Swan Prince: A Fairy Story for Adults

By Peter Miles

An idealistic prince sets out to woo a recently widowed Queen. On his way, he is beset by thieves, is threatened by diabolical wizardry, finds a fragment of a lethal mirror of doom, and discovers that his intended bride is not what she seemed to be. He meets and rescues his true and abiding lovebut at a cost.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris AU
• Release date: Aug 28, 2015
• ISBN: 9781503509610

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Copyright © 2015 by Peter Miles.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 08/26/2015

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Contents

Once Upon A Time

Wizardry

Expedition

Treachery

The Mirror Of Doom

Flying Horror

The Shape Of The Future

ONCE UPON A TIME

1

I N the kingdom of Corvinia, a land of dark forests and hidden streams, the king, Corvo XII, has been assassinated by Vultro, the captain of the place guard. Vultro is the lover of Ravena, the king’s beautiful but wicked half-sister, who plotted the dastardly deed unbeknownst to her ineffectual husband, Duke Corvino.

On the very night of the murder, King Corvo’s queen, Dovina, is delivered of a daughter. It is a difficult birth, and the treacherous murder of her husband is too much for the poor queen who, with her dying breath, entrusts the baby to her old nurse, Nania, and urges her to smuggle the child out of the now chaotic palace—and as far as possible from the capital, Avila.

Nania wastes no time and rides off with the babe within an hour of the birth—just before dawn. Vultro ruthlessly extracts information from the frightened attendants of the dead queen about what has become of the child. At Ravena’s urgent insistence, Vultro is soon in pursuit of the newborn heir to the throne, but the trail has become hopelessly confused because of the rapid departure from Avila of many other fearful members of the royal court. Ravena is well known for her patent dislikes and vindictive nature.

Meanwhile, Nania manages to ride into the hamlet of Bucol, some two hours from the capital, where the local baker, Hlafdigo, had many years ago been her childhood sweetheart. She finds the bakery vacant but manages to deposit the infant in a breadbasket, adding a hastily scribbled note, before resuming her flight to draw off any pursuit. Vultro and his men are still an hour behind her, and although able to follow most of her freshly made tracks, the pursuers become confused by the many side paths that lead from the main road to surrounding villages, and they keep to the main road.

Three hours later, they finally catch up with Nania. The brave old lady, anticipating the attempt by Vultro’s men to surround and capture her, turns and rides full tilt at one of them, holding a knife to her breast. She dies as she falls onto it from her rearing horse.

Vultro returns to the palace, fearful of the results of his failure to complete his mission. He presents Ravena with Nania’s head, claiming that the baby had fallen from the nurse’s grasp during the pursuit, and its carcass had been taken by wolves before his men had a chance to collect it. Ravena is suspicious of this story, but for the moment, she has other plans for the assassin.

Ravena’s husband, Corvino, has some tenuous dynastic pretensions to the throne which complement those of herself as Princess Royal: their joint claims are sufficient to convince the nobility to legitimize their crowning as joint monarchs. Five days after the ceremony, Ravena has Vultro murder Corvino and she thereafter rules in her own right. By this time, Ravena has grown tired of Vultro and feels imperilled by his knowledge of her part in so many deaths. She well knows her admirers among the courtiers, however, and within days, Vultro himself is assassinated. According to his attackers, before he dies, he hints at the existence of a rightful heir to King Corvo XII. Ravena haughtily dismisses the report as malicious nonsense; anyway, she has more pressing concerns with consolidating her power by continuing intrigue among the nobles of Corvinia.

2

O N the night that Nania brought the newborn princess to Hlafdigo’s bakery, it had been empty, since both baker and his wife, Hlafdiga, had been called away on an errand of mercy.

At the other end of the village, another newborn baby girl had been found, apparently abandoned by a troop of gypsy tinkers who had just moved off. Most of the adults of the village gathered around but were afraid to touch it. Some wanted to leave it to die; others including the village headman said that would be wrong, but none were prepared to accept the child. At last it was decided to send for Hlafdigo and Hlafdiga, since the baker’s wife especially was generally respected in the village for her sound common sense. So it was that the bakery was unattended when Nania deposited the infant princess.

During discussion about what was to be done with the abandoned tinker’s baby, the village headman pointed out that there was a young woman in the village who should be well able to suckle the infant. She had been a member of an outlying woodcutters’ camp and had only the day before lost all her family: her newborn baby, her husband, and her parents in a vendetta between rival clans of woodcutters. The village miller, a surly widower, had grudgingly taken in the girl as a serving wench. She was an attractive young woman, and he would neither give up the girl nor have a thieving gypsy brat in his house—as far as