Sleeping Beauty's Daughters by Diane Zahler Read Free Book Online Page A

really matter. Our parents would be utterly distraught no matter what I wrote. But I settled on this:
     
    Dearest Mama and Papa,
    By now you know we have gone, but please do not be afraid. We seek Emmeline, for the curse has come true in some small part. I am awake, though, and hope Emmeline can keep me so. I know you will worry, and I am sorry. All will be well.
    Your devoted daughter,
    Aurora
     
    As I wrote, Luna gathered materials that she thought might be useful on our journey. “We can’t go off looking like this,” she said, pointing at our elegant satin dresses. “People will know who we are—or at least wonder, and ask. We don’t want to draw attention to ourselves, do we?”
    “No indeed!” I replied. “But all our dresses are silk or satin or velvet, and finely made.”
    “I shall steal some clothes from the maids,” Luna said nonchalantly.
    “Luna!” I reproached her. “We can’t steal—it would be wrong!” I felt ridiculous as soon as the words left my mouth. What a prig I was!
    Untroubled, Luna said, “I have some coins. I’ll leave them as payment. Will that do?”
    “I suppose it will.” I wondered where she had gotten the coins—but I knew that it was best not to ask.
    Luna soon returned from the maids’ quarters with her bounty, and she and I hurried to our bedchambers to change, agreeing to meet back in the classroom. I slipped on the coarse gray woolen dress she’d found for me. It was rather itchy and ill-fitting, and I looked frightful in it. It did have pockets, though, which I quite liked. None of my own dresses did, and I had always thought they would be useful for holding a pretty stone found on a walk or a sliver of tart from the kitchen. I slipped the vial of devil’s shrub into one of the dress pockets; I wanted to keep it close. Even now I could feel Sleep reaching out from the corner where I had pushed it.
    I braided my hair tightly and covered it with a kerchief, so its golden color wouldn’t attract attention. Though the day was warm, I put on the servant’s cloak Luna had brought me, for I knew the sea breeze could be cold at night.
    When Luna reached the classroom in her borrowed outfit, I stared at her in shock. Instead of a maid’s garb, she had taken the clothes of one of the smaller manservants. She wore breeches, a tunic, and soft boots. A little cap sat atop her short curls. Now she truly did look like a boy—a very pretty, spirited boy. It was clear that this was her intent, for she laughed at my stunned expression and twirled around.
    “I had no idea!” she crowed. “Men are so free—no heavy skirts to pull them down and catch on things, no tight bodices to squeeze the breath from their lungs! I shall dress in breeches from now on!”
    I reached out, straightened her cap, and replied, “Ah, but someday you might find those skirts and bodices useful in their own way.”
    “I doubt that,” Luna retorted cheerfully. She handed me a bundle of food she had taken from the kitchen, and then shouldered her pack, which she had stuffed with more clothing and utensils she thought we might use.
    “I can carry the pack,” I said. “I am older, after all.”
    “You carry the weight of your enchantment,” Luna replied soberly. “That is a heavier burden than mine.” Her words surprised me with their thoughtfulness—but they were true, for Sleep pressed down on me like a stone.
    I slid the slate with the note I had written under a Latin text on the table, knowing that when our absence was discovered, Mama and Papa would come to the last place we had been—the classroom—to look for us. I was sure they would search everywhere. I didn’t want them to discover the note soon enough to follow and stop us, but I did want them to find it.
    And then we set out.
    Of course it was not as simple as strolling down the drive to the road. We didn’t want to be observed, for one thing. The guards at the gate would never let us leave without our parents. And the