A Grim Fairy Tale

Chapter Fifty

Desdemona did not give Vagatha's request to visit Dolores a second thought. She was happy to get that clingy girl out of the castle, and to not have to deal with her constantly demanding her attention. Truthfully, she never wanted children. To her they were just small, needy, screaming little creatures who would never give you a moment's peace and were completely useless. A donkey was more useful than a child.

When she had become pregnant with Vagatha, she had not been radiant or aglow with happiness. She did not feel the warm eagerness of motherhood that most women in such a condition would feel. She felt fat and old and ugly. For nine months, whenever she would see her reflection in a mirror, she would glare down at her swollen belly with sheer contempt and disgust. She saw the unborn child as a parasite who was draining away her youth and beauty with each passing day.

Her first husband Radu had been just the opposite. The very moment he learned that she was with child, he became dewy eyed and rosy cheeked. He used the wood he chopped to make a most lovely cradle, bought the softest wool for Dolores to knit blankets and baby clothes with, and when Dolores was able to use an old gupsy trick to predict that the child was going to be a girl, Radu planted a red rose tree in the garden as a symbol of what that little girl would always be to her father.

"My daughter is going to be the most beautiful little girl in the world." He had said. "As red and pretty as those red roses."

Vagatha had been born in the Summer, when the air was warm and the sun was shining especially bright. Dolores's magic made the birth quick and easy with Desdemona suffering little to no pain at all. But once Desdemona had bore her daughter, she didn't try to hold the infant. She didn't even ask if her child was healthy. She just grabbed her comb and hand mirror off the nightstand, proceeding to correct her appearance which had been messed up by the labor.

Dolores made a disappointed look and then called Radu into the bedroom, handing the newborn to him. Vagatha had not been a quiet baby. As soon as she entered the world, she screamed and cried. Just screamed and cried, wrinkling up her little nose and making her face turn red. But Radu just smiled and cried, holding his precious girl close to him.

"Look at her Dolores." He said gazing down at the child with pure adoration. "Look at her bright red cheeks and those full red lips. I told you that my daughter was going to be as red and pretty as red roses, and she is."

"She is beautiful." Dolores agreed, her face expressing the same amount of pride and adoration for the child that her son in-law had. "But I apologize for the child not being a boy. A know a son is a very important."

"Oh who needs a son?" He joked. "Boys aren't good for anything anyway, I'm proof of that. No, I have a healthy, beautiful, perfect daughter and I couldn't be happier."

But his wife would never be able to see the child's beauty as he could. She could only see her own beauty and no one else's. She would not nurse her child or hold her child or kiss her child. She would just continue to do whatever it took to keep herself young and beautiful. And to keep herself in the position as the most beautiful.

When she was at last given time to herself and to do as she pleased, she went down into the palace kitchen and dropped the heart Striker had given her into the stew pot. The heart was salted and seasoned, served in a hearty broth which she gleefully ate. After that she stole away to her chambers and stood before her magic mirror, saying the usual chant to renew her looks.

"Flesh of thy maiden grant me her youth. Blood of thy maiden grant me her beauty. Death of thy maiden grant me her life."

The mirror secreted the same mist that surrounded her, but nothing changed. She remained looking the same as she did before. Well almost the same. When she looked at her reflection in the glass, she saw a wrinkle appear under her eye and a black strand of hair turn grey.