A Wise Woman and a King
Svetlana Kovalkova-McKenna
A Wise Woman and a King
Smashwords Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Svetlana Kovalkova-McKenna
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission of the author.
For girls and their brothers
Table of Contents
Three Daughters and Three Sons
The Hunt
The Ball and Its Consequences
A Wise Woman and a King
More Than One Way to Escape
Three Daughters and Three Sons
Once upon a time, there lived a Wise Woman on the edge of a forest. She and her three daughters made a happy life for themselves in a small cottage left to them by her husband who worked as a woodcutter for the King. He died peacefully in his old age, and the King allowed the woman and her daughters to remain in the house as long as they kept the palace supplied with wood for the royal fireplaces.
No one knew how the old woman managed it, but every day except Sunday she left the house with her old horse pulling a large, empty cart and by noon she came back with a cart full of finely chopped wood.
“She must have the strength of ten men,” the villagers whispered when they saw her walk briskly out of the forest right before the midday sun would take its place in the sky. The King did not care how the woman got the wood; he paid her half of her late husband’s salary and considered himself a generous man for letting the Wise Woman and her daughters remain in the cottage.
The Wise Woman did not care about the salary the King paid her. She and her daughters made a good living supporting themselves by their crafts. The Wise woman knew the healing arts and was a fine midwife. People from nearby villages often called her to assist in births, to aid a sickly child, or heal any other illness everyone gets from time to time. She was quick on her feet, did not refuse a long walk in the middle of the night to a house far away, and only took a fee that people could afford to pay.
Mostly she did not charge anything at all, for many farmers were overtaxed already by the greedy King and his lords and did not have much to spare. She would simply wave her hand and say that her vegetable garden was good to her and that her daughters were starting to get paid for their skilled work. After all, what more could an old woman need? She would smile and her warm, gray eyes would catch the dancing sunlight even on the darkest winter days when there seemed to be no sunlight around. Her white hair, braided with colorful ribbons, always brightened the room and made a shimmering, silver frame for her round face. And, whether smiling or not, her tasty dimples never left her cheeks.
Her daughters did not look anything like their mother or even each other, for that matter. Each had a character of her own, looks to match, and each was a skilled person in her own craft.
The oldest daughter, Kamina, was small framed with the blackest hair you ever saw, tanned face, and welcoming emerald-green eyes. Nobody could guess where she got her tan because she spent most of her time, trusty tool bag tucked at her side, little hammer in hand, looking for gems inside the mountain caves behind the forest lake. After coming back from a few day-long expeditions, she would disappear for days in her workroom making richly decorated pieces of jewelry, trinket boxes, belt buckles, and buttons, always using silver and refusing to work with gold. The latter was much to the delight of the royal court jeweler, who would have lost all his customers to her skill and fantasy some time ago, if not for her refusal to make things out of gold.
The King’s Royal Jeweler almost regretted taking her to work as an apprentice when she was nine years old, but her father had provided him with free wood until he died, and the girl would bring him the most valuable gemstones she found in the mountains in payment for the opportunity to learn. The apprenticeship ended when her father died. To this day, the Royal jeweler can not get a good night’s sleep. He suspects that she still has quite a stash of gems at home that he is eager to get his hands on. He is absolutely right about her access to treasures. The girl knew the forest and the mountains like the lines on the handle of her walking stick; in return, they did not hold any secrets back from her. Her father often took her to work with him and let her run freely, exploring the forest while he cut the wood. After so many years, there was neither a branch she had not lifted, nor a path she did not take.
When Kamina turned nine and talked her father into letting her become a royal jeweler’s apprentice, her youngest sister Mailin took her place at their father’s side. Mailin wanted to learn more about the forest animals, while the middle sister, April, stayed home with their mother studying herbs and healing.
The youngest one was the taller of the three, willow and strong, with fiery red hair like the woodcutter’s. Her eyes were of the deepest lake blue, surrounded by grass-like lashes. She had the ability to play her maple recorder for hours, letting the birds in the forest take a lead. She loved going to see the horses in the royal stables and sat in the saddle since she was three. The woodcutter also used to tend to the King’s horses. The horses in the royal stables were an extremely rare breed and very spirited. The only people the horses allowed close, other than their royal riders, were the woodcutter and his youngest daughter, who often came to visit the stables with her father since she was a small child. There was not anything else for her to do but learn to ride them and hear her father talk to the sick ones that he was always able to heal. In fact, the woodcutter’s father, himself, was well known for his way with horses and was still remembered for his flame-red beard and his deep knowledge of how to help almost any sick animal. The gift was passed on to the youngest daughter who built upon it by attracting the forest animals and imitating the calls of various song birds.
The middle daughter stood medium height, was a little round on the sides, and liked to stay with her mother whenever she could. She mostly went to the forest with her to gather herbs, pick berries, work in the vegetable garden, and assist with births as soon as she came of age. Now she had her own medicinal basket. Her eyes had a mixture of her mother’s gray and her own pale lavender, an herb she favored and which grew freely in her own part of the garden. Her hair was not blond but a mixture of silvery ash. She braided it with tiny silver bells that local children took delight in; other times, she let it loose for a swim in the lake, and it followed her in the water like a giant, silvery fin. She was truly like a fish in the water and would hold her breath going under for an astounding amount of time.
“Maybe she has a set of gills to go with her lungs,” her father used to joke, seeing his daughter swim and dive for hours at a distance while he fished in the lake.
The woodcutter had died some time ago by now. His wife was still going strong. The three daughters were now stepping into the age where they would be able to start to take care of families of their own.
The King now had three sons who had quite a different upbringing than the Wise Woman’s daughters. Having spent many years abroad at a university, learning about affairs of the state and how to govern it, they returned home and treated the entire kingdom as if it was their own backyard. They took many joy rides through local farmers’ fields; they spent endless trips sailing the royal boat across the lake; they had loud parties with many guests and colorful fireworks. They were handsome and athletic with nothing much to do. Their father was in good health and liked to rule the kingdom without any help from his sons. He did not assign them any responsibility at the royal court and did not want to give them any land of their own. So they put all their energy into roaming loose and partying with friends.
Soon even the local lords got tired of playing host for the royal sons and begged the King to find something useful to occupy them. The King felt being a king was his entire life’s work, and he did not like the idea of sharing any power with his sons.
Finally, the royal adviser had a talk with the royal jeweler who occasionally traveled to the neighboring kingdoms on business and, together, they came up with an idea that the royal adviser took to the King the next morning.
He offered the King to marry his sons off to princesses or to daughters of the nobles who would bring land dowries along with their marriage. This idea cheered the King, and he announced the Royal Ball for the day after Christmas to celebrate his sons’ return home from abroad. He ordered every eligible girl with a land dowry to attend; he also invited all the royal families from the neighboring kingdoms if they had daughters of marrying age as well as a piece of land to go with them.
The princes were a little offended at their father’s intentions, but they knew he was too old to change his ways and, surely, among all the local and neighboring nobility there would be some girls to capture their attention. Mostly, they were attracted by the idea of a grand Ball and all the entertaining that went with it. The King had planned for the Ball to last a couple of weeks, with dancing, hunting, and sailing on the lake. He was only spending lavishly on this party because he planned for three weddings to take place at the end of it all. He was already pacing the castle impatiently, planning what to do with the left wing of the castle after his three sons left.
The Hunt
It took all of three fall months to prepare for the royal ball. The castle was cleaned inside and out, decorated, and well lit with thousands of candles. The gardeners made up for the lack of flowers in the face of the coming winter by cutting the hedges of evergreens growing freely in the castle gardens into the shapes of fantastic animals. The King ordered that the gardens be illuminated with painted glass lanterns with candles inside. The cages holding different song birds were hung around the gardens to delight visitors with their sweet singing. Many groups of musicians took turns playing for the royal guests, and traveling comedians were paid to stay in the castle yard for the duration of the celebrations.
The royal order came for the youngest daughter of the Wise Woman to come and play her recorder at the royal breakfast in the gardens. She was to hide in the little gazebo in the very corner of the garden and to aid the wild birds’ singing with her soft maple recorder tunes.
At the time of the breakfast, the guests were duly impressed by the sweet singing of the song birds. None of them ever heard so many sing together, not unlike a chorus at the beginning, then letting each other take a turn at a lead, and then finally finishing together again. No one paid any attention to the soft sound of the recorder at the very background of the performance that was coming from the farthest corner of the garden. Only a group of musicians waiting their turn to perform knew that the quiet little recorder was actually the delicate conductor of this unusual forest orchestra. They could not even begin to guess how the invisible musician was able to do that.
The younger son of the King was an opera lover. He was a frequent visitor to many famous performances while he studied abroad. His father’s court usually did not provide the level and the quality of the performance he was accustomed to. Having a good ear himself, he recognized immediately the role that the quiet recorder played in the morning concert. He was curious to know who was behind the sound. Following the music, he stepped away from the party and discovered that the playing was coming from the small gazebo, practically hidden from the view by thorny climbing roses. Even now, though not in bloom, they still provided the mystery musician enough privacy to hide him from view. Not for a moment did the prince think the mystery player was a woman, much less a young girl. He thought that the player might have been some local shepherd of sorts, with undiscovered talent, too raggedy and wild to present to royal guests. Not wanting to interrupt the music, he waited by the gazebo for the concert to end, started walking towards the entrance, and was rewarded with a flash of red hair from under a cape and a fast gaze of blue eyes while the mystery musician jumped over the garden wall behind the gazebo and was gone in a split-second. He was left fascinated and disappointed by her departure as he stood and listened to the quickly disappearing sounds of the galloping horse. Although at first the prince was not sure if the musician was a young man or a woman, the size of the footprint with a pointed toe he found by the wall told him it was most likely a young woman.
The Wise Woman’s youngest daughter was under strict orders from the King’s royal advisor not to reveal her identity to anyone. The King did not want local talents possibly bribed into moving away and working for neighboring rulers. Having secrets also amused him and kept the guests in suspense and admiring the many wonders the King offered for their pleasure.
The royal hunt was planned for the next day. Women, dressed beautifully to capture the attention of the royal sons, were going to take part in the hunt as observers. All of them were ready on their horses. Exquisite and rare jewelry sparkled in the cool rays of the winter sun. Smiles and laughter filled the party. Soon the royal horn sounded the beginning of the hunt. Three deer and several foxes were let loose. Within minutes, the men and the hunting dogs were in pursuit of the prey.
Running through the winter forest, the red foxes were like spirits of fire on the snow. Fast and smaller than dogs, they went spiraling through the bushes. Much smaller targets than deer, foxes were hard to catch even for an experienced hunter. All but one soon disappeared from view. Other hunters turned their attention to the deer, while the youngest prince and his dog stayed on the trail of the last fox. Breathing hard, his eyes never leaving the fox, he did not notice that the others had pulled back some time ago. He was far away from the castle now and deep in unknown woods. The fox disappeared for a moment. Then he saw a flash of red again, raised his bow to release an arrow, and almost fell off the horse.
In front of him stood the mystery musician with the fox by her feet. The top of her brown cape was pulled off her head. Curling red hair cascaded down her shoulders.
“What are you planning to do with the fox after you shoot her, anyway? She does not have enough meat to feed even one grown man, and her fur would not make half a decent hat.” Full of irony and anger, her voice had a musical quality to it.
“They steal a few hen but otherwise are useful for keeping the rabbit population in check and from eating up the local farmers’ vegetable gardens and bark on the fruit trees in winter.” She smiled while looking at him, but her voice did not sound friendly.
Taken aback by the irony in her voice and her confident posture, the prince did not know what to say.
"It is a royal sport,” he started to say. But, instead, he heard himself ask, “Where did you learn to play the recorder so well?”
“From the birds,” said the girl.
She whistled and her horse came out from the woods. The girl quickly mounted and rode away with the fox in her hands. The dog started to follow, but the prince was too dumbstruck to even move. So he came back to his master’s side.
No one noticed that the prince was missing. So no one said anything when he came back. The hunters had cornered and killed one deer, and it was being taken to the royal kitchen to be cooked. The prince saw his older brother standing next to a beautiful princess from a neighboring kingdom. He had seen his brother dance with her at the opening night of the Royal Ball. The girl was nearly in tears. She had lost an earring and a silver buckle from her shoe, and she was scolding her servant in a terrible voice for not being able to find them in the thick forest grass.
“I will never be able to replace them or find a match!” she yelled. “My father brought it many years ago from his travels across the sea for my mother. That horrid horse is all to blame for it!” And then she hit the horse with her bejeweled whip.
The younger brother froze, waiting for his brother’s reaction. In his entire life he never saw his older brother hit a horse. The older prince did not even own a whip. The older brother looked at the princess and something changed in his handsome face.
“I will go find a royal advisor and see if a royal jeweler can solve your problem by tomorrow morning,” he stated curtly, walking away from the beauty in distress.
The middle brother was not a big fan of hunting but forced himself to do it for the sake of getting exercise. The young prince found his middle brother at the refreshments table, looking dreamily at the various tarts and little cakes.
All of the brothers had raven black hair just like their father’s, and just like him they were tall and athletic. The younger and older brothers exercised for the love of sports, and the middle brother more out of duty to stay in shape. The older brother was an avid athlete and had an interest in architecture and iron-casting. Outside of his studies at the university, he spent many hours at a blacksmith’s shop, working with a hammer to make swords and armor. He always said it pleased him more to see a well wrought iron gate than the flowers that lent their idea for the pattern.
The middle brother spent all his time between the library and short trips to the local gourmet sweet shops. He would have never left his books at all if not for the need to exercise. His father’s castle had a rather small selection of books that were never even dusted after his mother’s death. So ever since he came back home from the university, he made up for the lack of exercise by roaming the countryside with his brothers and partying. He had an interest in medicine, but, even as a hobby, his father had strictly forbidden him from pursuing it openly at home. In the King’s opinion, it was not a worthy interest for a royal son.
The younger son had never gotten in any trouble with his father. A good hunter and a horse rider, he managed to cleverly conceal just how deep were his knowledge of theatre and interest in music.
The Ball and Its Consequences
The next morning, there was supposed to be another breakfast in the garden with the song birds and a performing circus. But it snowed profusely, and the cages holding the song birds had to be taken inside the castle. There was so much snow coming from the sky that one could not see the horizon. The breakfast was moved to the main hall. There were servants rushing everywhere to set the tables before the guests were awake. The youngest prince was disappointed. He rose early hoping to get to the gazebo first, so he could stay there for the duration of the concert and have a conversation with the red-haired girl later on.
His older brother was up early too. He stood by the entrance, looking hopeless, periodically gazing out of the castle window. The royal jeweler personally promised him yesterday that an exact match for the missing earring and the lost shoe buckle would be made overnight and delivered to the castle before the frustrated beauty awoke.
Finally, somebody knocked on the door. A small figure wrapped in a forester’s cape was let in by the guards.
“I have an urgent delivery for the older prince,” she said, pulling the hood down and revealing a wave of dark hair and a lean face with a prominent chin. Her vivid green eyes blinked trying to get the snow out of her lashes. The prince immediately walked up to her. She was dressed in men’s clothes but was unmistakably a girl.
“Please, stay here while I look to be sure that it is an exact match; it may take me awhile.” He took the package and turned in a rush to walk away.
"It is an exact match; you would not be able to tell one from the other,” she said. She sounded sure of herself, and her voice had a hard edge to it. “I will talk to you a bit later. First I need to check on my horse. It took us three hours to get here in this snow, and he is past his prime. Normally, it is but a short ride.”
“Are you telling me you looked inside the bag and compared the pieces?” the prince asked, irritated and somewhat amused.
“I made them,” the girl inhaled angrily. “And they exactly match the ones the royal jeweler had given me.”
“I was under the impression he was going to do the work himself.” The prince took his tone down a notch, viewing the girl with great interest.
“He was going to deliver it himself, but his house got completely snowed in,” the girl laughed, a light chuckle of satisfaction hiding in her voice.
“I want you to come to the library with me so I can take a look at your work before giving it to the princess,” he stated firmly but politely. “There might be some adjustments I will want done on the spot. You do have your tools with you?” A little irony jumped out of his voice, and he regretted it almost immediately.
“I will be there in a few minutes after I look in on my horse.” The girl quietly slid through the door and was momentarily invisible in the falling snow.
Left standing without any choice but to be angered and puzzled, the prince walked to his study. The moment he opened the bag, he saw that the pieces were indeed a true match. Enclosed with them was a note with a suggestion on how to modify the lock on the earring and the buckle to prevent them from getting lost in the future. He stared at it in shock. This work was done overnight, and he simply could not believe his eyes.
In a while the door creaked open and the girl walked in. “I was looking for you at the library,” she said.
“Where did you learn to work like this?” The prince could not take his eyes off the girl. “Who are you?” He studied her face as if it held all the answers.
"I was an apprentice to the royal jeweler and I am the oldest daughter of the local Wise Woman.”
“I have never seen him do any work like that,” the prince finally said.
“His father was a better jeweler than him and he left some books about the craft that I could read after I was done with my chores in his shop. But all the answers to the best designs lay in nature, anyway.” She took his gaze unblinking.
“In nature,” the prince repeated with a smile, but without doubting her words. And for the first time, he knew that she was right.
“I want you to please stay in my study and wait until after the day’s festivities. I will need your services again.”
“Do you want me to modify the locks like I suggested?” The girl looked at him with anticipation.
“No, I think the princess should be happy with them as they are. I want your opinion on several other things today. Besides, you could hardly expect your horse to make a return trip until the weather calms down. You can look at the books on metal works that I have brought from abroad, and I will ask for your food to be brought here. You can rest in this giant reading chair. Being your size, you can probably lie down and sleep in it.”
Without waiting for an answer, he grabbed the bag and left in a hurry. He knew that his regal status obligated her to follow his orders, but somehow he was not sure that she would. He was tempted to lock the door behind himself, but that would not have started their relationship on the right note. “Please, let it snow for days,” he thought, “or longer.”
The royal party went on and on with music, food, and amusements. The overwhelmed beauty was happy and grateful for the restoration of her jewels. She was somewhat puzzled, though, by the prince’s lack of attention to her. “Maybe I should be more grateful,” she thought. But the prince was simply avoiding her.
While the youngest brother was missing steps in a dance, thinking about the girl with red hair, and while the oldest brother was trying to rush the clock so he could return to his study and its visitor, the middle brother got bored with the ball and decided to slip out. After striking a conversation with one waltzing beauty after another, he soon ran out of candidates for a literary discussion and was feeling desperately bored. He thought he would get more pleasure in the company of the old books in the castle library than on the ballroom floor. He reread the books hundreds of times without experiencing a dull moment.
He sneaked out with caution, wishing not to be seen by his father. He was on his way to freedom with a plate full of cupcakes when something unfortunate happened. The corridor leading to the library was not as well lit as all the others.
He missed a step and fell down the staircase. He had enough knowledge in medicine to realize that his left leg was broken. He also knew with absolute certainty that the local physician was down with a terrible flu.
The older prince, who also sneaked out just for a minute so he could check on the visitor in his study, heard his brother’s call for help. He asked the Wise Woman’s older daughter to help him carry the middle prince to his bedroom and was surprised by her strength. He could easily have called the many castle servants to do the job, but they would report the incident to the King, and he did not want his brother getting in trouble for leaving the party without permission.
The girl helped him clean up and throw away the cakes and the broken pieces of the plate in the corridor leading to the library. By then, the oldest brother knew that her name was Kamina, and she knew that his name was Albert, his middle brother’s name was William, and the youngest brother’s name was Arthur.
They also soon found out from William, who was trying to cope with a lot of pain, that the local physician had flu. “You could send for my mother,” suggested Kamina. “She is the local Wise Woman. She has healed more broken bones than I can count. My horse would not make the trip, but if you can lend me and my sister the horses from the royal stables we could be back in a couple of hours with our mother. We will need one more horse for her. My sister is at the royal stables. Her name is Mailin. She was going to play her recorder at the garden again today, but the breakfast was moved inside because of the snowstorm. She is a much better rider than I am. She’s often called to help if one of the horses falls sick.” Kamina turned from William to Albert, expecting an answer.
“We can ask Arthur to go with her instead of you. He is a better rider than any of us. Maybe together they can be back faster than you two,” said Albert, not wanting Kamina to leave his side. “I will go find Arthur and send him to the stables, and then it will be time to tell father about William’s leg.” Albert smiled at his brother and continued, “We could say you were in pursuit of a princess on her way to the powder room when you slipped and fell.”
“Just go,” moaned William. “He is not going to be any more angry than my leg hurts. You can tell him I was on my way to the library. I am not going to lie about it now, especially not with my leg up on the pillow.”
Prince Albert rushed back to the ballroom. First he located Arthur, who was apologizing to a flushed daughter of a local nobleman. She was dressed in an eye-popping canary yellow dress, now torn at the hem, where he had stepped on it while dancing. It was obvious that the girl would let him step on it again and again just for the opportunity to talk to the prince.
Smiling to himself, Albert noted that Arthur was starting to look a little desperate to get away from all the dancing. His own eyes suddenly felt the strain of watching the waltzing and swirling beauties in their enormous dresses of all colors of the rainbow. He called out his brother’s name and waved for him to come over. Giving him a short version of events, he sent Arthur speeding towards the royal stables to find Mailin. Albert forgot to mention that the original reason she was in the castle was to play the recorder, thus leaving, unintentionally, his younger brother in the dark about Mailin’s identity.
Normally quick on his feet, this time, concerned about William’s leg, Arthur was practically running, making his way through the dancing pairs. You could say he was rushing to meet his destiny.
While Albert was withstanding his father’s royal thunder, having to explain about the accident resulting in his brother’s broken leg, he carefully avoided mentioning the circumstances under which it all happened. At the same time, Arthur opened the door to the royal stables.
The King ordered Albert to remain in the ballroom for the duration of the evening and make it up to all the fair heiresses at the ball for the attention they were not getting from his missing brothers.
That very minute, Mailin raised her head from looking at the foal she was patting and left Arthur frozen solid for a few moments holding on to the door frame.
We should let them have their first real conversation in private. They have a long road ahead of them, though only a part of it is going to be through a terrible snowstorm. And thank goodness for that, for there are very few other things in life as helpful to making or breaking a new relationship as surviving and conquering a life-threatening adventure.
While Albert was suffering through a royal son’s duty on the ballroom floor, Kamina was keeping conversation with William. Even packed with ice and wrapped tightly with a home made splint, the hurt leg was not distracting him enough from noting how, though taking interest in the castle’s history William was so fond of, Kamina tactfully wanted to linger on all parts of their conversation that touched on Albert and his hobbies.
William spent several hours clearly enjoying himself and his role as Albert’s life storyteller, pausing to think back on this girl’s intelligent remarks about the castle’s architecture. Later it was his turn to listen and ask many questions when Kamina started telling him about her mother, assuring the prince of the Wise Woman’s ability to deal with the most complicated cases, bringing up incidents from the past, and describing simple herbal combinations used to treat their childhood illnesses and accidents. She had to dig deep into her memory quite often, because William wanted to know everything about the Wise Woman’s healing practices down to the smallest detail.
All that time Mailin and Arthur were struggling against the thickest snowfall either one of them could remember in the past few years. Of course, with Arthur being absent from the kingdom for so many years while studying, it was Mailin doing all the recalling. Quite soon they could not talk anymore. Both of their lips were getting numb from the cold and the ever escalating flow of the falling snow; it was so abundant and fell so fast, it was quickly getting into the mouth of anyone who dared to speak. Mailin managed to pick up and carefully place in her pocket a few birds that had been stunned by the blizzard. The snow and wind had started to form an icy crust on their wings. Mailin knew from experience that after just a little time indoors they would be alright and ready to fly home. Gesturing to each other and silently admiring each other’s endurance, they finally made it to the Wise Woman’s house.
April opened the door and said that their mother had been called to the birth of twins at the miller’s house soon after Mailin and Kamina had left in the morning. She was not expected to return for at least a day. April was going to assist, then changed her mind into staying home to be available if any other emergency came up in this weather.
“Then you are coming with us,” said Mailin. “We have an emergency. The King’s middle son, William, has a broken leg, and the town’s physician is down with flu.”
While talking to her sister, Mailin picked up a basket full of moss from the shelf, took the birds out of her pocket, and placed them carefully in the basket.
“Take one in each hand and warm them,” she instructed Arthur. “I will go feed the horses and give them something to drink. In this weather they practically need liquid fire to get them going again.”
She chose some tinctures marked with pictures of the horses on the bottles and swiftly headed for the stables. With Mailin at the stables and April in her room getting her medicine bag ready to treat William, Arthur was left alone. He looked around the room with great interest. The Wise Woman’s house was a place of wonder for any visitor.
The Wise Woman’s husband had been a wizard of a woodcarver. The pictures he decorated the walls with, left in the natural colors of the wood, and the ceiling, painted pale blue, were examples of true craftsmanship. Animals chased each other in a game or a dance throughout the walls, delicate herbs swayed in the imaginary breeze, birds and bugs hid in the grass or flew up to the ceiling, teasing the eye with an amazing attention to detail. A large, round, silver candelabra, lowered from the ceiling on intricate silver chains, was made to look like a sun and a moon in eclipse. The candelabra held twelve, tall, lavender candles with several wicks in each.
Between the candelabra and the candles burning softly on the window sills, shelves, and tables, the house was well lit and had a feeling of freshness and pagan beauty to it. In the moving flame of the candles, the draft made the shadows on the walls and the ceiling tremble. Arthur felt the animals watching him and heard the herbs whispering to each other. Then one of the birds moved in his hand, and April came back from her room.