More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
all were made to kneel before a girl who had been nothing but a servant bare days before.
It pleased him to rile his father by choosing a peasant bride instead of marrying to forge a political alliance,
But then, in the year of that terrible summer, the old king died. The reckless prince was crowned and when his queen grew heavy with their second child, the rains ceased. The river burned away to a dry vein of rock. The wells filled with dust.
This little prince was shaped a bit like a boy but more like a wolf, his body covered in slick black fur from crown to clawed foot. His eyes were red as blood, and the nubs of two budding horns protruded from his head.
such a creature could not be raised in the palace.
when it was done, he took his monstrous son from the cage in the royal nursery and had him placed in the maze that he might trouble his mother and the kingdom no more.
Kima was born into a far poorer family,
But when this child took her first breath, it was not to cry but to sing, and when she did, the skies opened and the rains began to fall, putting an end to the long drought at last.
No one in the town could dispute that Kima’s parents had been blessed when she was born, for she was surely meant to marry a rich man—maybe even a prince—
it became clear that she lacked all the gifts that Kima possessed in such abundance.
So as not to trouble Kima’s rest, their parents made a pallet for Ayama on the warm stones of the kitchen hearth. Her braids grew untidy and her skin soaked up ash. Soon, she looked less brown than gray as she crept timidly from shadow to shadow,
in time, people forgot that there were two daughters in the house at all,
Then on a clear and sunny morning, the town woke to the rumble of thunder.
The beast had escaped the labyrinth, and it was his roar that had boomed off the valley walls and made the mountains shudder.
Ayama watched them pass from behind the kitchen window and marveled at their courage.
they beheld a terrible sight: a tower—the bones of one hundred men stacked like driftwood beside the well at the square’s center—
If no soldier could slay the beast, then the king must find a way to appease his younger son.
Ma Zil was sitting by the fire on her low stool, chewing a jurda leaf. The old grandmother had no wish to make a long journey. “Send Ayama,” she said, and spat into the fire.
“He is a beast,” said the old woman. “What does he know of fine clothes or pretty faces?
Ayama will be the king’s royal messenger. We will be rich and Kima will be able to catch a better husband to provide for us all.”
“Don’t worry,” she said. “I know you are frightened, but after you have earned the king’s reward, you will have servants of your own.
You know how the stories go. Interesting things only happen to pretty girls; you will be home by sunset.”
Now it’s fair to say that Ayama’s spirits were a bit low. How could they not be when her family had sent her to die for the sake of a bit of gold and a good marriage for her sister?
At least I do not have to work today, and I will see something new before I die.
Perhaps, she thought, I will just drop dead before I ever reach the beast and I have nothing to fear at all.
she came to the banks of a stream, its surface so bright with starlight it was as if someone had peeled the rind from the moon like a piece of fruit and laid it in a gleaming ribbon upon the forest floor.
Ayama had grown very used to being insulted, so much so that she hardly noticed it anymore.
“There is but one rule in my wood,” he growled. “Speak truth.”
“No one else would come.”
now that she had remembered her voice, Ayama found she was eager to use it again.
was true that she had never heard her parents or a single resident of the valley spare a sympathetic word for the beast.
I have a bargain for you, little messenger, not the king. Tell me a tale that can make me feel more than anger, and if you manage it, I may let you live.”
She supposed it was possible the beast might simply long for conversation.
In fact, she had plenty. And if it was true that the beast was happy to be spoken to, then perhaps it was also true that Ayama was glad to be heard.
“What nonsense!” said Ayama, hoping the trembling of her voice did not betray her. “Of course that’s not how the story ends.”
Ayama had been hushed so often, she had become a very good listener, and she remembered the one rule of the thorn wood. The story needed an ending that was true.
You see, some people are born with a piece of night inside, and that hollow place can never be filled—not with all the good food or sunshine in the world. That emptiness cannot be banished, and so some days we wake with the feeling of the wind blowing through, and we must simply endure it as the boy did.”
“Take a sprig of quince blossoms with you and make sure not to drop it as you pass through the wild lands.”
they’d gotten so used to ordering Ayama about that they’d forgotten how to treat her as a daughter.
The beast might shout and snarl, and he might well devour her, but he’d at least been interested enough to listen to her speak.
“Do not behave as a tyrant and then tell me to scold a tyrant to behave. Show mercy and mercy you may be shown.”
Except it was not one spirit, but two.”
Mama Tani’s living children told their father all this, and though he was skeptical, he agreed to send a messenger to the village the ghost children had named.
This goes to show you that sometimes the unseen is not to be feared and that those meant to love us most are not always the ones who do.”
Ayama thought, Why not stay a bit longer? Why not rest awhile here? Why not tell another story? Instead she made her way out of the wood
for she was no longer just a kitchen girl, but the girl who had twice faced a monster and twice survived.
Ayama thought that was a fine proclamation, but what she really wanted was to sit down and take off her shoes. She supposed if the prince had bothered asking, he would know that. But he was not as fond of questions as his brother.
“There is a great difference between not eating a person and trusting a person.” Besides, she thought it would be better for everyone if the beast were left to himself in the thorn wood.
Ayama had no wish to be a princess. She had no wish to slay the beast. But for a girl who had spent her life ignored and unwanted, this was no small offer.
In fact, the sisters did like all those things, and it was precisely because they’d seen so much and done so much that they knew better than to trust handsome faces and fine titles.
