“No. The dragon umbrella is only able to protect one person. If two individuals who have been painted by Needle-Eye try to use it together, they’ll both die a terrible death: Half of each person will be painted into the picture, and the other half will remain under the umbrella…. Now raise the umbrella over the princess and go! Each moment you delay increases the danger. Needle-Eye may finish the picture any moment now!”
Auntie Wide kept spinning the umbrella over the old master. She looked at the princess, then back to the painter, hesitating.
“I taught that vile spawn how to paint. Death is what I deserve. What are you waiting for? Do you want to see the princess disappear before your eyes?”
Auntie Wide shivered. She moved the umbrella over the princess.
The old painter stroked his beard and smiled. “It’s all right. I’ve painted all my life. To be turned into a painting is not a bad way to go. I trust my student’s technique. The portrait will be excellent….”
As he spoke, his body slowly became transparent, then faded away like a wisp of fog.
Princess Dewdrop stared at the empty space where the painter had been and muttered, “Let’s go. To the Glutton’s Sea.”
Auntie Wide said to the captain, “Can you keep the umbrella up for a while? I need to go pack.”
The captain took over. “Hurry! Prince Ice Sand’s men are everywhere. We’ll have trouble getting away after daylight.”
“But I have to pack! The princess has never been away. I’ve got to take her traveling cloak and boots, and lots of clothes, and her water, and… also the bath soap from He’ershingenmosiken—she can’t sleep if she doesn’t bathe with it….” Auntie Wide continued to mutter as she left.
Half an hour later, by the faint glow of dawn, a light carriage left the palace from a side door. The captain drove. In the carriage were the princess and Auntie Wide, who held up the spinning umbrella. They were all dressed as commoners, and the carriage soon disappeared in the fog.
In that distant underground bunker, Needle-Eye had just completed the portrait of Princess Dewdrop.
“This is the most beautiful portrait I’ve ever painted,” he said to Prince Ice Sand.
Once they were outside the palace, the captain drove the horses as fast as they would go. All three were anxious. In the brightening darkness, they felt danger looming in every shadowy copse and field they passed. After the sky brightened even more, the carriage came to the top of a hill, where the captain stopped so they could look back along the road. The kingdom spread out below the hill, and the road was like a straight line that divided the world in half. At the end of the line was the palace, looking like a pile of toy blocks forgotten on the horizon. No one was chasing after them; apparently Prince Ice Sand thought the princess no longer existed because she had been captured by Needle-Eye’s brush.
They continued in a more relaxed manner. As the sky continued to brighten and illuminate everything around them, the world resembled a picture being painted. At first, there were only vague outlines and hazy colors; later, the outlines became more defined, the colors richer and more vivid. The moment just before the sun rose was when the painting became complete.
The princess, who had always lived in the palace, had never seen such large patches of vibrant colors: the green of forests, grassland, and fields, the bright red and brilliant yellow of wildflowers, the silver of the sky reflected in lakes and ponds, the snowy white of flocks of sheep… As the sun rose, it was as if the painter of this world-picture scattered a handful of gold dust boldly over the surface of the painting.
“It’s so lovely outside,” said the princess. “It’s as if we’re already in the picture.”
“That’s true,” said Auntie Wide, spinning the umbrella. “But you’re alive in
The princess was reminded of her departed parents. She forced herself to not cry. She understood that she was no longer a young girl, but a queen with duties she had to bear.
They talked about Prince Deep Water.
“Why was he exiled to Tomb Island?” asked the princess.
“They say he’s a monster,” said the captain.
“Prince Deep Water is no monster!” said Auntie Wide.
“They say he’s a giant.”
“He’s no giant. I held him when he was a baby. I know.”
“When we get to the sea, you’ll see. Many others have seen him. He really is a giant.”
“Even if he’s a giant, he’s still the prince,” said the princess. “Why was he exiled to the island?”
“He wasn’t exiled. When he was little, he took a boat to Tomb Island to fish. But that was when the glutton fish appeared in the sea. He couldn’t come back, so he had to grow up on the island.”
