The Dwarf Ring by A G Marshall

Author:A G Marshall [Marshall, A G]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Avanell Publishing
Published: 2019-05-08T04:00:00+00:00

I lost track of the days. Easy to do when you stay inside and clean all day. The dwarfs brought buckets of fresh water and new rags each morning. They brought food for me to cook.

Keeping the house clean was a constant struggle. They tracked in dust from the mine when they returned every evening. The ring wouldn’t let me sleep until every speck was gone.

Dwarf magic did not add to my skills in the kitchen, which was unfortunate for all involved. After a few inedible mishaps, I learned how to make a fire and boil vegetables into mush. I managed to swallow a few mouthfuls each night, but only a few. The dwarfs grumbled and glared at me, but what could they do? Their magic could force a princess to cook, but it couldn’t make her do it well.

While eating the mush, the dwarfs would stare longingly at the door. They expected other girls to come, but no one did. Stepmother must have some way of removing the jewelry. She and Charn must be finding the girls made fairest in the land and saving them before they fell into the dwarfs’ trap.

Why hadn’t they just told me that?

The dwarfs left early each morning to work in the mine. I spent hours washing their sheets and boiling vegetables.

I was nearly done with the day’s washing when someone knocked on the door. My heart raced. Had someone found me? Could they save me?

I ran for the door. The chill stabbed at me, so I grabbed a rag and dusted as I went. This was the secret. I could do whatever I liked as long as I kept cleaning and didn’t leave the house.

I flung open the door, hoping to see Stepmother.

Instead, a wrinkled face stared back at me. A crone with a basket of beautiful red apples.

“Oh,” I said, not bothering to hide my disappointment. “I don’t have any money.”

The crone raised an eyebrow in a gesture that was so familiar I stopped dusting and gawked at her. A chill gathered in my spine, and I rubbed the rag over the doorframe to ease the pain.

“It can’t be you,” I said. “You’re-“

I gestured to her wrinkled form, and the crone nodded.

“It took a lot of magic to break through the dwarfs’ enchantment, dearest. Prince Charn helped me disguise myself.”

“Then you’re here to save me?”

She shook her head, and my heart sank.

“The enchantment is too strong to break through with force. I suggest you bake a pie.”

“A pie?”

Stepmother handed me the basket of apples. Enchanted apples. They had to be. She couldn’t pull me away from the curse, so she would help me poison my captors.

“I don’t know how to make a pie,” I said.

“Try your best, Snow. By all accounts, dwarfs aren’t picky.”

“They do have some standards.”

I smirked as I pictured the dwarf’s faces when they ate the vegetable mush. Stepmother raised her eyebrow again.

“I’ll try,” I said.

“That’s my girl.”

Then she walked away. Apparently, that was all the help she could give.

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