Page:Beyond Fantasy Fiction Volume 2 Issue 4 (1955-02).djvu/5

 What's a poor princess to do when

she's dragooned into becoming a

By EVELYN E. SMITH

ACK in the Eleventh Century, I was the only daughter of a rich and powerful king in the North, as well as being the most beautiful woman in the known world, though I say it as shouldn’t. Naturally a combination of such talents as my looks and my dowry would make princes come from far and near to seek my hand in marriage.

Of course they had to be princes; anyone else would be shown the drawbridge, if not the moat, immediately. After all, I did have a position to maintain.

I was pretty choosy — nobody was good enough for me. This one was this and that one was that, and Father was getting pretty exasperated. He wanted to marry me off so that he could form an alliance with an old dame who reigned in the South—and he knew how I felt about stepmothers.

Princes came from hither and princes came from yon. I turned all of them down, and not politely, either. Then Prince Suleiman came out of the East. He was young, handsome and talented. He was a very powerful magician and, in an Illustrated by DOCKTOR

DRAGON LADY