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the other two men Hortensia had invited — were coming up the drive, and behind them another carriage. Krazo watched the young men dismount and jostle with each other to help the shopgirl down from her horse. He saw that she was wearing a string of pearls. He watched the ship captain’s daughters climb out of the carriage. They were wearing necklaces of coral beads against their matching green gowns. Krazo’s gaze flickered from one treasure to the next — pearls, coral beads, diamonds, and the princess’s blue stone.
    The guests were introducing themselves. “Where’s the garden? Where’s Lady Hortensia?” someone asked.
    “The garden’s probably behind the house. Perhaps she’s there,” said the princess.
    “Maybe the stables are there, too,” said her coachman.
    Which made Krazo think of all that was about to happen. The garden was behind the house, as was Hortensia, but there were no stables. Krazo knew that his mistress would deal with the two coachmen as she always did. Before the day was through, she would send them back down the mountain driving empty carriages. Of course, she would work her magic on them first: by the time the men reached home, they wouldn’t remember much of anything about their day at Flower Mountain.
    He watched the coachmen climb up on their carriages. He watched the horses start forward, following the graveled road that led around the house to the garden that was there, and the stables that were not. He watched the shopgirl, the twin sisters, and the two young men follow behind. There go the pearls and the coral beads, thought Krazo.
    At any other time, he would have followed them, to see where in the garden they ended up. But today there were diamonds.
    “We should go, too,” said the princess. “Can you walk, Bess?”
    The dairymaid pulled her bare foot out of the water. She stood up, took a hesitant step, and gave a sharp cry. She took another step, crumpled to the ground, and burst into tears. “Ow!” she cried. “How am I to see the garden if I can’t walk? And I’m hungry. I haven’t had anything to eat since I left home this morning.”
    Crying was something Krazo had observed many times at Hortensia’s parties, and it always produced the same reaction in him: a sort of catch in his throat as if he’d choked on a fly. It wasn’t a bad feeling exactly, but it wasn’t pleasant, either. He felt the catch in his throat now and wondered, as he always did, what it was about crying that made him feel that way. He watched as the princess crouched down beside the dairymaid.
    “You poor thing,” she said. “There’s sure to be food at the party. Why don’t you lean on me and we’ll go see. Or better yet, suppose I carry you!”
    The dairymaid dried her eyes, and the catch in Krazo’s throat went away, just as it always did when someone stopped crying. But this time, its disappearance was accompanied by a comfortable feeling — the sort of feeling he had when he went to sleep at night. Was it the soft voice of the princess that made him feel like that?
    He watched her kick off her shoes and pull off her stockings. Then she dropped to one knee and presented her back to the dairymaid. “Climb on!” she commanded, and the next thing Krazo knew, the princess was standing up with the dairymaid on her back. She staggered forward. She was laughing — a sound Krazo liked even more than the sound of her speaking voice.
    “Shouldn’t we wait for Garth?” asked the girl with the diamonds.
    “It’s getting late! I want to see the garden before it gets dark!” said the princess. “Besides, poor Bess is famished!”
    Krazo wanted to follow her. He had never seen anyone carry another person like that before. Like a horse, he thought.
    “I really think we should wait,” said the girl with the diamonds. “Garth told me he would meet me at the top of the mountain!”
    But no one heard her except Krazo. The princess and the dairymaid were too far away.
    “If Garth