I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day

By Anne B. Walsh

Jingle all the way to your favorite reading nook with this fifth holiday collection from fantasy and sci-fi author Anne B. Walsh:
Carol of the Bells: When the handbell choir of the starship Wild Rover is reduced to one ringer just before Christmas, can Starsong, princess of Free Sky, find a clever way to handle everything herself and earn back the name she was born with?
Ding Dong! Merrily on High: The first Winterfest since their friend Parro died has Teo and Analla, children of the cave-bound Hidden Cities, feeling less than joyful. Could surprising others with happiness help heal their hearts as well?
Silver Bells: King Darius and Bran the Fool, friends as well as master and servant, prepare for the Yuletide festivities of Misrule, when nothing is as it seems to be. But what will happen when Darius discovers that Bran has begun the celebration early?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Anne B. Walsh
• Release date: Nov 29, 2016
• ISBN: 9781370807970

Anne B. Walsh

Anne B. Walsh was telling stories about magic and intrigue from the time she could talk, but it took her twenty years to realize she could make a living at it. Her first novel, historical fantasy "A Widow in Waiting", has its origins in a PBS special which changed her life; her second, family-focused fantasy "Homecoming", takes its inspiration from some of her other writing; and her third, soft science fiction "Killdeer", stems from her constant interest in the ways in which the future and the past coincide. Anne lives east of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, with one roommate (Krystal), two black Labs (Buddy and Brando), and two black cats (Starsky and Hutch). Sadly, their Cane Corso mastiff, Bruce, passed away in mid-August 2013, and their first cats, Poppy and Sesame, who helped inform Anne's first collection of short stories, "Cat Tales", passed out of their lives after an accident on Christmas Day 2013. No one ever said life was fair. Anne's parents and siblings live two hours north of her, otherwise known as just far enough away. She has also been writing Harry Potter fan fiction for more than ten years and is known best in that genre as the creator of the "Dangerverse" alternate universe (which inspired "Homecoming"). Beyond writing fiction, Anne's preoccupations include reading fiction; singing anywhere that will have her, including her church and local galas; theatre, especially musicals; all forms of cooking; and her family and friends. Within writing fiction, her preoccupations are much the same, meaning most of her stories involve loving families, delicious food, and good music. Consider yourself warned. A number of projects continue to need Anne's attention as she writes her original novels. Among these are her ongoing fanfiction works in various fandoms such as Harry Potter and Frozen, and the themed fantasy anthologies she co-authors with her friend and fellow author Elizabeth Conall.

Book preview

I Heard the Bells

on Christmas Day

Tales of mirth and melody:

Holidays with Anne, Volume 5

Anne B. Walsh

Copyright 2016

Table of Contents

Title Page

Dedication

Foreword

Carol of the Bells

Ding Dong! Merrily on High

Silver Bells

Also by Anne B. Walsh

About the Author

Dedication

For my dad, who loved it before I did.

I heard the bells on Christmas Day

Their old familiar carols play,

And wild and sweet the words repeat

Of peace on earth, good will to men.

But in despair I bowed my head:

There is no peace on earth, I said,

"For hate is strong, and mocks the song

Of ‘peace on earth, good will to men’."

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:

"God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;

"The wrong shall fail, the right prevail,

With peace on earth, good will to men!

– Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Foreword

Okay…so that wasn’t quite what I expected for the year 2016.

Not sure what I was expecting, but getting a callback from Jeopardy! and spending my birthday flying to California? Definitely not on the list, though awesome! Once I got there, I wasn’t really too surprised to win a show, though I was sad that my streak ended at one. Still, $21,800 isn’t bad, and I am now a Jeopardy! champion. Not many people can say that.

Another highlight of the year hit a bit earlier, when some leftover thoughts from an old project of mine (we’re talking nearly a decade back here) met up with a new…hobby, we’ll just call it a hobby, and not say obsession, although the roommate might disagree. I can stop watching Let’s Play videos on YouTube any time I want! I’m not addicted! I swear! But in any case, one particular very, very long Let’s Play, to which the older of my brothers introduced me, bumped into these leftover thoughts, and they started getting to know each other. A couple frantic months of writing later, I had a finished novel on my hands, with plans for more to come.

However, that session of writing led straight to some of the more painful bits of the year. I sent the manuscript to a publisher with a good record for responding quickly. They responded, all right…with a thank you for your manuscript and/or artwork but it won’t be commercially successful form letter. So I swallowed my pride and looked up literary agents, checking to be sure I was only sending queries to agents who want sci-fi/fantasy, who aren’t against humor, etc, etc. Two of the three agents I queried wrote back within a week, one with I’m not the agent for you, the other with I couldn’t connect with the story so no thanks. The third never replied.

So at what point am I fulfilling the definition of insanity, that is, doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results? I don’t know. But at least for today, I’m not giving up.

Please enjoy 2016’s holiday collection, I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day, featuring both the usual story from the universe of Killdeer (Carol of the Bells) and a tale from the new world mentioned above (Ding Dong! Merrily on High), as well as a fairy-tale novella of fantasy and fun entitled Silver Bells. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and may your dreams come true.

Anne B. Walsh

November 1, 2016

Carol of the Bells

What do you mean, all the other ringers dropped out? Starsong, princess of the clan of Free Sky, stared in dismay at her uncle Nightsinger. They can’t do that!

Sorry, love, but they can. Nightsinger reached over to ruffle Starsong’s dark hair. It’s a volunteer choir, which means they can come and go as they please. And this time, most of them chose to go. You’re the only one left.

But we can’t have a handbell choir with only one ringer! Starsong protested. That’s ridiculous! What am I supposed to do, run up and down the table ringing every bell by myself? That would be fine if I wanted a comedy routine, but you can’t make real music that way!

You’re right, you can’t, put in Starsong’s aunt Killdeer from the corner of the room, where she was nursing her daughter Daybird, born two months earlier as black-haired as her father and already showing signs of a will as strong as her mother’s. So we won’t have bell music in the Christmas performances this year. It’s a shame, but sometimes things just don’t work out the way we want them to.

Sinking into her chair, Starsong groaned aloud, pitching her voice expressively up and down the scale. Not bad, commented Nightsinger with a twitch of his ears. Especially for somebody with standard human vocal cords.

Starsong stuck out her tongue at her uncle, but in truth she appreciated the compliment. She was, as he had said, a standard human, while he belonged to the bioengineered human strain known as the Aelur, distinguished by certain features most commonly found in cats, such as tall, pointed, and mobile ears, slit-pupiled eyes in subtly furred faces, and vocal cords which allowed them both to yowl and to purr. However, as Daybird’s very existence proved, these changes were only skin-deep, since Killdeer, like Starsong, came from the standard strain of humanity which had been spreading through the greater galaxy for centuries.

Don’t feel too bad, love, Killdeer counseled her niece, lifting Daybird to her shoulder to burp her. You’ll still have your solo part in the concert, and your usual duet with your sister. I know how much you enjoy playing bells with your friends, but there will be other years.

I know. Starsong sighed. I just wanted it to be this year, especially because we’re going back to Buonarroti to perform for the royal family again. But I suppose that’s childish, and I ought to act like a grown-up now. She fingered the intricately carved womanstone which hung around her neck on its leather thong, signifying her status within her clan, newly acquired along with her twin Sundance at the end of the summer just past. Even if I don’t feel like it. Back on Moria, I wouldn’t have been considered grown-up for years yet, and that’s if I hustled to get through school early. You have to be at least twenty-one, and finished with your tertiary ed in something useful like building or repairs, before you qualify for adult status there.

One of the reasons I’m so glad we stole you away from that planet when we did. Nightsinger grinned, crossing to his wife’s side to stroke his daughter’s fine black hair dotingly. "Aboard the fine starship Wild Rover, and anywhere else the laws of the Aelur apply, birthdays or levels of schooling aren’t the things that make you an adult. Instead it happens when you stop expecting other people to solve your problems for you, and start working them out for yourself. Though of course that doesn’t mean you can’t ask for help. One of his golden eyes dropped shut in a wink, so quickly that Starsong wasn’t sure she’d seen it at all. So, that’s my bad news for the day. Anything you’d like to pile on our little princess while we’re picking on her, KD?"

No, I think she’s had quite enough of us for now. Killdeer disentangled a lock of her brown hair from the baby’s grasping fingers. Unless you need something from us, Starsong?

Starsong shook her head. Keep the key, Aunt, Uncle, she said formally, getting to her feet and bowing.

Run as you please, Nightsinger responded, as Killdeer turned Daybird around and waved one chubby hand in farewell. Starsong laughed and blew a kiss to her smallest cousin before leaving the family’s compartment for the corridor beyond.

For all she could joke with her uncle and aunt about the matter, it stung Starsong terribly to lose her dream of Christmas music rung by mellow bronze-toned bells, from the enormous low bells that required two hands to ring, all the way up to the tiny high bells that had to be handled with care lest their notes grow too shrill. Still, as she had pointed out to Nightsinger, a handbell choir needed multiple people to be truly viable. Most handbell pieces beyond the simplest level were written for at least two and a half octaves, which required thirty bells or more, and one ringer, no matter how talented, could only handle six or seven bells at a time before the performance stopped being serious music and became a juggling act.

Which is not my forte, Starsong grumbled to herself as she prowled down the corridor, exchanging absent nods with clanmates as she passed them. If anyone in this family is going to try to be funny onstage, it’s Shadowcrest. She bared her teeth briefly at the call-name of her little brother, now in his teens and more obnoxious than ever. I can just see what he’d do if he was the one everybody ran out on like this. He’d build some kind of octopus suit with loads of tentacles, and attach the bells to those, and have strings he could pull to play them all by himself!

She got four more steps down the hall before this idea blossomed within her mind.

Could I? she breathed, staring into the distance. Would it even work?

Raising her hands, she snapped her wrists forward in the proper motion for ringing a bell, watching it with care. I think it might, she murmured. I think it just might. Now, who to talk to about it?

Beginning to count off names on her fingertips, she started on her way again. Uncle Prancer and his friend Woodsong do carpentry, so I can trade with them for the frame. Winterfur’s mother makes felt, and I’ll need lots of that for padding. Some good strong strings for holding it together, but I can beg those from Mama and Papa, we have so many more than they need for Papa’s guitar and Mama’s harp, and if we don’t use them for something they’ll just go bad…

* * * * *

The mysterious project of Lady Starsong was the talk of the Wild Rover for the next few weeks, as different people compared notes on the bits and pieces they had been privileged to see. One person thought it might be a new model of organ, while another believed it was a harp which would play by itself, with no need for music. Still others postulated that she was creating a fluff-maker to blow clouds of colored fuzz across the stage, or a drying rack large enough for the whole clan’s clothing at once. Starsong herself only smiled and kept working.

Won’t you even tell me what it’s going to be? Sundance asked, coming into her sister’s workshop late one night. Please?

Shouldn’t you already know? Starsong teased. What happened to twin telepathy?

I think it’s failing a little bit because we’re not blood twins, however alike we look. Sundance tapped her womanstone where it rested against her green shipside jumpsuit and made a face. And because we can’t be giddy kiddies anymore now that we’ve passed our tests. I don’t like being a grown-up very much.

"I like it better on the Rover than I would have if I’d stayed on Moria and grown up as the person I was there. Starsong ducked under the cloth covering her project. And it’s not really all that bad, her voice came back from within the makeshift tent. When you have to solve your own problems, that means you can solve your own problems, any way you want to that works, and it’s awfully hard for other people to tell you you’re doing it wrong. She re-emerged, brushing sawdust from the shoulder of her red jumpsuit. At least, around here that’s how it is. I don’t think it would have been that way on Moria."

Me neither. Sundance shuddered in remembrance. "A world that outlaws music. Where we had to pretend to be ‘quasi-humans’ in a sort of flying zoo, with Papa as our human ‘keeper’, just so we could earn enough money to repair the Rover and continue on our way. She smiled. But it wasn’t all bad. I got a sister out of it."

So did I. Starsong grinned in return. And a family, and a home. It was a pretty awesome Christmas.

Tucking their arms around each other, the sisters left for their quarters, the mysterious project reposing quietly in its place behind them.

* * * * *

A few days later, Starsong was tightening a connection on her project when she heard a discreet cough at the entrance to her workshop. Is the door open, my mechanically-minded one? asked the tall Aelur woman with a bronze pelt and a mane of thick black curls who stood in the corridor, smiling.

Mama! Starsong clambered down from her perch atop her invention. The door is always open for you. She dusted herself off before tightly hugging her mother, Lady Duskdance, the queen of the Free Sky clan. And for you, Papa, she added, as Free Sky’s bard Suncrest followed his wife into the room. Is everything all right? You look worried.

Not worried, little love. Suncrest returned his daughter’s embrace with one of his own, placing a kiss on the end of her nose, then released her to run his warm brown fingers through his platinum-blond hair. Starsong frowned, recognizing one of her father’s mannerisms for bringing his wayward thoughts into order. "We popped out of skipspace for the day a little while ago and gathered up our message beacons, and among them we had one from the California. You remember that ship."

Yes, of course. Starsong nodded. She belongs to Evans Shipping, Dai Evans and his lady Amanda. We helped the Evanses when Amanda’s grandparents were trying to interfere between them.

Precisely. Duskdance withdrew her tripad from its holster at her hip and brought up a message on its screen, holding it out to Starsong. Evans Shipping has been contacted by a private party from an unnamed planet, asking about the feasibility of bringing in what they refer to as ‘certain items’.

Amanda and Dai weren’t sure at first, but the phrasing got them thinking it might be something extra-legal, and the scale of payment offered made that seem more likely. Suncrest rubbed his fingers together. They were about to turn the offer down, when something near the end of the letter caught Amanda’s eye. So they forwarded it on to us, asking for our opinion.

Starsong looked from mother to father, then shrugged and turned her attention to the tripad, skimming down through the careful double-talk until she reached the point she thought had interested Amanda Evans.

Our world’s philosophy tells us that the things we want

Reviews for I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day

[Brie Donning · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The main stoey of this set is an absolute beauty of an original fairytale.
It's not so long as a full fantasy story, but makes, in the end at least, a fair bit more logical sense than most old tales. I would class it with retellings, but there's no specific original basis. So it is a fairytale.