Once Upon a Star

by Anthea Sharp

  I felt the softest touch on my arm and squinted into the evening air. A flash of light glinted next to me before flitting into the trees in the distance. The crunch of gravel followed in his invisible wake, causing Eleven to spin and frown.

  “W—what is that noise?” she asked, fear in her voice.

  I danced a little jig, feeling foolish but eager to distract her. “Don’t be silly, goose. I’m just eager to dance.”

  A smile replaced her frown, and she blew me a kiss. “We do so enjoy to dance! One of the things we all have in common.”

  Clones we might be, but there were differences. As with both Eight’s and Eleven’s alternate romantic inclinations.

  Be safe, my love! I thought in Dezmund’s direction and then focused on my role for the evening. Distracting both my sisters and their master while my champion gathered our weapons.

  The decoy offered his arm again, and we began following in my sisters’ wake.

  The orchard—secret source of Olbard’s wealth and power—opened on all sides into his palace’s most heavily-guarded courtyard. His arrogance showed in the fact that not a single guard patrolled the orchard’s interior. No other creature could portal into the palace, so why bother wasting manpower there? Reminding myself of this fact helped calm my fears. Dezmund would find what we needed. He would be safe.

  Olbard may have opened the portal into Zenobayair from his own orchard, but he now waited at the top of marble stairs that led into the ballroom where we princesses would wear out twelve more pairs of slippers. Where I would not die.

  My sisters stopped at the foot of the stairs and curtseyed deeply, remaining with bent knees until I dropped my own shallow curtsey. A future queen need not drop so low.

  Olbard bowed in kind and moved to meet me halfway down the stairs. He reached for my hand and kissed it like a knight of old. I managed to keep a smooth expression.

  “Happy birthday once again, Miriana. May this year bring you all the things you deserve. But now, the ball awaits.”

  Anticipation colored his eyes as he pivoted and assisted me up the stairs. One had claimed the decoy as her own escort once I stepped away, as usual leaving the others to follow. They broke with tradition to pair up and climb arm-in-arm. There was a lightness I’d not seen in a long time. Searching back over their memories of each previous ball, I realized why. They shared in their master’s certainty that this would be the year he triumphed.

  Smugness that they were falling for my pretense warred with annoyance that they were so firmly on his side. Even Ten and Eleven, who usually showed me at least a shred of sisterly regard. But then I reminded myself it wasn’t their faults they’d become his creatures.

  I nearly tripped over my long skirts—saved only by the strength of Olbard’s grip—and forced my attention ahead. We crested the stairs, walked across an ornately-tiled balcony, and swept into the most opulent ballroom I’d encountered among dozens of solar systems.

  Olbard gestured toward the glittering throng of Faerie nobility gathered around the ballroom’s edge. Unlike in my own realm, there were few dignitaries from other solar systems. Olbard was still persona non grata thanks to killing off this realm’s Terran royalty. And access to this realm was now closely monitored since Olbard had destroyed nearly all the natural portals that had once peppered the land.

  “May I have the pleasure of this dance, Your Highness?”

  Considering no one else would take to the dance floor until we did, I allowed him to lead me to its center. He nodded to the waiting orchestra, who struck up the achingly familiar strains of a song I’d never once heard here. Unchained Melody.

  My steps nearly faltered but years of muscle memory served me well. I narrowed my eyes and shot him a cold stare. “What game are you playing?”

  Olbard’s hands tightened on my arm and waist as he twirled me around the dance floor. “No game, my sweet. I thought I would try the one thing I long since should have: courting you in earnest. Should you accept my hand, I’ll even agree to postpone the wedding until after your next birthday.”

  I blinked at that, finding myself momentarily tempted. Not to actually go through with marrying him, but to gain a respite. A lot could happen in a year. And tonight’s scheme was predicated on a lot of overheard whispers, witnessed scenes, research in books stolen from this realm, and educated guesses.

  No! I chastised myself under tight mental shields. He’s desperate if he’s offering to postpone the wedding yet another year. He fears you might still choose to die. You can’t trust his despicable nature for even a moment.

  I could, however, make him think I did.

  “That’s a very generous offer,” I said with a slight head tilt, as if considering.

  “It’s the least I could offer as a small token of esteem on this, your birthday.”

  I’d prefer the gift of him leaving my realm in peace, but there was a greater chance of my father giving me away to Dez than that happening. But then I remembered my father was prepared to do just that.

  Changes of heart might be possible, but pure evil villains like Olbard did not embrace such change.

  “Perhaps I could consider accepting your proposal if you made that promise to wait at least a year more formal.”

  We spent the next few minutes dancing our way through negotiations as expertly as we danced around the room. All eyes—and gossip—remained on us as we glittered more finely than any other couple. I dueled with the master manipulator with every ounce of diplomatic skills I had, convincing him we had an agreement without ever once actually stating so.

  My favorite song—an extended version intended to give him more negotiating time—finally drew to an end, and he bowed before moving to dance with One as had become tradition. Her abandoned partner, the decoy champion, became my next. I gritted my teeth and suffered through the next two hours of dancing every other dance with Olbard and then one with a noble of his choosing.

  Olbard had just swept away with the latest of Faerie nobility instead of clones on his arm when a servant bowed before me. “Your sister the eldest would like to speak with you in your private parlor, Your Highness. She said it’s most urgent.”

  That had nerves skittering across my skin, because it wasn’t part of the plan. Still, I had no choice but to play along.

  As expected, One stood alone in the nearby room Olbard had established as my sanctuary during my brief stays in his realm. She held her body stiff beside the room’s oversized bay window, fingers splayed upon the windowsill as she breathed in the evening breezes. Not that she actually needed to breathe.

  “You requested my presence?” I said sardonically after closing the door.

  One turned slowly, her body completely stiff. My gaze was drawn to beads of blackish-brown blood on her neck, and my pulse picked up speed. Light flashed and a familiar figure was revealed next to her, a long dagger dripping in diamonds held to One’s neck. That explained the tiny punctures and confirmed yet another of my crucial theories.

  “Dez,” I choked out in relief. “You succeeded!”

  He smiled in triumph, nodding at the silver band around his left wrist and the gold band around his right. “They work just as you suspected. A twig from the tallest tree of silver grants invisibility, and one from the tallest tree of gold grants both physical and mental silence. No one was any the wiser while I made my way inside the palace. Not even him. I apologize if summoning you here scared you, but your eldest sister has not been cooperative.”

  One opened her mouth as if to speak, but he pressed the dagger a little more tightly and she snapped her lips shut.

  I gave a fierce smile. “And the Diamond Tree obviously creates daggers capable of harming any creature borne of this realm or gifted with its powers.” Which my reincarnated sisters now were and which Olbard had always been.

  Dez answered my smile with one of his own. “Indeed.”

  One overcame her fear of having her throat sliced enough to speak. “Cease this foolishness, Twelve! You’
ll bring ruin to our entire kingdom. To our father. To Nonna’s bloodline!”

  “Then that would be her choice!” came an unexpected voice from behind.

  I whirled, already raising a dagger drawn from a special pocketed sheath, only to find Eleven—delicate Eleven—flanked by all nine other sisters. Each of them wore bands of silver and gold at their wrists and daggers gleaming with diamond-encrusted hilts at their waists. My new tiny but deadly army.

  “You traitors!” One screamed shrilly. “How could you betray him?”

  “Easy,” Dezmund said before raising his unoccupied hand to reveal the fourth and most precious item he’d claimed for me. A golden chalice engraved with silver knotwork and encrusted with diamonds. One of the oldest artifacts of Faerie, stolen by the man who tried to steal my hand in marriage and then stolen again by the man who had claimed my heart. Not the Holy Grail, but one with very similar properties.

  I laughed in joy and then rushed to throw my arms around Eleven. “You’re all alive again!”

  “Thanks to you and your real champion,” she replied, squeezing me just as tightly.

  One by one I embraced my other sisters before turning back to face a now-silent One. She appeared equal parts hopeful and scared.

  “Come, sister,” I said softly. “Don’t you want to walk among the living once more? Potentially find love and bear children of your own like you’ve always dreamt?”

  “But—we’ll never be able to go home again.”

  For such was the power of this Chalice. It could restore an undead being’s humanity while in this realm, but returning to our more physical world would result in true death.

  “That place hasn’t been your home in 12 years, my sister. And you have not been yourself. You defied Olbard once with the courage of your convictions. Can you do any less today?”

  My words moved her to reach for the Chalice and take a long, deep drink. The transformation was instantaneous. A humanity I’d never seen lit her eyes, and her cheeks flushed with the glow of life as true blood pumped through her veins. Indeed, drops of crimson began to flow from her neck, and then those holes began to close once Dez removed his dagger.

  The twelve of us hurled ourselves at each other in a laughing, crying jumble of hugs and exclamations—which made the fact so many of us wore magical silencers a very good thing.

  I heard a sonorous bell chiming the stroke of eleven and pulled back, eyes moving to meet Dezmund’s. Olbard would be searching for me by now, first among the crowds and then here, expecting an answer to his proposal. And if it wasn’t what he expected, one of us would die at the stroke of midnight.

  This year, however, it would not be the one he expected.

  Dezmund escorted me back to the ballroom minutes later, no longer wearing his silver and gold bracers. Those had gone to One, because her earlier refusal to cooperate hadn’t left time to claim her own set from the orchard. We needed Olbard’s former minions to conceal themselves so he couldn’t sense they were no longer his. Eleven had volunteered her diamond dagger to give me an extra layer of protection, since only a living person who had sipped from the Chalice could claim more than one twig or fruit from any tree in the orchard.

  I patted the dagger where it now hid in my pocketed sheath and stepped into the ballroom. Olbard’s annoyed gaze met mine, and then it sharpened when he saw Dezmund, clad in his most formal uniform from his time in service. It took Olbard moments to place Dez’s face since he’d only seen him in photos. The way his body stiffened revealed that he also knew about my prior—okay my continuing—infatuation with my former bodyguard.

  Olbard stalked across the dance floor, not caring that he knocked several spinning couples out of the way. He barked an order to the orchestra, and the music ground to a discordant stop. Confused muttering broke out among the crowd, and they gave the three of us now standing alone in the center of the dance floor a wide berth.

  Rage lit Olbard’s eyes a much darker shade of blue as he glanced from me to Dezmund and then back again. “So, it would seem I was the only one not playing games this evening.”

  No longer needing to pretend, I folded my arms and gave a sardonic smile. “Come now, Olbard, you of all people cannot play the affronted suitor. I was never going to marry you, no matter how long the engagement.”

  “Yes, I see that now.” A flicker of actual sadness flashed across his face. “It will truly pain me to kill you again.”

  My lips twisted. “I have a little birthday gift for myself tonight, Olbard. The Royal Duke is not my chosen champion: Dezmund is.”

  Calculation entered Olbard’s expression. Dezmund was the finest duelist our kingdom had ever seen. Only my father’s stubbornness had prevented him from choosing Dez as a champion long before now. But Dez was 11 years older than when Olbard had first issued his challenge; whereas Olbard still possessed all the sharpness of a much younger man. He also possessed inhuman strength, speed, and stamina thanks to his undead minions.

  Oh wait, we’d just stolen a chunk of those he currently controlled. And he didn’t even realize it yet.

  “I think I shall take great pleasure in murdering your lover right in front of you, my sweet.”

  “Ah, dropping all pretense of courting me, then?”

  “Will you agree to wed me after I defeat this champion like every other?”

  “I will not.”

  “Then what need of courting do I have?”

  I laughed. “True for that reason, and for one other.”

  He raised a brow. “Oh?”

  I gave one more fierce smile. “Really two others. My sisters drank from the Gold Chalice you used to possess. And we all now wield daggers from the Diamond Tree.”

  With that announcement, gasps rang out as my sisters twisted their silver bands counterclockwise to reveal themselves. Only One and Eleven held back, pleasure upon their faces as the rest of us advanced upon Olbard’s now-terrified form to exact revenge.

  He struck out like any other cornered animal, and I was the target just as expected. His lips twisted in a vicious smile as his steel blade—the same he’d used to kill me eleven other times—stabbed into my chest at the precise moment my diamond dagger slid home in his own black heart.

  “Then let us die together. Neither of us shall sit upon your father’s throne.”

  Blackened blood foamed from his lips, but his expression when I simply drew his blade from my chest and laughed was priceless. The wound in my heart immediately healed. Realization had him shrieking as his lifeforce bled out.

  “Did I forget to mention Dez and I also drank from the Gold Chalice? And you’re so arrogant you are not wielding a diamond dagger.”

  I now possessed all the powers he’d stolen without any of his innate cruelty or murdered innocents to pollute my soul. And Dez would continue as both my husband and formidable bodyguard. Nonna’s bloodline would not die with me, and I would have my fairy tale prince. My sisters might have to stay behind to rebuild this realm that Olbard’s cruelty had ravaged while I ruled Zenobayair upon Father’s death; but someday when a child of our own proved worthy of inheriting that throne, we would reunite here with my sisters for our own happily ever after.

  At long last, this deadly dance was over.

  AUTHOR’S NOTE

  I became fascinated by the Twelve Dancing Princesses because little girls are pretty much indoctrinated to love princesses; and why have one princess when you can have 12?!? I also love to dance and became a Zumba instructor despite my distinct lack of a formal dance background. As I grew older, I loved the thought of an older soldier winning out over all the young, fancy-pants princes. An aficionado of Patricia C. Wrede’s Dealing with Dragons, I also wanted a princess like Cimorene who took matters into her own hands. Thus was born Deadly Dance, which combines everything I loved about the old fairy tale with my modern preference for heroines who help save themselves!

  * * *

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Kasey Mackenzie lives with her husband and
son in St. Louis, Missouri; home of the Gateway Arch, the baseball Cardinals, and the world’s greatest thin-crust pizza. Kasey was one of those students who always had her nose in a book–so no big surprise when she was voted “Teacher’s Pet” in her high school yearbook. Today, she is a voracious reader of fantasy, romance, science fiction, and YA. She adores her oversize dog, mischievous cat, and shaking her groove thing as a Zumba instructor. Passionate about the written word, she feels extremely lucky to make a living as an editor and writer. Now, if she could just figure out how to get paid for cleaning her own house, maybe that would happen more often…

  Website: http://www.kaseymackenzie.com/wp/

  Newsletter: http://www.kaseymackenzie.com/wp/about/newsletter/

  Through Time and Space: A Little Red Riding Hood Tale - Julia Crane

  Closing her eyes, Ruby cleared her mind while peering through the crystal embedded in her third eye. Instantly, she gazed into a world lightyears away from her own. Since she was a young child, she’d been fascinated with Earth. Her parents scolded her, telling her to be in the present in her current reality and stop dreaming of being somewhere else.

  Well, that was hard to do in her current situation. Her family lineage was the lowest in their world. Oh sure Ruby was part of the Venusian civilization of a highly evolved species, but she was nothing more than a house maiden. Unable to even be betrothed into a higher sphere, she had zero hope of elevation.

  If only she could descend down to Earth, she would find joy in the world that is well known for its carefree ways. On Earth it doesn’t matter what family you were born into, you can be whatever your choice is. On Earth, you indeed were the creator of your reality. It’s as if they have been given a paintbrush and a canvas to do what they please. And there are no consequences. Oddly, the Earthlings believe there to be rules and regulations, but the truth was they’ve been granted free reign to do as they please. Numerous times she’d overhead many conversations of the elders discussing the Earth realm and how they’d forgotten their origins and the power the moon would allow them to access if they embraced the unlimitedness of their world.