The Throwaway Princess
Part I: Lindorny Part II: The Quest Requested
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
They had been traveling for a short time when Lindorny said to Tirlangir, “We’ll have to go back. We forgot your assistant.”
“No, she’s right here.” An open mesh bag hung from Tirlangir’s shoulders. A bulge moved and the wizard patted it. “Here’s Beauty.” Beauty meowed.
“Your assistant is a cat?” Lindorny felt astonished.
Tirlangir nodded.
“What good is a cat?”
Tirlangir shrugged.
“We’ve never had a cat,” Lindorny said. “They make Arlan sneeze.”
“I don’t like cats,” said Arlan. “I can’t breathe right around them.”
“That’s indoors,” Tirlangir said. “Outdoors, you won’t have a problem.”
Arlan sneezed, and took her horse as far from Tirlangir’s as possible.
“It’s a good thing the queen didn’t know your assistant is a cat,” said Rolf. “She wouldn’t have been impressed-—any more than I am.”
“I didn’t want her to know,” Tirlangir admitted. “But I couldn’t keep it from my companions of the quest. You had to know.”
“I‘d like to see Beauty,” said Lindorny.
“You will, when we stop.”
Rolf joined Arlan. “A cat as an assistant!” Rolf said. “What good can that be?”
“It will bring nothing but harm to me,” said Arlan. “And I agree with you. The cat can do nothing to aid our quest.
“Tirlangir was very wrong, to keep such a secret from the queen, and her majesty will not be happy when she discovers why she never met the invaluable assistant.”
Lindorny felt excited and pleased. Beauty. The cat’s name was Beauty. This could mean either that she was an exceptionally pretty member of a species Lindorny had always considered attractive, or given some people’s tendency toward sarcasm, that she was very ugly indeed. As assistant to a wizard, she was probably not young. Amused, Lindorny in her mind’s eye, saw a very ugly cat, mangy, hairless, lacking an eye and ear.
The wizard’s pack began to wiggle fiercely. “Beauty wants out,” he said. We’ll stop.”
Everybody stopped, dismounted, and stretched. The rain had ceased, leaving behind a bright rainbow. Tirlangir put the pack on the ground and opened it. Beauty stalked out. She was a black cat with white legs, chest and belly, and a partially white face. Her markings were perfectly regular, her eyes were like large light green jewels, and her long white whiskers almost sparkled against her black fur. She stretched, graceful furry black tail in the air, snowy front legs along the ground. She looked at Lindorny commandingly, and then she looked at the wizard and meowed.
“She says her name’s Beauty,” Tirlangir said.
“We already knew that,” said Rolf.
“It’s an excellent name for her,” Lindorny said. “She is beautiful indeed.”
Satisfied, the cat licked her paws reflectively. Lindorny wondered whether the cat had known what she was thinking. She thought to the cat, if you can hear me, nod. Beauty looked at Lindorny, nodded, and then crawled back into the wizard’s pack. She settled down there. They all got back on their horses and continued on their way.
“I don’t know what that was all about,” said Arlan. “I would have thought that the cat had to do something, but she didn’t.”
“Wizards are often mysterious,” Rolf said. “Maybe their cats are, too.”
Lindorny knew. It was clear to her that Beauty had heard her thoughts and wanted to be thought of respectfully. Silently, Lindorny assured her that now she always would.
Formats
Book Details
About the Book
Lindorny should have been the crown princess of Linnina, but became ineligible when her foot broke and didn’t heal properly. She was sent away, to be brought up by a woman who had no one else to love. Lindorny knew nothing of her parentage until the queen sent for her, after a prophecy stated that the country’s peril from Wildland could be averted if a royal Linnine and a royal Andran retrieved three magical objects from Wildland before Midsummer.
Lindorny, Prince Bevishandar, the wizard, Tirlangir, and their friends go into Wildland, but one quest leads to another!
About the Author
Elinor Busby has read fantasy since childhood. She always wanted to be a writer, but on trying it, found it too much work. Later she became a science fiction fan and involved herself in much writing in the amateur publishing field. When she tried fiction writing again, she found it easy, and even fun. Some years ago she wrote and sold three short stories to fairly small markets. This whetted her appetite for writing, and she wrote two Regency novels and a number of fantasies for the young adult markets. These did not sell, and she eventually came to feel that she had had rejection enough for one lifetime. However, she is her own favorite writer, and began to feel that somewhere there were people who would enjoy her writing, and should be allowed the opportunity.