Snow White and Rose Red Read Online Free PDF

sighed and picked up his sack, then paused and looked at his brother. “Yet I am glad thou wast the bearer of these tidings, however ill they sit.”
    Hugh gave a small, dispassionate smile of acknowledgment, and the two brothers, one more fay than mortal, the other far too mortal for Faerie comfort, walked side by side into the deep woods.

     
    The shadows beneath the great oak tree remained empty as the twilight deepened. The stirring of the air ceased, and all was still, dark, and silent. The only movement was the all but imperceptible blending of the evening shadows with the growing gloom of night.
    Shortly after moonrise a shiver ran through the leaves of the tree. A gnarled figure dropped into the open space below the boughs. He was short and twisted, with skin like wrinkled brown leather; his hair and beard were stiff and wiry, and several shades darker than his skin. His loose tunic was made of oak leaves stitched together, and he wore a red cap shaped like a toadstool. The smell of crushed moss rose strongly from beneath his flat, splayed feet, but he seemed not to notice. He glanced about him, snorted once, and leaned back against the tree, grimacing ferociously.
    His wait was brief. A second figure joined him almost at once. It, too, was small, but there its resemblance to the first creature ended. Moonlight shone silver on its slick, scaly skin, and its mouth was wide and full of sharply pointed teeth. It was completely hairless, and there were webs between its fingers. A close-fitting garment of grey silk was wrapped about its loins; otherwise its skin was bare.
    “Am I late?” the scaly creature asked without preamble.
    “Madini’s later,” the first being growled.
    “Didst thou suppose she would be otherwise? But check thy anger; see where she comes.”
    As the second creature spoke, a tall, black-haired woman stepped into the circle of moonlight. She moved with unearthly grace, and the beauty of her face was the cruel, sharp-edged beauty of the great ones of Faerie. Her eyes were dark, and her lips were very red. She wore an elegant green gown of shot silk embroidered with gold sequins. “Wherefore hast thou summoned us, goblin?” she said imperiously.
    “An thou‘dst learn it, call me not goblin,’ ” the brown-skinned dwarf replied, scowling. “Thou knowest my name.”
    “Thou‘lt waste away to nothing, ere thou gettest aught of courtesy from Madini,” the silver-scaled creature said. “Come, Bochad-Bec, speak thy news.”
    “The Queen’s eldest bastard is back,” the dwarf replied.
    “John has returned?” snapped the woman called Madini. “Has he had speech with his brother?”
    “Aye, beneath this very tree,” Bochad-Bec said with sour satisfaction. “So he’s warned of the Queen’s displeasure. He’ll speak to her at All Hallows‘.”
    “Devils take him and tear out his tongue!” Madini said violently. “He’ll throw my plans awry.”
    “Our plans, surely?” said the silver-scaled creature delicately. It paused and waited, but Madini said nothing. “I see but little reason for thy low spirits,” it went on. “To postpone our work will do no harm.”
    “Thou‘rt wrong in that,” Madini snapped. “The land of Faerie’s balanced like a juggler’s plates; the longer we must hold our hands, the greater grows the chance that, by some accident or careless spell, that balance will be overset, and Faerie sent sliding toward the mortal world.” She wrinkled her nose in distaste at the thought.
    “Then, if thou‘rt set on it, why can we not proceed as we’d intended?”
    “And have those foolish humans catch John’s power before the whole of the Queen’s court?” Madini said scornfully. “Thou‘rt a fool, Furgen.”
    “How so?” Furgen said, flashing its pointed teeth in the moonlight. “Or are there none at court who dislike John and mortals?”
    “None who would cross our Queen’s most slender whim to say so,” Madini retorted bitterly. “Her fondness