Never After , livre ebook
27
pages
English
Ebooks
2019
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27
pages
English
Ebooks
2019
Vous pourrez modifier la taille du texte de cet ouvrage
Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne En savoir plus
Publié par
Date de parution
26 février 2019
Nombre de lectures
0
EAN13
9781611387773
Langue
English
Never After: Thirteen Twists on Familiar Tales
Marie Brennan
Published by Book View Café
www.bookviewcafe.com
ISBN: 978-1-61138-777-3
Copyright © 2019 by Marie Brennan
All Rights Reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form.
Cover design by Pati Nagle
Cover art by Marie Brennan
This book is a work of fiction. All characters, locations, and events portrayed in this book are fictional or used in an imaginary manner to entertain, and any resemblance to any real people, situations, or incidents is purely coincidental.
Table of Contents
Foreword
The Mirror’s Tale
The Kindness of Sisters
Conversation with a Wolf
Gold
A Smile, a Laugh
Nesu-a
The Princess and the…
One Last Prize
The Fall of the Fortress of Brick
Many Faces
Every Moment, I Dream of Sleep
Just Right
And Everything Nice
Afterword
About Marie Brennan
Other Books by Marie Brennan
About Book View Cafe
Foreword
All of my other short fiction collections to date ( Monstrous Beauty , Maps to Nowhere , and Ars Historica ) have notes on each story at the end. But since the longest tale in this book is a whopping 442 words, that seems like overkill.
Instead I will merely say that these are thirteen mildly twisted fairy tale retellings—the ever so slightly cheerier younger siblings of the stories in Monstrous Beauty —and that you can learn more about them all in the Afterword.
The Mirror’s Tale
The queen never stopped to wonder whether the mirror might have thoughts of its own.
No one ever did.
Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who’s the fairest one of all?
Among this kingdom’s many jewels, the fairest one is she who rules.
Nor did she ever stop to think that someone else might learn of the mirror’s power. The king had a daughter by his previous wife, a girl with hair as black as night, lips as red as blood, skin as white as snow, and curiosity as sharp as a knife. She spied often on the king’s new wife, and soon learned of the mirror, and spoke to it when the queen was gone.
Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who’s the fairest one of all?
Though thy face has youthful sheen, the fairest in the land is queen.
The strife between the two did not escape the mirror’s notice. But it could only speak when asked a question, and so it had to wait for an opportunity…or create one.
Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who’s the fairest one of all?
Though you still shine like the sun, the princess is the fairest one.
The queen held her jealousy in check. She was not a rash woman; she had won the king’s favor by careful scheming, and would not lose her head to mere envy. It would take more than that to move her.
The girl, being both suspicious and inexperienced, posed less of a challenge.
Mirror, please, she likes me not; has she said aught of any plot?
Cruel indeed, the king’s new wife; if you don’t act, she’ll take your life.
In truth, the queen did not have death in mind. Disfigurement would do, or even simple exile. But the king doted on the girl, making the situation quite delicate, and so the queen sought counsel from her trusted, faithful, magical advisor.
