Wizard's First Rule

"Lords and ladies," the Queen said, with a chuckle. "did I not promise you royal entertainment? The drink of enlightenment lets us see what a selfish fool this man truly is. Just think, he actually believes it is right to profit while others starve. He would put his profit above the lives of his fellow man. For his greed, he would murder the hungry."

Everyone laughed with the Queen.

The Queen smacked her hand down on the table. Plates jumped and a few glasses fell over, spilling a red stain across the white tablecloth. Everyone fell quiet, except the little dog, who barked at the man. "This is the kind of greed that will be ended, when the People's Peace Army comes to help rid us of these human leeches that suck us all dry!" The Queen's round face was as red as the stains on the tablecloth.

Everyone cheered and clapped for a long time. The Queen sat back, smiling at last.

The man's face was as red as hers. "Odd, isn't it, now that all the farmers, the workers in town, are all working for the common good, that there isn't enough good to go around, like there used to be, or enough food."

The Queen jumped to her feet. "Of course not!" she shouted. "Because of greedy people like you!" She took some deep breaths, until her face wasn't quite so red, then turned to the Princess. "Violet dear, you must learn matters of state sooner or later. You must learn how to serve the public good for all our people. Therefore, I will put this matter in your hands, so you may gain experience. What would you do with this traitor to our people? You choose, dear, and it will be done."

Princess Violet stood. Smiling, she looked around at the people.

"I say," she said, as she leaned forward a little, across the table, to look at the big man in chains, "I say, off with his head!"

Everyone cheered and clapped again. Guards dragged the man away as he called them names Rachel didn't understand. She was sad for him, and for his family.

After the assembled crowd talked for a while longer, they all decided to go watch the man get his head chopped off. When the Queen left and Princess Violet turned to her and said it was time to go watch, Rachel stood up in front of her with fists at her side

"You're really mean. You're really mean to say to chop off that man's head."

The Princess put her hands on her hips. "Is that so? Well you can just spend the night outside tonight!"

"But Princess Violet, it's so cold out tonight!"

"Well, while you're freezing you can just think about how you dared speak to me in that tone! And so you remember the next time, you are to stay out all day tomorrow, and tomorrow night, too!" Her face looked mean, like the Queen's did sometimes. "That should teach you some respect."

Rachel started to say something else; then she remembered the trouble doll, and that she wanted to go out. The Princess pointed at the archway toward the door.

"Go on. Right now, with no supper." She stomped her foot.

Rachel looked at the ground, to pretend she was sad. "Yes, Princess Violet," she said, as she curtsied.

She walked with her head down, through the archway and down the big hall with all the rugs hung on the high walls. She liked to look at the pictures on the rugs, but she kept her head down this time, in case the Princess was watching; she didn't want to look happy about being put out. Guards, wearing shiny armor breastplates and swords and holding pikes, opened the great, tall, iron doors for her without saying anything. They never said anything to her when they let her out, or when they let her back in. They knew she was the Princess's playmate: a nobody.

When she got outside, she tried not to walk too fast, in case anyone was watching. The stone was as cold as ice on her bare feet. Carefully, and with each hand under the other armpit to keep her fingers warm, she went down the wide steps and terraces, taking them one at a time so she wouldn't fall, at last reaching the cobblestone walk at the bottom. More guards patrolled outside, but they ignored her. They saw her all the time. The closer she got to the gardens, the faster she walked.

Rachel slowed on the main garden path, waiting until the guards' backs were turned. The trouble doll was right where Giller had said it would be. She put the fire stick in her pocket, then hugged the doll to her as tight as she could before hiding it behind her back. She whispered to it, a warning to be still. She couldn't wait to get to her wayward pine so she could tell the doll how mean Princess Violet was to have that man's head chopped off. She looked around in the darkness.