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paintings, and an octagonal table upon which were objects not yet
transformed. Above Licia's head she saw a dome at the top of the room with
eight small rectangular windows in it near the very ceiling, letting in the light of
the sun. There were shelves which ran the perimeter of the room, upon which
were objects such as I have just described. There were also some cloth
banners of many colors -- red, green, yellow, blue -- the banners were hung
from two of their sides, such that they drooped away from the ceiling and back
up again like so many inverted colored arches.

“Very well,” said Licia. “I've inspected the room.”

“So are you ready to guess? Are you ready to stipulate your answer?”

“Oh no!” she cried, “You won't trick me into making a quick guess. I'll
look through the rest of the palace, too. I don't want to miss a clue. I'll use
every minute of the sunlight if I need to!”

“You're free to wonder about the palace, my child,” said the Gold Demon,
“wherever you wish. Except, of course, in this room, when I do the actual
transforming, as it wouldn't be much sport if I were to let you watch me, and
then asked you 'Now how do you think I did that?' Today I am transforming
some bird skeletons. They'll look every so beautiful in gold, don't you think?
Now, off you go. I'll see you again at sunset!” And with that, he gave the girl a
little shove with his cloven hoof, then shut the door to the octagonal room,
tightly, with a little bang.

Licia realized almost instantly she should have spent more time in the
octagonal room, for there were no useful clues in all the rest of the palace. The
palace, and everything in it, was already turned to gold. Gold beds, gold
pillows, gold blankets. Clothes, food, drink. The water and wine ran as liquid
gold. Even what once must have been someone's pets: a stiff golden cat frozen
in the very act of licking a golden saucer of golden milk. There was nothing to
be learned here. Licia went back to the octagonal room, knocked, but received

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