Dear Govert,
I also have no idea of what is going on. As agreed, you ought
to possess the Glasswork by now, but it didn't work out that
way, due to some unknown factors. Lisabeth knows what happened
but she doesn't want to tell. This night we can discuss the
situation without her being present. I'll meet you in your
room.
Your Anne-Christine.
"Brilliantly done, my congratulations", Anne-Christine
said, later that day. The mood hadn't changed for the better
since Gosseling had been led away by the servant, without the
Glassware having appeared.
"But where is the Service then?" she asked yet again. "For
I haven't seen it either".
"Oh well, all you have to do is think hard", Lisabeth
said. "That will take you everywhere. I promess you, Anne, we
won't leave without the Service".
"That is quite a relief", Anne-Christine said. "But I
would feel more comfortable if you would involve me more
closely in your affairs."
"Maybe next time", Lisabeth said. "For the time being, I
am enjoying exploring all the possibilities to the full".
"What possibilities?" Anne-Christine asked.
"The possibilities of a Black Hole in this room!" Lisabeth
whispered in conspiratorial fashion.
"A Black Hole?" Anne-Christine was puzzeled for the rest
of the day. "What on earth is a Black Hole?"
At last Lisabeth gave her an explanation:
"A Black Hole is a place in space into which everything
vanishes. By the accumulation of gravity, new material is
attracted endlessly. Eventually, gravity is so powerful that
even light can't escape from it. The light, too, is absorbed
and that's why it looks like a Black Hole."
"And something like that is supposed to be here, in our
room?" Anne-Christine wondered.
"Not exactly, but something which shows a certain
resemblance", Lisabeth said. "And tonight I'm going to see
what I can find in that hole".
"You'd better do that alone', Anne-Christine said, "for I,
too, want to be on my own for a while".
That evening, Anne-Christine went to see Gosseling to
discuss the situation thoroughly.
"I'm sorry, Govert, but I can't help it. Lisabeth is the
one who pulls the strings and I don't have the slightest idea
how to stop it. Honetly, it was my intention to give you your
fair share of the Glasswork. You have to believe that. But it
was Lisabeth who knew you wouldn't hold it in your hands for
more than a few minutes".
"Not more than a few minutes?" Gosseling asked. "If I said
I could have counted to ten, then I would exaggerate. But I
swear I've laid my hand on it. After the servant entered, my
attention was distracted and I still don't know how that
Service could disappear in such a short time."
"Couldn't that be caused by you, taking the prism away?
Perhaps you can take things back only as long as the light is
split?"
"That seems rather obvious, doesn't it?" Gosseling
replied. "But I've brought back quite a number of other
objects. I don't even need those Crystal images. My only
concern is, that I never know where I'll land with my
concentrated thoughts. If I have to make a pinpoint landing,
then those images are rather useful and, without that
Chandelier, my landing would have been far less precise than
today's."
"That's what I thought", Anne-Christine said, in a
daydream. "But, nevertheless, Lisabeth still knows something
which I don't know and you don't know and that is the
Service's whereabouts".
"Didn't she give you a hint?" Gosseling asked.
"She did", Anne-Christine confirmed. "She told me that
there is a Black Hole in our room into which everything
vanishes. Even light can't come out and, at this very moment,
she is looking to see what she can find in that Black
Hole."
"A Black Hole", Gosseling said, rather puzzled, "The
Service is trapped in a Black Hole".
"Hello Anne", Lisabeth said cheerfully when she saw her
friend, right after her visit. "Just look what I' found in the
Black Hole!"
She stretched out her hand. Around her finger she wore a
lapis lazuli ring, mounted in a circle of seven heart-shaped
leaves.
"Wonderful", Anne-Christine said. "That looks pretty
old".
"It's of Egyptian origin", Lisabeth replied, very
confidentially.
"And that ring comes from that famous Black Hole in this
room?" Anne-Christine sounded rather cynical.
"Yeah, and I saw your Service there, among several other
things, like your prism". She handed the glass object to Anne-
Christine, who accepteded it silently. "And what did you do?"
Lisabeth asked.
"I had a chat with Gosseling", Anne-Christine said
frankly.
"Oh, how nice! And did he have any shocking news?"
Lisabeth wanted to know.
Anne-Christine thought for a moment: "No...., or rather...
yes. He knew that the Grand Duke will return tomorrow."
"That's good. So then he can see my ring fairly soon",
Lisabeth said, seeming pleased.
"My heroine of the Crystal!" was how the Grand Duke
greeted Anne-Christine the following day.
"My Lord, what a pleasure to meet you again", Anne-
Christine responded, and, before the Grand Duke could touch
her, continued: "Would you like to meet my friends?"
She pointed at Gosseling, who had been shown into the Grand
Duke's study with Lisabeth.
"Your Majesty", Gosseling said. "I thank you so much for
my sojourn at your Palace. I came to inquire what happened to
my son Alexej. I've not found out anything so far, but that
doesn't lessen the worth of Your Majesty."
The Grand Duke paid little attention to these poite words
as his curiosity had been focussed on Lisabeth's hands for
quite some time.
"The Ring of Clouds!" he cried, as soon as he realized
what had attracted his attention. "Where did you find it?"
"I've made quite a journey to find this Ring, Your
Highness", Lisabeth said. "And I would be pleased to know more
about it".
"It is the Transsyldavian Grand Duchess's ring", the Grand
Duke said. "The last person who wore it was my mother", he
added, suppressing a little tear.
"Then you must be very attached to it", Lisabeth said. "So
I shall remove it from my finger. Perhaps it annoys you,
seeing this ring around a stranger's finger."
She tried to remove the ring with the giant deep-blue gem
from her finger, to hand it to the Grand Duke.
"No, no!" he cried. "It looks lovely on your finger and
you are not really a stranger to me. Perhaps I may not know
your name, but I know you are a friend of Anne-Christine and
you even look like her".
"My name is Lisabeth, Sire", she said. leaving the ring on
her finger.
"Any name would serve well, Lisabeth", the Grand Duke
answered, visably shaken. "You felt that this ring meant a lot
to me, didn't you?"
"Of course, Your Majesty", Lisabeth agreed. "It is an old
ring, older than I've ever seen and I suppose it originated
from Egypt. The lapis lazuli gem in the centre is superb and
it does indeed look like clouds in the sky. And those leaves
around it make it something very special."
"So it is", The Grand Duke said. "Tonight at dinner, I'll
tell you its full history".
Lisabeth felt very proud: "That is an offer I certainly
won't refuse, Your Majesty". she said, rather quickly.
Late that night, Lisabeth called to Anne-Christine from
her bathroom:
"The first thing I'll do, once I'm a Grand Duchess, is to
teach him some table manners, for this is dreadful!"
"You? Grand Duchess?" Anne-Christine called back, "Are you
serious?"
"Of course I am. He proposed marriage to me and I
accepted!" cried Lisabeth.
"You must be crazy!" Anne-Christine said, when Lisabeth
climbed into bed, her hair still wet. "That man is a crackpot
and ill too. You are not going to marry such a man?"
"A wedding is fine, as long as that's all", Lisabeth said.
"I want to become Grand Duchess of Transsyldavia and I
want you and Gosseling to assist me on my wedding night, for
that prospect doesn't attract me at all."
"Oh, that's the way you want it", Anne-Christine
understood. "And what happens if we don't want to or if we are
unable to help you?"
"Then you won't get your Service back!" said Lisabeth,
sliding under the fluffy blanket.
"Lisabeth", Anne-Christine said some time later. "Are you
still awake?"
"Now, what else do you want?" Lisabeth murmured. "Why
don't you ever let me sleep?"
"Lisabeth, I found the Black Hole but it was empty", said
Anne-Christine.
"Of course it was, you are too late", Lisabeth said,
hardly impressed by Anne-Christine's words. "But do tell me,
how did you find out?"
"By means of the Chandelier", Anne-Christine explained. "I
could see very clearly how you took everything out of that
table".
"You are right", admitted Lisabeth, "That table makes
everything disappear which stands on it for more than a few
seconds. That's the way your prism was swallowed. Not that I
saw it happen, but we had put it on the table and it vanished
all by itself. A great many sovereigns have tables which make
things disappear. Kings who can't play chess possess chess
tables which remove the pieces of their adversaries when they
push a button. I knew that and that gave me the idea".
"What was in it?" asked Anne-Christine out of curiosity.
"I couldn't perceive it because you turned your back on the
Chandelier while eclearing the table."
"Your entire Service", Lisabeth said. "That is most
important to you. The ring, which is important to me. That's
almost all, except for your prism and a letter which went with
the ring. And that's it. May I go to sleep now?"
"You removed the Service from this room, didn't you?"
Anne-Christine asked finally.
"Yes, because it prevented me sleeping. But after its
removal, your life was hardly better as, even though the
Service isn't here, I still can't get to sleep", Lisabeth
grumbled.
"It's all right", said Anne-Christine as she turned over
in bed. "Tomorrow we'll talk further".
"Am I disturbing you by asking you to grant me some of
your time?" the Consul asked Lisabeth the following morning.
"I would like to have a personal conversation with you".
"I was expecting this", Lisabeth replied, looking at him
understandingly. "And I do have some spare time now".
"That's excellent", the Consul said. "I want to
congratulate you on your coming marriage with His Majesty the
Grand Duke".
"Thank you very much", Lisabeth said, "Would you mind
coming to our room? Anne-Christine and Mr Gosseling are absent
at the moment".
"That's perfect", the Consul said.
"Everything is going smoothly!" Lisabeth cheered when
Anne-Christine returned. "The wedding will be announced today
and it won't be long before I'll be Grand Duchess of
Transsyldavia!"
"Congratulations", Anne-Christine said in a flat voice.
"And what are Gosseling and I supposed to contribute? He does
want to help you, depending on what you expect us to do".
"You both have to wait in the Grand Duchess's coach, ready
to leave", Lisabeth stated. "That's all. Oh no, it isn't. How
did you manage to get the Grand Duke to keep his filthy hands
to himself?"
Anne-Christine had to laugh: "By a sleeping potion that
Alex brought me!"
"But Alex is gone", Lisabeth was surprised. "Where do we
find such an elixer now?"
"There's still something left. But it's five years old now
and even at that time it didn't work very well", Anne-
Christine said. "But you may use it if you want to".
She handed her perfume bottle to Lisabeth who accepted it
gratefully.
The wedding was announced all over the country by posters,
which also revealed details about the relationship between
Lisabeth and Anne-Christine as the well-known guardian angel
of the Moscuvite Glasswork. It was the Grand Duke's Consul who
took charge of most of the preparations. The negotiations
between the Grand Duke and Lisabeth took place during dinner.
Besides those meetings, she didn't meet the Grand Duke very
often and she was pleased she didn't have to.
The two girls still spent their nights in their room in
the tower and it was there they made their escape plan. Anne-
Christine told Lisabeth how to administer her elixer to the
Grand Duke without being noticed, while Lisabeth had managed
to obtain her own troika, with Gosseling appointed as the
driver.
At one of the dinners, Lisabeth practised with her potion,
causing an unexpected result. Not only did the Grand Duke fall
asleep but he turned out to be a skilled sleep-walker, who
could be guided back to his seat by the Consul only with great
effort.
"It seems as if the elixer is getting more powerful over
the years!" a surprised Lisabeth confided to Anne-Christine.
After that, she experimented on herself, taking a small dose.
That night, Anne-Christine had to stay awake all night as
Lisabeth stood up over and over again, departing for an
unknown destiny, with her arms stretched.
Meanwhile, the Palace was flooded with foreign guests,
invited for the wedding. The Czar and his relatives were
absent. At last, the Palace was so crowded that Gosseling had
to share his room with other invited persons.
"I'll be glad when this idiocy is over, Lisabeth", he
said. "My room-mates may well be blue-blooded but that doesn't
prevent them snoring".
"Tomorrow is the day. Then we can get away"!" Lisabeth
exulted. She had been in a good mood for several days, quiet
and full of confidence that she would be crowned Grand Duchess
of Transsyldavia without too much trouble.
Gosseling and Anne-Christine didn't have much to do. They
enjoyed being together and went horse-riding together. Outside
the Palace, it surprised them that there weren't more signs of
festivities in the villages. Most of the posters were torn off
the walls, where the villagers had scribbled words and
drawings, which showed that the Grand Duke was not particulary
dear to them.
"Takest thou, Grand Duke of Transsyldavia, Lisabeth as
your wife?" the patriarch asked on the big day.
"I do", the Grand Duke said.
"And thou, Lisabeth, takest thou the Grand Duke of
Transsyldavia as your husband?"
"I do", Lisabeth answered firmly, looking at Anne-
Christine and Gosseling.
The patriarch held his hands just above their heads and
took them away just before the crowns were placed. Lisabeth's
crown was made of crystal, in the shape of a five-pointed star
and the Grand Duke was given a heavy golden crown. After the
rings were exchanged, the Grand Duke kissed Lisabeth's ring
and she did the same with his ring. Then the Grand Duke
offered her his arm and they headed a long procession, leading
from the court chapel to the banquet, which was already
prepared for the guests.
"My friends, I hope you will enjoy the meal", the Grand
Duke called. He then dipped his plate in the soup tureen to
fill it with soup. The guests were rather surprised and the
first ones to reach the table hardly dared to follow his
example, but the latter guests followed without too many
scruples.
Glancing surreptitiously at the Grand Duke, who praised
Anne-Christine's table-manners but who wiped his hands on his
own clothes, the guests soon cpied his behaviour and forgot
completely about spoons and forks.
Anne-Christine was pushing a large piece of meat onto the
table, while tearing off parts of it with her teeth, when the
Grand Duke cried: "Wonderful! May the feat be unforgettable!".
This was the signal for all the guest to forget about their
status, and their decency.
Within the hour, there wasn't a single white spot left on
the damask table linen but the servants continued to bring in
fresh food.
"This is the best day of my life", Lisabeth said. "What a
sight for sore-eyes!"
Her bridegroom agreed wholeheartedly.
The meal went on for hours. Fresh food continued to be
placed on the tables but some of the guests were already
eating on the floor. The whole hall was becoming a dinner
table and this permitted Anne-Christine and Goseling to escape
unnoticed, to prepare the coach for Lisabeth's flight.
The brand-new Grand Duchess had seen her friends move slowly
towards one of the many doors and finally saw them disappear
after she and they had exchanged understanding glance.
"What a mess!" Gosseling said to Anne-Christine, once they
were outside.
"It's only because she possesses my Service. If she
didn't, I wouldn't have joined them!" Anne-Christine
replied.
"So the Glasswork did come out of that Black Hole?'
Gosseling asked in surprise.
Anne-Christine emerged quickly from her mood of
flippancy.
"It has never been away," she answered briefly.
"Never been away? I brought it back to you!" Gosseling
cried upset.
"I don't know what to think, Govert", Anne-Christine said.
"Perhaps you are right, perhaps you aren't. For the moment,
neither you nor I know where it is. Let's prepare the coach,
to get away from here as soon as possible".
"First, we have to dress again and pack our things",
Gosseling suggested, "and then we'll meet at the appointed
place".
"All right", Anne-Christine replied. "I will need about an
hour".
"So shall I", Gosseling estimated.
They had been waiting for some hours already: Gosseling as
the driver, whip in hand, and Anne-Christine as a passenger,
on the rear seat of the troika.
"Why can't a Grand Duchess afford a closed coach?" she
asked, shivering from cold. But Gosseling didn't feel like
answering. The three horses became impatient and he had to
calm them more than once.
"Come on, Lisabeth", murmured Anne-Christine and, at that
very moment the silhouette of a fragile girl emerged from the
dark.
"Spur them on, driver!" Lisabeth called, after stepping
into the coach. "Everything went perfectly well", she smiled,
while Anne-Christine draped a shawl around her shoulders.
And so they departed into the Transsyldavian night, as the
first snowflakes started to fall.
After a while Anne-Christine noticed that the posters,
which were glued to the walls at every street corner, weren't
the same posters which had announced the wedding. None of them
had been torn off or scratched. They looked as if they had
been there for just a few minutes.
Anne-Christine pulled at Gosseling's coat and when he
turned towards her, she called: "Could you stop near one of
those a posters?"
Gosseling managed to drive the coach close to a poster
where the glue was still wet.
"Citizens of Transsyldavia!
Our most beloved Grand Duke has been victim of an
unforeseeable and most tragic incident during his wedding
night. His Highness fell from the balcony of his Palace, with
fatal results. Our beloved Grand Duchess Lisabeth has placed
his powers into the capable hands of his excellency, the now
former Consul of our late Grand Duke.
Our national hero, the most gifted painter Borislov is willing
to take over the duties of our former Consul".
Anne-Christine read those words loudly and whistled
between her teeth. "That's more than just an innocent sleep-
potion!"
"It certainly is", Lisabeth had to admit. "It's a
conspiracy. Please go on, Gosseling!"
"Are you behind all this?" Anne-Christine asked , as soon
as the coach started to move again.
"I, the Consul, the Czar, Borislov, Alexej, Gosseling and
maybe I've forgotten a few others".
"For heaven's sake, how did you get into this?" Anne-
Christine asked in surpise.
"By the letter I found in the Black Hole!" Lisabeth
smiled. "It was addressed to the Czar and signed by the
Consul. He gave all the details about the quest for the
Glasswork. He had been constantly informed by Gosseling and
Alexey. In his opinion, it wouldn't be long before the entire
Glasswork would be collected together. With that in mind, the
Consul sent the Czar the Ring of Clouds. With this object, he
could try to make the Grand Duke marry one of his daughters or
cousins, so that the Czar would have access to the
Transsyldavian treasury, with the Service.
Unfortunately, he wrote the letter on that magic table, where
it was locked until I found it! By the way, the ring was
stolen by Borislov from the treasury, when he painted you"
"So Gosseling is involved in that conspiracy", Anne-
Christine said and, if looks could kill, then Gosseling would
have died instantantly. But the coach driver didn't seem to
hear the words, which were drowned by the rattling of the
wheels.
"Our Govert isn't the one who owns the Glasswork now, I
hope?" Anne-Christine asked.
"Oh no! The entire Service is safely wrapped into the
blanket on the back of that left horse", her friend tried to
sooth her.
At that moment, Gosseling dived head-first onto the horse
in question, cut through the harness and spurred the horse to
race away.
Before the coach had come to a standstill, Lisabeth had
already burst in laughter.
"Just like the first time!" she shouted, while tears ran
down her cheeks.
It was a while before she stopped laughing. Then she
lifted the front seat of the coach, revealing a wrapped-up
horse blanket. Anne-Christine could guess what it contained.