he next morning, Tarella and the queen sat down to figure out
some way of finding out who was favoring Fiordelisa--an Enchanter? A Fairy?
Who? At last they sent one of the queen's maids to wait on Fiordelisa. They
ordered her to pretend to be quite stupid; all the while she was to be
spying on the princess and reporting back what she saw to the queen.Fiordelisa immediately guessed the woman was a spy, and cried bitterly; she didn't dare see her Blue Bird Prince for fear they would be discovered and he would be hurt somehow. For a whole month the princess didn't go near her little window, and the Blue Bird stayed away. The days were long and the nights dull. But the spying maid kept her eyes on Fiordelisa day and night.
Finally the maid grew so tired that she fell into a deep sleep. As soon as she started to snore, Fiordelisa ran to the window, flung it open and called out softly:
Blue Bird, blue as the skyAnd the Blue Bird instantly flew to her side. They had so much to say and were so happy to see each other that the time passed very quickly, and before they'd said a fraction of everything they had to say the sun rose and the Blue Bird had to fly away.
Fly to me now, there's nobody by!
The next night the spy slept as soundly as before, the Blue Bird came and he and the princess began to drop their guard, thinking themselves safe. They began to make all kinds of plans for being happy as they were before the spy came. But alas! Their luck did not hold. The third night the spy wasn't quite so sleepy. When the princess opened her window and called out:
Blue Bird, blue as the skythe maid was wide awake in an instant, though she was sly enough to pretend she was still asleep. She heard voices, and carefully opening one eye, she saw by the moonlight the most lovely blue bird she'd ever seen. To her amazement, the bird was talking to the princess while she stroked its beautiful feathers.
Fly to me now, there's nobody by!
The spy heard everything the pair said. As soon as the day dawned and the Blue Bird had reluctantly said goodbye to the princess, the maid rushed off to the queen and told her everything she'd seen and heard.
The queen sent for Tarella, and as they talked it became clear that the Blue Bird was none other than Prince Charming himself. "That insolent princess!" said the queen. "All this time she's been happy with her Prince, when she was supposed to be miserable. But I know how we can get our revenge."