Read Online The Flight of the Golden Bird by Duncan Williamson - Free Book Online Page B

the queen, had retired and gone to sleep; the queen was sitting combing her hair, beautiful hair right down her back. Theprincess turned round and said, “Mummy, it’s a funny thing…”
    “What’s so funny, dear?”
    “That I didn’t have any brothers or any sisters.”
    Then the queen said, “You know, it’s not very funny, but I’m going to let you into a secret – you must never tell a soul, not even your father. You’re old enough now to understand.” So, she told her the story I’m telling you: she said, “Your brothers... you have twelve brothers.”
    “Twelve brothers, Mother,” she said, “would I love my twelve brothers! And where have they been all these years? Why haven’t I been told this before?”
    “Your daddy the king ordered them off the land.”
    “If I knew my daddy had ordered my brothers away off the land into another world… When are they coming home, Mother?”
    “Well,” she says, “they’re not coming home.”
    “You mean to tell me, my brothers are not coming home – I’ll never see my brothers?”
    “I’m going to let you into a big secret, not to even tell your father: your brothers are the twelve white swans in the garden pond!”
    The princess was flabbergasted. “Mother,” she said, “how could I have twelve white swans for brothers?”
    “Well,” she said, “your father wanted to send them into the world to disappear and get killed in battle, and wander into other countries. We’d never see them again! So, I got a magic spell from an old friend of mine and had them made into swans, so’s they would always be there for you to see and me to enjoy.”
    “Mother,” she says, “I want my brothers – I must have my brothers back!”
    She says, “Your father will be outrag—”
    “I don’t care!” she said. “I’ll never talk to my father again unless I get to see my brothers.”
    The very next morning, true to her word, the princess goes to her father, says, “Father, Mummy told me I have brothers!”
    “Ho-ha-ha, my dear,” said the king, “yes, ye have brothers.”
    “Well, Father, why aren’t they here with me?”
    “Dearie,” he said, “you don’t need brothers. You’ve got me!”
    She says, “Father, I know I have you – you’re my father. But I need my brothers. I want to grow up… I want to see my brothers!”
    So the king felt very sad about this, because there was nothing in the world he wouldn’t do for the princess.
    And she says, “I’m very sad.”
    “Well, you can’t be sad!” he said. “Look, I’ll tell ye what I’ll do: tomorrow I’ll send couriers all over the world and bring every brother you’ve got back to you, if that’s what you want.”
    So, next morning, true to his word, the king goes down to the courtroom. He calls the queen and all the couriers to him, tells them, “Look, I want you to travel far and wide and bring back the princess’s brothers wherever they be. You shall search for ever till you find them, because if she is unhappy then I am unhappy!”
    The couriers said they didn’t know where to start. But the queen never said a word; she kept it quiet. She knew they were never going to find them. But the princess was happy; she knew now something was being done about her brothers.
    So, he sent couriers on horseback to go off in all directions. They were gone for days, but they straggly returned one after the other – no news of the young men, no news of the princes of any kind. The princess got sadder and sadder every time a courier returned with no news of her brothers, till the king was so upset he just couldn’t stand it any more.
    He went to the queen, said, “There
must
be something ye can do; there must be
something
ye can do to find these lost brothers of hers! Because she’s fading away; I can see her fading away – she can’t go on like this!”
    So the queen said, “Husband, Your Majesty, I’ve got a guilty secret I’ve kept from you for many years.”
    “Tell me,