.

the table in all the seats except the chair at the head of the table.

      «Play the lute!» Rachelina spurred him on. «Everyone here loves music.»

      Now Brendan didn’t ask who everyone was. They were there, he just couldn’t see them.

      «Your eyesight is poor,» said Rachelina as he peered around the corner of the table, but you have a good ear.

      Brendan heard the clinking of glasses before he noticed that the goblets and cups were indeed hovering a millimeter above the table, as if someone invisible were lifting them.

      There was nowhere to go. Brendan played just to keep from going crazy. Music always cheered him up.

      The invisible guests of Rachelina’s continued to feast, moving dishes around the table. Was there a whole crowd of them or just a few? He could hear them laughing, but he could not see them. He did not see them until he heard the rustling of their clothes. Some of the guests had evidently begun to dance. Brendan realized how difficult it was to play blind. Someone had elbowed him, and he couldn’t even see who it was. The invisibles started pinching and teasing him.

      «Play it cool!» Rashelina noticed that the minstrel was nervous.

      «How is it? They turn me on?» Brendan snapped when someone shoved him so he couldn’t stand on his feet.

      «They’re just jealous,» the cat princess explained. «They sense competition.»

      Brendan didn’t understand her again.

      «Dinner costs too much here if I have to play for those who want to torture me.»

      «It is all right!» Rashelina clapped her hands together. The guests seemed to be gone in a flash. Only the sighs were audible.

      «So you can get them out of here?» Brendan opened his mouth in amazement. «I mean, isn’t anyone capable of controlling invisible people?»

      «I am, after all, a princess!» The little pussycat lady said.

      «And I have to play every night for the invisible?»

      «No, after the wedding, you yourself will be the prince here, and you no longer have to earn your bread playing.»

      «Is it a wedding?» Clement had a cold sweat on his forehead. Whose wedding is it?»

      It was not without reason that he suspected something amiss. Rashelina’s feline face was already a smiling face, but she looked sly all of a sudden.

      «You asked me to marry you,» she explained, «because you wished to remain here forever, and by the rules of the realm you proposed to me.»

      «I didn’t know there were such rules.»

      «But you can’t go back on your word.»

      «Even if I turn out to be an imbecile who didn’t know what he was talking about?» Brendan clutched the lute as if it were a shield against misfortune.

      «I should be glad to let you go,» she understood his hesitation, «but there is no way to transgress the law of the land. Magic won’t allow it.»

      Brendan knew there was magic here, but even he was shocked at the magic laws. Even Ephigenia hadn’t warned him about that.

      «My Lady, that is, your feline highness…» Brendan staggered toward the exit. «You are very kind to me, but…»

      «But you don’t want to marry a cat,» she prompted.

      How aptly put! He couldn’t have put it more accurately. Brendan liked her. He liked her a lot. To look at a cat trained in social manners was a delight to the soul, but to marry her was nonsense! It was as if he had fallen into a nightmare.

      «Will you give me a night to think about it?«He said to the princess, or her unseen subjects.

      Rashelina merely nodded.

      She nodded. «If you refuse, you will be summarily executed,» she warned him in a sorrowful tone.

      Brendan did not specify who would execute him. But somehow he had no doubt that there would be invisible executioners. They might be invisible, but they knew how to inflict pain. While he was playing, he was pushed and plucked like a victim. Apparently, they saw him as a victim in the beginning.

      Had he known how his visit to the cat’s castle would have ended, he would never have come here. Now all he had to do was escape. In one night he could get far away. He might even be able to take Rebecca with him.

      Escape

      Rebecca could not be found. She, too, is a victim. She must be saved! Otherwise the princess will scratch her to death. And even if she didn’t kill her, she would claw her to death.

      Clement scolded himself for thinking Rebecca was a mean girl. You should never sulk at a man for being stern until you know what provoked his sternness. Showing herself a bitch and a prude, Rebecca only wanted to drive him out of the castle, because she knew the danger that threatens him here. And now he can’t even pay her back.

      There are so many rooms and locked doors in the castle. Which one could be Rebecca’s bedroom? Clement jerked one handle and burned himself. The metal was red-hot. Another door knob, shaped like a lion’s head, bit him. A third doorknob, shaped like a bear’s mouth, laughed at him.

      That’s it! That’s enough! Let Rebecca save herself. And he should take advantage of the forfeit he had struck out. In one night he’ll have time to leave the confines of the kingdom if he runs fast.

      And what, in fact, is he running from? A gentle cat’s face and clawed paws? Ridiculous, really! But marriage to a cat is also ridiculous and silly. Not even his uncle would approve of It. Is it possible to call a marriage to the princess a mesalliance?