Snow & Rose by Emily Winfield Martin

Author:Emily Winfield Martin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2017-10-10T04:00:00+00:00

After the birthday party, it rained for days. The weather snuffed out the momentary brightness in their mother, but Snow and Rose hardly noticed because now they had the kittens. Tiny mews, the cold patter on the roof, and the sound of water boiling for tea were all they heard. Finally, after their drowsy days cooped up, the sky cleared. Snow and Rose raced to see who could lace up her boots quickest. They kissed the kittens and left them in Earl Grey’s care, then ran outside under a bright sky.

The rain had turned the crisp brown leaves slick and black underfoot. The sisters’ breath hung cold in the air as they set off to see Ivo.

They walked through the forest, down toward the stream. In her hurry to get outside, Rose had remembered her satchel but forgotten her cape until she saw Snow, warm in hers. Rose shivered in her sweater, and Snow noticed.

She reached into her pocket, looking proud, and fished out the stones Ivo had given her. She struck them together, and a brilliant flash lit the damp air, leaving a trace of blue smoke. Snow handed the stones to Rose. “You can use them.”

Rose tucked a stone in each of her pockets, turning them deliciously warm.

The light was different, cold and bright—winter light. The trees were mostly bare, the last clinging leaves stripped away by the storm. When Snow and Rose reached the little stream they’d waded in during summer, it was different, too: the days of rain had turned it into something like a small river.

The sisters walked alongside as the water rushed past them over the rocks. They walked around a familiar bend, the river lapping high above its usual mark.

Suddenly, up ahead, they spied something thrashing in the water. They quickened their pace to see what it was. When they got closer, they found a monstrous fish, like a legless silver crocodile.

It looked ancient, its body covered in sharp fins and scales like plated metal. The fish was at least five feet long, uneasy in the shallow water, too big to be at home in a little forest stream.

Its jaw was clamped on another creature, another someone—a someone the girls were surprised to see again. The Little Man clung to the reeds at the water’s edge, his bottom half kicking against the fish’s mouth. The silver teeth snapped in the clear water, rows of needles studding the creature’s great hinged jaw. The Little Man turned to face the fish, shrieking.

Snow looked at Rose with an expression that said, Again?!

The Little Man spotted the sisters on the shore. “Oh, lovely girls!” he gasped. His feet slid in the mud on the bank. He was halfway in the water now. “My rescuers!”

The fish, its bladed fins flashing in the light, caught the Little Man, and he was pulled completely underwater.

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