The five children stared at their royal parents, and their royal parents stared back.
Lyla didn't know what to say to the beautiful Queen Hail, whose eyes showed no sign of ever being blinded by barnacles, and she felt shy in front of her handsome father, whose smile was so like Lem's. But when her mother caught hold of her hands and pulled her close to kiss her, Lyla knew that, in that moment, words weren't important.
Celeste felt equally as awkward. Ever since Babylon Forest she had imagined her mother as a dying or burnt tree. Now she found it hard to be lovingly embraced by someone so regal and lovely, after preparing herself to never see her mother again. So, unaware of the instant hurt in her mother's eyes, she pulled away. But then, out of nowhere, she remembered the small girl she'd once been, standing still while her mother lovingly brushed her long blonde hair. Celeste smiled and allowed herself to be hugged so tightly that when Chad tried to wriggle in between them he was squashed.
Lem smiled tentatively at his father and then pushed a shy Swift towards him. As King Tefan swung Swift up for a hug, his green eyes met those of his older son and their smiles broadened until they were both laughing. As Swift's feet touched the ground, Lem rushed to his father and they hugged each other with a protesting Swift caught in between.
The fathers hugged their daughters, and their nieces, and King Atric thanked Lyla for looking after Celeste and Chad. Then all the parents exclaimed over how tall and strong the youngest boys had grown.
Finally the queens embraced their long-lost sister, Princess Elle, each proclaiming that she didn't look a day older than when she'd disappeared.
Then they danced with each other and around the men and children, and they tripped over everyone's feet, and their laughter echoed joyously around the rose garden.
`Let us go home,' cried Queen Hail, swinging Swift around so his feet left the ground. `I have missed it so much. I want to see the palace, the gardens, the swan boats, everything.'
`It's a ruin,' burst out Lyla, not wanting her mother to be as disappointed as she had been when she had first seen the ruined palace. `It has holes in its roof.'
`Not any more,' smiled Queen Ona. `Follow us and see what our combined Extreme Magic can do.'
`What about Lord Orion and the Wind Horse Riders?' asked Celeste, catching hold of Princess Elle's hand.
`Without them we would not have reached the moon dial in time for the eclipse.'
`Indeed you would not,' agreed Princess Elle. `And I am remiss for having forgotten them.' She bowed her head towards Lord Orion and his Wind Horse Riders, who had formed a guard of honour for the Royal Family to pass through.
`We must thank Lord Orion,' she reminded her sisters and their husbands.
The kings bowed to Lord Orion to show their respect and their thanks. The Queens held out the skirts of their long velvet gowns and curtsied.
Princess Elle held out her long golden skirt too and was about to curtsy when she changed her mind. She ran over to the Lord of the Wind Horse Clan, reached up and caught his hand.
`Thank you, my Lord, thank you. You have helped rescue the Kingdom of M'dgassy.'
Lord Orion's ice-blue eyes lit up with pleasure as he and his Wind Horse clan bowed their heads to the pretty princess who, with a flushed smile, returned to her nieces.
Lyla and Celeste grinned and nudged each other.
`Don't you think Lord Orion is the most handsome Lord you've ever seen?' Celeste whispered, skipping along beside her aunt.
`Don't you think he has the most beautiful blue eyes and the loveliest golden hair?' Lyla added.
Princess Elle glanced again at Lord Orion who was watching her with a charming smile on his handsome face. `I have not seen many Lords since I was enchanted. But he is indeed beautiful of face.'
`And brave,' added Lem, dropping back to join them. `When he and you were eighteen he came to ask for your hand in marriage.'
Princess Elle looked surprised, `Did he? I don't remember.'
`You refused him and he went away broken hearted.'
`Oh dear,' Princess Elle blushed. `I shall have to apologise to him when next we meet. Which I hope will be at the Royal Banquet that will be held in honour of all those who helped battle the High Enchanter.'
`A banquet for everyone?' exclaimed Chad, who couldn't decide who he wanted to walk with the most, his father and mother who made him feel shy, or his sister and cousins and the pretty Princess Elle, so he danced in between everyone. `Do you mean Edith the Oracle, Clarissa the stilt girl, Sebastian Ull, Rosie and the Oopla Sisters Plus One?'
`Prince Torenshone and the Merpeople?' added Celeste. `Although they will only be able to come as far as the jetty.'
`San Jaagiin, Verv Roliat and my pet snow leopard, Snow?' asked Swift.
`And Chii, if he got back to Whale Island, and Dulcinella and Kendra if they escaped,' finished Lyla.
She did not mention Gochman or Finder, in front of everone else.
`Yes, everyone,' laughed Princess Elle.
Lyla waited until the others had rejoined their parents before she caught hold of her aunt's hand. `What about my friend, Gochman and his Goch, Finder? We wouldn't have escaped from the Mudmen without them.'
Princess Elle's black eyes turned sad. `I am sorry, Lyla, but the 'begone' Extreme Magic used to build the invincible wall around M'dgassy will not allow anything becamed by the High Enchanter to enter our kingdom.'
`But if the High Enchanter captures them he will unbecome them and I promised to find them. We all did. A promise is a promise.'
Princess Elle agreed that a promise was a promise, and then she leant down and whispered in Lyla's ear. `So we will have to find a way to expel the High Enchanter's influence from their memories and make them M'dgassy subjects. Which means, I suppose that someone with extra-strong magical powers will have to go and find them.'
Lyla's black eyes, which were so like her aunt's, lit up excitedly. `What sort of extra-strong magical powers? Spells for becoming invisible like the Wind Horse Riders or like the Fafnir Elixir of Youth that the High Enchanter wants so badly?'
Princess Elle stopped walking. `How do you know about the Fafnir Elixir of Youth?'
`Crystalzee, the Whale Island singer, told Gochman and he told me. She heard about it from General Tulga who didn't want you to tell the High Enchanter how to stay young because then he would never inherit the Kingdom of Acirfa.'
Princess Elle put her arm around Lyla's shoulders. `General Tulga need not have worried. When I discovered that Prince Yor, or the High Prince Jarrimonte as he really was, only wanted to marry me to find out about the elixir, I put a forgetting spell on myself. Now the only way the Fafnir Elixir of Youth can be found is to travel to the Spring of Fafnir, and I have also forgotten where that is.'
`Is a forgetting spell part of helping Gochman and Finders become subjects of M'dga-' Lyla gasped and stared at the sight before them.
Ahead of them, shining golden in the three moons' glow and illuminated by thousands of red lanterns floating amongst the swan boats on the lake, stood the M'dgassy Royal palace. Its coloured-glass windows, blue domes, golden-tipped cupolas and silver doors glittered and gleamed as if newly built that very night. It was a sight to take the children's breaths away.
`Amazing!' sighed Celeste.
`Astounding!' added Lem.
`It's the same as in my dream!' cried Lyla.
`And it is the dream I kept in my heart for seventeen years,' said Princess Elle.
The palace doors were suddenly flung open and out ran the eight loyal guardians waving their arms and shouting in surprise.
`Should we tell Malcolm Leftfoot that we met his wife and she really is a bird and probably can lay an egg?' said Swift, catching hold of Princess Elle's hand to pull her along faster.
Princess Elle shook her head. `If the birds reached M'dgassy before the Circle of Ten put the spell around it, which I think they did, then Elsie Leftfoot is most likely walking towards the palace this very minute.'
`Is turning birds back into people the sort of magic I will learn?' asked Lyla.
`Learn what?' asked Celeste.
`Extreme Magic so I can go and find Gochman and Finder.'
`Don't you mean so we, including Nutty, can go and find Gochman and Finder?' Lem corrected.
`And Splash,' added Celeste. `I don't go anywhere without Splash.'
`And my parrot, Rosie,' said Chad.
`And Snow,' said Swift.
Lem made a face. `Not Snow. He is too old.'
Swift's eyes turned stubborn. `Is not!'
`Is so!'
`Is not!'
`I think,' interrupted their aunt, `that after so many years of watching the High Enchanter make hundreds of youth elixirs, that I just might be able to make a better one for a snow leopard. If that would please you Swift?'
Swift nodded his head so fast it looked as if it would fall off.
`Good,' smiled the Princess, linking arms with Celeste and Lyla as they all hurried towards the palace. `So would that be five for Extreme Magic lessons?'
`Yes,' they all chorused.
`And when will we have that banquet?' Princess Elle asked as she stole a glance back at the Wind Horse Riders who were following at a respectable distance. Her eyes locked with those of Lord Orion and she blushed.
`Would tomorrow be too soon?' Lyla asked. `And would it be a good idea to invite Lord Orion and his Wind Horse Riders before they gallop away?'
Princess Elle nodded quickly. `I think it would be a wonderful idea, don't you?'
The end
...for now