In the time before the fish all disappeared from the sea, when the whales were still singing in the northern oceans, a great king built a palace of glass for his queen.

The king built this palace high on a hillside so that everyone could see it for miles around. It glittered like a great star in the early morning light. And at night when the sun set behind it, sometimes people thought it was on fire, it was so full of light.

The king's architects and engineers designed it so that fine layers of glass were bonded together to make a tough impermeable shell. This meant that the palace was warm as toast inside and yet filled with light from dawn till dusk.

"It is the most beautiful palace in the world," the queen said when it was finished. "And I must be the happiest queen."

And so it seemed she was, for the queen could see her horses at any time of the day from the great palace windows. Fifty black Arab stallions and fifty snow white Andalucian mares. And one more. A red horse given to her by a witch. His name was Whisperer and she loved him more than all the others for he galloped like the wind and he knew and understood her thoughts.

Every year the queen watched the new foals prancing in the meadows, tossing their proud heads, and it was her greatest delight to see them grow. From the sale of her horses she had amassed a great fortune so that the cellars under the palace were filled with gold.

While the queen tended her horses, the king tended his vineyards, tasting the dark purple grapes and the sweet green ones. From the sale of his wines he bought carriages with painted wheels, fine high backed chairs and a collection of musical boxes. On warm summer afternoons he would drink a glass of Muscatel and think to himself, "I could not be happier than I am right now."