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The Stolen Word
Lisa says:
Written for daughter, on a day when I realized I'd rather her fight to be her own person than give in and be told what to do by everyone she met.
This story will be reposted here, perhaps next year on International Pixel-Stained Technopeasant Day.
(2008) Appears in
appeared at Fantasy Magazine Online
Reviews:
The Ransom of Red Chief as a Cautionary Tale. I can imagine that quite a few fairy tales might have begun in this way, in an effort to scare the children into good behavior. I wonder, however, if this tale might not have inspired them to emulate the little beggar, instead, as she clearly comes out ahead, despite her awfulness. By sealing the pedlar's bargain with the word, "Evermore," Mantchev inverts the "happily ever after" of the fairytale ending with the more ominous echoes of the raven's cry.
Lois Tilton for IRoSF
Excerpt:
Oh, oh! The naughtiness of you, now. Haven't you been warned time and again? You, with the dirty face. And you, with the ragged rip in yer smock. I'll trade ye to the Pins-n-Needles Man, I will.
You doubt that I'll do it? You doubt he exists? Well, once ye numbered six and now yer five. What do you make o' that then?
The one yer mam traded awa' was the first and the worst, oh yes! The oldest and most filled wi' the devil. And we are well rid o' her and she well rid o' us.
Sit at my feet and I'll tell ye the story. Hush now, with your interruptin' and gather close. The wind is all a'sudden on the move....