Read The Fairy's Return and Other Princess Tales Online
Authors: Gail Carson Levine
The Fairy's Return and Other Princess Tales
ILLUSTRATED BY MARK ELLIOTT
Contents
Princess Sonora and the Long Sleep
Cinderellis and the Glass Hill
All my thanks to my wonderful editor, Alix Reid.
Without you, The Princess Tales would never have been told.
âG.C.L.
O
nce upon a time, in the village of Snetteringon-Snoakes in the kingdom of Biddle, Rosella fetched water from the well for the four thousand and eighty-eighth time.
Rosella always fetched the water because her identical twin sister, Myrtle, always refused to go. And their mother, the widow Pickering, never made Myrtle do anything. Instead, she made Rosella do everything.
At the well the fairy Ethelinda was having a drink. When she saw Rosella coming, she changed herself into an old lady. Then she made herself look thirsty.
“Would you like a drink, Grandmother?” Rosella said.
“That would be lovely, dearie.”
Rosella lowered her wooden bucket into the well. When she lifted it out, she held the dipper so the old lady could drink.
Ethelinda slurped the water. “Thank you. Your kindness merits a reward. From nowâ”
“You don't have . . .” Rosella stopped. Something funny was happening in her mouth. Had she lost a tooth? There was something hard under her tongue. And something hard in her cheek. “Excuse me.” Now there was something in her other cheek. She spat delicately into her hand.
“S
HE SPAT DELICATELY INTO HER HAND
.”
They weren't teeth. She was holding a diamond and two opals.
“There, dearie.” Ethelinda smiled. “Isn't that nice?”
“W
hat took you so long?” Myrtle said when Rosella got home.
“Your sister almost perished from thirst, you lazybones,” their mother said.
“I gave a drink to . . .” Something was in Rosella's mouth again. It was between her lip and her front teeth this time. “I gave a drink to an old lady.” An emerald and another diamond fell out of her mouth. They landed on the dirt floor of the cottage.
“It was more importantâ What's that?” Myrtle said.
“What's that?” the widow said.
They both dove for the jewels, but Myrtle got there first.
“Rosella darling,” the widow said, “sit down. Make yourself comfortable. Now tell us all about it. Don't leave anything out.”
There wasn't much to tell, only enough to cover the bottom of Myrtle's teacup with gems.
“Which way did the old lady go?” Myrtle asked.
Rosella was puzzled. “She didn't go anywhere.” An amethyst dropped into the teacup.
Myrtle grabbed the bucket and ran.
When she saw Myrtle in the distance, Ethelinda thought Rosella had come back. Only this time she wasn't tripping lightly down the path, smelling the flowers and humming a tune. She was hurtling along, head down, arms swinging, bucket flying. And then Ethelinda's fairy powers told her that this was Rosella's twin sister. Ethelinda got ready by turning herself into a knight.
“Where did the old lady go?” Myrtle said when she reached the well.
“I haven't seen anyone. I've been alone, hoping some kind maiden would come by and give me a drink. I can't do it myself with all this armor.”
“What's in it for me if I do?”
The fairy tilted her head. Her armor clanked. “The happiness of helping someone in need.”
“Well, in that case, get your page to do it.” Myrtle stomped off.
Ethelinda turned herself back into a fairy. “Your rudeness merits a punishment,” she said. But Myrtle was too far away to hear.
Myrtle went through the whole village of Snettering-on-Snoakes, searching for the old lady. The villagers knew she was Myrtle and not Rosella by her scowl and by the way she acted. Myrtle marched into shops and right into people's houses. She opened doors to rooms and even closets. Whenever anyone yelled at her, her only answer was to slam the door on her way out.
While Myrtle was in the village, Rosella went out to her garden to pick peas for dinner. As she worked, she sang.
“Oh, May is the lovely month.
Sing hey nonny May-o!
Oh, June is the flower month.
Sing hey nonny June-o!
Oh, July is the hot month.
Sing hey nonny July-o!”
And so on. While she sang, gems dropped from her mouth. It still felt funny, but she was getting used to it. Except once she popped a pea into her mouth as she sang, and she almost broke a tooth on a ruby.
Rosella had a sweet voice, but Prince Harold, who happened to be riding by, wasn't musical. He wouldn't have stopped, except he spotted the sapphire trembling on Rosella's lip. He watched it tumble into the vegetables.
He tied his horse up at the widow Pickering's picket fence.
Rosella didn't see him, and she went on singing.
“Oh, November is the harvest month.
Sing hey nonny November-o!
Oh, December is the last month.
Sing hey . . .”
Prince Harold went into the garden. “Maiden . . .”
Rosella looked up from her peas. A man! A nobleman! She blushed prettily.
She wasn't bad-looking, Prince Harold thought. “Pardon me,” he said. “You've dropped some jewels. Allow me.”
“Oh! Don't trouble yourself, Sir.” Another sapphire and a moonstone fell out of Rosella's mouth.
Harold had a terrible thought. Maybe they were just glass. He picked up a stone. “May I examine this?”
Rosella nodded.
It didn't look like glass. It looked like a perfect diamond, five carats at least. But if the gems were real, why was she leaving them on the ground? He held up a jewel. “Maiden, is this really a diamond?”
“I don't know, Sir. It might be.”
A topaz hit Prince Harold in the forehead. He caught it as it bounced off his chin. “Maiden, have jewels always come out of your mouth?”
Rosella laughed, a lovely tinkling sound. “Oh no, Sir. It only began this afternoon when an old ladyâI think she may have been a fairyâ”
They
were
real then! Harold knelt before her. “Maiden, I am Prince Harold. I love you madly. Will you marry me?”
