Princess Bride

Once upon a time there was a princess. Slender and graceful, she had tresses like ripened wheat and eyes the blue of a clear summer's sky. Her voice was low and sweet. She lived in a kingdom far away, on an island where it was always summer. Her home was a white palace that glowed like a pearl in the green jungle of the island. The princess grew up playing in the sweet air of the royal gardens, amid sparkling fountains, brilliant flowers and birdsong.

There came a time of misfortune to the sunny island. The beloved king took ill suddenly and died, and his younger brother took the throne. Fearful of losing his good fortune, the new king banished the sorrowing princess and her elder sister to far-flung lands so that they could not be married to those who coveted their royal blood and the throne. The elder princess was sent to make a marriage in a vast and ancient empire across the seas. The younger princess was put aboard a ship that bucked and tossed until she came to a cold and strange kingdom to seek her fortune. She arrived at the strange court alone, and wept with grief for her dead father and distant island. But all was not lost. The queen of this country was a gracious and gentle woman who said to her, Weep not. I knew your mother as a girl, and loved her as a sister. For the love I bore her, you shall be my daughter now.

And the queen introduced the princess to her son: a prince such as the princess had thought to see only in her dreams. Such a prince had never before been born, for he was tall and handsome with raven-black hair and eyes the deep blue of the cold northern lakes. And the prince did ask the princess to dance, and she did accept. And for many days and nights the prince could not bear to be parted from her side, saying she was the most beautiful woman in the land. The princess began to forget her sorrow as her heart opened with joy to the words of the handsome prince.

Yet soon enough the prince grew fickle and began to tire of her presence. Where once he could scarce bear to part from her each evening for the long and lonely hours of night, he was now often away from her side. To the princess' sorrowing enquiries as to why she who so loved him had fallen from his favour, the prince murmured polite excuses. And the princess did fall into deep despair.

---No wait. That's not right.

Once upon a time there was a princess. She was tall and fair, with hair like honeyed gold and eyes the blue of the tiny, delicate flowers found in the king's favourite garden. Like her elder sister, she was beloved of the king and wanted for nothing. She grew up surrounded by loving maids, sad-eyed pet monkeys, and a silver pony with a white leather saddle. They lived on a hidden island of marvellous beauty where coloured birds winked in and out of the green jungle, and the dark-skinned folk sang as they fished their white-sailed boats on the turquoise seas.

There came a time when the good king sickened, and for all that the best physicians in the land could do, he soon died. The king's younger brother took the throne amid whispers of poison. He soon proved to be an evil king, for his first act was to banish the two young princesses far from their sunny island. Fearing that he would be accused of killing the old king and one of the princesses made queen in his stead, he forced the weeping girls on two separate ships. He then ordered the captains to sail away and never return on pain of death.

After days of stormy seas in which the princess thought she would surely drown, her ship arrived at a strange land. This kingdom was nothing like the lovely island of her home. It was vast and harsh, with great forests to the west, stony mountains to the north, and a burning desert to the south. The princess came to the royal court fearful and trembling, but the queen of this land spoke her fair; saying that she had loved her mother dearly, and for her sake bade her welcome. And the queen did bid her meet her son, the prince.

The prince was handsome and courtly beyond compare, with night-black hair and eyes as blue as the sky before it slips into twilight. He spoke to her gently in his deep voice, and the princess felt her fear and loneliness abate. She danced with him that night before the elegant court, and the king and queen did not disapprove.

In the weeks that followed, the princess grew to miss the gentle island of her birth less and less. The handsome prince kept company with her every day, and showed her the delights of his kingdom. Yet the princess could not be entirely happy. For the prince had a squire: a young man of rash and fiery temper, who delighted in bloody fights. The princess feared the influence of this upstart young man on her gentle prince, for the squire hated her, and would often give her cold glances and scornful words. But the prince kept this young man close by and would not hear a word against him.

It came to pass, as the princess feared, that the handsome prince looked upon her with less favour. Where once he had declared that the sun rose each morning solely so that in lighting up the day it might look upon her face, he now did seek to avoid her eyes and her conversation. And the princess overheard the courtiers who whispered that the prince and his squire were never apart, and their whispers trailed into silences and averted glances as they spoke of corrupt practices. And the princess did know such deep shame and rage that she did confront the wicked squire alone in his chambers one evening, and strike him deeply with a double-headed axe until the blood ran thick and red as a carpet over the floor…

---No! That's not it either.

Once upon a time there was a princess. All who looked upon her spoke of her beauty, for she was the loveliest princess ever born. Her hair shone like morning-pale sunlight and her eyes were the blue of the quick jewel-bright birds found deep in the tangled jungle. She moved her long and slender limbs as lightly as a dancer. She lived with her elder sister and wise father on a far-away island of which he was king. They were ruled over by the great god and goddess in consort who saw that the fair courtiers, the dark islanders, the exuberant birds and the secretive wild creatures lived together harmoniously.

Now far beneath the island in the depths of the rock lay chained the jaguar, the wild and bloody goddess who ruled the island before the great gods brought order and their chosen kings to the island. And the jaguar snarled in her dark prison and struggled ceaselessly to be free. In her struggles she cursed the kings who had stolen her island, as she could not curse the great gods, so that once in every lifetime one of the royal line would go mad.

And so the younger brother of the king began to desire the throne with a sick craving that grew only worse as the years passed. One night he secretly slipped a lethal poison into the king's wine cup, and the king fell sick and died. The evil brother became king, but still the madness ate away inside him, and he turned his glance to the two young princesses, fearing they would be used by an ambitious nobleman to steal his throne. In a towering rage he sent for the princesses, and told them to choose between banishment and death. The weeping girls vowed to never look towards his throne if they might remain, but the mad king refused to listen. He sent each princess off on a different ship to far-distant shores, not caring if they reached safe harbour or drowned.

The beautiful princess arrived after a long and arduous journey to a strange new land. She made her way to the royal court with a heavy heart, fearful of her reception, but the good queen of the land was kind to her, saying, As I cherished your mother when we were young, so shall I now cherish you. And the good queen introduced her to her son, the prince, a young knight of great courage and courtesy. He was tall and fair with soot-black hair and proud eyes the heart-blue of a flame. The prince spoke many sweet words to her in his musical voice, and danced with her for the rest of the evening. The queen made no secret of her wish that the prince marry the beautiful daughter of her dear friend, and the princess felt her heart rise with hope.

Yet the queen had never been strong, and she soon took ill and died. The prince, grief-stricken, would not be comforted by the princess and sought distraction in the company of a newcomer to the royal court: a dark-eyed barbarian princess from a war-torn land far to the east. In vain did the princess remind the prince of his promises of devotion to her; of the sweet nights she had spent in his bed, sure of his love. The prince was fascinated by the novelty of his new princess and refused to hear her.

Weeping, the princess mourned her lost island, her lost lover and her lost honour. She was so sunk in misery that she did not at first hear the voice asking, Why do you weep princess? The voice was that of a noble lady, a young and lovely woman with eyes the green of the serpents that curled round the deep-jungle trees of her island home. The princess told her story, tears falling freely as emotion overcame her, her face in her hands. But I can help you, said the green-eyed noblewoman, and the princess raised her eyes in hopeful appeal.

So the green-eyed noblewoman befriended the princess, and the princess came to take part in a secret plan that would restore her lost honour. The princess would have revenge on the faithless prince by raising a great army to overthrow him in the moment that he became king; by stealing the fabulous jewel that gave him power over the land; by raising a powerful and evil sorcerer from the dead to conquer the kingdom--

---No, no NO! Try again.

Josianne is sure that if she just keeps telling the story, it will have to come right in the end.

Fin

I think Josianne's an underrated character—no one ever seems to write her, so I wanted to give it a try. I wanted a way to write her madness without it being too obvious at first who I was writing, and to be able to get inside her head as much as I could.

I wanted to use a style that stayed within the conventions of the traditional fairytale so that (hopefully) it is glaringly obvious when Josianne's er—mental issues—lead her astray in the narrative. And I was pretty pleased that I found a way to tie in themes from the Aly books into a fic with characters from the Alanna books.

Found the raka-jaguar-goddess-chained-beneath-rocks-by-great-gods myth in the Aly books' glossary when I was try to figure out the Copper Isles' royal family tree. And thought it would be a good way to explain why the Copper Island kings are crazy—forget the inbreeding!

And a note on canon-history for Josianne's family. For those who care about this sort of thing, like me:

Josianne is mentionned in the Alanna books as the younger daughter of the King of the Copper Isles, and in the Aly books as the niece of the current king, Mad King Hazarin. So it follows that she had at least one older sister, and that her father was at one point king, but died. I worked this into the story, and used Mad King Hazarin as my plot device: the evil younger brother who carries the family madness, and sets the story in motion.

Serpent-Delia is for Sally. Long live evil villainesses! For those who haven't, go readSally's Delia fics, pen-name GavinGunhold.

Imogen