Dead princess walking, p.1
Dead Princess Walking, page 1
DEAD
PRINCESS
WALKING
A FAIRYTALE RETOLD
By:
L. M. SCHUKRAFT
Copyright © 2018 L. M. Schukraft
Cover illustration and images by: L.M. Schukraft
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, business, events and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
ISBN: 9781719936002
Imprint: Independently published
DEDICATION
~ Everyday you’re a gift to me ~
To my grandmother who lived to 99, words fail to express how much you will be missed.
My thanks to all those who have supported me on this journey. For the ones that lifted me up when times were rough and stood by us.
Too many to list them all but know that you’re appreciated!
C.M., C.B., R.S., D.R., D&I.B., C.F., J.F. – My Daves! – W.M., M.M., A.C., and of course my son
Contents
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
CHAPTER THIRTY
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
CHAPTER FORTY
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR
CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE
CHAPTER FORTY-SIX
CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
CHAPTER FIFTY
CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO
CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE
CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR
CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE
CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX
CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE
CHAPTER SIXTY
CHAPTER SIXTY-ONE
CHAPTER SIXTY-TWO
CHAPTER SIXTY-THREE
CHAPTER SIXTY-FOUR
CHAPTER SIXTY-FIVE
EPILOGUE
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Other Works by L. M. Schukraft:
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PROLOGUE
O
ur seven kingdoms are filled with fantastical beings. We live side by side with unicorns, elves, fairies, witches, dragons, and so many more creatures. Yet there is one that we rarely speak of and learn from a young age to never draw their attention: the Fae.
In a time long ago, the Fae ruled the Seven Kingdoms. It was a time of peace, beauty, and abundance. Until the twin daughters were born to the ruling Fae, our lands prospered.
The day of their birth was rejoiced across the kingdoms. One daughter fair of hair and one daughter with hair dark as night. From the day they were born, their powers were strong, stronger than any of the Fae could imagine.
The girls grew up, never far from one another. They excelled in glamour, spells, and the lands all responded to the twins when they visited each kingdom. It was as though the very earth their feet stepped upon drew strength from them. The Fae had never seen the land respond to one of their blood such as it did to the twins.
Aurora, the one daughter fair of hair, had the powers of old. She could control life itself; breathe life into a dying plant or suck the very energy from a vibrant flowering tree. Either action gave power to the princess. It was as frightening a power as it was beautiful.
Her glamour was some of the strongest known to the Fae. She could make one see whatever she wanted. Whether it was to make herself beyond beautiful or to hide herself in plain sight, her glamour fooled everyone.
Well, almost everyone.
There was one that always could see through her illusions. One that would give life back when the princess played her cruel games. And the princess grew to hate her for it...
Her own sister, Celestia.
Twin with hair dark as night, she had eyes three colors never seen before. It was the highest mark of honor among the Fae, to have three different shades of color in their eyes. It spoke of purer blood.
The Fae are an ancient people. Rumored to be descendants of goddesses and gods of old, the truth of their beginnings is almost forgotten. Throughout the centuries, as their ability to breed declined, their bloods were mixed with other species in the hopes of keeping the Fae alive.
Some believe that was what started their demise.
It created a divide between the pure bloods and sullied, mixed bloods. The claim that mixing bloods with other species weakened the Fae could just as easy be flipped to say that all that inbreeding twisted the Fae.
Aurora envied her sister’s mark of purer blood. She wanted to be the first, the better in all things. She was born with an unhealthy desire to rule all. As she grew, Aurora took great pleasure in causing mayhem and chaos and blaming it all on Celestia. No matter how much Celestia proclaimed her innocence or how much she helped Aurora’s victims, she found herself an outcast in her home.
Shunned by the villagers and soon by her own people, Celestia was forced into exile.
If you ask anyone now, they say that day was the true downfall of the Fae.
Aurora wasn’t satisfied with just undermining Celestia within her home and the villagers. She resented any kind words she heard in support of her sister. This resentment festered in her. It built even as she watched the villagers turn away from Celestia and mothers scoop their children up in fear of her.
It wasn’t enough.
Her sister’s powers and those eyes of hers were too great a threat if Aurora was to rule all of Fae and the lands. She had too much support from those nasty mix-bloods, even with those eyes of hers. Aurora knew as long as her sister remained in the village, she would never have the support of all of the Fae.
She plotted a truly devious way to finally turn even those snotty pure bloods that had embraced Celestia and her tri-colored eyes against her. They were all so afraid of their dwindling powers and how the lands themselves were starting to fade in magic. It only took a hint that Celestia was a danger to their magic and all of Fae.
Well, a hint and a little illusion from Aurora.
Once everyone saw the plants dry up, the leaves falling from the trees and the very ground Celestia walked on turning black beneath her feet, the fear gripped the people and the pure bloods.
They said Celestia was a poison to the lands. That her very presence was killing magic and they demanded she be exiled to the fairy mounds in the Dark Forest. That the mixed blood has cursed the Fae and needed to be exiled. Some called for her blood. That it would be the only way to appease the lands of the blight she brought upon it.
With dainty tears glistening in her eyes, Aurora pleaded for her sister’s life. She begged mercy the Fairy Courts would spare her sister into exile. She made sure that blood red roses bloomed as she walked the magnificent hall of the Fairy Courts to show that magic and the land still responded to her. With the scent of summer on a breeze, Aurora played them all as her sister stood in a blackened circle of decay.
And Celestia did naught but smile gently. She looked at those that judged her, knowing there was nothing she could do. She quietly said she would willingly go into the Dark Forest and make a home of the lost fairy mound.
She would welcome any that seek asylum from the pure bloods; mixed, Goblin, Brownie, Shapeshifter or Troll. That her kingdom will embrace the ways of old and seek to restore what the Fae have forgotten and lost.
Her final words prophesied a time when magic will all but be forgotten, rarely celebrated as it was. When the Fae no longer rule the Seven Kingdoms and are but dark whispers of the night. The pure bloods will have fallen in numbers to where they huddle in secrecy, stealing babies like the Elves, praying to the deities that they will be fertile once more.
When their blood has thinned to the point where they can only create the smallest of magic, a girl will be born with eyes three colors never seen before. A princess she will be with the magic of their ancest
ors and she will save them all. Pray it happens in their lifetime before all forget what was prophesied on this day.
At her final words, Celestia disappeared in a flash of magic. The blackened ground beneath her feet erupted into a magnificent full bodied tree with blooming fruit and petals the colors of her eyes. A small pond welled at the base of the tree as butterflies glittered around it. The butterflies whispered softly yet they could easily hear, “Come follow me all who seek sanctuary. Follow me to the lost fairy mound and rediscovery our ancestry.”
One by one, those who supported Celestia touched the butterflies and disappeared. Each left behind a rose bush that breathed.
Aurora pulled back in fear, horrified her plan had backfired. She’d cried out it was but an illusion. That no magic created by her sister would last. She stared transfixed, focusing every ounce of her glamour on making the tree and bushes look decayed yet her magic could not touch them.
One pure blood Fae could not resist touching a brilliant rose a deep color of midnight blue. The petals twinkled like they had stars in them. That breathing bush sighed as her finger brushed the petals. The Fae gasped, jerking in surprise. When she pulled her finger away a small drop of blood ran down it.
Those left behind in the Fairy Courts that day wondered at what they had done. They worried had they truly doomed themselves and feared the magic left behind by Celestia.
Aurora worked her glamour like a shield over the next hundred years or so to erase the memory of what Celestia had said. Even as she did so, she watched the prophecy slowly come true. She got her wish of ruling all, short lived as it was.
The Fairy Courts divided into Dark and Light. The Light Courts power faded even as the tree and rose bushes thrived, never losing their fruits or petals. The Fae could not hide their fading power from the people. War erupted as greed took over and the people fought to rule their own kingdoms. The few pure bloods left fled to the fairy mounds, hiding in their protection. Many fled and sought sanctuary with Celestia in the lost fairy mound deep in the Dark Forest.
Chaos ruled the Seven Kingdoms until seven powerful rich men formed a truce. They each selected a kingdom to rule, agreeing to banish most magic to the farthest corners of the lands. They forced what Fae were left back to the fairy mounds, made them leave the kingdoms. They declared that magic had forsaken them and the Fae had abandoned them. The last magical creatures who remembered the prophecy passed it on from generation to generation. The once powerful Fae were soon naught more than a Fairytale for the people to whisper of at night.
CHAPTER ONE
“M
irror, Mirror, on the wall, who is the fairest of them all?”
I knew when I heard my Queen ask that question I was a dead princess walking.
Ever since my father, the King of Aridale, had passed away, I knew I was on borrowed time.
Before my father brought that woman home, my life was the stuff of fairytales.
Well, mostly it was.
Losing my mother was one of the darkest days of my life but being so young when she died, I have few memories of her. My father would tell me stories about my mother each night before I fell asleep. He would tell me of her beauty; how it outshined even the fairest princess across our seven kingdoms.
The way he spoke of her beauty is seared in my mind.
“Your mother was magnificent, truly stunning. Once my eyes gazed upon her, they could see no other. Her luscious dark locks framed that heart shaped face and mine skipped a beat. I could hear nothing but my blood rushing in my ears. I’d never seen skin so pale; it looked as pure as fresh driven snow. And those lips...oh sweet heaven, they were plump pillows of red. But nothing outshined more than those eyes of hers. It was like the stars were dancing in their emerald seas. I was bespelled before we even said hello. I never thought there could be a beauty to match hers, until the day you were born. Imagine my surprise to find how much you look like your mother.”
Each night, he would start the stories with those words. Each night, my mother became real to me again through his eyes.
Then my father went away.
He had to visit the other kingdoms. I knew this. I grew up waving goodbye to him as he and the Huntsman rode out our castle gates. But something seemed different this time.
My father seemed worried, more so than usual. He hadn’t left our fortress walls for the many months following my mother’s passing.
Oh, how I had loved having him home all that time. I cherished it most because I knew it would eventually end.
Kings are busy men and my father had many who depended on him.
One thing people seem to forget about being a princess is that you rarely come first with your parents. Kings and Queens have duties. Responsibilities. And princesses have them, too. I never get the chance to forget that. I’m reminded of it every day.
That first trip - my father was gone for a long time. The palace was tense as the days continued to pass without his return.
When he finally did show up again, he was a different man. The grief that had weighed his shoulders down as he rode off, was gone. He sat up straighter as he came back through the gates. The smile finally reached his eyes when he threw his arms wide to catch me up in a fierce hug.
“Oh, my sweet Snow White, how you’ve grown!” He had cried. “Is it possible you are more beautiful today than when I had left?”
I giggled as I had ducked my head to hide my blush. From that day on, my father greeted me thus.
He had many more times to do so as he began to travel so frequently. Each time he returned home, he seemed happier.
Then one day he did not come home alone.
He’d brought her. He’d even married her!
My whole world change that day.
CHAPTER TWO
I
tried to like her.
I truly did but from the moment she stepped from the carriage, I saw it in her eyes.
Jealousy.
I’d never seen it personified until that day, but she was living, breathing, jealousy.
I remember thinking what had my father done?
I tried to dismiss it as a trick of shadows as the sun passed behind some clouds, but some part of me deep down felt the danger she possessed.
I’d heard what had happened to Cinderella when her mother died and then with her stepmother after her father died. I’d even heard about the kingdom that sleeps an eternal sleep right now, all because of one witch’s jealousy and wrath.
But I had hoped that wasn’t to be my fate. I’d hoped for so much that day.
My father had been beaming with happiness, that much I could see. He had looked at this woman as though she was his air. Then he had dropped that cannon fodder loaded with bull droppings on me.
“Snow White!” My father had greeted me just as he had all the other times but he rushed through it, turning to the woman behind us.
I can’t explain why, other than that brief glare of jealousy I had caught, but every part of me sensed danger.
All coming from this slip of a woman my father brought into our home that looked so beautiful and different from us. Her hair was a golden yellow, her skin pale from the powder she used to try and hide her time in the sun, her lips were thin, her cheekbones high. Her eyes were dark. A blue so dark it felt cold.
She had smiled like she had a secret as my father said come meet your new mother. The smile never reached her eyes.
“So this is the little one the kingdoms talk about. The beauty to surpass all, even her own mother’s...,” She spoke of my renowned beauty like it was a lie. She looked almost disappointed.
I have to admit, I kinda of understood why. I’d yet to grasp the fascination the lands have for my appearance.
I was just an ordinary girl.
I wanted so hard for them all to believe that. The people needed to believe that.
I needed them to believe that for I am a living secret. One that mustn’t be found out. Not even my father knows my secret. Only my mother does and she’s dead.
CHAPTER THREE
W
