The Fairytale Keeper: Avenging the Queen Read Online Free

Viktor’s, all the way to hallowed ground where each pigeon landed on the tree just above my mother’s grave.”
    “Really?” I ask in disbelief and she nods.
    “I went back home just as the cock crowed and waited for Gisla to awaken. When they came to break their fast, I begged them to check the hearth. Gisla searched and searched but did not find a single pea. She was very angry, but Ebba and Dorthe just laughed at how foolish I would look going to the festival in my sooty chainse and surcote.
    “That night, two days before the festival, Gisla came to me again and told me I could wear one of my nice dresses, which she had taken from me, if I could pick all of the peas out of the ashes again. I was so very tired. I remember lying on the cold, hard ground by the hearth with a candle, picking through the ashes while I fought to keep my eyes open.
    “The cock’s crow awoke me in the morning. There was a pigeon sitting on the window sill, but the hearth was filled with peas. I wanted to cry, but as my stepmother and sisters were still sleeping, I raced to pick out the rest. But they woke soon after and caught me digging through the ashes, delighted that I had failed.
    “I ran from the house, crying. Mother had told me if I was pious and good that God would answer my prayers, but she was wrong. I was good, they were wicked, and yet they were the ones who got to go to the festival, not I. I kept thinking how unfair it all was.
    “But when I arrived at my mother’s grave, two doves were sitting in the tree, and a third landed between them. At first, I felt I’d gone mad or maybe I was dreaming, for hanging from the tree by my mother’s grave was the most beautiful silk cotehardie I had ever seen. The sleeves were fitted to the wrist, and the fabric of the tippet cascaded to the bottom of the dress. The elbows and shoulders were trimmed in royal purple velvet and silver embroidery with little pearls. A velvet cloak trimmed in furs hung next to it. Inside the cloak were two pockets. One held a riband necklace with a large amethyst pendant and a pair of earrings. The other held ten guilders!”
    I look at Galadriel with doubt, thinking she had had too much ale. “I thought you were going to tell me a true story.”
    “It is true!” she says. “I swear it on my own soul. It’s true.”
    “Very well,” I say, suspiciously.
    “So I grabbed it all, the dress, the cloak, the coins, and ran to the nearest inn. I paid them for the night. I ate, I bathed, and I braided my hair so it would be perfectly waved in the morning.
    “The next day a caravan of beautiful carriages came to the village to pick up all the girls. I paid the driver my five guilders and he let me into the carriage with the others.
    “What did it look like? The castle, I mean,” I ask, for although I have heard jongleurs and minstrels tell of them at the market, I have never seen one with my own eyes.
    “It was the most beautiful castle I have ever seen. The stone walls seemed to grow right out of the side of the mountain. Its towers rose higher than the clouds. The walls were tall and lined with tapestries,” she said, making swift gestures with her hands to illustrate the height. “Chandeliers bigger than carriage wheels and lit with dozens of candles dangled from the ceiling. There were flowers everywhere, and the tables were covered with fruits and meats, breads, cheeses, and tarts.
    “The great hall was filled with girls, more than a thousand, I would say. But when the trumpet sounded the hall grew completely silent. The half man who delivered the invitations now announced our challenge. We had to discover the Count’s real name. The Duke, Duchess, and Count were announced as they walked to a long table at the other end of the hall.
    “The girls charged like men on the battlefield, but not me. A good, pious girl gets her prayers answered, Mother had always said, and so I stayed in the back. I laughed with the jongleurs and tried to solve