The Princess & the Cat

"It all began, when the Princess was quite young, with a revolution. Her uncle was Regent, and since both uncles and regents in fairy tories tend to be basd, the Princess's uncle was doubly bad -- so much so that the people rose up against him, shouting 'Liberty and soap'. The Princess was sentenced to be enchanted away, by the Head Magician of the Provisional Revolutionary Government, to an escape-proof tower on Forlon Island in the middle of the Perilous Sea. There she grew up with only a cat for a companion -- but a cat whou could fly and who advised her to put a lamp in her window as a beacon for the one Kind who would come to rescue her. But because she feared the light would lead his ship on to the rocks, she removed it from the window every night until she was very old and ready to die. Then it remained in the window, and the King, now an old man, came at last, to provide an ending that was happier than you can imagine." -- Jacket description.