Ever After by Anya Wylde Page B

well. It is the only
way."
    The queen
smiled her thanks and rewarded them with silver spoons and plates
specially crafted for their size.
    Next, she got
busy sticking hundreds of cotton balls all over the princess. It
was only after the princess was so padded that she could barely
walk that the queen was satisfied. And it was just as well, for the
Queen had been right as mothers so often are ….
    The princess
grew up into a lovely young woman with hair like the night and eyes
like a clear morning sky. She was also intelligent, which was why
she soon grew bored of sparkling baubles and frivolous games.
    It was on her
seventeenth birthday that she turned her attention towards the
window. From then on her beautiful, expressive face appeared to
wear a mask of yearning. Every morning she would draw back the
thick gold curtains, rest her head against the window and stare out
of the spotless glass at the never-ending blue sea. She would gaze
longingly at the fishermen in their boats and the fishwives waiting
for their husbands to return to the shore. She wished she could see
their faces, but they were so far away. They appeared no larger
than her dolls from where she stood high up in her golden
tower.
    She wanted to
escape. To swim and bath in the ocean water. She wanted to paddle
and frolic and make tiny paper boats and set them afloat on the
puddles in the sand. She grew forlorn as days went by and she
remained trapped in the tower. Her servants, friends, and even her
parents’ love, was no longer enough to fill her heart.
    Then one day
the sun beckoned too invitingly for the princess to resist, and she
used her solid gold violin to break the glass and leaped from the
window of the tower.
    ***
    It was her
mother’s foresight and the cotton padding that saved her life.
    The princess
limped back to the tower with a broken ankle and a sore heart. The
king took one look at his beloved daughter and melted. He was not a
cruel man. He loved his daughter and could not bear to see her
lovely face looking so forlorn with tears glistening in her big
blue eyes. He engulfed his daughter in a warm, comforting hug and
told her that from now on she could leave her tower.
    "Truly?" the
princess asked in awe.
    "Yes," the king
replied.
    "Can I explore
the palace?"
    "To your
heart's content," he smiled.
    "And see a
market, visit a fair and paddle in the sea."
    "You can if you
will heed my advice," he warned.
    She folded her
hands on her lap and lifted a shining face to her father.
    He patted her
eager head and continued. "Twenty four guards will follow you every
time you leave the tower."
    She nodded
eagerly.
    He lifted a
hand. "I have not finished. The guards will follow you everywhere.
You will listen to them, and if they advise you not to go someplace
… you shall not go."
    She gave a firm
nod.
    He narrowed his
eyes and continued. "You will also take with you a lady's maid, a
doctor and two nurses in case you get hurt, a pistol in each
pocket, a machine gun strapped to your back and a grenade
squirreled away in your bonnet."
    Her eyes
widened at this pronouncement.
    "You will have
a military tank follow you every time you venture further than the
palace walls," he added.
    Her mouth fell
open. “A tank?"
    "Yes."
    "With a giant
cannon attached to the roof?" she asked.
    "Yes."
    "Can I operate
the cannon and launch …err… stuff?"
    "If
needed."
    "What fun," she
exclaimed and leaped up to kiss her father's cheek.
    The king turned
red in pleasure and mumbled gruffly, "You can't go too far from the
palace, and you must not talk to strangers. Don’t eat strange
foods, drink funny things, smoke odd stuff…."
    The princess
stopped listening. She quivered in excitement, her feet itching to
get away. She had a whole world waiting to be explored.
    She nodded
absently as her father continued to lecture her for the next six
hours. Her face sported a practised obedient expression, but inside
her a storm was brewing. It was a wonderful, thundery and