The Tale of Despereaux - Kate DiCamillo [30]
Mig closed her eyes and shouted her piece. “If you does not want to get hurt, Princess, you must come with me.”
“Whatever for?” said the princess in an annoyed tone. As I have noted before, the princess was not a person who was used to being told what to do. “What are you talking about?”
Mig opened her eyes and shouted, “You got to come with me so after we take some lessons, you some long lessons and me some short ones, together way down in the deep downs, I can be you and you can be me.”
“No!” shouted Roscuro from Mig’s pocket. “No! No! You are doing it wrong.”
“Who said that?”
“Your Highness,” said Roscuro. And he crawled out of Mig’s pocket and made his way up to her shoulder and situated himself there, laying his tail across her neck to balance himself. “Your Highness,” he said again. And he raised the spoon slowly off his head and smiled, displaying his mouthful of truly hideous teeth. “I think it would be best if you do as Miggery Sow suggests. She is, as you can quite clearly see, in possession of a knife, a large knife. And she will, if pushed, use it.”
“This is ridiculous,” the princess said. “You can’t threaten me. I’m a princess.”
“We,” said Roscuro, “are all too aware of the fact of what you are. A knife, however, cares nothing for the fact that you are royalty. And you will bleed, I assume, just like any other human.”
The Pea looked at Mig. Mig smiled. The knife glinted in the light of the candle. “Mig?” she said, her voice shaking the tiniest bit.
“I really do not think,” said Roscuro, “that Mig would need much persuasion to use that knife, Princess. She is a dangerous individual, easily led.”
“But we are friends,” said the Pea, “aren’t we, Mig?”
“Eh?” said Mig.
“Trust me,” said Roscuro. “You are not friends. And I think it would be best if you addressed all your communications to me, Princess. I am the one in charge here. Look at me.”
The Pea looked right directly at the rat and at the spoon on his head. Her heart skipped one beat and then two.
“Do you know me, Princess?”
“No,” she said, lowering her head, “I don’t know you.”
But, reader, she did know him. He was the rat who had fallen in her mother’s soup. And he was wearing her dead mother’s spoon on his head! The princess kept her head down. She concentrated on containing the rage that was leaping up inside of her.
“Look again, Princess. Or can you not bear to look? Does it pain your royal sensibilities to let your eyes rest on a rat?”
“I don’t know you,” she said, “and I’m not afraid to look at you.” The Pea raised her head slowly. Her eyes were defiant. She stared at the rat.
“Very well,” said Roscuro, “have it your way. You do not know me. Nonetheless, you must do as I say, as my friend here has a knife. So get out of bed, Princess. We are going on a little journey. I would like it if you dressed in your loveliest gown, the one that you were wearing at a banquet not so long ago.”
“And put on your crown,” said Mig. “Put that on your princess head.”
“Yes,” said Roscuro. “Please, Princess, do not forget your crown.”
The Pea, still staring at Roscuro, pushed the covers back and got out of bed.
“Move quickly,” said Roscuro. “We must take our little journey while it is still dark and while the rest of the castle sleeps on — ignorant, oh so ignorant, I am afraid, of your fate.”
The princess took a gown from her closet.
“Yes,” said Roscuro to himself, “that is the one. The very one. Look at how it sparkles in the light. Lovely.”
“I will need someone to do my buttons,” said the princess as she stepped into the dress. “Mig, you must help me.”
“Little princess,” said Roscuro, “do you think that you can outsmart a rat? Our dear Miggery Sow will not lay down her knife. Not even for a moment. Will you, Miggery Sow? Because that might ruin your chances of becoming a princess, isn’t that right?”
“Gor,” said Mig, “that’s right.”
And so while Mig held the knife pointed in the direction of the princess, the Pea sat and let the rat crawl over her back, doing her buttons up for her, one by one.
The princess held very still. The only movement