnace!”
“I can see why they call you a fool.”
“It is a simpleton, not a fool. It’s a little different.”
“And you’re smart, too. And you’re not stupid. Aren’t you ashamed not to trust your intelligence?”
“You mean you?” She glanced at the monster on her shoulder.
“Who else could it be?”
“They say the mind is in the head, not on the clavicle.”
“It’s harder to get into your head, though it’s empty, but it’s not much room.” He scratched her shoulder as if he were putting a stamp on it.
“Oh, I wish you’d gone into my head and got lost there.”
“Do you know how hard it is for those who don’t listen to their wits, but do things their own way?” Reason quipped.
“That’s what all the duenna’s told me! I didn’t think you’d be so tedious.”
“Go ahead!” Reason commanded. “Take some of the gold from the chest and hide it in the hatch beneath the throne.”
“There’s a hatch under the throne.”
“You have to push the dragon-shaped carving on the back of the throne, and the hatch will open.”
Her mind raced her like aВ servant girl until she had dragged almost all the contents ofВ the chest into aВ deep recess beneath the throne steps.
“Look, is living with your mind, I mean being smart, always so hard?” Estella sighed, exhausted from her work as a loader.
“Shut up!” The mind on her shoulder weighed itself like a chest of jewelry. Her shoulder stiffened.
“Why should I be silent?”
“The more silent you are, the smarter you look.”
“It sounds smart.”
“Trust me, and they’ll stop calling you a simpleton.
“They’ll call me Wise?”
“They’ll call you a star. Your name means North Star, doesn’t it?”
“I didn’t know that! I thought I was just a star.”
“You are a fool,” said Reason, spitting ash on the floor. Why is there ash in his mouth instead of spit? His black spit sealed the treasure-filled hiding place.
“What did you say?” Estella was offended when she heard the word “fool.” Who was he talking about?
“It’s all right, my dear, go ahead. We must get out of the throne room.”
“But my coronation is coming up!”
“It is no coronation for sure yet,” Reason glanced around. “You need to take me to the north tower. Come on!”
Estella felt like a coachman. It was as if the Reason were pulling her by the reins. And so they went. It guided her, showed her the way to her home castle. He was getting into her head. It’s cheeky of him, but convenient for someone who doesn’t want to think about anything herself. He thinks for her.
Reason’s claws were almost lusting over her curls.
“How beautiful you are, Princess.”
“What good would that do?”
“What do you mean? Don’t you value your beauty? Careful, it can be stolen by evil spirits.”
“Everyone laughs at me because I’m stupid.”
“What does a beautiful woman need a mind for?” He laughed suddenly. “It turns out that she does!”
Estella suspected something wrong when she looked at him inВ the wall mirror. Her mind pressed against her cheek like aВ gentle pussycat, but it looked like aВ demon.
“If you are my mind, why are you so ugly?”
“It is because beauty and intelligence are incompatible! Smart people are never beautiful.”
“But then you’re not my mind, you’re someone else’s. You were wrong about me.”
“You are fool,” he swung at her with his claws, but held himself back. “I am yours, you know!”
“And how do you know?”
“I can feel it.”
“You feel it? What do you mean?”
“Like you can feel your leg or arm, I can feel you.”
“But I can’t feel you unless you’re sitting on my shoulder.”
Estella grimaced. The small-sized Mind proved toВ be heavy. Her shoulder ached from the burden. She hesitated toВ ask it toВ step down. She hesitated toВ ask it toВ get off, or else it would be gone. Being left without aВ mind again was terrifying toВ her. And so she was teased for being aВ simpleton. Things must change when she had her mind.
“Thank you for showing up,” she thanked him. “It was too bad without you.”
“And you’re already beginning to get smart!” Mind clapped his hands cheerfully, and his claws squeaked. “Usually beauties are empty-headed, but you’re lucky, because you have me. With me you’ll be the greatest queen in the universe, just take my advice.”
Estella nodded obediently. OfВ course, it was unpleasant toВ know that your mind was as ugly as aВ demon. But there was nothing toВ be done. You have toВ put up with it. As he himself says, the mind is not meant toВ be beautiful.
“Aren’t you trying to get back inside my head?” Estella didn’t like the way he drove his sharp claws across the back of her head.
“No, just checking something,” his claws hooked the pendants of the crown. “If you only knew how hard it was for me to let go of my magical chains, to free myself and come back to you, you would have snuggled me now.”
“Was it hard for you, too, without me?” Estella rejoiced. It’s always nice to know you’re not the most deprived.
“Of course it is! As you’ve noticed, I’m very ugly, but a wise man. Together we’d make a great tandem. Just don’t tell anyone about me. Let them think I’m still enchanted. It’s a pity they took the magic out of your pretty little head, or I’d look so pretty. No one would ever have locked the doors of the ballroom or the feast room in front of me.”
“But you will be seen with me if you don’t get off your shoulder.”
“They won’t! As long as I sit on your shoulder I am invisible to others. And you can enjoy my wise counsel.”
“I already have one mentor.”
“Is it a stupid chaperone?”
“She’s smart. Don’t insult her!”
“You will be even smarter now.”
He whispered in her ear. His whisper was as hot as a dragon’s breath. Estella winced.
“Come, princess! With me you will be irresistible to court and invincible in war. Only listen to my advice!”
It’s a good thing Reason doesn’t have to be introduced as a tame monkey. No one really sees him.
There is some commotion among the courtiers. Reason has his black ears pricked up and listens.
“There will be no coronation!” He proclaimed. “This is no longer conjecture but fact.”
“Why should it be so?”
“War has been declared from Ravelin. The local king is convinced the girl must be removed from the throne.”
“Oh, he’s a scoundrel!” Estella clenched her fists.
“Don’t be so boisterous, mistress!” Reason cautioned. “You must behave yourself. Summon the army.”
“But Ravelin is the largest state north of us, famous for its torture chambers and dungeons.”
“And they are but men!” Mind clenched his black clawed fists. “And I…”
“Who are you?” said Estella, wary. “Aren’t you a non-human being? Oh, you mean a non-human mind?”
He chuckled softly, as if he were sprinkling ash aroundВ him.
“I am the mind of the wizard king’s daughter! I am above the human mind! You’ll see, with a mind like mine, no war is a serious threat to you!”
Magic inВ war
With Reason’s advice, raising an army was quick and easy. No one remembered that Ravelin was a mighty state. Everyone listened to the orders of a queen who had yet to be crowned. The coronation had to be postponed. War is out of order.
“I’m sure the scoundrel is plotting to take Aluar for himself by marrying the foolish heiress,” Reason snickered on the way. “It’s obvious, isn’t it? Even without winning the war, he may propose to you and settle the dispute. Don’t agree to marry him.”
“I wasn’t going to! I didn’t think he was single,” she rode the white horse, which twitched its ears uneasily and winced at the presence of the beast on her shoulder.
“Horses don’t like us,” Reason complained.
“What do you mean?”
“I mean smart creatures,” he twisted away, though he was about to say something else. “Don’t pull on the reins so hard and loosen the girth.”
He climbed off her shoulder and finished the job for the groom. The horse had nearly had a heart attack at the touch of his claws. She relented, though, and Reason quickly returned to Estella’s shoulder.
“Keep ahead of the group!” He pointed and urged. “You lead the march!”
Estella panicked from afar at the sight ofВ the countless army ofВ the enemies. AВ forest ofВ helmeted heads stretched as far north as the distant mountains.
“We need a dragon to win now!”
“Why didn’t you say so before! One is just sitting in your dungeons.”
“I thought you were my advisor, not the other way around.”
The princess’s guards looked at each other worriedly, seeing her muttering to herself. Estella belatedly remembered that they couldn’t see Reason, so she shrugged it off:
“I’m praying before the fight! Don’t mind me!”
The excuse about prayers bailed her out ofВ the most ridiculous situations. The guards even respected the faithful princess.
Reason put his clawed little fingers inВ his mouth and whistled. The warriors murmured. The sound was like an omen ofВ impending disaster.
“If the dragon doesn’t wake up and get here within the hour, he doesn’t hold me in high esteem,” Reason grumbled. “Then I’ll have to give him a sterner draft. He’s been so sleepy. Not long ago he was working for your father as a living furnace, burning prisoners and spies in his jaws. As soon as your father grew old and sick, the dragon became lazy.”
“I knew nothing of the dragon.”
“But you felt it. You have dragon’s blood, too,” Reason gently touched her chest with his claws, jabbing at the brooch, but his paw did not bleed. It appeared to be invulnerable. Estella gasped. This monster was about to become her hero.
He had not promised to win the war soon, either, as it turned out, for nothing. He didn’t need a dragon for his revenge, either.
Reason hissed a whisper, and the marching tents of the enemy’s troops went up in flames like matchsticks.
