The Tale of Despereaux (5 page)

The words pounded through Despereaux’s body with each beat of his heart.

“Very well,” said the Most Very Honored Head Mouse. “You will die, then, with a black heart. Threadmaster,” he called, “bring out the thread.”

Despereaux marveled at his own bravery.

He admired his own defiance.

And then, reader, he fainted.

WHEN DESPEREAUX CAME TO, he heard the drum. His father was beating a rhythm that had much more
boom
and much less
tat.
Together, Lester and the drum produced an ominous sound that went something like this:
Boom-boom-boom-tat. Boom-boom-boom-tat.

“Make way for the thread!” cried a mouse who was pushing a wooden spool of red thread through the crowd. “Make way for the thread!”

Boom-boom-boom-tat,
went the drum.

“To the dungeon!” shouted the mice.

Despereaux lay on his back, blinking his eyes. How, he wondered, had things gone so terribly wrong? Wasn’t it a good thing to love? In the story in the book, love was a very good thing. Because the knight loved the fair maiden, he was able to rescue her. They lived happily ever after. It said so. In the book. They were the last words on the page.
Happily ever after.
Despereaux was certain that he had read exactly those words time and time again.

Lying on the floor with the drum beating and the mice shouting and the threadmaster calling out, “Make way, make way,” Despereaux had a sudden, chilling thought: Had some other mouse eaten the words that spoke the truth? Did the knight and the fair maiden really
not
live happily ever after?

Reader, do you believe that there is such a thing as happily ever after? Or, like Despereaux, have you, too, begun to question the possibility of happy endings?

“Happily ever after,” whispered Despereaux. “Happily ever after,” he said again as the spool of thread came to a stop beside him.

“The thread, the thread, the thread,” murmured the mice.

“I’m sorry,” said the mouse behind the spool, “but I have to ask you to stand up. I have to do my job.”

Despereaux got slowly to his feet.

“On your hind legs, please,” said the threadmaster. “It’s the rules.”

Despereaux stood on his hind legs.

“Thank you,” said the mouse. “I appreciate it.”

While Despereaux watched, the threadmaster unwound a length of red thread from the spool and tied a loop.

“Just enough for the neck,” muttered the mouse. “No more, no less. That’s what the last threadmaster taught me: enough thread for the neck.” He looked up at Despereaux and then back down at the loop of thread. “And you, my friend, have a small neck.”

The threadmaster raised his arms and put them around Despereaux’s neck. He leaned in close and Despereaux smelled celery. He could feel the threadmaster’s breath in his ear as he worked at tightening the thread.

“Is she beautiful?” the threadmaster whispered.

“What?” said Despereaux.

“Shhhh. Is the princess beautiful?”

“The Princess Pea?”

“Yes.”

“She is lovely beyond all imagining,” said Despereaux.

“Just right,” the threadmaster said. He drew back. He nodded his head. “A lovely princess, just so, like a fairy tale. And you love her, as a knight loves a maiden. You love her with a courtly love, a love that is based on bravery and courtesy and honor and devotion. Just so.”

“How do you know that?” Despereaux said. “How do you know about fairy tales?”

“Shhhhh.” The mouse leaned in close, and Despereaux smelled celery again, green and alive. “Be brave, friend,” whispered the threadmaster. “Be brave for the princess.” And then he stepped back and turned and shouted, “Fellow mice, the thread has been tied. The thread has been knotted.”

A roar of approval went up from the crowd.

Despereaux squared his shoulders. He had made a decision. He would do as the threadmaster had suggested. He would be brave for the princess.

Even if (reader, could it be true?) there was no such thing as happily ever after.

THE SOUND OF THE DRUM changed again. The final
tat
disappeared and it became nothing but
boom
.

Boom, boom, boom.

Boom, boom, boom.

Lester used only his tail, bringing it down with great force and seriousness upon the drum.

The threadmaster retreated.

The room full of mice fell silent, expectant, waiting.

And as Despereaux stood before them with the red thread around his neck and the fourteen members of the Mouse Council perched on the bricks above him, two burly mice came forward. Black pieces of cloth covered their heads. There were slits for their eyes.

“We,” said the bigger of the two mice, “will escort you to the dungeon.”

“Despereaux,” Antoinette called out. “Ah, my Despereaux!”

Despereaux looked out into the crowd of mice and saw his mother. She was easy to spot. In honor of her youngest mouse being sent to the dungeon, she had put on a tremendous amount of makeup.

Each of the hooded mice put a paw on Despereaux’s shoulder.

“It’s time,” said the one on the left, the first hood.

Antoinette pushed her way through the crowd. “He is my son,” she said. “I want to have a last word with my son.”

Despereaux looked at his mother. He concentrated on standing before her without trembling. He concentrated on not being a disappointment.

“Please,” said Antoinette, “what will happen to him? What will happen to my baby?”

“Ma’am,” said the first hood. His voice was deep and slow. “You don’t want to know.”

“I want to know. I want to know. He is my child. The child of my heart. The last of my mice babies.”

The hooded mice said nothing.

“Tell me,” said Antoinette.

“The rats,” said the first.

“The rats,” said the second.

“Yes. Yes.
Oui.
The rats. What of them?”

“The rats will eat him,” said the second hood.

“Ah,” said Antoinette. “
Mon Dieu!
”

At the thought of being eaten by rats, Despereaux forgot about being brave. He forgot about not being a disappointment. He felt himself heading into another faint. But his mother, who had an excellent sense of dramatic timing, beat him to it; she executed a beautiful, flawless swoon, landing right at Despereaux’s feet.

“Now you’ve done it,” said the first hood.

“It doesn’t matter,” said the second. “Step over her. We have a job to do. Nobody’s mother is going to stop us. To the dungeon.”

“To the dungeon,” repeated the first hood, but his voice, so deep and certain a moment ago, now shook a tiny bit. He put a paw on Despereaux and tugged him forward, and the two hoods and Despereaux stepped over Antoinette.

The crowd parted.

The mice began again to chant: “To the dungeon. To the dungeon. To the dungeon.”

The drumbeat continued.

Boom, boom, boom. Boom, boom, boom.

And Despereaux was led away.

At the last moment, Antoinette came out of her faint and shouted one word to her child.

That word, reader, was
adieu
.

Do you know the definition of
adieu
? Don’t bother with your dictionary. I will tell you.

Adieu
is the French word for farewell.

“Farewell” is not the word that you would like to hear from your mother as you are being led to the dungeon by two oversize mice in black hoods.

Words that you
would
like to hear are “Take me instead. I will go to the dungeon in my son’s place.” There is a great deal of comfort in those words.

But, reader, there is no comfort in the word “farewell,” even if you say it in French. “Farewell” is a word that, in any language, is full of sorrow. It is a word that promises absolutely nothing.

TOGETHER, THE THREE MICE traveled down, down, down.

The thread around Despereaux’s neck was tight. He felt as if it was choking him. He tugged at it with one paw.

“Don’t touch the thread,” barked the second hood.

“Yeah,” echoed the first hood, “don’t touch the thread.”

They moved quickly. And whenever Despereaux slowed, one of the two hoods poked him in the shoulder and told him to keep moving. They went through holes in the wall and down golden stairs. They went past rooms with doors that were closed and doors that were flung wide. The three mice traveled across marble floors and under heavy velvet drapes. They moved through warm patches of sunlight and dark pools of shade.

This, thought Despereaux, was the world he was leaving behind, the world that he knew and loved. And somewhere in it, the Princess Pea was laughing and smiling and clapping her hands to music, unaware of Despereaux’s fate. That he would not be able to let the princess know what had become of him seemed suddenly unbearable to the mouse.

“Would it be possible for me to have a last word with the princess?” Despereaux asked.

“A word,” said the second hood. “You want a word with a human?”

“I want to tell her what has happened to me.”

“Geez,” said the first hood. He stopped and stamped a paw on the floor in frustration. “Cripes. You can’t learn, can you?”

The voice was terribly familiar to Despereaux.

“Furlough?” he said.

“What?” said the first hood irritably.

Despereaux shuddered. His own brother was delivering him to the dungeon. His heart stopped beating and shrunk to a small, cold, disbelieving pebble. But then, just as quickly, it leapt alive again, beating with hope.

“Furlough,” Despereaux said, and he took one of his brother’s paws in his own. “Please, let me go. Please. I’m your brother.”

Furlough rolled his eyes. He took his paw out of Despereaux’s. “No,” he said. “No way.”

“Please,” said Despereaux.

“No,” said Furlough. “Rules are rules.”

Reader, do you recall the word “perfidy”? As our story progresses, “perfidy” becomes an ever more appropriate word, doesn’t it?

“Perfidy” was certainly the word that was in Despereaux’s mind as the mice finally approached the narrow, steep stairs that led to the black hole of the dungeon.

They stood, the three mice, two with hoods and one without, and contemplated the abyss before them.