7
The prince led the princess to the back gate of the palace. There, at the gap where the stone wall had cracked slightly, the two lovers passionately embraced and kissed.
“Wait for me,” whispered the princess.
“Come back safely,” answered the prince.
The princess bowed her head as she carefully slipped out the gap in the wall. Allowing herself one look backwards toward the palace, she then gazed up at the moonless, starless sky where the ship of golden gears glinted coldly in the air. She began to walk toward the ship.
8
The sun was merciless in the day, and the princess, having grown up on the grassy plains, was not used to walking for so long on hot sand. She found that it quickly exhausted her, and there was no real respite sitting on the scorching sand, which made her journey to the golden boat a long one.
When she reached the spot right below the floating ship, she rested for a moment in the ship’s shadow and caught her breath. The sunbaked sands were still hot, but thanks to the ship above her head, it was slightly cooler in the shadow. It was the first fragment of shade she had encountered since walking the long distance from the palace.
As she steeled herself, the princess pondered over how she would get on board. The ship swayed a little from side to side in the air. There was no anchor or ropes about it. She was afraid it would sail away from her at any time, disappearing beyond the horizon once more.
Just then, the golden gears made loud creaking sounds as they started to turn.
From between the gears, a golden ladder was lowered.
As she stared in bewilderment, the ladder reached low enough to touch the sand.
The princess stood up. She walked to the middle of the boat’s shadow and began to climb up the ladder. Heated by the sun, the rungs were hot to the touch, almost enough to sear her palms. The princess gritted her teeth and continued to make her way up the ladder, rung by rung.
When she got to the top and stepped onto the deck of the golden boat, the princess heard a low but deep and mysterious voice that seemed to encircle her.
“And how has a princess of the grassy plains made her way to the Ship of Time and Winds?”
The princess looked up.
There, stood the master of the golden ship.
9
Contrary to the princess’s expectations, the master looked like an ordinary man. He wore no golden armor, his face was not made of gears, and his body was not of sand. His skin was copper-colored, his hair seemed to have faded in the sun and wind, and only his eyes flamed a bright gold. As the prince had mentioned, the master of the golden ship had no left arm, and the empty, pale sleeve of his sun-faded shirt fluttered with every breeze.
“Why do you seek the Ship of Time and Winds?” the master asked again.
He looked ordinary, but his voice was not that of a man. Its reverberations were like the loud footsteps of a beast in a cave or an earthquake tearing through the grassy plains.
The princess began to speak. “The curse—” Just then, a wind started to blow. Its heat and dust prevented the princess from finishing what she was saying. She could not see in front of her.
“The curse, I am here to ask you to lift it!” she shouted with all her might, once she realized the wind would not abate. “Please lift the curse that you cast on the king of the desert!”
“What curse?”
Despite the dust storm, the voice of the master came through clear and true. Even the wind seemed to vibrate with it.
“Please restore the prince’s sight! Please allow our children and their children to be born whole!”
The winds suddenly ceased.
“But why?” asked the master of the golden ship in a quiet voice. The princess felt the golden boards beneath her feet and the very sands of the desert below them tremble with those words, and she, too, trembled in fear.
“To curse someone out of spite for losing a war is cowardly!” she shouted as she gathered her courage again. “Please admit your defeat and lift the curse. The prince is to become my husband, and his children my children.”
“I did not curse him,” replied the master. “I do not lower myself to curse mere men.”
“You lie!” The princess was taken aback, but she pressed on. “Why else would the prince be blind from birth?”
“The truth is different from what the princess has been told,” said the master. “They were cursed because they started the war. The air from the horizon to the sun and moon is a place man may not rule. My ship has sailed peacefully in that air since the dawn of time. It was the king of the desert, blinded by his greed for gold, who first drew his weapons.” The voice of the master of the golden ship was calm. “Those who stare for too long at the sun are bound to go blind. The king of the desert made the foolish choice to brandish his sword at the sun. And his progeny will pay for his sins.”