Frightful Fairy Tales (11 page)

She looked for the source of the voice and saw a small tunnel al her feet. It was a hollow tree root. She called through the tunnel, “No, sir, I am unfortunately very much alive. The evil elves have imprisoned me inside this hollow tree! Please come let me out!”

Silence was her only reply. Ezmerelda thought that perhaps, like the insects, the man was a hallucination as well. But she heard the voice again: “1 see you are speaking through this root,” it called back to her. “I unearthed it this morning while digging for diamonds. I am a miner. I will help you if I can. Where is this hollow tree?”

“I don’t know,” she called back through the root. “They always put me in a cask.” Then she became more frantic. “I hear them coming now! Please help me!”

“Before you go,” said the man in desperation, “what is your name? I am Lucian.”

“Ezmerelda,” she answered. “Here they are! I must go!” Then the poor miner heard only silence.

Lucian stood in the diamond mine holding his pickax in a daze. He was determined to save the lady whom he heard calling through the hollow root. Every night he dreamed of Ezmerelda. He saw her as a young woman in tatters, her beautiful eyes shadowed in grief, her long tresses falling like a dark waterfall down her back in glossy waves. Every day he went to the spot in the mine where he saw the hollow root and called for her--to no avail. He feared she had been injured or killed, and he would never hear from her again.

Deeper and deeper he and the other miners dug into the mine in their search for diamonds. Once his pickax struck through a soft rock and made a hole through which light shone. He peered in and saw a kingdom that was inhabited by strange beings he knew must be the elves of which Ezmerelda had spoken. Perhaps this was the place she was imprisoned. As he watched, he saw several mortal servant girls, bound by the wrists in chains. They were clothed in exquisite maid uniforms, but their feet were bare. He stared endlessly but could see none of their faces. He couldn’t bear it. He felt insane. He covered the hole and turned back to his work, vowing to leave all these surreal experiences behind.

Finally, one day after he had finished his work and was making his way out of the mine, he heard a lady crying. He ran to the spot where he had discovered the root and called to her.

“Lucian!” she answered. “I’m so elated to hear your voice. Please save me! I am desperate!”

“Dear Ezmerelda, can you whistle?” he asked her.

"Yes, I can,” she responded eagerly.

“Then repeat this signal: two long whistles, then a brief one. Do this loudly and I will know in which tree you are imprisoned.” He took an axe and went up from the mine into the woods. He moved carefully through the thick tangle of branches and fallen leaves, listening intently.

Soon he heard the whistle, faint at first, but growing ever louder until he stood before a giant dead oak. The black branches clawed at the only small patch of gray sky that he could see. “Ezmerelda!” he called.

“Lucian! I am here. Act quickly; there is no telling when they will return!”

Lucian held the ax high and said, “Crouch low and I will cut it just above you.”

At this he struck the tree with the ax, and a great stream of blood ran from where he hit. It bathed the earth in crimson, for it was an enchanted tree. He chopped it again and again, rivers of blood flowing from the tree and running over his boots, soaking into the ground. He heard Ezmerelda laughing inside, and with one last strong blow, the tree fell and she was revealed. Upon seeing her, Lucian thought she was more beautiful than he had ever imagined in his dreams, despite the fact she was covered in blood.

He gave her his hand, and she stepped lithely from the tree. They ran toward his home, but just as they reached the edge of the forest, they heard a crowd of voices from inside the wood, screaming, “This is why it rained blood in the elf kingdom today! She must pay, severely pay!”

This urged the miner and the maid to move even more swiftly than before. Eventually, they got to his house, where, after locking the doors and windows securely, they bathed and slept in each other’s arms.

Ezmerelda awoke from her deep sleep to find herself alone in the meager cottage. At first she couldn’t remember where she was, but she gradually got her bearings and recalled the kind miner who saved  her from the elves. That day she did not leave the house for fear they would see her and take her again. Instead, she busied herself by cleaning the cottage and tending the fire, anxiously waiting for the miner to return. That evening he returned with a ring.

When he asked her to marry him, she readily accepted. The small wedding was held the following week.

Ezmerelda was much happier than she had ever been. She loved her husband and her new home, though at night she still had grandiose nightmares of the elf kingdom and awakened in her humble home, thinking heavily of the treasures there. She tossed and turned in her bed, holding the hematite key that still hung from a string around her neck.

She devised a plan one evening and presented it to her husband. She knew where the door to the elf kingdom was; she showed him the key to unlock it. If they could get in without being seen, she could retrieve her golden wish shoes, and they could have anything they wanted forever.

But it was a great risk. If the elves saw them, they would definitely kill them. Lucian thought about it. He thought about the mines, looked around the broken-down shack he could barely afford, and decided to take the risk.

Ezmerelda knew when the elves would have their annual meeting, during which time all the halls were practically empty except for servants.

It was at this time that they decided to break in. The next meeting would occur in two days. After waiting anxiously, they went to the stone in the woods that served as the entrance to the elf kingdom.

Reaching for the hematite key around her neck, stolen from the Duke so long ago, Ezmerelda touched it to the stone. The keyhole appeared and she turned the lock. The door was revealed, and golden light from a hundred candles shone from inside the stone and illuminated the dark woods around them.

Cautiously, they entered the temporary doorway and ran down the hallway toward the Duke’s chamber, where Ezmerelda had once been enslaved. As they reached the room, she heard a clamor in the hall. “Did you see her too? It was the Duke’s scullery maid that escaped. Perhaps she has come back to steal from us!” Footsteps echoed in the hall, coming nearer to the room.

“There!” she cried to Lucian in a loud whisper and jumped on the floorboard under which her shoes were hidden. “Help me pry up this board.”

Lucian wrenched the board loose, and Ezmerelda thrust the shoes upon her feet just as the evil elves appeared in the doorway. She grabbed Lucian’s hand and exclaimed, “I wish to disappear to an island on the other side of the world!” The elves leapt upon her and grabbed her other hand only to find themselves standing in the empty place where she and Lucian had just been, holding nothing but her ring.

When Ezmerelda and Lucian reappeared, they found themselves surrounded by crystalline, pale blue waterfalls, fruit-bearing trees, and flowers of all kinds. The warm ocean lapped the white sand and wove a tapestry of mist along the coastline. She noticed that her wedding ring was missing and immediately wished for another. A ring finer than any she could imagine appeared. Then she wished for nine more, one for every finger. They all appeared, each becoming more lavish than the last. Ezmerelda then wished for a grand and beautiful home.

Lucian was ecstatic. He never again had to work in the drudgery of the mine. As they watched the sun slowly sink beneath the waves, Ezmerelda thought of only one more wish that would make their lives perfect. She wished for her father. In an instant the old man appeared before them, crippled and half blind. He stared at his surroundings in confusion. “Have I finally died and gone to Eden?” asked Felix Worthy. “I’m very surprised if I have, because l assuredly thought I was headed the other way. I see the ethereal vision of my good daughter Ezmerelda, so heaven is where I must be.”