Night Dancers

NIGHT DANCERS

~ by Cordites Tun

There once was an assimar king of Tucalyos (the Long Isle) who had twelve beautiful children. The oldest princess was nineteen and the youngest prince was ten. They slept in twelve beds all in large bedchamber of the top floor of the palace, with another small chamber at one end, for a governess to sleep in. When the children went to bed, the chamber was locked up; the doors were shut tight and windows shuttered. However, every morning their shoes were found to be quite worn through as if they had been danced in all night. Nobody in the palace could find out how it happened. There was no exits to the chamber. Nobody knew where the princes and princesses had been each night.
So the king made it known to all the land that if any person of Tucalyos could discover the secret and find out where it was that the princes and princesses danced in the night, they would have chose one of the princes or princesses they liked best to wed, and would rule along side them after the king’s death. However, the king threatened whoever tried and did not succeed, after three days and nights, would be put to death.
A son of a noble elf came. Like the others who had tried. he was well entertained, and in the evening was taken to the chamber next to the one where the princes and princesses lay in their twelve beds. There he was told to sit and watch how they exited and where they went to dance. He was certain that nothing could happen without him hearing it, the door of his chamber was left open. He had his guards placed outside the palace. But the lad soon fell asleep; as did his guards. In the morning, when he awoke in the morning he found that the princes and princesses had all been dancing, for the soles of their shoes were worn threw in places.
The same thing happened the second and third night, and so the king ordered his head to be cut off.
After him came several others; but they all had the same luck, and all lost their lives in the same way.

Now it happened that a naga soldier, of moderate means, who had been wounded in battle and could fight no longer, travelled to Tucalyos where this assimar king reigned. The female naga was looking for somewhere to settle. As she was travelling through a wood, she met an old man, who asked her where she was headed.
“I hardly know where I am going. I seek a nicer life. I not know what I shall do.” said the soldier. “Yet, I think I would like to find out where it is that the princes and princesses dance, and then in time I might be a queen.”
“Well,” said the old man, “that is not a very hard task for the wise. Only take care not to drink any of the wine which one of the king’s children will bring to you in the evening. As soon as they leave you pretend to fall into a deep sleep.”
Then he gave her a dark cloak, and said, “As soon as you put this on, you will become invisible. You will then be able to follow the princes and princesses wherever they do go.” When the soldier heard all this good advice, she was determined to try her luck, so she went to the king, and said she was willing to undertake the task.
She was as well received as the others had been, and the king ordered fine royal robe to be given her; and when the evening came she was led to the outer chamber.
Just as she was going to lie down, the eldest of the princesses brought her a goblet of wine; which he took politely. However, when the princess looked away for a moment, the soldier threw it all away secretly, taking care not to drink a drop. Then she laid herself down on the bed, yawning, and in a little while began to snore very loudly as if she was in a deep sleep.
When the twelve princes and princesses in the next chamber heard this they laughed heartily. The eldest said, “This one too might have done a wiser thing than lose her life in such a way!” Then they all rose and opened their drawers and boxes, and took out all their finest clothes, and dressed themselves at the mirrors, and skipped about as if they were eager to begin a night of dancing.
But the youngest prince said, “I feel ill at ease, yet I know not why. While you are so happy I feel very tense; I am sure some mishap will befall us.”
“You young one worry too much,” said the eldest princess, “you are always so cautious. Have you forgotten how many have already watched from that chamber in vain? And as for this soldier, even if I had not given her the sleeping draught, she would slept soundly enough, unaware.”
When they were all ready, they each took a turn to look in on the soldier. But she snored on, and did not stir hand or foot; so they thought they were quite safe. The eldest prince was the one who ushered the youngest children out of the chamber; before they could get into mischief.
Then the eldest princess went up to her own bed and whispered a few words, and the bed rose up into the air and a spiralling portal of greens opened in the stone floor. The soldier with eyes half opened, and saw them going down through the portal, one after another; the eldest princess leading the way. The went in age order. Thinking there was no time to lose, the soldier jumped up, put on the cloak which the old man had given her, and followed them.
However, in the middle of the stairs she trod on the end of the robe of the youngest prince, and he cried out to his siblings, “All is not right; someone took hold of my robe.”
“Come now, young one” said the eldest prince, “it is nothing but a nail in the wall.” Down the princesses and princes all went, and at the bottom they found themselves in a most delightful grove of trees. The leaves were all of silver, and glittered and sparkled beautifully. The soldier wished to take away some token of the place; so she broke off a tiny branch, and there came a loud noise from the tree.
Then the youngest prince said again, “I am sure all is not right. Did not you hear that noise? That never happened before.”
But the eldest prince said, “It is only our dance partners, who are shouting for joy at our approach.”
They came to another grove of trees, where all the leaves were of gold; and afterwards to a third, where the leaves were all glittering diamonds. And the soldier broke a branch from each; and every time there was a loud noise, which made the youngest prince tremble with fear. But the eldest prince still said it was only their dance partners, who were crying for joy.
They went on a while until they came to a great lake. At the side of the lake there lay twelve little boats with a rower and a fey dance partner in each one, who seemed to be waiting there for the princes and princesses.
Each of the princes and princesses went into each of the boats. The soldier hurried, and stepped into the same boat as the youngest prince. As they were rowing over the lake, the rower who was in the boat with the youngest prince and his dance partner said, “I do not know why it is, but though I am rowing with all my might we do not have a speed to keep ahead of the other other boats as we usually do. I am quite tired; the boat seems very heavy today.” The soldier tried to shift her own weight to help.
“It is only the heat of the weather,” said the pretty dance partner, ” I am very warm, too.”
In the centre of the lake stood an elegant, illuminated exterior arched danced area, covered in lovely flowers and from which came the merry music of harps and trumpets. There they all landed, and went through the closest archway. The stars glistened above. Each dance partner took the hand of a princess or prince. They danced merrily.
The soldier, who was still invisible, watched and slowly joined in the dancing. When any of the princes or princesses had a golden goblet of drink set by them, the soldier tipped it out, so that when they put the goblet to their mouth it was empty. At that, too, the youngest prince was terribly frightened, but the eldest prince always silenced his young brother.
They danced on into the early hours of the morning, and when all their shoes were worn out, they were obliged to leave. The fey dance partners travelled back across the lake with them. The rowers leading the boats easily across. This time the soldier placed herself in the boat with the eldest prince. The rower mentioned nothing of the extra weight in the boat. On the opposite shore the dance partners bowed and kisses each cheek of their companion. The princes and princesses promising to come again the next night.
When they came to the stairs, the soldier ran on before the princess and princes. She stepped through the portal and removed the cloak. Lying down, she returned to pretending to snore.
As the twelve, tired brothers and sisters slowly came up, they heard her snoring in her bed and they said, “Now all is quite safe”. Then they changed themselves into nightwear, put away their fine clothes, pulled off their worn shoes, drank the water left out for them, and went to bed.
In the morning the soldier said nothing about what had happened, instead was determined to see more of this strange adventure, and went again on the second and then the third night. Everything happened just as before; the princes and princesses danced till their shoes were worn to pieces, and then returned home. Each time, it was the youngest prince who noticed the soldier’s unseen presence, and the oldest of the princes who calmed him.
On the second night, the soldier also hid any food served to the princesses and princes. They were thirsty and hungry when they returned to their own palace. Returning to their bedchamber, they all ate and drank heartily.
On the third night the soldier carried away one of the golden goblets as a token of where she had been; hidden in the cloak. She carefully collect water from the lake inside the goblet.
As soon as the time came when she was to declare the secret, the naga soldier was taken before the assimar king with the three branches and the golden goblet; and the twelve princes and princesses stood listening behind the door to hear what she would say.

The king asked her, “Where do my twelve children dance at night?”
The soldier answered, “They enter the Feywild, to meet with twelve fey dance partners.” And then she told the king all that had happened, and showed him the three branches and the golden goblet containing lake water, which she had brought with her.
The king called for the princes and princesses, and asked them whether what the soldier said was true. They at first did not speak. Then the youngest prince said, “I told you things were not quite right.”
They all realised they had been discovered, and that it was of no use to deny what had happened, so they confessed it all.
So the king asked the naga soldier which of the princes or princesses she would choose to wed. She answered, “I am not very young, so I will choose your eldest son, if he will have me.”
They were married that very next day, and the soldier was chosen to be the king's heir, along side the eldest prince.