- Regina Doman
- The Midnight Dancers: A Fairy Tale Retold
- The_Midnight_Dancers__A_Fairy_Ta_split_032.html
Table of Contents
Prologue
The Durham Family
1.
The twelve princesses all slept together in a great room, their
beds standing side by side.
2.
Their room was locked with a great bolt and there was no way that
the princesses should have been able to leave, but
yet...
3.
A poor soldier, recently returned from the wars, heard of the
king's mysterious problem...
4.
For the king had caused it to be proclaimed that whoever could
discover the princesses' secret would have a rich
reward...
5.
Therefore, the soldier presented himself at the front door of the
castle...
6.
That night, the soldier slipped on his cloak of
invisibility...
7.
After midnight, the princesses arose from their beds, put on
splendid dresses, and hurried out of their room through the secret
door, invisibly followed by the soldier...
8.
They went by boat across the water to a splendid castle in the
middle of the lake, where they danced all the night
long...
9.
The next morning the princesses were tired and their shoes were
worn out as before. But the soldier knew he had more time before he
had to make his report to the king.
10. So the soldier kept his silence and the princesses
did not guess that they had been seen.
11. When one prince said, 'The boat is heavy tonight,'
the youngest princess said, 'It seems light to
me.'
12. And again the princesses slipped through the secret
door, and the soldier followed them off the boats onto the magic
island as before.
13. And again the princesses danced with their princes
all through the night, until the morning was
nigh.
14. And the soldier kept his silence
still.
15. And the eldest princess laughed and said, 'It is
good for the fool that he does not know our
secret.'
16. And still the soldier kept his silence, telling no
one what he had seen.
17. Now the hour drew near for him to tell the king,
and the daughters waited with baited breath for his
answer.
18. On the last night, the soldier put on his cloak of
invisibility and prepared to follow the princesses as
before.
19. And the princesses disembarked and went up to the
faery palace, all lit as if for a festival, and the soldier
invisibly followed them.
20. And the princesses saw that their secret was known
and there was no point in further
concealment.
21. The princesses told the whole story to the king,
who realized that the soldier had indeed spoken the
truth.
A
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