BW: Love at first bite, mmm, I know what that's like.

QV: I believe I said first sight, Ms. Widow. 

BW: Ah, yes. Yes, of course. What was life like in the tower? 

QV: Lonely, mostly. Hagatha would visit on a rare occasion, mostly to torment me. It was strange -every time she came, I asked her why she was keeping me there. She said because she wanted my beauty to be hers, and if she couldn't have it, then she would keep the world from seeing it. But she never cast any spells on me, or did anything to steal my appearance that I know of. 

BW: That does seem odd. Pardon my being blunt, Your Highness, but in that case, why did she keep you alive at all? 

QV: I'm not sure. I was convinced for the longest time she would kill me, and then I wondered why she hadn't yet. I was starting to suspect there was some other reason why she had me there in the first place, but that was about the time Graham rescued me. 

BW: Your family must have been glad that you were rescued, even if your handsome King did sweep you off to his kingdom afterwards?

QV: Yes, they were quite relieved and happy I was saved. My parents still live there, and I visit when I can, but we're all rather busy. My father is now King Cedric of Kolyma, and my mother, Coignice, was once a miller's daughter. My grandfather was still the King when I was growing up there. And though I shall always love Kolyma, I'm afraid after my kidnapping and imprisonment, my childhood home was bittersweet for me at best. I was ready to live in Daventry and start my new life. 

BW: What a hero indeed! I see where King Alexander gets it from. Sailing off to a foreign land, killing the villain, saving the girl in the tower and living happily ever after. The apple doesn't fall too far from the tree, does it? for it.

QV: My children do both get their bravery and sense of adventure from their father, but violence is not something they've ever taken to, nor have we encouraged it. Don't forget, my son didn't kill Alhazred, and Graham didn’t kill Hagatha, either. But we never heard from or of her again. Maybe she ceased feeling jealous of me when I became a married woman -- who knows? I try not to dwell on it, to tell you the truth. Of the many difficulties my family has faced, what Hagatha did pales in comparison, and thinking about it would only cause grief and paranoia that I have no answers for. And after all, in the end, all she did was lock me in a tower. It could have been far worse.

Map of Daventry, The Green Isles and Kolyma

BW: I can imagine. Your son’s kidnapping must certainly have been more traumatic.

QV: That…that was the most horrible thing I’ve ever been through -- that any of us have been through. Years of not knowing, searching and finding nothing…I could never accept that he was dead, but things looked so hopeless for so long.

BW: And then the dragon began terrorizing your country.

QV: Yes…that was even harder than when Count Dracula terrorized my homeland. The three-headed dragon ravaged its way across the countryside of Serenia and after years of rumors and horrible stories from other lands that suffered at its hands. We tried to help, but there wasn't much we could do for anyone else, and then it finally came to Daventry...and there it stayed, making a ruin of our beautiful home. I often wondered whether we could've done more before it reached us, helped our neighbors more than we had and perhaps it could've been defeated years before. So many innocents died, both from the destruction it caused and from the sacrifices it demanded of it. 

BW: Sacrifices? 

story continued on page 9