The Two Princes – Part Six

Atlast, they saw the palace of the dark prince of dreams before them, though strangely, up close it looked more like a flat oil painting of a palace and yet, lining up to enter through its painted
door were all the dark princes wedding guests, an enormous and bizarre menagerie of magical creatures; gremlins and goblins; gargoyles and gorgons; sprites and spooks; imps and evil elves; pitch black, red horned unicorns, wicked orange skinned leprechauns and even some creatures so bizarre that neither Prince Happ nor his four companions could put a name to them.

“The normal is an oddity here”, said the Fairy queen, “If you are to enter the palace of the dark
Prince then you must be made to look less mortal”.

Then, before any of them could protest, the fairy queen gave each of them a new magical appendage that would disguise them; to Prince Happ she gave a pair of small white wings that grew from his
shoulders; to Sir Halsome she gave a little horn which protruded sharply from the centre of his forehead; to the fool she gave a long pair of hairy donkey’s ears and a loud bray and to the blind man she gave a barbed tail and a third blind eye.

“There”, she said, smaning, as each of them grumbled about their sudden transformation, “You all look much more handsome than you did before”.

And then, all of a sudden, they were no longer standing outside of the painted palace but, as dreamers move through dreams, they had moved somehow and were now seated in pews within the palace chapel and then, infront of him, between the heads of a two headed troll, Prince Happ could see his beloved Princess Iness, standing mezmerised before a strange demon altar, hand in hand with the dark prince of dreams.

And then the elfen church bells stopped ringing and a four armed church organist started to play
a dark, sombre, funereal nocturne as a long horned goat headed cleric cleared his throat and the marriage ceremony began.

“Do you Prince Phillip Archibald Bloodthorn Nathaniel Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch the third take Princess Iness to be your unlawfully and awfully wedded wife”, asked the goat headed vicar.

“I do”, said the evil prince of dreams, smiling wickedly and eyeing the Princess.

“Do you Princess Iness take Prince Phillip Archibald Bloodthorn Nathaniel Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysilio-gogogoch the third to be your unlawfully and awfully wedded husband”, asked the horned and dog collared creature turning towards the princess whose eyes now looked dazed and distant.

But, before Princess Iness could give her reply, Prince Happ leapt up from his pew and shouted,
“No, Iness. You musn’t!”

Then the dark prince and all within the strange menagerie of his wedding guests turned and looked
at Prince Happ and the gorgon seated next to him, her hair a mass of writhing, hissing and rattling serpents, would have seized his arm with one of her clawed hands had it not been for the white wings that the Fairy Queen had put upon his back and which suddenly unfolded themselves,
lifting him high up into the air.

“Where are all my black elfen bowmen?”, demanded the prince of dreams, angrily and then,
filing quickly into the hall came the princes archers with their bows and arrows ready to fire,
“Shoot down that winged pest immediately “.

And all of the elfen archers then took aim,
ready to shoot the soaring Prince Happ through the heart, but fortunately the queen of fairies then cast a spell upon the arrows so that, the moment they flew from their bows they were transformed into song birds that fluttered away harmlessly twittering or long stemmed flowers that fell limply to the floor.

And then, seizing his opportunity, Prince Happ flew down beside his beloved Princess and took her in his arms, “You cannot marry this demon”, he said, “You must not or you will sleep forever and be a prisoner in this land of dreams and nightmares”.

And then Iness looked back towards the dark Prince and, for the first time, she noticed his long pointy ears, his sharp crooked teeth and his blazing red eyes as if they were appearing from behind a melting mask and she screamed.

“Kiss her quickly”, shouted the Fairy Queen, then standing up from her seat, “It will take you both home”.

Prince Happ did not need to be asked for he loved Prince Iness so much that kissing her was like
touching the clouds of heaven and, the moment that their lips met, all around them, the dark Princes chapel and all his weird wedding guests started to dissolve and disappear as if they were nothing more than an awful nightmare and, opening their eyes, the Prince and Princess saw that they were not within the Prince’s Palace anymore but within their own bedroom.

One thing remained real, however, and that was their kiss, neither of them wanted that kiss to end and would have gone on and on kissing were it not for the Fairy Queen, the faithful Sir Halsome,
the blindman and the fool suddenly entering.

“Thankyou”, said Prince Happ, shaking the hand of the little girl who was queen of the fairies,
“You have helped me to save my love and, not only that, you have brought our hearts finally together”.

“It was not me who did that”, said the little fairy queen, speaking once more through the fool whilst smiling happily, “But love itself. True love has conquered all”.