Chapter 18
THE TALE OF THE THREE SISTERS
The Princess gazed around the octagonal room.
It rose twenty storeys high and each level was lined from floor to ceiling with books.
Never had there been such a monument to the written word.
Volumes as big as gravestones stood sentinel beside folios smaller than a thumbnail; there were thick books, slim books, some bound in the softest, supplest leather, others in ancient carved wood stained black with age and wisdom.
Books in languages she did not recognise; there were funny stories, sad stories, stories about love, adventure and life.
Factual books bulging with knowledge, rustling their pages as they craned forward, desperate to impart their information about the world.
The Princess was humbled by the towers of learning, but she feared, if she let them, they would overwhelm her mind.
The desire to read each book crept through her like a spell, but if she tried to absorb each of their tales, teachings and ideas into her fragile mortal mind, madness would ensue.
Tears flowed from her eyes as she contemplated the treasure trove of literature.
She loved to read, to tell tales, but she had been taunted, told this would drive her to insanity by the prince who was her husband.
In her heart, she knew this was untrue, but his words haunted her because this was her most desperate fear: to lose her mind, her sense of self, her soul.
‘You are moved?’ said a male voice from the shadows with a hint of a sneer.
The Princess started; she had thought herself alone but he stood before her, his face the man of one she knew to be dead.
‘I am humbled,’ she replied, moving her leg, feeling the knife wedged in her boot, assuring herself she was armed and prepared.
The man stepped into the jewel-bright light cast by the eight stained-glass oriel windows. Each was positioned to mark the very centre of the library and the colours they cast were like nothing she had ever seen before. The man’s russet hair glowed with a million dancing lights as he bowed.
‘Are you afraid?’ he asked, the coldness of his tone making her skin prickle with unease.
‘No,’ she replied, but her voice was small, like the child she had once been when this man was her friend. ‘I must leave.’
‘No, you shall stay,’ said the man and pulled a book from a shelf, flicking casually through the pages.
The Princess tried to move, to turn away from the man, but she was rooted to the spot.
‘Are there tales of this kingdom within these books?’ asked The Princess.
‘There are many,’ replied the man. ‘They tell of the peace that has reigned here for many generations, handed down from father to son, father to son.’
‘Father to son,’ she echoed.
‘Father to son, for generations, until the line was polluted by endless daughters.’
‘I am the third daughter of a third daughter,’ she replied. ‘My betrothal to the prince was arranged when I was a child. I was sent away from all I knew and from my best friend who loved me, whom I loved.’
‘From me?’ he said with a sneer. ‘You were a snivelling child, it wasn’t love, I forgot you as soon as you were gone.’
‘No,’ she whispered to herself.
‘Yet now you travel with your sisters,’ he said. ‘Three women together, each bearing a title, you seek adventure and accolades, but you never settle.’
‘My eldest sister, The Queen, is a widow; when her reign ended, she was sent to her dower palace. My next sister, The Baroness, was married to a cruel man and she sought refuge with The Queen.’
‘And you?’
‘My husband has many lovers,’ she said. ‘I left one dark, rain-tossed night and went to my sisters. We have been travelling ever since.’
‘He is dead,’ said the man with a cold smile.
‘Dead? Are you sure?’
‘Perhaps you no longer need to flee, Princess,’ he said. ‘What about your parents?’
‘We don’t remember them,’ she replied.
The man smiled and The Princess stared at him in confusion. These truths she had told were the secrets she and her sisters guarded most fiercely. Even between themselves, they were discussed in hushed tones, at the midnight hour when the candle guttered and there were no other ears to listen.
‘Who are you?’ asked The Princess.
‘I am the question and the answer,’ he replied.
‘To what?’
‘To everything you’ve ever wondered and all you dare to seek,’ he said, and with a shimmer of eerie blue light, he vanished.