Snow White and Ebony E-Book

Michelle Krabinz

• Herausgeber: Books on Demand
• Kategorie: Fantasy und Science-Fiction
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 316

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Beschreibung

"Snow White and Ebony" ist eine englische Märchenadaption, welche sich mit einer alternativen Sicht auf die Geschichte von Schneewittchen befasst. Was wäre, wenn der Wunsch der Königin nach einem Kind mit Haut so weiß wie Schnee, Lippen so rot wie Blut und Haaren so schwarz wie Ebenholz nicht so in Erfüllung gegangen wäre, wie wir es kennen? Die Geschichte dreht sich um Snow White und ihre ungeplante Zwillingsschwester Ebony, welche das Schicksal jeweils auf eine ganz besondere Weise herausfordert, während beide vor allem auf der Suche nach einem sind: Liebe! ~ "Snow White and Ebony" is an alternative version of the fairy tale of Snow White and combines the classic moral with modern elements. What if the wish of the queen for a child with skin as white as snow, lips as red as blood, and hair as black as ebony wood would not have come true the way we know it? The story is about Snow White and her unplanned twin sister Ebony, which are both challenged by destiny in their own way, while they are searching for one thing in life: love!

Leseprobe

Michelle Krabinz was born in Cologne in 1994 and has been drawn towards the art of writing since her early years of puberty. Even though she wrote a lot of short stories and fairy tales, she never thought about becoming a professional writer until she was in her early twenties.

Since then, she has discovered not only a love for all kinds of art, but also the wish to share her numerous stories and fantastic worlds with other people.

“Snow White and Ebony” tells the story of Snow White and her unplanned twin sister Ebony, the latter of which was born due to the overly rash fulfilment of the queen’s wish to have a child with skin as white as snow, lips as red as blood, and hair as black as the ebony wood of her window frame.

As the apprentice fairy of the Good Fairy, who normally grants those wishes, tries her best to fulfil the queen’s wish, she gets a little confused about the details and the queen ends up having two daughters instead of one. A mistake with unforeseen consequences for the future of the kingdom …

Trigger warning: This story deals with death and the loss of loved ones. Topics like isolation. depression and loneliness are mentioned.

Michelle Krabinz would like to add that this is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

For my beloved daughter, Lara Melina, who taught me to look at the world with new eyes

Tiff & Toff Taschenbuch 024

Once upon a time, in a beautiful land filled with woods and rivers, there lived a king and a queen who reigned with great wisdom and kindness.

The king was just and brave, protecting his people from harm and guiding them with wisdom.

The queen was a natural beauty, because she was kind at heart and ate very healthily. She advised her husband in matters of the heart and family quarrels which he had to settle, and he was always glad for her council.

One winter’s morning, the queen was sitting beside her window and sewed a gift for her husband. Then she noticed that it had started to snow and looked outside to watch the feathery flakes glide down from the heavens above. Not paying attention to her sewing, her needle slipped and she pricked her finger. Three drops of blood fell into the snow, which had gathered upon the wooden windowsill and as the queen looked upon them, the image of a beautiful child arose before her mind’s eye.

“I wish I had a child,” she whispered and looked up to the clouds, “with skin as white as snow, lips as red as blood, and hair as black as the ebony wood of my window frame.”

She sent her wish to heaven and returned to her sewing, now paying better attention to her fingers so that she wouldn’t hurt herself again.

Her wish travelled with the wind, finding its way up into the clouds, where there was a palace made of snow, ice and clouds itself. It was the Cloud Castle of the Good Fairy, who was responsible for making wishes come true. She had been granting wishes for the kingdom for centuries already and had now grown old and tired.

That’s why she took in an apprentice, an eager young fairy by the name of Arabella, who was willing to learn that old and powerful magic. She had studied hard for a couple of years and was “getting the hang of it” as she called it herself.

The old Good Fairy trusted her enough to leave her alone from time to time, and so far nothing exciting had ever happened when the Good Fairy had left the Cloud Castle.

All the more surprised was the young fairy apprentice when she suddenly heard the voice of the queen upon the wind, while the Good Fairy was still gone.

“I wish I had a child,” sighed the voice of the wind, telling the queen’s wish to Arabella, “with skin as white as snow, lips as red as blood, and hair as black as the ebony wood of my window frame.”

“Good Heavens!” cried out the young fairy and leapt from her chair. “A wish! And from the queen, too. I’d better wait for the Good Fairy to deal with that. Oh! But what if I forget the details? She always nags how poor my memory is when it comes to specific details. If only I could write! I should tend to that wish right away! Maybe the Good Fairy will be proud of me if she hears that I have managed to grant a wish all on my own.”

Filled with joy and excitement, the young fairy unfolded her multi-coloured wings and flew from her room into the Chamber of Wishes. There was a soft mist hanging in the air, like a veil of coloured clouds, which hung above the ground and emanated a scent of sweet dreams.

“Let’s see,” mumbled Arabella while she skilfully wove her way through the mist, towards the huge shelves which were filled with the ingredients for the wishes.

In the middle of the room was a gigantic cauldron, bigger than the dragonfly-sized fairy herself, filled with clear water, from which the mystical mist was rising up like vapour. Around the cauldron, there were shelves upon shelves, filled with herbs, plants and other ingredients of every colour, taste and scent. Some were dull, other glowing or sparkling, as if light was shining out of their very midst. Among these rows of shelves, the young fairy now started to rummage about, looking for the right ingredients to grant the wish of the queen.

“First, we need something for ‘skin as white as snow’. That shouldn’t be too hard.”

She bustled about the room for a while and added a few things into the cauldron – a few drops of unicorn blood from the ‘magical creatures blood donation’, some peppermint, pixie dust, ice crystals and a hint of lavender – until the surface looked like it was covered by a layer of glittering snowflakes. Pleased by her work, she turned towards the shelves once more and started to search for the next ingredients.

“So far, so good. Now to the second part of the wish … What was that again? Red as blood … red as blood … But what? The eyes? No! That would look terrifying. Maybe the hair? Yes, why not. Red hair should make for a lovely look, combined with white skin. Redheads are naturally pale anyway. And curls might be nice, too. Always gives things a livelier look.”

The young fairy pushed her own silver curls out of her face and went to look for the right ingredients which would fit to her task. She was torn between copper and a truly dark bloody shade of red for a while, but the wish clearly stated the latter, so she added the ingredients to the cauldron.

It was now glowing red as if a tiny sun was hovering under the surface.

“White skin, red hair – now to the last part of the wish. I think it was something about black … Black like ebony wood … Well, skin and hair are already set. Now it would only fit to the eyes. Yes, black eyes might be interesting. Mystical and deep like a starless night or the bottom of a wishing well.”

Once more, Arabella bustled about the room, until she had found all the missing ingredients – most important the ebony wood. Finally, she added a few herbs to give the child good health and a sharp mind, before she topped the potion off with a blessing of her own.

“May true love find you and destiny guide you. May you always be just and curious and strong enough to bear the burdens of the life as a –”

She stopped dead and her eyes widened.

“Oh no! I forgot to determine the gender. Wait! Did the queen’s wish say anything about that? No, not that I remember … Humph … Kings always like to secure their line with a son. But mothers also like to have girls, so that they aren’t surrounded by men all day long. And fathers love daughters as well. A girl it is then.”

She quickly added the needed ingredients, stirred the potion once more and finished her blessing:

“– and strong enough to bear the burdens of the life as a princess.”

With a look of satisfaction, the young fairy extracted all of the potion from the cauldron with a magical spell and put it into a small crystal vial. With that she flew down into the castle where the king and queen lived and poured it into the soup of the queen when nobody was looking.

Upon her return, the young fairy met the Good Fairy, who was just now getting back into the Cloud Castle herself, her white hair wind-blown from the flight.

“Where have you been?” the Good Fairy asked with an air of suspicion. “Didn’t you say you’ll watch the castle for me while I’m away?”

“I did and I did – say it and watch it – but I also did grant a wish just now.”

The young fairy beamed with pride and nearly couldn’t wait to tell her mistress all about it.

“You did grant a wish?” the Good Fairy asked surprised. “What kind of wish?”

“The queen’s wish,” Arabella answered happily. “She wished for a child and I didn’t know when you would get back, so I decided to deal with this one myself. And it turned out pretty nice, I think. The potion was all sparkly and glowing beautifully.”

“I see. Tell me all about it then.”

The Good Fairy beckoned the young one to follow her into the castle and when she had settled down in her armchair, her young apprentice told her all about the wish, bouncing up and down through the room while she praised her own work.

“– and then I poured it into her soup. Pretty sneaky, right? Nobody saw me, of course! I made sure of that. And I flew straight back to the Cloud Castle, too, just like you always told me.”

“Very well,” the Good Fairy answered while pondering over the story she had just heard. “And you are sure that the queen asked for a red-headed child?”

“Um … well … My memory might have gotten a bit fuzzy on the details at some point,” the young fairy admitted and stopped flying through the room. “But I’m sure there was something about ‘red as blood’ –”

“Yes, but the hair? Humans these days don’t like red hair that much. Some even believe that it is a bad sign and only grows on the heads of witches.”

“Oh. I didn’t know that –”

“Let’s find out then, shall we?”

Arabella looked puzzled, but the Good Fairy just got up from her armchair and flew into the next room, which was called the Chamber of Sight. It was filled by hundreds of mirrors, each showing a different part of the kingdom.

The Good Fairy strode over to one of them which was showing the queen at dinner and waited until her young apprentice had followed her.

“I never told you that,” the Good Fairy said, “but if your magic is powerful enough, you can see into the past with those mirrors.”

“Seriously??”

The blue eyes of the young fairy widened and she stared upon the mirrors with new awe.

“Yes. And now we shall see if your memory betrayed you or not.”

With those words, the Good Fairy waved her hand in front of the mirror and suddenly the image of the queen at dinner vanished. It didn’t just disappear though – it started to wind back, faster and faster, until it stopped and showed the queen sitting at the window with an ebony wood frame.

“I wish for a child,” the voice of the queen echoed from the past, “with skin as white as snow, lips as red as blood, and hair as black as the ebony wood of my window frame.”

A deep silence fell over the room, while they watched the image of the queen fasten forward again, until she was sitting at the dinner table once more.

“It’s not too late to fix this,” the Good Fairy mumbled and suddenly dashed out of the room with an amount of speed that her young apprentice wouldn’t have thought possible at this age.

“I’m so sorry,” Arabella whined while she followed the Good Fairy into the Chamber of Wishes. “I should have waited for you. If only I had known that I could check on the details again with those mirrors –”

“You wouldn’t have been able to do it anyway,” the Good Fairy said matter-of-factly, while she was whizzing through the room, picking up ingredients. “You’re not strong enough yet. Your magic couldn’t do it.”

The young fairy watched glumly while the Good Fairy was hurriedly preparing a new potion within the cauldron, which was quickly beginning to show a perfect mix of red, white and black. It was even prettier than the potion of Arabella had been and glowed as bright as a summer’s day when the Good Fairy blessed it with the usual attributes – beauty, charm, health – and filled it into one of the crystal vials.

“Now quickly, before dinner is over!”

With that, the Good Fairy flew down to Earth with the speed of lightning and found the queen still sitting at the dinner table, talking to her husband with a cheery voice. The young fairy watched through the mirror and breathed a happy sigh when the potion had found its way into the queen’s beverage.

“That was close,” the Good Fairy chided her young apprentice as soon as she got back. “Far too close. You’re not ready to be trusted with this kind of responsibility yet. Next time, you’ll wait for me and prepare the potion under my supervision.”

“Yes, mistress. But what is going to happen to the queen now?”

“If all goes as I planned it, she’ll have twins. Both girls, but there’ll be time for a male heir afterwards. I hope I managed to get things right, because it is important that the girl that I designed gets out first. Fathers often bond with the first-born and that should be the child of their dreams – or at least the queen’s dreams – not a mistake by a forgetful apprentice.”

The young fairy gulped and looked down, trying to force back tears of regret.

“I’m sorry that I messed things up. From now on, I’ll only do as you say.”

“You’d better. Rashly granted wishes can contain mistakes and those can ruin the path of destiny for anyone who is affected by those flaws. We can only hope that this one here will turn out just fine.”

Nine months later, the queen gave birth to her first child. It was a long night and the belly of the queen had become so big that the king was sure it had to be a strong and sturdy prince who would be born.

All the more he was surprised to hear the voice of the midwife as the groaning of the queen subsided.

“It’s a girl!”

And it was indeed. The moment that the queen and king laid eyes on her, they fell deeply in love with their child. There was already a curl of black hair on her tiny head and the queen smiled when she looked into the pale face with red cheeks.

“Skin as white as snow, lips as red as blood and hair as black as ebony wood – you shall be named Snow White and will surely be the fairest of all princesses ever born.”

“Snow White it shall be,” agreed the king and looked upon the baby with fond eyes. “She already is the prettiest girl I’ve ever seen – next to you, my queen.”

Queen and king smiled down on their cute small baby. Little Snow White was hungry though and quickly demanded to be fed. The queen snuggled her up against her bosom and let her drink the warm mother’s milk, while she hummed a joyful tune.

But just as little Snow White had finished, the queen flinched and put her hand upon her belly, which was still round as a water melon.

“I think,” she groaned, “there is a second one coming.”

The eyes of the king widened as the midwife hurried towards them and put her hands on the queen’s belly.

“Good Heavens! She’s right. There is a twin on its way!”

In a rush, little Snow White was taken away from her mother’s breast and laid into the father’s arm instead. He looked down into the tiny face and was lost in its beauty, while the queen was in labour once more. This time, it took a bit longer than before and the queen groaned and breathed hard, but then it was over and her second daughter was born.

“Another girl,” the midwife stated as she put the tiny creature into her mother’s arms. “I sure hope that this was the last one or else I’ll be up all night!”

The midwife’s wish was granted as there were no more babies to be born this night. While the king was still gazing happily at Snow White, the queen looked down upon her second child in wonder.

“I didn’t even ask for two children. But here they are. Two beautiful girls, so small and fragile.”

Her eyes took in the curl of red hair on the second child’s head and she arched her brows. I just hope that this is not a bad omen …

Just when the king walked over towards his wife to see his second-born child, the tiny creature opened her eyes for the split of a second.

“Good Lord!” the king exclaimed and stepped back, putting a protective arm around Snow White. “Those eyes! They are black like the darkest night –”

“No,” whispered the queen. “Black like ebony wood.”

And she smiled down on the child that had once again closed its eyes and was drinking the warm mother’s milk with hungry gulps.

“Black like ebony wood?” repeated the king and looked from the queen to Snow White and back again. “Well, I definitely like the black hair better. But if those eyes stay as black as they are now, it would be fitting to call her Ebony.”

“Ebony,” mumbled the queen. “Yes, I like that.”

And she pressed little Ebony to her bosom, just above her heart and started to hum a cheerful melody, while the little princess was drinking the warm mother’s milk, looking happy but pale.

“There’s no colour in those cheeks,” murmured the midwife with worry in her eyes. “I can only hope that she’s sturdy enough to survive the coming winter.”

“She’ll be fine,” said the queen with a tired but merry face. “Her skin is as white as the snow. I’m sure that’s a sign that she and winter were made for each other.”

The queen should be proven right.

While little Snow White was a bit feeble in the beginning and didn’t seem to like the cold very much, little Ebony flourished and grew, even when the snow started to fall early at the very beginning of winter. As the queen stood with her on one of the balconies, a snowflake found its way onto the pale cheek of the tiny princess, which lay in the arms of her mother, gazing up at the starry sky.

When the snowflake touched her skin, little Ebony smiled and giggled and the queen couldn’t help but return the joyful smile.

“You are strong, my love,” she whispered to Ebony, who had closed her eyes and listened to the beating heart of her mother. “You will survive this winter and all the ones to come, I’m sure of that – no matter how pale your skin might seem. It was I who wished for that, so I’m sure it will prove to be a strength, not a weakness.”

And once again, the queen was right. Against the worries of the midwife, Ebony was a strong and sturdy child, small but unharmed by the cold.

Snow White on the other hand seemed to love the warmth of summer much better and started to thrive as soon as the days lengthened and the sun warmed her pretty little face. She soon grew to be a cute and beautiful little girl, always loved and protected by her parents.

Especially her father loved her the most. Being taken aback by the black eyes of his second daughter, he mostly spent time with Snow White, while the queen loved them both and treated them equally.

Little Ebony though, feeling the reserve of her father, clung to her mother and started to cry whenever the midwife or one of the servant girls tried to take her away. It took a couple of months until Ebony finally quieted down a bit and would at least part from her mother for a few hours a day.

But even when Ebony learned how to walk – being quicker than Snow White, who was carried around by her father very often – she mostly followed her mother and didn’t want to leave her side, unless she was playing with her sister.

All the while, little Ebony was faster at learning new things than Snow White. She was more curious and would try out new things without fear of failure.

The servants called her ‘nosy little Ebony’, because she would always crawl into the tiniest corners, being curious to investigate which secrets might be hidden in the dark. Her curiosity seemed to be growing even faster than her body and was often encouraged by the queen.

“Snow White might be the fairest,” she once told Ebony, while the little princess was sitting on her lap, “but you will be wiser than her, because you always seek the truth and get to the bottom of things.”

Ebony looked up to her mother with round eyes, trying to wrap her mind around the word ‘wisdom’. It took a few years until she truly understood what the queen had said to her that day, but all the while she was sure that it had to be something important.

At the very same time, Snow White was sitting on her father’s lap in the throne room, gazing up at him with warm brown eyes.

“You have the eyes of your mother,” the king told her with a fond smile, “and her beauty too. You will be the most wonderful princess the world has ever known. And if my wife shouldn’t bear me a son, you will be the queen of this land one day. The whole thing about an only male heritage line is nonsense anyway!”

The king made sure to stick to his word and when it seemed like his wife wouldn’t bear any children to him within the next years, he established a law which allowed the female heirs of a king to take over the throne in the cause of the king’s death.

Snow White and Ebony grew up to be kind at heart and loved by everyone. While the eldest was adored for her beauty and charm, Ebony was liked for her sharp mind and words of advice. She was clever from an early age and always spoke true-heartedly, never trying to conceal it if she had done anything wrong.

“There is something strange about her though,” some of the servants rumoured amongst each other. “Her eyes are as black as the night. And her hair looks like it was drenched in blood.”

They never said those things out loud in front of the royal family and always acted friendly towards Ebony. But deep in their hearts they were a little afraid of the younger princess.

And they were not altogether wrong. There was something mysterious and peculiar about Ebony from time to time.

While Snow White danced through the sunshine and let butterflies sit on her fingers, little Ebony was crawling in the dirt, watching beetles, worms and ants.

“Isn’t it amazing how much weight they can carry?” she once said to Snow White while studying a line of ants which were carrying huge burdens upon their backs.

Snow White didn’t even bother to take her gaze away from the clouds she was looking at and just kept smiling happily, while she replied: “I’d rather be a bird – light and free, flying through the air as if nothing could stop me.”

Ebony looked up and eyed her big sister with a frown.

“What kind of bird would you like to be?” she inquired, trying to understand Snow White’s desire. “And where would you fly to?”

“I don’t know,” answered Snow White with a dreamy look on her face. “I’d just fly around, I guess. Looking down onto the world. Maybe I could be a swallow –”

“Why not a magpie?” mocked Ebony. “They are black and white, just like you are.”

“I’m not just black and white!”

“Of course, you are. Black hair, white skin – apart from those ridiculously red cheeks and lips, you’re very much like a magpie, I think.”

“I don’t want to be a magpie! They steal things.”

“Nonsense. Only sometimes they take glittery things which they like – pretty much the same as you. Whenever father gives you a shiny new necklace, your eyes sparkle like the diamonds around your neck.”

“I’m not like a magpie!” Snow White said outraged. “I’d rather be a swallow or a singing bird.”

“Whatever you want, sis,” Ebony replied with a shrug. “Anyway, it sure would be interesting to see the castle from above.” She lay down in the grass to watch the clouds and birds pass by. “I’d be a falcon, small and fast, so that no one could catch me.”

“Who would want to catch you?”

“I don’t know. Predator birds maybe. Or humans. But I’d be too fast for them. I would fly into the woods and watch the other animals. Or I’d visit the villages in our kingdom and see how the people live.”

Snow White gave her little sister a puzzled look. She had never thought much about the circumstances of the people in the realm.

“Don’t you think they live just like we do?” she asked Ebony while she returned her gaze towards the sky, looking for funny shapes in the clouds.

“Of course not. We live in a castle – they live in small houses of brick or wood. It must be very different from our way of living. They don’t have a cook and still have to provide food for their children. They work in the fields or as a blacksmith or carpenter. It must be fascinating to watch them … or maybe even join them and learn how to work like they do.”

“Now you’ve lost it,” said Snow White and laughed her cute bell-like laughter. “You are a princess! We don’t work among the common folk. And we surely don’t perform tiring tasks like working in the fields, getting all dirty and ruining our soft skin.”

Ebony looked down upon her fingers, which were covered in dirt, because she had been digging up the earth, searching for animals she might not know yet.

“Why would dirt be a problem? You can wash it off as soon as you have finished your work.”

“A princess shouldn’t get dirty in the first place,” sighed Snow White, wishing that Ebony would just shut up and let her gaze at the clouds in peace.

“In that case,” Ebony concluded, “being a princess is one of the most boring things in the world! I’d rather be an ant, crawling around on the ground and being able to carry things which weigh several times as much as I do.”

Snow White didn’t reply to that and Ebony understood the silent hint. She was used to dealing with her thoughts of curiosity on her own and turned to watch a raven which was sitting in one of the trees within the castle garden. He has got black eyes, just like mine. But he is free to leave and fly wherever he wants to go, not being bound by a human body or human laws. Maybe Snow White is right. Being a bird would be quite interesting!

At the same time as Snow White and Ebony were watching the clouds in the sky, the Good Fairy and her apprentice were sitting in the Cloud Castle amongst those very same clouds, gazing into one of the mirrors which showed the two princesses from above.

“Snow White is turning into a real beauty,” stated the Good Fairy with a cheerful voice. She was proud of her work and satisfied with the child she had bestowed upon the queen.

“Ebony is pretty as well,” Arabella mumbled and eyed the pale princess with pride. “And she is witty. I like that.”

“You might like it. But you are too idealistic for this age. Men of this time prefer good-looking women who are obedient and don’t make trouble.”

“Isn’t that discriminating?”

“It is. But there is nothing we can do about it.”

“But that’s unfair,” moaned the young fairy. “Why can’t we just put a spell on the men and make them more openminded towards intelligent women?”

“That would be a violation of our Fairy Code! We only use our magic to grant wishes – not to manipulate the world as we see fit. It’s not in our hands what is meant to be or not. The humans have to learn about equal rights by themselves.”

“Shouldn’t we try to help them?”

“No,” the Good Fairy exclaimed emphatically. “That’s not our task. You should be satisfied that Snow White’s beauty got the king to establish a new law for the female line of heritage. Now a princess can become a queen without being married to a king. Snow White might as well be the next queen of this land after the king’s death.”

“Humph,” grumbled the young fairy and folded her arms, while she watched the two princesses lying on the grass. Ebony would make a better queen. She’s smart and righteous, while Snow White mostly cares about her dresses and other pretty things in life. She is way too naive to be a queen …

When Snow White and Ebony were about six years old, the queen got very ill. She grew paler from day to day and at some point, she was so weak that she wasn’t able to leave her bed anymore.

The king was very worried and sent for the wisest men in the whole kingdom, but none of them were able to help the queen to overcome her sickness.

Snow White brought flowers to the queen’s bedside every day and sang to the queen, filling the chamber with her pure, high voice.

“You’ll be better soon, mother, right?” Snow White asked, every time that she had finished her song and was about to go back outside and play in the sun.

“Of course, my darling,” the queen replied with a feeble voice and tried to smile. “You already made me feel much better, my little sunshine.”

Snow White would always return the smile, give her mother a hug and then run into the garden to forget her sorrow and watch the clouds instead.

Ebony on the other hand could not forget her worries. She sometimes stayed at the bedside of her mother for hours when the king wasn’t there, just caressing her hand and telling her about what she had discovered that day.

One time, she even brought a book of fairy tales to the queen. When her mother saw it, she sighed and shook her head with a sad look.

“I can’t read to you, Ebony. My voice won’t last –”

“I know, mother. But I can read to you. It always made me feel better when you read those stories to me while I was young and couldn’t sleep.”

“You’re still young, my child –”

“Yes, but not that young anymore!”

“Go ahead then,” whispered the queen with a fragile smile upon her pale lips. “Read to me.”

And Ebony read to her stories of adventures, of princes and princesses, of dragons and fairies and lots of other things that she loved.

The queen listened, smiled and sometimes even laughed, enjoying the distraction from her aching body. Ebony had a way of storytelling that made all the tales feel very much alive whenever she lent them her voice.

“Thank you very much, my dear,” breathed the queen when Ebony had finished yet another story. “I already feel much more alive again.”

“Will you ever get better though?” asked Ebony with a look of earnest worry on her face.

“I don’t know,” answered the queen reluctantly. “I’m afraid not. None of the wise men your father gathered here was able to help me.”

“What about wise women? Aren’t there herb-wives who could cure you?”

“Your father doesn’t believe in herbalism. He is afraid that those herb women might be witches.”

“That’s nonsense,” Ebony mumbled irritated, but tried not to upset her mother with her own feelings. “Well … Can I help you?”

“Oh, my sweet little Ebony! You’ve already done so much for me. Those hours we spent in the lands of fairies and dragons have been the most beautiful ones since I’ve been tied to my bed.”

“But there’s got to be a way to heal you from your sickness,” insisted Ebony desperately. “Or at least to ease your pain. You shouldn’t have to die in agony!”

The queen flinched. She had always tried to hide it whenever she was in pain and even though she was much more open with Ebony than she was with Snow White, she never had guessed that Ebony would find out how close she was to death.

“We don’t know yet if I’m going to die,” she tried to comfort her daughter. “Maybe I’ll get better now that you’ve reminded me of how wonderful and adventurous life can be. Don’t lose hope, darling.”

“I’ll never lose hope! But it’s obvious that you have been getting worse every single day. How can I still believe that you’ll get better at some point?”

Ebony’s eyes started to get wet, like the dark but shiny surface of a lake at night. The queen looked at her with despair and couldn’t help but admire the strange beauty of her daughter’s looks.

“Whatever people say to you,” she whispered, “you are beautiful and wonderful and the most loveable daughter a mother could wish for. To some, your eyes might look like a blank night sky, but to me, there’s more. I can see stars sparkling upon that black sky, shining with curiosity and wisdom, to enlighten the world and the minds of the people around you.”

“The people won’t listen to a weird redhead like me.”

“Of course, they will! They’ll have to! Don’t ever believe that your looks make you less worthy. Never lose hope, darling. I have faith in you. And if you believe in yourself, too, you can accomplish anything you want. You choose your own destiny. Never forget that.”

And with those words, the queen passed away, a loving smile upon her face, leaving behind two grieving daughters and a heartbroken king, who secretly blamed Ebony for the death of his wife.

“You shouldn’t have read so many stories to her at once,” he chided his youngest daughter soon after the funeral. “It was too tiring for her!”

“But she liked it,” Ebony replied in her defence. “She smiled and laughed and didn’t tell me to stop. She even said that these were the most joyful moments she’d had in weeks!”

“When did you learn to read anyway? Even Snow White can’t read yet –”

“Even?? I’m always faster than her, in case you haven’t noticed,” Ebony retorted defiantly. “She doesn’t even give it a try! She preferred it when mother read the stories to her and not even looked at the letters and words in the book. How could she ever learn to read them?”

“Don’t talk bad of your sister!” the king rebuked her. “Anyway … It was too much for the queen! Reading to her for hours and hours … You should have known better.”

“But she wanted me to read on!”

“You should have given her a break though. Given her some time to rest in between, to gather new strength –”

“I didn’t kill her,” shouted Ebony, starting to sob. “It wasn’t my fault that she died. She said herself that she wasn’t feeling any better.”

“But she could have! She would have felt better someday, I’m sure! We would have found a way to –”

“– heal her? No. There was no way. She said so herself. I tried to find one, but there was nothing to be done. There was no cure for her sickness. At least not while you wouldn’t let in the herb-wives –”

“Don’t dare to speak of those silly witches!” yelled the king and lifted his hand as if to slap his daughter.

Ebony flinched, but didn’t try to get out of the way. She looked at her father with angry determination, not afraid to meet whatever punishment he thought necessary.

The king stopped dead in midair, meeting the gaze of those deep black eyes he secretly feared, but which showed no fear themselves. With a heavy sigh he lowered his hand.

“I’m sorry for yelling at you. It wasn’t your fault that she died, I know that. I just miss her so much!”

“So do I,” mumbled Ebony and started to weep openly.

The king stepped forward to embrace her in his strong arms, but Ebony’s pale skin reminded him of the dead face of his wife and rooted him to the spot.

Ebony, left alone with her sorrow, turned on her heels and ran down into the cellar, where she could be alone and hide from the cruel world which rejected her. Now that my mother is gone, who is left to love me?

Like any man who had lost the love of his life, the king moaned for the queen for a long time. He only found comfort in Snow White’s brown eyes, which reminded him of that of her mother, and in her joyful insouciance, which quickly returned and filled the castle with laughter once more.