Page 369 - The Grotesque Children's Book

transferred I do not know. But do not reveal your secrets to them. You are mine, and mine
alone!

Then secretly, even more to herself such that even the dragons could not overhear her
thoughts: But I’ll replace them! I’ll secretly visit the alchemist Zaccario on the morrow and
have him track another mandorla from Araby, and mix another antidote. But hurry, quick!
Without my dragons, murderers can get at me. My fortress is unguarded. The dust is creeping at
the threshold. I must sweep it clean, the dust. There mustn’t be even a single fleck. Where’s my
broom? I’ve lost my broom.

She went screaming into the hallway, where she found her ladies-in-waiting waiting.
“Why are you not sweeping, each of you! You fiends!” she shouted. “Betrayal! Do you not see
the dust?” Bianca was pointing feverishly at a tile pattern on the floor in which there were some
ornamental dots. “There! There!”

The first of the ladies said, “If you mean those blue specks, ma’am, that’s part of the
decoration.”

“It is not!” shrieked Bianca. “You sinners, do you not see the evil creeping in from the
outside, across the sills, from the joins of the walls, from the astragals of the doors. We must
sweep, ladies. We must sweep until there are not more flecks! Where are your brooms? Why
do you not have brooms with you at every waking moment? The Dragons have left the
stronghold, and the dust is creeping in. We can’t let it sublimate! Ablution! Ablution! Where
are your brooms!?”

The second lady said, “I’ll get our brooms, My Lady.” And she ran scurrying down the
hall, trying to muffle the tears and terror she was feeling.

Bianca meantime, had dropped to her knees, and was scrubbing one of the tiles with her
bare hands.

“There!” she said. “I’m cleansing.” A smile came over her face, and the shouting and
fury from moments earlier fell away. “You see? I’m turning back the enemy. By the morning
this floor will be spotless. Not a fleck!” She scrubbed and scrubbed at the tile with her fingers
and thumbs. She gave a little humming sound. “Do you know...? I’ve missed this. Too many
rooms, you know. Too many people doing the cleaning for me. I shouldn’t have let them. Now
the dragons have abandoned the firmament, I am all that remains between good and evil. But I
will triumph, you’ll see. How clean I will make this tile! No evil shall ever enter this palace
again. I will guard you, my ladies. I will guard us all.” And she continued to scrub.

And scrub.

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