by Tod Davies
She went back to the book, and turned another page.
“Look, Rex, there. There’s Sophia, and her story. And it’s part of ours, isn’t it?” The Dog, nodding, agreed, and the two of them went on reading Sophia’s story, absorbed. Death, who never slept, kept a stern eye on the goal far ahead.
“The queen! The queen! My God, what has happened? Look at the queen!”
The courtiers of Arcadia ran to and fro like mice, squeaking in dismay.
Clare the Rider, who had only just arrived, stood with Kim the Kind, both of them arrested by what they saw. Kim clutched at Clare’s arm.
Queen Sophia the First, daughter of Lily the Silent and Conor Barr, stood at the top of the stairs to the tower where Will the Murderer was kept. She looked down at them all with an expression hard to read, a mixture of sadness and anger and relief all at once.
“She’s young, but, ah, Clare, she’s a deep one. She’ll find a way out of this new mess, you wait and see!” That was what Kim the Kind said to Clare the Rider—or so the Arcadian historians later claimed.
For Sophia the First stood there, pretending to be as regal as ever, in spite of—or was it because of?—the new pair of scaly, horny, clawtoed, green and gray legs that replaced her formerly girlish ones. And in spite of—or was it because of?—the thick diamond-patterned tail that swirled out from under her dress and coiled around the floor in front of her.
“Well, you don’t have to look at me like someone died or something,” Sophia said in her severest voice as all the court looked up at her in horror. “It’s only a murderer’s curse. I mean, honestly. Garden variety, people! I felt sorry for him, okay? So I let him win. He seemed to take that badly.”
At this her tail twitched and thumped, a proceeding she looked at with some interest, appearing to test how much control she had over this. Thumping it once, then twice, she was satisfied. “Hmm,” she murmured. “Not bad. Not bad at all.”
Another gasp of horror from the courtroom’s floor recalled her to her audience and she said, “Well, who would have thought he had it in him, Will the Murderer? And me always thinking he didn’t have much imagination to speak of. But to curse me into being half a lizard—well, it’s not bad. It kind of gives me hope….” She gave another half smile, not saying what kind of hope she had. At this, Kim the Kind gave a cry and jumped forward—and not a moment too soon, because Sophia crumpled, fainting, to the floor. Kim was just in time to catch her before she hit the ground.
But then, in a flash, the fainting fit was gone, and Sophia, brushing Kim off her with the fondest of strokes to the cheek, jumped up onto her lizard feet and—at first clumsily, then with growing confidence—made her way down to the floor beneath, among the grieving, shrieking, whining court.
“All right,” she said. “Enough moaning. Now I’ve got to start figuring out how to fix this thing. Clare! Call out the three best horses you have! The Lizard Princess might be a little heavy on her feet, but her brain’s as good as it ever was.”
“Yes, ma’am!” Clare said, and she was out of the throne room as swiftly as one of her own mares, and came back, as quick as you could say “happy/sad/happy/sad” three times without taking a breath, with a red mare, a black mare, and a gray. And before the stunned court could collect itself, Clare, Kim the Kind, and Sophia the Lizard Princess mounted (it was amazing in retrospect how Sophia so quickly learned how to manage that unwieldy tail and feet!), and went riding hard out the door.
“W-w-w-wait!” cried Michaeli, the Lord High Chancellor in a weak voice. “W-wait! St-st-stop! N-n-n-no!”
But Sophia the First, now the Lizard Princess, was gone with the wind and never once turned to look back until she became, so say the historians (but them you can’t always believe), Sophia the Wise.
“Ah,” Lily said dreamily, as Sophia, Kim, and Clare rode away. “I wonder what will happen next?” Rex looked at her thoughtfully and, lying on the deck beside her, gave a contented grunt. Lily closed the book for now, and lay it down on its face. “For now,” she said, “I think we’ll just look at the sea.”
“A good plan,” Death said. “For we’re almost there.”
“Are we?” Lily said eagerly, jumping up. It was dawn now, and pink light was shining to the east, shimmering over the water. “Ah!” Lily said. “I can see it! I can see it! We’re almost there!”
“Home,” Death said.
“Home,” Lily agreed, going to her side. “We’re going home.”
Death steered the tall white ship into a port in a clear blue bay. At the end of a wooden dock Maud stood, shading her eyes against the morning sun. And smiling.
“Is this the End, then, Death?” Lily asked, as she smiled back.
“No,” Death said, smiling her own smile. “It’s never the end.”
“Oh,” Lily said. “Good.”
The ship docked, and Lily and Rex walked home, with Maud and Death herself, into a new day.
And in another world altogether, the Lizard Princess rode on her way to become (or, as she would always have it—and who knew better?—to try to become) Sophia the Wise.
But that is another story, for another place, and another Time.
THE END
A POSTSCRIPT FROM THE EDITOR:
In reading Lily the Silent, I have the funny feeling that some of its characters are familiar, even if different, from the first Arcadian fairy tale published by Exterminating Angel Press, Snotty Saves the Day. There’s the Manatee. He has the bugged out eyes of Tuxton Ted in that first story, and he seems to know Lily from before they meet under the sea. On the Moon Itself, Lily sees, in her friend Phoebe, the Lemon Yellow Teddy Bear, Melia. Lily’s name for her own daughter, Snowflake, is the same as that of the unicorn that led Snotty on his adventures. Then there’s Livia. She brings up the unnerving image of Mr. Big.
Are these coincidence? Or something more?
I’m sure that something must account for this. Looking through other communications from Arcadia, I find a similar feel in the scientific treatise On The Discovery of Biological Truths in Fairy Tales, by the Arcadian scientist Dr. Alan Fallaize. Sure enough, in those Arcadian stories Fallaize recounts and analyzes, there are echoes of other characters. I’ve attached one of these tales, “The Girl with One Shoe,” here. It’s as if this is the story of Lily and Conor, told again in a different way, with a different, happier, end. Is this because both stories, one history, one fairy tale, reflect the same Arcadian values? Or is there something else, more mysterious, going on?
Am I just imagining things? Which would not be too surprising, given the circumstances.
Myself, I see evidence every day that Dr. Fallaize is right, and biological truths are contained in fairy tales. After all, aren’t we all the water poured into the glass, drunk by the princess, pissed into the chamber pot, emptied into the cistern, flowing out to the sea, rising into the air, falling down as rain, poured into the glass again…?
Another question to talk over with Sophia, if I ever have the good fortune to see or hear from her again….
APPENDIX: An Arcadian Fairy Tale
From On the Discovery of Biological Truth in Fairy Tales,
by Dr. Alan Fallaize (Otterbridge University Press, year 61)
A young girl was taken as a concubine by an older, more powerful man. He was stocky and one of his ears stuck out farther than the other. But she loved him instantly, and in the true meaning of the word.
It was this man’s habit to take and discard young women, who then could leave or stay, according to their choice, as servant to the next mistress. When it was her turn to be discarded, the girl stayed. She did this knowing well the pain that would come from knowing her True Love was sharing a bed with another woman.
He said he planned to marry this new woman. Still the girl stayed. He took away many of her clothes, and left her with only one shoe. Still she stayed. He moved all the rooms of the house, switching them so she could no longer find the place that was hers. But she knew it was a trick. Patient, still sh
e stayed.
On the day of the wedding, she saw the man was old, grizzled, graying, and this made her feel more tenderly toward him even than before. But now she knew, by these signs, that time was running out, and unless she took charge and told him of his folly, it would be too late for happiness.
Accordingly, she told him: I am your Real Love. If you do not realize this, and send the other women on their way, and begin a true life with me, it will be too late, and you will miss your True Life and Happiness.
He looked at her and saw it was true. And he did as she said. And they had their True Life and were happy, so far as it is possible in this life to be.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The discovery of Arcadia couldn’t happen without the aid and comfort of so many differently talented people: Nate Dorward, John Sutherland, Molly Mikolowski and Nick Liberty at A Literary Light, everyone at Consortium Book Sales and Distribution, and at Constellation, too.
Alex, Gray, and Pearl provided constant support, companionship, and cups of perfectly brewed tea.
None of this could be done without Mike Madrid, who is not only responsible for the very elegant illustrations of Lily the Silent, but also for EAP’s overall book design. He is always there to remind me to live in this century, with these readers, here, right now.
And to all the wonderful people who love and share books with us: our booksellers, our librarians, and, of course, most of all, readers everywhere, my warmest thanks. Where would ideas, new and old, be without you?
My thanks to all of you for being there, and for helping solve all the curious problems Arcadia provides. As everyone knows, it’s great to have friends.
At EXTERMINATING ANGEL PRESS,
we’re taking a new approach to our world.
A new way of looking at things.
New stories, new ways to live our lives.
We’re dreaming how we want our lives and our world to be…
Also from
EXTERMINATING ANGEL PRESS
The Supergirls: Fashion, Feminism, Fantasy,
and the History of Comic Book Heroines
by Mike Madrid
Jam Today: A Diary of Cooking With What You’ve Got
by Tod Davies
Correcting Jesus: 2000 Years of Changing the Story
by Brian Griffith
3 Dead Princes: An Anarchist Fairy Tale
by Danbert Nobacon
with illustrations by Alex Cox
Dirk Quigby’s Guide to the Afterlife
by E. E. King
Snotty Saves the Day: The History of Arcadia
by Tod Davies
with illustrations by Gary Zaboly
This Is US: The New All-American Family
by David Marin
A Galaxy of Immortal Women:
The Yin Side of Chinese Civilization, by Brian Griffith
Park Songs: A Poem/Play, by David Budbill
with photos by R.C. Irwin
THE HISTORY OF ARCADIA series tells the story of a land that is literally formed by a story, by one person discovering and claiming who she really is . . . of the events that lead first to a deceptively happy world, then to an inevitably tragic outcome . . . and finally to a slow rebuilding of the world on foundations more deeply laid . . .
Praise for
SNOTTY SAVES THE DAY:
THE HISTORY OF ARCADIA
“[An] amusing debut . . . dressed up with footnotes, scholarly introductions and a bibliography, as well as lovely line drawings by Gary Zaboly, Snotty’s story seeks to prove that fairy tales rank with quantum mechanics in their ability to establish parallel worlds.”
—Publishers Weekly
“A smart, funny, and thought-provoking read for readers of all ages, Snotty Saves the Day has me eagerly awaiting its sequel.”
—DAVID GUTOWSKI, Largehearted Boy
“The most audacious and unusual book I have read this year. Framed in a “we found this on our doorstep” ala Spiderwick sort of way, it is ostensibly forwarded to the publisher by a professor from the land of Arcadia. . . . If you are intrigued by how [fairy tales] are manipulated with such ease by pop culture mavens and movie makers . . . you will find the cheekiness of Davies’ story to be wildly appealing.”
—COLLEEN MONDOR, Bookslut Summer Reading List
“Fascinating . . . A quirky, intelligent, and imaginative read for mid-teens and up.” —ForeWord Reviews
“Awesome . . . There’s plenty of humor in the book. . . . And the best is the truth—what Is, as the book calls it—Snotty discovers about himself. He doesn’t just see the error of his old ways; he re-becomes an entirely different person. And that possibility, that ability—that we all might re-become what we were born to be—raises a wonder, a “sympathy with the idea of ‘changing the world’” that beats louder than does a superficially bleeding heart.”
—KRISTIN THIEL, Nervous Breakdown
“Ms. Davies blends folklore, fairy tales, fantasy, and even oral tradition—and does so brilliantly . . . Snotty Saves the Day is a book for mature or precocious teens, for fantasy and tale-within-a-tale lovers, and for thoughtful adults who seek the wonder and optimism so badly needed in today’s times.” —New York Journal of Books
“Like Susanna Clark’s magnificent Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell . . . and many works by Nicholson Baker, Snotty Saves the Day features fictional footnotes that add another layer to the novel. . . . Davies touches on . . . very Big Ideas. But these themes are wrapped in wonders . . . What could have been simply “messagey” is a romp, and an original one at that. . . . Give it to a smart, precocious young person in your life, read it yourself, and see what kind of interesting conversation develops.”
—DEB BAKER, Gibson’s Bookstore (Concord, NH) @ bookconscious
“Blending the magic of fairy tales with the great existential mysteries, Tod Davies leads us into a phantasmagorical world that resurrects the complex lore of times past with vibrant narrative energy.”
—MARIA TATAR, author of The Annotated Brothers Grimm
“An imaginative book that will make readers think twice.”
—JACK ZIPES, author of Why Fairy Tales Stick
Available in print and electronic editions wherever books are sold
TOD DAVIES lives with her husband, the filmmaker Alex Cox, and their two dogs, in the alpine valley of Colestin, Oregon, and at the foot of the Rocky Mountains, in Boulder, Colorado. She is the author of the cooking memoir Jam Today: A Diary of Cooking With What You’ve Got and Snotty Saves The Day, the first book in The History of Arcadia series. Unsurprisingly, her attitude toward literature is the same as her attitude toward cooking—it’s all about working with what you have to find new ways of looking at what you’ve got.
MIKE MADRID, a native San Franciscan, is the author of the Supergirls: Fashion, Feminism, Fantasy, and The History of Comic Book Heroines.