“Thanks all the same,” Ylith said, fending him off easily, “but I really don’t need your gift now. Keep it for some other lucky lady.”
“But no one ever comes this way!” Santa said. “It’s only elves and reindeer!”
“Tough!” Ylith went to the woodshed. She carried out the bodies of Charming and Scarlet. They were both frozen stiff as logs and heavy as sin. Ylith had to call on all her witch strength to lift them.
“Send me one of your witch friends!” Santa shouted. “Tell her I give presents!”
“I’ll tell them,” Ylith said. “Witches love presents.” And then she rose into the air, bearing Scarlet and Charming, heading for Azzie’s mansion in Augsburg as fast as she could fly.
Chapter 2
Azzie was pacing nervously in the back courtyard when Frike said to him, “I think that’s her, master!” He was pointing into the eastern sky.
As Azzie watched, Ylith appeared, flying slowly with four broomsticks, and carrying the two frozen bodies by ropes suspended from them.
“Careful how you put them down!” Azzie shouted as she soared in for a landing.
“Don’t tell a witch how to ride a broomstick,” Ylith said, elegantly setting down her burden near the door to the alchemical laboratory.
“At last!” Azzie said, hurrying over to look at the couple. “Took your time about getting here, didn’t you?”
“Thanks a lot!” Ylith said. “Go fetch your own bodies next time. And get your own eyes!”
Azzie instantly changed his manner. “I’m sorry, Ylith, but I really have to hurry up or I’ll never get these two set up and rolling by contest time. I’ve gotten some more ichor. Let’s stow Charming for the present and get Scarlet to the castle and animate her.”
“Just as you wish,” Ylith said.
“That’s great,” Azzie observed when they were done with the Prince. “Now I just hope everything is ready at the castle. We’ll go there at once.”
And so they did. Ylith carried Scarlet, still rigid with cold, and Azzie, utilizing his considerable flying powers, followed carrying Frike and a sack of provisions and spells he thought he’d need.
“Get that fire going!” Azzie said to Frike, later, when they had taken up residence in the enchanted castle. They were in an upper story, where a chamber had been prepared for Princess Scarlet. First, of course, they had to animate her.
“Have you got the eyes?” Azzie asked.
“Right here,” Ylith said. “I got this set from Chodlos, the artist who painted her as the Magdalene.”
“And for Prince Charming?”
“The eyes of Skander, the dragon.”
“Very nice,” Azzie said. “Why is it still so cold in here?”
Frike had been stoking the big fireplace in the bedchamber for over an hour, and the place was still cold. The stone walls seemed to absorb the heat. At this rate they’d never get Scarlet thawed out. They could see her in a rather distorted fashion through the bluish ice. Her features seemed to be at repose. Frike’s stitches were not too noticeable. The dancer’s legs he had attached to the trunk of the Magdalene model were stitched around the mid-thighs, but the stitching looked like a garter. Frike had some surprising skills.
But why did she take so long to thaw out? Was there a magical spell on this ice? Azzie poked at the ice with his claws and found that it had barely softened.
The fire still wasn’t hot enough. Azzie had requisitioned room-warming spells quite a while ago, but they still hadn’t come through. He repeated his request now, using the unlimited credit card to ensure instant delivery. In a moment there was a soft explosion in the air and a brand-new warming spell fell into the room, neatly encased in its opaque eggshell.
“At last!” Azzie said, cracking the shell. The spell whooshed silently out and the room warmed up ten degrees almost at once.
“Now for the animating procedure,” Azzie said after some thawing had occurred. “Quick, Frike, the ichor.”
The servant hunched over the recumbent Princess and splashed ichor on her face.
“Now the animating spell,” Azzie said, and recited it.
The composite creature whom they called Princess Scarlet lay still as death and as pale. Then a faint tremor passed over her cheek. Her finely shaped lips moved and parted, and her little tongue came out to taste the ichor. Then her delicate nose widened, her body stirred, relaxed again.