Moonlight and Ashes Read Online Free PDF Page B

know how long I stayed there in a marvellous peace but after a while I whispered, ‘Hazel . . . Oh beautiful hazel, tell me what I must do.’
    I waited but nothing happened. A single leaf detached itself from a branch and came floating down to my feet. I picked it up and held it in my hand. ‘Oh,’ I said, stroking the leaf, ‘you are soft as silk, light as a lace handkerchief!’
    The words were no sooner out of my mouth than I no longer held a leaf in my hand – but an exquisite handkerchief of pale green silk and lace, with a curly ‘S’ embroidered in the corner. It was the most beautiful handkerchief I’d ever seen; finer by far than anything my stepsisters or stepmother had in their drawers, finer than anything I’d ever owned or had seen in the finest shops of Ashberg. Why, not even the Empress herself could have something as fine as this!
    After the wonder came excitement. The tree’s magic was unlocked by my words as I touched the leaf! I could make others turn into anything I liked – anything I needed! Trembling with anticipation, I picked a leaf off the tree. I said, ‘Oh, you are warm as a coin in the purse, light as a banknote.’ I waited but nothing happened. I tried again – and to my dismay the leaf began to curl up, its edges blackening as though it were being burned, and in less time than it takes to write, it had crumbled to ash in my hand.
    What had I done wrong? I picked another leaf and whispered, ‘You are green as spinach soup and good as fresh bread,’ but though my mouth watered at my own words, the leaf did not change. Instead, it melted into sludge, like algae in a pond. Not discouraged, I thoughtI’d try to conjure another handkerchief, so I picked one more leaf and repeated my first words. But this time, all I ended up with was a skeleton of a leaf that drifted off my hand like thistledown and disappeared as soon as it hit the floor.
    â€˜Oh hazel tree,’ I said in despair, ‘what is it that I must do?’ As I spoke an image came into my head of the first leaf detaching itself from the branch before floating down to the floor at my feet. It wasn’t me who decided – it was the tree! And until it decided to loose another leaf, there was nothing I could do.
    â€˜But I need you to help me now,’ I told the tree, ‘because I want to leave – I need to leave – you must understand . . .’ My appeal went unanswered.
    â€˜What is the good of you then?’ I said sadly. ‘What good is a silly handkerchief to me when I need a lifeline? What is the good of granting me a wish I didn’t even realise I was making? You gave me hope and then took it away and now it is worse than ever.’ I closed the cupboard, unable to look at it. I left the handkerchief on the chair by my bed. It was an exquisite thing, and to glance at it made the gladness return just a little. Pretty as it was, though, it was of no use. It was a frivolous magic of no importance and it could not help me at all.

    I woke the next morning to find the handkerchief had vanished and in its place lay a dry leaf. So the magic had only lasted a few hours . . . It was hardly a surprise, in my low state of mind. And my low state of health. For I feltsick. I had a bad headache and churning stomach. Indeed I felt so bad that it was all I could do to drag myself up and start my chores. But I knew that if I tried to get a sick day, it would be taken from any free time I was due – and in two days’ time, on Sunday afternoon, I was due for a half-day off, after, of course, going to church. Time which would be my own, which was precious to me. So I tried to carry on till, by the end of the evening, I could no longer take it and fainted while trying to finish the mopping. I was brought to by one of the cooks, who bathed my forehead in cold water and gave me a steaming bowl of chicken broth.