Shards Of The Glass Slipper: Queen Cinder by Mauritsen Roy A

Author:Mauritsen, Roy A. [Mauritsen, Roy A.]
Language: eng
Format: azw3, mobi
Tags: Epic Fantasy Fairy Tale
Publisher: Padwolf Publishing Inc.
Published: 2012-04-15T16:00:00+00:00

* * *

Patience’s thoughts were about Hamelin. With everything that had happened so quickly, the young girl suddenly felt alone and helpless. “Despite having these legendary glass slippers,” Patience mumbled to herself.

Patience had watched Rapunzel and the prince talking. She considered asking the prince if she could pet the horse, but he seemed troubled and Patience did not want to bother him. General White was surrounded by dwarves, which she guessed was typical at these meetings—dwarves giving her reports and asking for her orders on one thing or the other. Several yards away near a large tree, she saw Goldenhair in a similar meeting, except that several birds and other animals surrounded her. Patience watched Goldenhair for a moment. It seemed the whole tree was full of chattering birds. On the ground near the trunk, squirrels, rabbits and many other woodland animals scurried around, coming and going as Goldenhair directed. Birds flew from the tree in various directions, immediately replaced by others. Patience wandered to the only other person who did not seem involved in matters at hand.

“What’s going on?” Patience asked.

“War,” Gothel said. “Here, dearie, have something to eat.” The old witch offered a small bowl of curded mix and whey. It was not much of a breakfast, and Patience was not hungry.

Rapunzel walked over to her mother. “Something to eat, I heard?” She joked as she arrived, but then her tone turned more serious. “Goldenhair has heard that there is another army massing in the mountains. Not Queen Cinder’s army, either.”

“Another army?” Dame Gothel repeated. “And where do you suppose another army would come from?” the witch asked in feigned innocence.

“Goldenhair’s scout didn’t elaborate much, being that it was a bird,” Rapunzel added with sarcasm.

She glanced over at the raven-haired general in white armor who was busy going over maps with some of the dwarves. Then Rapunzel leaned into to tell her mother the rest of the news. “General White is concerned. If there is an outside army on the move, she is not sure what kind of defense the queen’s army could make. Dwarven scouts went back to the beach at first light. They say it looked more like the drowned rat army, bodies of the queen’s army everywhere. Our mermaid friend may have done her job too well. They took heavy losses.”

“Perhaps too heavy?”

“Exactly. Any other time prior to today it would have been great news. However, this is not great timing.”

“For us perhaps,” said Dame Gothel, “but great news for the other army.”

“Whose farm is this?” asked Patience, looking around to find some other topic to discuss. She had grown more worried about things since she had returned with the slippers and desperately wished to talk of lighthearted matters again. Hamelin had been good at cheering the young Patience into better spirits with a story and some music. She wished he were here right now to play a song.

“It’s a safe house,” the lieutenant explained. “Since the Beanstalk War, many farms were abandoned either because of damage or because many of the survivors just couldn’t keep up.

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