Samuel Valentino - The Silver Rings

Dedicated, with all my love, to my wife

Serena

Prologue

Has She Ever Paid Attention?

O nce upon a time, said the Mirror, there were beautiful twin sisters who entered your Enchanted Forest and were soon eaten by giant spiders.

Fascinating, replied the fairy Mozzarella. But if youll recall, the question was Whos the fairest of them all?

As it turns out, the two sisters are. Or were, if they get eaten by spiders.

Well, I dont have to worry about competition then, said the fairy, settling into her plush chair. The Mirror laughed.

Even if they were out of the picture, the spiders would have to eat a lot of peopl e and I do mean a lot before you made the top of the list.

Cute, Mozzarella retorted, attempting to hide her annoyance. Why couldnt she have a nice, polite mirror? All of her other furniture was well-behaved. Take her chair, for exampl e it had required a lot of obedience training but now it sat perfectly still whenever she asked. Did you bring up these two girls solely to annoy me, or did you have a point? Im guessing the former.

The point is you might not want them to be eaten by spiders.

From what you said, Id rather that they brought some of their attractive friends with them as well for dessert, Mozzarella shot back.

I doubt that. These girls are your two goddaughters.

Mozzarella leaped out of her chair, which scared the poor thing so badly it scampered into a corner. What? Eileen and Sally?

Alice and Celia , corrected the Mirror, frostily.

Yeah, them! Id better help!

Shifting its image to magically display the Enchanted Forest, the Mirror said, Sorry, youre too late.

Mozzarella gasped in horror.

Wait, that came out badly, the Mirror said hastily. What I meant is they managed to get away. You dont need to help.

Mozzarella looked into the Mirror. The two girls were running in panic, but at least were not wrapped up in spider webs.

Oops, hold on, added the Mirror, now theyre coming to some poisonous thorn octobushes.

Oh, look, they avoided those too, said the fairy.

Theyre surprisingly good at this.

Well, they should be, Mozzarella said with pride. If youll recall, I tutored them myself. When was it that I went to their house to teach them? Last week or something?

Five years ago.

Really? Time flies when youre immortal, Mozzarella replied.

She went to sit and landed heavily on the floor. Ow! Chair, get over here! she ordered, then turned back to the Mirror. Anyway, what could possibly make them leave their happy home to try and make it through the Enchanted Forest?

Probably their wicked stepmother and awful stepsisters, the Mirror answered.

Stepmother? Stepsisters? When did this happen?

Sometime during that five years I just mentioned.

Mozzarella thought for a moment. Huh. Still, theyd have to really be desperate to try something like this. Their home life couldnt be that bad, could it?

About as bad as your chances of being the fairest of them all.

All right, that does it! snapped Mozzarella, throwing the nearest heavy object at the Mirror.

Chapter 1

The Day Before

A lice! Celia! boomed Calamita at her stepdaughters, as she stormed into the dining hall. You finish cleaning up or Im locking you in your room!

Really? asked Alice, who had been told to polish the silver using her own sleeves.

Perched atop a shaky pile of furniture, mopping the ceiling, Celia added, Thanks!

Wait, what? asked Calamita in surprise.

We dont have anything to clean in our room, explained Alice.

Except the two lumpy mattresses you gave us, continued Celia. And its no use trying to work on those, the lumps wont come out.

Unfortunately, Calamita always mistook genuine optimism for sarcasm. Talk back to me, will you? Then Ill lock you in the basement!

All right! said the two simultaneously. They probably would have given each other high fives, except that Celia was a wobbly six chairs off the ground from her sister. Seeing the bewildered look on their stepmothers face, Alice said, The basements a lot bigger than our room.

And it has more stuff, said Celia.

Then Ill lock you in the tower! Calamitas face was growing red.

Oooo, nice view, said Celia.

Life was so much easier with her first husband, thought Calamita. When they threatened villages, the villagers knew enough to actually feel threatened. It had helped that her husband had been an ogre, but still, she liked to believe that she had contributed something to the mayhem. So she wasnt about to be defeated by this wanton cheerfulness.

That does it! screamed Calamita. She reached into her cloak and pulled out an hourglass. You see this? I had it specially made! It looked just like a regular hourglass, except that it contained a single grain of sand. You have until the sand runs out to finish, or youre in big trouble!

This had no effect whatsoever on the twins, Calamita couldnt help noticing.

Thats not really threatening, said Alice, in a sincere attempt to be helpful.

Curiosity alone keeping her from exploding, Calamita hissed, And may I ask why not ?

Because its an impossibility to get it done in that time, said Celia.

Now if you had some sand, continued Alice, but just enough for us not to be able to finish, now that would be better. Wed drive ourselves crazy trying to beat it.

I could go get you some more sand if youd like, Celia said.

Smashing the hourglass, Calamita screeched, Whats the point of trying to torture you if youre continually happy? Its like youre deliberately trying to ruin my day!

Uh, sorry, said Alice.

Im sad? ventured Celia.

Calamita clenched her fists. Just clean the dining room, okay? We have guests coming! And sweep up the broken hourglass! Exasperated, she stomped off. One of the unintended benefits of Alice and Celia being so genuinely nice was that it often exasperated Calamita into stomping off and leaving them alone.

Well, it would be nice to be locked in the tower for a change, said Celia. Get to look out over the countryside and all.

I dont know, frowned Alice. This was the only point of difference in two sisters otherwise completely alike. Celia always wanted to experience the outdoors, and Alice imagined that shed prefer city life. As neither one was allowed out of the house to experience either, it didnt really make any difference.

At that point, their stepsisters Tara and Ana came in. Both were eating messily from a large bucket of chicken. They werent twins, but, taking after their monstrous father, they were so uniformly ugly as to look as if they were. In fact, both appeared to be warty eggs with feet, the only difference being that the taller one looked like an upright egg and the fatter one like an egg on its side.

Uh, oh, thought the twins as they came in.

Not done yet? asked Tara, the upright egg, dumping half her scraps on the already cleaned portion of the silver.

Looks like its gonna take em a while, chortled Ana, tossing the rest up onto the ceiling, which she did fairly often. So, while Calamita made Celia mop the ceiling in an attempt to torment her, it was also something that did actually need to be done.

Then, for good measure, the stepsisters kicked Celias stack of chairs over as well.

Later, losers, the two lumpy ovals said, and they too stomped out. Not in frustration, howeve r its just that they were so heavy that it was hard for them not to stomp any time they walked.