Tell me what you see,” Michael said.
Lucy looked about the room. She didn’t see anything much at first but old dusty furniture and old heavy draperies here and there. There were two large windows, but vines grew all over them, so that they didn’t let in much light. There was nothing else but dust and shadows. Lucy was disappointed.
Then she began to wonder.
What made the shadows?
They moved across the room and disappeared, and other took their places. And every one of them was the shadow of a person. They walked about soundlessly and appeared to gesture and talk to one another.
“Michael!” Lucy whispered softly, touching his arm. He was smiled vaguely, as though thinking of something far away. “Michael, who makes the shadows?”
Michael looked down at her and smiled. “They’re the shadows of the people who lived in this castle,” he said. “It’s part of the magic.”
“Then – it is enchanted! I felt there was something odd about it.”
Michael was silent again and Lucy followed the direction of his eyes. He was watching the shadow of a young girl as it moved about. She seemed very beautiful and graceful. She wore long robes, with sleeves that fell to the floor, and her hair was long, hanging to her knees.
She was walking back and forth and every once in a while, Lucy thought she held out her arms in their direction.
“What does she want?” she whispered. “Is she trying to tell us something?”
“She’s tired of waiting,” Michael said, “for the enchantment to be over. She gets very impatient sometimes. That is Gloria, the first princess who ever lived here. This castle was made for her.”
“Was she a – Fairy Princess?”
“Well, not at first. Would you like to hear about her?”
“Oh, yes!” said Lucy.
