The Stone Princess - Part 7

The dreaded fortress of Ulcimea was an enormously tall, tar-black tower; so tall that, leaning from its uppermost window, one could easily have reached out and lit a candle upon the sun or even caught falling stars in a strong enough fishing net.

Fortunately for Squire Gordo, his horse, because of the magical horse-shoes it now wore, was able to gallop up the side of the tower; its hooves clinging, like the sticky soles of insect feet, to the tower
walls.

Nevertheless, it was a hard climb for Gordo because every floor of the tower was guarded by living, fire breathing and ferocious gargoyles that rained down spears, slingshot and arrows upon him or swung at him with halberds, spiky clubs and axes and, if it had not been for his magic shield and armour or his sword that could hack off even a stone gargoyles ugly head, he might never have reached the secret spell-casting room of the wicked vampire queen.

“A long way you’ve come, peasant”, jeered the evil Ulcimea as Gordo, upon his horse, leapt over the hurdle of her windowsill and into her room, “Merely to die a horrible death”.

But Gordo was not intimidated by the she-monster, not even when her grinning mouth stretched itself as long as a canoe and she pulled from it an entire long bow carved from a dragons backbone; not even when she plucked some long grey hairs from her head and they became poisonous, flaming arrows of steel; not even as a giant, barbed and stinging scorpions tail sprouted from her rear end, writhing like a serpent, or even when she revealed two more arms besides those holding the bow, each clutching a long, curved, sharp edged scimitar in a skeletal, clawed and hairy knuckled hand.

“If I die, foul demoness, it will only be from laughing at your repulsive head upon a spike”, the squire retorted defiantly.

But then the vile vampiress let out a most bloodcurdling and earbursting cry and a ferocious battle began; a volley of blazing arrows flying from Ulcimea’s bow, some of which were simply deflected by Gordo’s raised shield while others curved around him and tried to strike him in the back and may well have skewered him all over like hedgehog quills had it not been for his invulnerable armour.

Then Gordo aimed his magic shield; the spider like coat of arms upon it weaving with its six hairy limbs and then, out of the mouth of the heraldic beast upon the shield came a large sticky spiders web that flew across the room, hurling itself over the evil queens head and shoulders and, while she was hacking herself free from it with her two sword wielding arms, Gordo made his first strike with his magical sword, driving its point deep into Ulcimea’s black, stinking, worm riddled heart.

But even with a deep wound in her heart, the vampire queen would not die.

“With all your fancy magical armour and weapons”, said the queen as inky blood gushed like a black waterfall from the hole in her breast, “You are still a pathetic mortal worm and I, a queen of the undead. Killing me is impossible. Killing you is only a matter of time”.

But Gordo refused to be discouraged by the evil queens taunts and, instead, pulled down his visor and, tugging hard upon his horses reigns and digging in his spurs, he charged towards the vile villainess, braving another barrage of blazing arrows and heavy blows from her scimitars and then, swinging his sword at her long, scrawny, vulture like neck, cut her head clean off of her shoulders but, unlike the last time her head had been hacked off, this time it did not land at her feet but, bouncing like a rubber ball high up into the air, splashed smackdab into the middle of her bubbling cauldron and, stumbling blindly around, her headless body had to feel out the edge of her cauldron and bend over its rim to try and retrieve it.

While she was doing this, Gordo quickly seized his opportunity and, dodging her barbed, scorpion like tail as it whipped from side to side and lashed out, defending her rear, he bent down and seized the she-monster by her ankles, lifting her up and tipping her headless body neck-first into her own cooking pot.

Then, frightened that she might crawl back out again, Gordo quickly picked up the lid of the cooking pot and slammed it down on top of her and, just at that moment, heard from within the cauldron, a terrible, agonized but inhuman scream; the scream of Ulcimea melting in a cauldron of boiling tears.

But then, as Ulcimea’s evil power was starting to fade; Gordo felt her enormous, towering fortress shake violently under him and, clambering quickly back up onto his horse, he galloped hard towards an open window and then he and horse leapt out of it and onto a passing cloud, just as, behind him the dark tower began to collapse; toppling, with a deafening thundercrash, onto the ground far below.

At last, the evil lightning queen was dead and her cursed reign at an end and, as Gordo raced back across the clouds he saw a brightly coloured rainbow, like the smile of nature, spreading across the sky.

But Gordo could only think about one thing; returning to the garden of his beloved stone princess and seeing her restored to life.

And, sure enough, his beautiful maiden was waiting for him in the garden; not high upon a pedestal now but on the ground, waving to him as his horse descended out of the clouds and then, as he dismounted from his horse, she threw her arms out to embrace him.

But, to her surprise, rather than taking hold of her tightly and kissing her, Gordo got down upon his knees and bowed to her.

“Why are you kneeling, my lord?”, she asked, confused and startled.

“Because I am not a lord”, he confessed, “I am only a squire who stole my masters horse and his armour and tried to pass myself off as a knight, your highness”.

The Princess only chuckled, good naturedly, at this; shaking her head, “Why should any of that matter? It is only through your courage and your goodness that I am free and the evil queen vanquished. You have earned the right to wear your armour and call yourself a knight”.

And then, seizing hold of Gordo’s magical serpentine sword, she touched the flat of its blade upon both of his shoulders saying, “I hear-by dub thee Sir Gordo, the most noble and valiant of all the knights of my realm. Arise, Sir Gordo”.

Then, rising to his feet, Sir Gordo did now take the princess in his arms and kiss her and it felt even more wonderful than it had in his dream.

“Love”, twittered the little Lovebird, fluttering down and landing upon the blossom covered branch of a nearby tree , “Has conquered all”.