stories from the storyteller

The Three Ravens

There was once a kingdom where all was happy, where flowers grew, where songs were sung. And in this kingdom a good King reigned and loved and was cherished. What he gave he got back tenfold, for there were rich harvests, golden days, and children. And his Queen was a woman of wit and majesty, of great grace. Her smile was passed from mouth to mouth in the country like a gift. Which it was. Her smile blessed the land and what it touched grew, what it touched was healed.

Then, one bleak day in November, the Queen died. Outside the palace, the leaves fell lamenting, reds and golds, falling. Inside, at the end of the Great Hall, in the long shadows, the King, this three sons, and his daughter stood weeping. And the people filed slowly by, hour after hour, to shed their own tears for the dear Queen.
B

ut there was one among the mourners whose eyes were dry, whose brain raced ahead to the day when the King would want to ease his lonliness. And the Witch, for Witch she was, swept her cold gaze across the solemn faces, the sorrow and the sadness, lingered icily on the Princess and her three brothers, then fixed her dry eyes on the King. And schemed. A simple, terrible scheme. She groaned for power, for majesty over all things, for the cold ring of gold around her head. She wanted this until the want ate away her heart and soul. So she set to work on the King. As the days passed on their march, she inched her way into his life.
At first the King didn't even see the Witch, didn't feel the sun on his face, or the rain. Just the tug of the past, all day, all night, memories tugging on his sleeve. His poor heart was broken. But the Witch could charm the skin from a snake, the leaves from the trees, and she turned all her power on the King. She would have him in, the past tugging him one way, she patiently pulling him the other.
One she crept upon him, hunched and broken over wife's tomb, flowers in his hand, flowers on the grave. As he shivered, he felt a cloaked surround him. And, pulling it to his breast, he turned and saw the Witch standing before him, all concern, all kindness. How strange he felt. And shaken. Because for an instant when he looked at her he thought he saw his wife's darling face. And indeed he did. For the Witch had enchanted him. Her own hard beauty blurred into the soothing features of the lamented Queen. It was a spell. And it worked. "You're back," he kept saying. And the Witch replied, "Out little secret."
So it began, the King wanting to feast forever on the Witch, the Witch reeling him in. One day they walked together, one day he held her hand, one day he kissed her. How happy he imagined he was! He called together his children, their eyes still red from weeping. The Witch was with him. He introduced her. His eyes could not leave her as he spoke. "Children, I have something wonderful to tell you. I'm going to be married. We're going to be happy again." The Witch smiled at them. "I hope you'll think of me as your friend," she said, "and then-in time-as your mother."
"Our mother's dead," they said, huddling together. "New mother," said the King quickly. "I think we mean as a new mother." "That's right," said the Witch. "In time." Then she went, sweeping out. Behind her, in the room, the four children stood, threatened and bewildered, while their father hugged them to him, hugged and hugged, begging them to try, begging them to understand. And as they hugged, they nodded somberly, promising to try. All hugs, all family, but the Witch watched from outside-and cursed them. They were her rivals and her enemies. Because she would not share. She wanted it all. She married the King and darkened and smile on the land to a scowl where shadows set and nothing would grow in them.
And the Witch sowed a seed of fear in the children's lives. Stairs gave way, horses bucked wild, balconies crumbled. The world was dangerous....One day, a toy box was full of snakes, hissing and writhing. Another day, the Princess put on the necklace that had been her mother's and felt it tighten and tighten around her neck. Terrow whispered its threat through the palace. Of course the Witch herself was all honey, always honey, but sometimes the King caught her chill look and worried she was also the bee. And could sting. Whenever he did, the sharp features would soften and beguile him. But now each time it took longer. Poor man, then. Torn in half. Enchanted by his new Queen, frightened for his children. What could he do?
The King had a magic ball of twine. It knew its whay through the forests. Roll it into the trees and it would pick the path, this way and that, to where a secret cottage lay, pink and perfect. Here were streams and sanctuary. The King lay awake one dark night beside the Witch, watched her thin cold sleep, and decided. Next morning, he slipped from bed, roused the children, and took them quickly to the edge of the forest. From his cloak he fetched the magic twine and set it rolling. For an hour they followed its marvelous journey, and saying nothing, past glade and glen, this way and that, until they came to a clearing and saw before them the cottage. Sorrow slipped from their shoulders, for their mother's smile lived here still and warmed them.
"It's perfect!" they agreed, and embraced each other, clapping backs, delighted. The boys larked and larrupted as if a great weight had lifted off them. And the Princess, their sister, sat by the steam and dipped her toes and missed her mother, which she always did when she was happy.
"This is our secret place," said the King gently. sitting down beside her, taking her hand in his. "Secret from all the world. No one can find you here." The Princess gazed at the stream, not looking at her father. "You've brought us here because of her, haven't you?" she said. "Our stepmother." And though the King protested, and though he would not admit it, she was righ. He had.
As they spoke, the Witch, her stepmother, sat in her gray tower and studied horrible spells. The children were obstacles between her and power, growing, daily growing like clouds over her. Now she would catch these clouds, and puff them clean away. All night she brewed, all night she recited, all night she cursed her dark curses. When, next day, the King returned to the palace and sought her out, he found her spinning at the wheel, sending black threads of silk to and fro, her scowl stretched into a smile as sharp as a bee's sting.
"Where've you been?" she inquired, all honey. And as the King explained he'd taken the children on a holiday, she nodded; as he said "special," she nodded. Oh yes, she understood everything. Did he like her sewing? she wondered. She was sewing shirts, she said, sewing them all little shirts. The King felt terrible. He'd misjudged his new Queen. There she was at home sewing presents for his children while he was hiding them away from her. The Witch pinched him. "You're being very mysterious," she teased. "Where are the children? Our children? You want me to be the mother, but what mother can tolerate not knowing where her children have gone?"
Suddenly the King felt uneasy again. "I wanted them to have a secret holiday. It makes it special." The Witch laughed. A cackle. "Secret," she said, cackling again. "Of course. But what if something should happen to you? Then what would we do? Or happen to them?" She bit into the thread, snapping it. "Still. Let that be an end to it. You don't want to tell me. It's your right. They're your children. I am only the stepmother." And, saying this, she spun the wheel and left him there to watch it turn and turn and turn.
Whatever her words, the Witch had no intention of letting that be an end to it. The next day when the King rode off to visit the children, she followed, stealthy as a bat, and watched him roll out the magic thread, watched its magic twists and turns, smiled her beesting smile. That night while the King slept, she searched for the twine, sly and silent, rummaging and rooting, willing it to appear. And she found the twine and stole it, and in its place left a ball of common thread. Then off at first light to find the poor children, her enemies, carrying with her magic thread and magic shirts and magic curses.
Morning found the three Princes knee deep in the stream, tickling for trout. Every now and then a cry would break the silence, a shout and a laugh as a wiggling fish would leap from the gasping hands and splash back on its way. Nearby, in the forest, the Princess wandered, gathering lilies and primroses, full of joy, hearing her brothers' yelps and hoots of pleasure. The children had not known such peace for a long time. Fish came and flowers, and they were delighted.
A little way off, at the edge of the forest, the Witch, their stepmother, rolled out the magic ball of twine and harried after it. As she disappeared into the thick and fast, the King arrived to visit his children, pulled out his ball of thread, and threw it on the ground, there it stayed, stubborn, stock-still. He picked it up and cast it down again, but nothing. It would not move. The King was first dumbfounded, next aggravated; then slowly, dawning, he felt an unease, a disquiet that spread and grew and filled him with terror. He abandoned the useless thread and began to run, run into the heart of the forest.
The three Princes ran into the house, full of victory, their net bulging with fish to cook for supper. Their father would be proud of them. They carried the heaving catch into the pantry. Sitting there, shrouded in black, skin like marble, cold eyes gleaming, was the Witch. "Have you caught these fish yourselves?" she asked, all innocence, as if her presence were the most natural thing in the world. "How clever!" she said. The boys moved together and back a step. "How did you find us?" they asked. "And where's our father?"
The Witch produced her most soothing. Treacle. She moved toward them, explaining that their father was on his way-why didn't she cook the fish for them? Would they like to see the presents she'd made? Special presents?...And with this she produced the shirts, held them up, their black silk sleeves fluttering like wings. "I sewed each one by hand. Aren't they nice? Try them on. Then your father can see them. You fish, my shirts-we'll surprise him." Her voice sang, singsong, treacly. The boys took the shirts and shivered. The Witch barely watched as the changed from their tunics. Instead, her eyes fixed on the window toward the forest. "And where's your sister?" she sang. "I miss her. I miss her."
The Princess was strolling in the forest, her arms brushing branches, calm and carefree. She heard the birds singing, the trees sighing. She could not hear her father's anxious calls as he wandered lost and bewildered in the heart of the forest.
In the cottage, her brothers tied the ribbons of their shirts, buttoned up the necks. The Witch turned to them, beesting smile. She began to mutter. An incantation, a low rhythmic verse, over and over, faster and faster, and louder and louder. And this is what she said: