Snow White by Jenni James

the stable lad toward the kingdom’s borders.
    Afterward, he went in search of his mother. When she could not be found in her rooms, he allowed the exhaustion and stress of the past twenty-four hours to descend upon him. Maybe now would be a good time to relax for a bit and catch up on his sleep. He could deal with his mother later.
    As he walked up the corridor to his quarters, he could actually feel the fatigue settling upon him like a thick, warm blanket. Every step he took seemed slower and heavier than the last. He must have been much more tired than he imagined. Stumbling into his rooms, he fell upon his bed. Curling up within the blue-and-silver duvet, he snuggled into his pillow and promptly fell asleep.
    A few moments later, there was a loud pounding upon his door. “Corlan! Allow me entrance at once!” his mother shrieked on the other side.
    He jolted upward, amazed at how dark his room was. How long had he slept? Groggy, his brain could not fathom the time difference. It felt only a few seconds had passed, but it must have been hours.
    “Corlan!” she shouted again. “Are you in there? Johnson said you have been in there all night, but if you have not been, I shall hang him as well as everyone else in this house! Now answer me!”
    “I am here,” he croaked. “I need a minute to sort myself, Mother. You have woken me up.”
    “It is well I have! I am not pleased at all.”
    Oh, great heavens. She has found a mirror . He groaned as he rubbed his face and slipped out of bed. What should he do? And then he grinned. It served her right, really. She needed to know how he truly felt about all this.
    He straightened his rumpled clothing and opened the door. Melantha’s hideous features caused him to jolt a bit in fright. He had forgotten how awful she really looked. “Yes?” he asked.
    “Follow me,” she commanded and then turned sharply on her heel.
    Corlan closed the door and walked the length of the castle to her rooms. She flicked at her few balding wisps of hair as if they were indeed thick and flowing as he came to her door. When he entered, he heard the click of the lock and tried unsuccessfully to keep the feeling of fear at bay. What would she do to him now? How many more people would she try to make him kill?
    He swallowed and pressed his lips together.
    “Come to the mirror, Corlan, dear,” she commanded. “I have something I wish to show you.”
    Bracing himself for the worst, he walked to the mirror and stood beside her.
    “Mirror! Show yourself to my son.”
    Green smoke began to pour out of the frame and then a man’s face appeared before them.
    “Mirror, mirror on the wall,
    Thou claimed I would become fairest of all.
    Tell me, my mirror, at this time,
    Is the title of ‘fairest’ truly mine?”
    Corlan flinched at the eerie-sounding voice that came from the man. It was a sound he was not familiar with, but it had great distinction in its depths, a commanding yet shivering sort of tone.
    “My fair queen, an injustice has been served. You believed your son to be true to your wishes, but I am to tell you that Snow White lives on. She is in a cottage with seven goodly fairies, being pampered and cared for as she has always been. Your son has played a devious trick upon you, for he has given you the heart of a pig to partake of its beauty. You, my fair queen, are fair no longer.”
    “What? Show me what I look like. Show me now!”
    “I cannot. I can only reflect how you wish to see yourself and not who you truly are.”
    She turned to Corlan. “What did you do to me? Can you see my true features?”
    He nodded.
    “And have you made your mother hideous?”
    “You wanted me to kill Snow! You wanted to eat her heart! You wanted her beauty for yourself and I am supposed to allow such a thing? Mother, can you even hear the words coming from your mouth? Can you process what you have truly become? I have only allowed you to show how repulsive you have become. You cannot hide what is