Princess Snow and the Empress

13: A Rock & A Tree

The cottage was silent save for the soft snipping of scissors, the rustle of leaves being brushed across the wooden table, and a kettle boiling over the cooking fire.

"Bad dream again?" Fourth Brother asked from the other side of the pile of herbs on the table when Snow stifled a yawn.

It was just the two of them that morning. The rest of the dwarves had woken up before dawn, chastised Sixth Brother for being unnecessarily superstitious over an owl, eaten their breakfast and left early to forage in the mountains.

Snow blew a stray strand of hair out of her face and took a sip of her tea. "It wasn't the usual." She picked up her scissors to work at the seams of an old jacket in her lap.

As much as she appreciated Seventh Brother's optimism in hunting a tiger, she did not want to impose too much on them. She figured she could make a winter cloak for herself out of the old jackets and clothes she found in a cupboard at the back of the cottage. As luck would have it, the dwarves had found scissors, needle and thread in a wooden box while foraging in the forest. They could not sew very well, or even thread the needle with their failing eyesight, so Snow would patch up or darn the holes in their clothes for them.

"How did you find these random things in the woods?" She held up the scissors shaped like a heron with a long bill. The mirror that the dwarves found the night before rested against the wall near the door.

"Must have fallen off carts or something. People fleeing to the border come through the valley near here."

"They do? Why are people fleeing the Kingdom?"

"Famine? Drought? Persecution? I don't know," he shrugged. "It wasn't like this before. All these years of living here, and we've hardly seen a soul. We've seen more people in the past couple of years than all the previous years combined."

Snow held up one side of the threadbare garment. It looked like a child's coat to her. She was going to have to cut up many jackets to make her cloak. 

"What did Eldest Brother mean about the herbs not fetching much these days?" she asked.

"He meant exactly what he said. Things are just so expensive in the villages. We used to be able to buy three bags of rice. Three! Now we can only afford one. Don't even mention meat, we can only dream of eating a scrawny chicken these days. I don't know how the villagers survive like this."

"Why? What do you mean?" She glanced over at Fourth Brother who gave her a cautious look.

"I don't want to say it too loudly. You know, they say she can see everything and hear everything that's been said–"

"Who? The Emp–"

"Shhh! Don't mention her!"

"Oh, come now!"

He held a short finger up near his mouth. "Let's just say that the farmers have to grow more and reap more. Or else, after she" – he made a sweeping gesture that curved towards him – "there'll be nothing left."

Snow stared at him. The Empress decked out in all her finery appeared in her mind. She wondered how did the Empress fund the numerous lavish banquets she held for court officials and military officials. Rumor was that the Empress had entertained them with huge jars of wine and a never-ending stream of food coming from the royal kitchens. 

The late Emperor hated corruption and did all he could to stamp it out. Bribery was a grave offense – his ministers could not accept even a single gift. Those who lined their own pockets with money taken from the Kingdom's subjects faced the executioner's sword. Her father had practiced frugality – rationing even the coal his harem could use during winter. The Empress obviously practiced the opposite, judging by the gold and jade rings on her office-bearers' fingers and their rounded bellies.