The Throne of Bread

Anna had gone out for a night walk around one castle perfectly human, and she woke up the next morning in another castle perfectly transformed.

She stretched as she saw the first light of day making its way down into the depths of the lake. Her new throne room had no need of a roof since it was underwater. She yawned and stood. Indeed, her throne was still made of bread. She laughed at the thought that the fact that it wasn’t even soggy bread was even more astonishing to her than that it was made of bread at all.

“Well, it suits me better than the throne of bones that it replaced,” she said out loud to the empty room.

Somewhere, something like the words “Yes, yes, it does” echoed. She was sure she heard them, but not with her ears. It was more like an idea than a voice.

Great, so creepy disembodied voices come with being a Water Horse too.

“Yes, that too,” said the echo.

Anna decided to put this particular facet of her new nature aside and go look for a mirror to check and see if she was suffering from any leftover horsiness.

She tried ten different rooms before she gave up. There didn’t seem to be any mirrors in her new underwater castle, and the previous tenant seemed to have had a penchant for gothic gloom. She would have to work on redecorating later, though. She would be missed up at Crimson Court because her daughter Heddi and she had only just been reunited. She would have a lot of explaining to do.

She let herself shift fully back into horse mode before kicking for the surface. Her horse form felt more natural. In fact, all of this felt more natural, as if she had been living her whole life waiting for it.

She was again reminded that she could now breathe underwater. She both dreaded and could not wait to tell Ventus, the shapeshifter Sea King, on whom she hung certain hopes.

The three miles back to the castle took her less than ten minutes to gallop. In fact, she felt certain that it could take even less time than that if she willed it.

The morning air was still relatively cool, and it dried her dark chestnut fur. She was glad to find that her horse fur matched her human hair color. At the edge of the palm forest, she stopped and concentrated hard on her human form. Slowly, she felt her horse form shaking and changing. Her hands looked normal. Her feet were no longer hooves, and her work dress was back, but it looked cleaner and in better repair than she remembered it. Perhaps her form was based on the image in her mind’s eye. She felt her face and was relieved to find her normal features. Anna finger-combed her long chestnut hair and twisted it up into a bun, leaving its natural curls to hold it in place.

She walked the rest of the way up to the Crimson Court drawbridge.

To her great relief, Captain Beaujean himself was on duty.

“Mr. Beaujean,” she called from across the moat. “Please let me in.”

The man looked at her, but she could not read his expression at that distance.

“Anna?”

“Yes, I went for a walk because I could not sleep.”

“How did you get across the moat?”

“I swam.”

This was followed by several seconds of consternation and silence on the part of Captain Beaujean.

Finally, he said, “I’m sorry, I cannot let you in without checking.”

Anna sat on the bank to wait. The sun felt good on her face, and the grass looked so fresh. Anna had to restrain herself from eating it. She was very, very hungry. She wondered if that was why she had often seen Arion eating apples when he had been the Court’s secret resident Water Horse.

Exactly! Or you’ll be tempted to eat your friends. Very inconvenient, said the echo.

Anna pushed it down and watched the high, wispy clouds.

Soon Astra appeared on the battlement with Beaujean.

“Anna, I’m going to come across. But I want you to stay where you are,” she yelled.

Anna stood and nodded her agreement.

Astra approached her cautiously, holding an apple out in front of her.

“Do I look that different?” said Anna, accepting the apple.

“You have an enormous pair of horse ears sprouting from your head,” said Astra without ceremony.

Anna felt the sides of her head and found the oversight. No wonder Beaujean was being so cautious!

Anna mentally pushed the ears down, and she felt them change. Now she had nice, round little human ears, Anna’s ears.

She suddenly felt terribly hungry and began wolfing down the apple.

“Do you have any more of these?” asked Anna. Apple juice was dripping down her chin.

Astra revealed a whole basket of apples that she was carrying. The two sat down on the bank while Anna ate apple after apple.

“I am afraid this is my fault,” said Astra.

“Oh no, it isn’t. I went for a walk and sort of fell in what was left of Arion. Can you reverse it?”

“Do you want it reversed?”

Anna considered.

“Actually, no. I can breathe underwater and I feel, well . . . I suppose I should have been terrified by this transition, but it’s made me feel free? . . . No. Not free . . . powerful. Yes, I think that’s it. I have felt more powerful from its very start and not at all afraid.”

Astra was staring at her as if she was frightened by what she saw.

“Astra, please say something.”

“I overheard you wishing that you could match my son. Anna, understand, I wanted you in the family. I wanted you and Ventus to be happy. So when I heard it, I asked the universe to grant your wish.”

“You what?”

Astra just looked at her for a moment.

“If you like, I can be the first person that you eat,” she finally said.

“I’m never going to eat people, especially not my would-be mother-in-law!”

“You can’t know that. You are immortal now. It may come up eventually.”

“Don’t be absurd! And wait, I am immortal too!”

“Yes, it seems the universe has matched you to Ventus perfectly, but in the worst way possible.”

“Do you think he will hate me?”

“Certainly,” said the echo.

“You have a long time to bring him round. It will take a lot of not eating or menacing people,” said Astra.

“I have no interest in eating or harassing sentient beings!”

“Then you will be the first of your kind,” said Astra.

“I think I will be. I have exchanged my throne of bones for one of bread.”

“Anna, you have always had a fun figurative way of putting things, but this will take more than awkward metaphors.”

“No, I mean I broke the Each-Uisge throne, a big horrible thing made of human and Mer bones. And when I got done clearing up the mess, there was a throne made of bread in its place.”

“That is not only impossible, it is absurd.”

“Do you know what it means?”

“I have no idea, but I think I can find someone to ask. If you are sure you will not eat anyone, I will tell Beaujean to allow you in.”

“I promise that apples are better than people. Can I eat regular food too, or is it just horse food and sentient beings?”

“You can eat everything,” said the echo voice, just as Astra was confirming the same thing.

When they reached their quarters back by the kitchens, Heddi launched herself at her mother.

“I missed you so much! And look, I made a kite with Astra,” said Heddi.

At eight years of age, Heddi was taking all the changes in stride. In the last several months, Heddi had been exiled to a remote lighthouse, met and rescued a mermaid, learned to swim, then been rapidly catapulted back into the royal family through some truly absurd legal precedents, survived two attempts on her life, and renounced her claim to the Crimson Throne.

All in all, Anna was very glad that she was still excited about kites.

“Would you like me to take you down to the beach to fly it in a little bit?” asked Anna.

“I would! I would!” said Heddi.

“You’ll need to talk with Mr. Rigg first,” said Astra. “I will go attempt to wake him.”

Anna combed Heddi’s golden ringlets while Astra tried to wake the lawyer.

The red marks from Arion’s sticky web were still visible on Heddi’s face. Anna wondered if her hair could be woven into such a nasty weapon. She resolved never to cut it, just in case.

“Mom, you look prettier than usual. Is that a new dress?” said Heddi.

“No, my dear, but you may be noticing something else.”

Anna gave Heddi the least disturbing rendition of her Water Horse transformation that she could.

“But wasn’t Uncle Arion also a Water Horse?” asked Heddi.

Heddi put her hands over the marks that Arion’s cruel sticky net had left on her face.

“Yes, but I am not that kind. And even if I was, I would never hurt you. Remember how much Uncle Arion loves your cousin Eliza and how well he protects her.”

The little girl relaxed, but then wrinkled her nose. “Is Uncle Arion dead?”

“Define dead,” said the echo.

“Yes, my dear, he cannot hurt you,” said Anna.

Anna pulled Heddi over to the mirror with her, and then she concentrated on her ears. Soon Heddi was rolling with laughter as Anna popped her horse ears up and then let them transform back into human ears over and over again.

Mr. Rigg came in and caught the last round of ear transformations. He was still in his dressing gown.

“Well, Mrs. Fitzsimmons, you really have embraced your inner horse. Have you felt any strong inclination to make any bargains with people yet?”

“No, was that an Arion feature or a Water Horse thing?”

“It’s hard to tell. Arion’s predecessor was the first Water Horse I have heard of who was a compulsive bargain maker. He may have learned it from him.”

“Arion was not the original Each-Uisge?”

“Oh, my no. He likely got stuck with the gig the same way you did. Astra said you stepped in some Arion residue?”

“Yes, that is the gist of it.”

Anna then related her whole adventure, including the bread throne and the piles of sorted jewels from the bones, to Mr. Rigg.

He took notes in a small notebook with an equally small pencil that he produced from his dressing gown pocket.

“Well, that is certainly interesting. You think the bones from the old throne were wearing the jewels?”

“Yes, I think when the Each-Uisge killed each person, he made their bones part of that throne, and the jewels just stayed with them.”

“As your legal counsel, I advise you to return those jewels to the next of kin as soon as you can identify them. Keeping them most certainly comes with hidden consequences.”

Anna nodded, but she had no idea how she would track down the owners’ families or even how she would broach the subject of how she came by the jewels if she could.

“Also, you must not make even the simplest of deals without consulting me. And for the love of God, don’t use phrases like ‘I shall not rest . . .’ or ‘Death take me unless I . . .’ when making bargains. We all saw how that put an end to Arion.”

Anna nodded her agreement to his legal help.

“I hope I shall not make any bargains, and Mr. Rigg, you don’t seem the least bit concerned that I will eat anyone. I appreciate that.”

“Oh, do not worry, my dear, I do murder trials too,” said Rigg cheerfully. “Now I must be off to get dressed.”

Anna was not comforted by his cheer.

She returned to the mirror to braid Heddi’s hair. In the reflection, she kept catching motion behind them, but when she’d turn to look, there was nothing. It made her uneasy enough that she wanted to get out of the room.

“May we go fly your kite now, Heddi?” she said.

“Let’s go!” said Heddi.