Once Upon a Time: New Fairy Tales Paperback

one, they began to get better. Medea, the smallest of them and his

secret favorite, was sick for longer than the rest, and one night when she was coughing badly, he held her through the night, not knowing what else to do. Sometimes, when he looked as though he might fall

asleep standing up, Blanchefleur would say, “Go sleep, Ivan. I’ll stay up and watch them. I am nocturnal, you know.”

By the time all the lizards were well, the marsh marigolds were

blooming, and irises were pushing their sword-like leaves out of the ground. The marshes were filled with the sounds of birds returning from the south: the raucous cacophony of ducks, the songs of

thrushes.

Ivan had forgotten how long he had been in the marsh, so he was

startled when one morning he heard the front door open and a voice

call, “Hello, my dears! I’m home!” And there stood Dame Lizard, with her suitcases strapped to her bicycle, looking just as she had left a year ago, but with a fuchsia scarf around her throat.

? 362 ?

? Theodora Goss ?

The lizards rushed around her, calling “Mother, Mother, look

how we’ve grown! We all have names now! And we know about the

Trojan War!” She had brought them a set of papier maché puppets

and necklaces of lapis lazuli. For Blanchefleur, she had brought a hat of crimson felt that she had seen on a dancing monkey in Marakesh.

Blanchefleur said, “Thank you. You shouldn’t have.”

Once the presents were distributed and the lizards were eating an

enormous box of Turkish Delight, she said to Ivan, “Come outside.”

When they were standing by the house, under the alders, she said,

“Ivan, I can see you’ve taken good care of my children. They are

happy and healthy, and that is due to your dedication. Hercules told me how you took care of Medea when she was ill. I want to give you a present too. I brought back a camel whip for you, but I want to give you something that will be of more use, since you don’t have a camel.

You must raise your arms, then close your eyes and stand as still as possible, no matter how startled you may be.”

Ivan closed his eyes, not knowing what to expect.

And then he felt a terrible constriction around his chest, as though his ribcage were being crushed. He opened his eyes, looked down, and gasped.

There, wrapped around his chest, was what looked like a thick

green rope. It was Dame Lizard’s tail, which had been hidden under

her duster. For a moment, the tail tightened, and then it was no longer attached to her body. She had shed it, as lizards do. Ivan almost fell forward from the relief of being able to breathe.

“I learned that from a Swami in India,” she said. “From now on,

when you give pain to another, you will feel my tail tightening

around you so whatever pain you give, you will also receive. That’s called empathy, and the Swami said it was the most important thing anyone can have.”

Ivan looked down. He could no longer see the tail, but he could

feel it around him, like a band under his shirt. He did not know

whether to thank her. The gift, if gift it was, had been so painful that he felt sore and bruised.

? 363 ?

? Blanchefleur ?

After he had said a protracted farewell to all the lizards, hugging them tightly, he and Blanchefleur walked north, along the river. He told her what Dame Lizard had done, lifting his shirt and showing

her the mark he had found there, like a tattoo of a green tail around his ribcage.

“Is it truly a gift, or a curse?” he asked Blanchefleur.

“One never knows about gifts until later,” said the white cat.

Marmalade met them at the front door. “I’m so sorry, Miss

Blanchefleur,” he said, “but your mother is not home. The King has

asked her to the castle, to consult about the dragon attack. But she left you a note in the solar.”

Blanchfleur read the note to Ivan.