The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland In a Ship of Her Own Making by Catherynne M. Valente Read Free Book Online Page A

notice more and more how fine and straight his shelves remained, despite great structural stress. That sort of moral fortitude is rare in this day and age. By and by, my siblings and I were born and romped on the balconies, raced up and down the splintered ladders, and poured over many encyclopedias and exciting novels. I know just everything about everything--so long as it begins with A through L. My mother was widowed by a real estate agent some years ago and I never finished the encyclopedia. Anyway, mother told us all about our father when we were yearlings. We asked: why do we not have a Papa? And she said: your Papa is the Library, and he loves you and will care for you. Do not expect a burly, handsome Wyvern to show up and show you how to breathe fire, my loves. None will come. But Compleat has books aplenty on the subject of combustion, and however odd it may seem, you are loved by two parents, just like any other beast. ”
    September bit her lip. She did not know how to say it gently. “I had a friend back home named Anna-Marie,” she said slowly. “And her father sold lawnmowers all over Nebraska, and some in Kansas, too. When Anna-Marie was little, her daddy ran off with a lady from Topeka with the biggest lawn in the county. Anna-Marie doesn’t even remember her daddy, and sometimes when she’s sad, her mother says she didn’t have one, that she’s an angel’s daughter and no awful lawnmower salesman had a thing to do with her. Do you think, maybe…it could have been like that, with your mother?”
    A-Through-L looked pityingly at her, his blazing red face scrunched up in doubt. “September, really . Which do you think is more likely? That some brute bull left my mother with egg and went off to sell lonemozers, or that she mated with a Library and had many loved and loving children? I mean, let us be realistic! Besides, everyone says I look just like my father. Can’t you see my wings? Are they not made of fluttering vellum pages? If you squint you can even read a history of balloon travel!”
    A-Through-L lifted his wings slightly, to show their fluttering, but the great bronze chain kept them clamped down. He waggled them feebly.
    “Oh, of course. How silly of me. You must understand, I am new to Fairyland,” September assured him. But really, his wings were leathery and bony, like a pterodactyl’s, and not like vellum at all, and there was certainly nothing written there. September thought the creature was a little sad, but also a little dear.
    “Why are your wings chained up?” She asked, eager to change the subject. A-Through-L looked at her as though she must be somehow addled.
    “It’s the law, you know. You can’t be so new as all that. Aeronautic locomotion is permitted only by means of Leopard or licensed Ragwort Stalk. I think you’ll agree I’m not a Leopard or made of Ragwort. I’m not allowed to fly.”
    “Whyever not?”
    A-Through-L shrugged. “The Marquess decreed that flight was an Unfair Advantage in matters of Love and Cross-Country Racing. But she’s awfully fond of cats, and no one can tell Ragwort to sit still, so she granted special dispensations.”
    “But surely you’re bigger than the Marquess. Couldn’t you say no? Squash her or roast her or something?”
    A-Through-L marveled. His mouth dropped open a little. “What a violent little thing you are! Of course I’m bigger and of course I could say no, and of course in the days of Good Queen Mallow this would never have happened and we’re all very upset about it, but she’s the Marquess . She has a hat . And muscular magic besides. No one says no to her. Do you say no to your Queen?”
    “We don’t have a Queen where I live.”
    “Then I’m sorry for you. Queens are very splendid, even when they call themselves Marquesses and chain up poor Wyverns. Well, very splendid and very frightening. But splendid things are often frightening. Sometimes it’s the fright that makes them splendid at all. What kind