Once Upon a Rainbow, Volume One

by Mickie B. Ashling

  I nodded.

  She shuffled away like an old woman, and I returned to the table and the silent dwarves.

  Without saying anything, we all seated ourselves and ate our porridge.

  When we’d finished, I gathered the bowls and began cleaning them.

  Everyone went to bed shortly afterward.

  Chapter Five: The Promise

  I AWOKE FROM a dream, ears tingling with an urgent whisper. “Don’t just lie there. Come outside. Right now!”

  I opened my eyes to stare at the ceiling, half expecting to see the stone walls of my tower. Wooden beams shone with morning light. Ah, yes, I was in the room Oriana and I shared in the dwarves’ cottage. The sunshine warmed my hands and turned the hairs there golden.

  I got up, being as careful as I could not to awaken Oriana, breathing beside me. It was a very gentle sound, compared to the rumble of the dwarves’ snores, which shook the walls.

  There was no need to be especially quiet with all that going on.

  I walked over to the bedroom door, opened it, and trotted through a much cleaner cottage to the front door.

  The snores continued after I opened it.

  The Forest of Tears had turned into a fairyland.

  Sunlight slid through the tops of the trees in gentle, playful beams. The light glistened upon the cobwebs, the grass, and the flowers. Morning dew looked like tiny enchanted crystals.

  A faint breeze whispered, rustling the leaves.

  I took a step outside the cottage, closing the door behind me.

  No, the wind wasn’t whispering. It was singing.

  I’d heard music at the castle, but it had been nothing like this. This was a girl singing in a faint, sweet voice.

  The sound murmured in the wind, tickling my ears.

  I walked into the trees. The singing was coming from that direction. I was certain of it.

  I wandered off the forest path, following the song.

  It grew louder, but I still couldn’t make out the words.

  I stopped at a circle of toadstools as a bright red as the flowers growing nearby. Each mushroom was the same color as the mysterious witch’s lips.

  The voice was very close. I could hear it coming from the circle’s center, although I saw no one.

  Standing before the ring, I found myself swaying to the music.

  My hands lifted and moved to the same rhythm. My fingers flexed and danced, tracing out a series of gestures.

  I realized I was shaping the words of the song with my hands. I’d never done anything like this before, but my hands lifted, as if they had a magic of their own. They spelled out the lyrics in a language for me, alone.

  “Who is the fairest of them all?

  You, me, or her?

  In castle, cottage, or circle small

  What will you endure?

  Are you fair of face and eye alone?

  Or is your fairness true?

  When under the sleeping curse you lie

  What will you change into?”

  My hands shaped the last word with the coming of the green smoke. It gathered within the circle.

  I saw her behind the haze, singing. Yes, it was my princess witch, looking exactly as she had in the painting, from her purple gown with red ribbons to her long wavy black hair.

  Her eyelids fluttered. Perhaps she’d been lost in a dream or in her own song.

  Once my hands stopped moving, she raised her thick, ebon eyelashes to look upon the forest.

  The smoke cleared, vanishing as if it had never been.

  Her dark blue eyes widened at the sight of me standing before her. She trembled as if I were the witch who’d cursed her, not the other way around.

  The thought made me smile.

  She stared at me as if my smile had taken her completely by surprise.

  Maybe it had.

  “What did the curse change you into?” I asked. My gaze lingered over every inch of her. The princess’s fair white skin was even paler in person than in the painting or the mirror. The question seemed the most natural thing in the world to ask.

  “A witch.” Her speaking voice was as sweet as her singing voice, but it was lower, deeper than I might have expected. It had the resonance of one born to command. “Time stopped for me for a hundred years.” Her lips trembled a bit. “Everything I ever loved changed. Strangers were living in my home, ruling my land.” Sorrow and reproach rather than hatred wrinkled her brow as she regarded me. “Strangers she allowed to claim these things while I slept in a crystal coffin in this very forest.”

  “Those strangers must have been my family. You’ve only been awake for about fifteen years, haven’t you?” I asked.

  She didn’t answer.

  She didn’t have to. I could sense the truth in my own words.

  “She would be my companion in this forest, correct?”

  The princess didn’t answer.

  I took a step toward her. “Our castle was once your castle as well as your home.”

  “My home, her castle.” She shook her head as if she’d like to back away. “Never ours.”

  “Why do you say that?” I took another step toward her. “You lived in the castle, together, didn’t you?”

  “Yes, we lived there at the same time for a little while.” She stared at me as if she longed to back away, yet for me to come closer too. “Not together, though.” Again, she shook her head, making her long ebon tresses sway. “We never lived together.”

  “Why not?” I took another step.

  I was standing right in front of her. Only the toadstools at our feet kept us apart. “I thought the two of you loved each other.”

  “Do you really want to know why not?” She took a single quivering breath. Perhaps my proximity excited her as much as it excited me. Excited and terrified her. “Are you willing to hear my side of the story?”

  “I haven’t even heard hers,” I admitted. Her beauty made me tremble, just as she was trembling. “Yes, of course, I want to hear your side of the story.” My voice shook as much as my body. “I want to know everything about you if you’ll tell me.”

  “Do you?” She stared at me, intent enough to read the true intentions on my face. Perhaps she could. “Why? I’m an enemy who cursed you soon after you were born. Why should you care about my reasons as long as you avoid my curse?”

  Why, indeed?

  I thought of the pain in my Oriana’s face. I thought of the dwarves: sad, gray, or pulling their beards out.

  If I’d been a good, kind princess, they would have been reason enough.

  Alas, I wasn’t that good or kind. Oh, I cared about my caretaker and the dwarves, yes, but they weren’t my real reason for wanting to know the witch’s story.

  “You fascinate me,” I confessed, dropping my gaze to the toadstools at our feet. “You’ve fascinated me from the moment I first saw you. I want to know your side of the story, along with everything about you.”

  “Why not ask your caretaker about me? Or the dwarves?” Bitterness threatened to crumple her face into wrinkles. “I’m sure they’d spin you a tale or two about me!”

  “You’re wrong.” I stole glances up at her before returning my gaze to the toadstools. “Talking about you is too painful for them. My caretaker always changes the subject when I try to turn it to you.” The mushrooms truly were the same crimson as her lips. “I think she feels too guilty about whatever happened to speak of it.”

  “What makes you assume I will speak of it?” the princess asked with a haughty toss of her head. It was a gesture of desperate youth. The same youth appeared to be fighting with the wrinkles and lines upon her face. It was as if her countenance couldn’t decide whether it was my age or that of my caretaker witch’s. “What makes you think I’ll tell you anything?” She raised her head in bleak pride. “This story belongs to us! Not you!”

  How painfully true.

  Yes, it was their story I gawked and peeked at, as if it were my own. Why was I doing so? Because I’d been c
ursed by one of its main characters? Because I was fascinated by that character?

  The wrinkles were making their way across the princess’s face, transforming it into that of an old woman. Her figure sagged and stooped in the crimson gown. Only her dark blue eyes remained bright, youthful, and defiant.

  “Because you want to tell me your story.” I realized my words were as true as hers. “Because you think there’s something I can do to change things if I hear it.”

  “Is that what I think?” She laughed. Her voice was a cross between a witch’s cackle and a throaty chuckle. “Perhaps I just want to curse you.” She leered at me. “Perhaps I just want a fair maiden in my clutches.” The leer softened into something serious. “A maiden that reminds me of her.”

  “Perhaps.” I tried not to wince at the comparison, only to fail. “Perhaps I’ll have to prove my own worth to you.”

  “Perhaps,” she said mockingly, a smile tickling at the edges of her lips.

  For an instant, they looked full and rosy before wrinkles returned to them.

  “Come to your tower sanctuary in your castle before the sun sets on the eve of your sixteenth birthday.” Green smoke rose from the ground to swallow and envelop her stooped figure. The smoke swirled around three times, before vanishing, leaving nothing in the circle but her voice. “Before the curse falls upon you, you shall hear my story.”

  I stared at the empty spot where she had stood.

  No trace of her presence lingered once she finished speaking.

  “I can see now it’s pointless to warn you to stay away from her.” I turned to see Oriana hobbling toward me. She looked older than ever. “Just as it was pointless for me to try to hide you from her in this forest.”

  “Did you really bring me here to hide?” I asked. “Here in this place where she used to live? Where you cursed her?” Anger rose in me, spreading the bitter taste of jealousy through my mouth. “Or did you have some other reason for bringing me to this forest?”

  “I hoped she might follow us here.” The sorrow in her words killed my anger. “I hoped she might look upon her former home and remember it.” Timid blue eyes peeked at me out of a wrinkled face. “I hoped she might look upon you and remember who she used to be.”

  “She remembers only too well.” I was certain of my words, if not how I was certain. “I think she needs you to do more than remind her of her former self.”

  “No, she needs you to do more.” A sharp alertness cleared the sadness out of Oriana’s eyes. Some of her wrinkles smoothed out of her face. “The curse she placed upon you is almost exactly like the spell I inflicted upon her.”

  “To sleep for a hundred years.” I stared at Oriana. “Why force her to do that? You loved her.”

  “I thought I loved her.” There was a bleak honesty to Oriana’s confession. “I was jealous of her. She was my fairest possession, whom I didn’t want to share with anybody.” She raised a hand to press it against her breast. “I dressed her in rags, put her to work as a castle servant so no one would notice her.” She dug her fingers into the rough cloth concealing her flesh. “When she tried to flee from me, I trapped her within a spell.”

  “If you couldn’t have her, no one would.” I should have been horrified, but I wasn’t.

  I understood only too well. “She tried to hide in the forest. She tried to live quietly with the dwarves, but you found her.” I glanced down at the grass at my feet. “When you tracked her down, she tried to talk to you, but you were too jealous to listen.”

  I shivered. The former princess had opened her heart to a beloved enemy, only to be attacked.

  I might be on the verge of making the same heartbreaking mistake.

  “Whether it’s taking a bite from an enchanted apple or pricking your finger on a spindle, the nature of the curse is the same,” Oriana said. “Only one thing can break the spell. A kiss given by one who truly loves you.” She blinked, hesitated for a moment to knit her golden eyebrows together in a frown. “Although I suppose you could kiss someone you truly love to break the spell, but I don’t know how you’d do that while asleep.”

  “You must have eventually given in and kissed her,” I said, piecing together the story. “Although you waited for too long. When she awoke, her castle and land belonged to someone else. Even this forest had changed. Quartz had died.” The sunbeams were losing their softness as the morning gave way to the harsher light of noon. “She swore revenge upon you, the family occupying her castle, or both.”

  “Wrong.” Oriana gave a grim shake of her head. “Shortly after I cursed her, I regretted my action. I kissed her, trying to bring her back. She wouldn’t wake up.” She let out a snort, which might have been an attempt to laugh. “Over and over, I kissed her. Time after time, I tried to break the curse. I told the dwarves what the cure was for her condition. One of them kissed her.” She pressed a weathered hand against her own lips before it dropped almost helplessly to her side. “That was when she woke up, about a hundred years after she’d taken a bite of my apple.”

  I stared at her. “The kiss had been given by one who truly loved her,” I said, shocked beyond words. “That meant—”

  “Quartz’s love was true, even if he wasn’t her lover. Mine wasn’t.” Oriana shook her head, sending wisps of silvery hair flying across her face. “I desired her to the point of madness, but I didn’t truly love her.”

  “This is why she cursed me.” My stomach seemed to drop to the level of my feet. “I remind her of you. The maiden she truly loved, who couldn’t love her back.” I attempted to swallow. It hurt. “Cursing me is like cursing a younger version of you.”

  Oriana shook her head again. “She couldn’t have known you’d grow up to resemble me this much, not even with all her magic.” She didn’t sound completely certain of her words. “No, I think there’s more to choosing you than that.”

  “Such as?” I asked, feeling strangely gloomy.

  Oriana hadn’t truly loved her princess. I was disappointed, not to mention more than a little angry.

  Why was I angry?

  “There’s something you can do, which I can’t,” Oriana said. “I think she realizes this, even if she can’t acknowledge it.” My caretaker’s smile was almost a bit shy as it tugged at her lips. “This something might be able to break your curse if it falls upon you.”

  This was close to what I’d said to the princess myself. Hearing Oriana suggest it herself was more than I dared to hope.

  “She isn’t falling in love with me if that’s what you’re thinking.” My stomach twisted painfully.

  I hadn’t realized how much I wished she were. Not until I’d said it out loud.

  “She loves you still, even if you can’t love her back.” I stared at the spot in the circle where she’d been. It felt emptier than ever. “This is what turned her into a wicked witch. Loving you, knowing you didn’t return her affections, must have driven her mad.”

  I almost choked on my last sentence. I was starting to understand such anger.

  “Perhaps you can release her from her pain.” Oriana’s eyes brightened with hope. The expression spread across her face, lifting her wrinkles. It was quite a transformation, making her appear almost as young as I. “I want her to be happy, if it’s possible. I don’t want her to suffer from making the same mistakes I did.”

  I marveled at how young and fresh she looked. New resolve smoothed out her skin.

  “This is why I’m going to return you to the castle.” She gazed at me with bright eyes, now sparkling. “I’m taking a chance on you, my dear. Please save her, if you can.”

  This is all she said before we returned to the cottage.

  She must have said something else to the dwarves while I was fetching some water. When they went off to the mountains, there was a cheerful stomp to their boots. When they returned from work, they were singing in deep, clear voices.

  Onyx was carrying fresh meat. Sardonyx held a basket of vegetables.

  “We thought we’d br
ing home enough to prepare a feast.” Opal spoke gruffly, but there was a slight glimmer in his eyes.

  His brothers tried not to notice.

  Oriana and I did the same. We took the vegetables and meat in the kitchen to start preparing our final meal at the cottage.

  Jasper and Garnet followed us, shuffling a bit shyly, but intent on helping.

  “I’ve sent word ahead,” Oriana said.

  I’d seen her holding out her hand earlier. A bird had fluttered close to land and perch on her finger.

  She’d whispered something to the little creature before it took flight.

  I had wondered if she’d sent it ahead with a message. Her ability to speak to birds was a marvel to me, to get them to do her bidding. Could all witches do that?

  “A carriage will be waiting for us tomorrow when we emerge from the Forest of Tears.” Oriana stared at the window and the world beyond it with bright eyes.

  The dwarves were merrier than I’d ever seen them at dinner. Opal talked and told funny stories, making us all laugh. Onyx and Sardonyx got up to help Oriana and myself with the dishes afterward.

  Before going to bed, we said our goodbyes. Each dwarf took me solemnly by the hand and wished me well. Hope gleamed in all of their eyes. Garnet was on the edge of tears when he shook my hand.

  Oriana must have convinced our hosts that I could save the girl they loved. She seemed convinced of this, too. When we woke up early the next day, there was a spring in her step. She swished her skirt and hummed when we left the cottage.

  Forgotten was her fear of the Forest of Tears. I had to run to keep up with her while she skipped with girlish lightness through the trees.

  I wished I could be as cheerful.

  I knew Oriana cared deeply for her lost princess, or she wouldn’t be so hopeful.

  How could my love possibly be any deeper than hers? What could I do that Oriana couldn’t?

  Such worries buzzed in my head while we made our way through the trees.

  Chapter Six: Plots

  A CARRIAGE WAITED for us at the edge of the forest. There would be no secrecy in my return. I’d travel home in style for everyone who wished to see.