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The Queen's Rooms in the palace in Amber are very grand, very golden, and very un-Amy. But they've only been hers for a month and a half, and she hasn't been here most of that time. She'll get around to getting them changed to suit her. What matters to her is that she's found the door to Milliways at the back of her wardrobe.

Which means she can have guests.

And who better to bring as a first guest in Ambergeldar than her princess protege?

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"Perhaps Lilly would know where you could get new ones," says Amy.

It's a safe bet, with the glitter and all.

"Or we could get you some like these, only smaller."

"I'd like that. I have some red glitter ones like Dorothy in the movie, but sometimes I don't want to wear glitter shoes."

You'd never know it from the sequinned shawl she drapes over her shoulders.

"Well, they don't go with everything," says Amy, practically.

She makes a note to speak to the Royal Cobbler.

"Who's Dorothy?"

"She's in the wizard movie, but it's not a wizard like Tom. She gets blown into Oz by a big, big storm, and her house falls on a mean witch, but Tom said that's not what real witches are like, just storybook ones, and I know because 'Dora doesn't have green skin or flying monkeys. So she finds her friends and one's a scarecrow and one's a scaredy cat lion and one's a tin man, and he's looking for a heart. And they follow the yellow brick road and sing, and Dororthy has red sparkly slippers. And the mean witch comes after her but they melt her with water. And then she clicks her slippers and gets to go home. It's a good movie."

"Some of that sounds vaguely familiar," says Amy, absently. "It certainly sounds like an exciting story."

She looks at Ingress' outfit and nods.

"Perfect. Are you ready to go exploring, Princess Ingress?"

"Okay!"

The tiara slips ovr her eyes when she starts walking, and the shawl slips off, but Ingress keeps going. She shuffles onward.

Just as a true princess should.

"I haven't lived here very long," says Amy, as the shuffle down the corridor. "So we'll truly be exploring."

She hasn't ever seen half the rooms here.

"Pick a door," she says, cheerfully.

She looks right and then left. Then she places her hand on the a crystal doorknob on the lefthand door. It opens with a 'snick' even though the doorknob does not move.

"Oops, I opened it by mistake."

"I don't think any harm's done," says Amy, and steps into a very grand state drawing room.

"Well," she says, "isn't this . . . formal?"

She looks around, and then starts to giggle, noticing a painting hung on the far wall.

If you stand very far away from it, and squint, and try very hard, you can sort of tell that it might possibly be meant to be a portrait of Amy.

If you have rather a lot of imagination.

"Who's that lady?"

Ingress has lots of imagination, but the painting doesn't look much like Amy at all.

Amy laughs. "Well, it's meant to be me," she says. "But I don't think she looks the least bit like me."

"Maybe she looks like your mummy," says Ingress with a nod of the head.

"What's this room? Is it for meetings or parties?"

"A little," says Amy. "Mostly she looks like my sister, but with slightly darker hair.

"It's for small receptions, or spending time with guests who are important, but who aren't good friends. Visiting ambassadors and their wives and the like. We don't use it very often. The best sort of guests are the ones who you can take to spend time in your room."

"We don't have guests in our house much. Sometimes Mummy and Daddy would have dinners with important people, and I had to be on my best manners when I said hello. Door sometimes has special people over, but not like Mummy and Daddy did. I don't mind. It's more fun to not mind your manners."

She walks around the room as she talks, running her hands on the smooth velvet upholstery of the chairs.

"I remember those kinds of dinners -- and hellos -- from when I was little," says Amy. "But, yes, it's much better to not have to mind your manners. Which is, of course," she adds hastily, "not the same thing as not being polite. It's just less . . . formal."

She is still, after all, a princess teacher. She can't go about encouraging rudeness, even a little.

Not that she thinks Ingress would ever be rude.

But, safe side and all.

"You have to walk funny when you're formal. Like if you move too much you'll break a rule. Being polite is just being nice," she agrees.

"Okay, what room shall we go to next?"

A rather unqueenly giggle. "That's precisely the problem with formal," says Amy.

She thinks.

"The ballroom is very grand, and we could have a terribly regal dance lesson, if you liked."

"Are the floors shiny? Can we run through and slide on it in our socks?"

"Of course the floors are shiny. Wouldn't be a proper palace ballroom without shiny floors, would it? And I think if you want to go sliding about in socks, that can easily be arranged."

"Yay! Let's go!" She tugs Amy's hand as she pulls her through the door and back into the hallway. Ingress leads the way until she remembers she has no idea where the ballroom is. She falls back to walk side-by-side with Amy. "Is it far from here?"

Castles are big. It's different when you go through paintings - less hallways to walk down.

"Not too far," promises Amy. "All the formal rooms are more or less together."

And by castle standards, it's not too far.

It's a huge and very grand room. Amy goes to the far end to pull back the curtains and let some light in.

"What do you think, Princess Ingress?"

"Wow!"

There is a ballroom in the House of Arch. It is nowhere near as grand as this.

"And I can run if I like?"

She's already taking off her slippers.

"Of course," says Amy. "Run, jump, hop, skip, slide, dance, twirl, wobble, anything you like."

Pause.

"I think flying might be out of the question, but anything else."

She runs and then sliiiiiides.

Unfortunately she slides right into a suit of armor, knocking it over with a huge clank and clatter.

"Oh no!"

"It's all right, Ingress," says Amy. "It's an especially silly place for someone to leave a suit of armor anyway."

The crash and clatter bring a couple of footmen running, and Amy puts them in charge of collecting and removing the pieces.

"What shall we do next?"