The Six Swan Brothers (3 page)

When the baby was born, everything that happened twice before, happened again. This time, the Prince had to believe his mother and he condemned Cora to death. She would be burned at the stake, he told her, weeping, because that was the customary punishment for witches.

As the time for the execution drew near, Cora went to the cedar-wood chest in her bedchamber and unfolded the starwort shirts that she had made. She carried them as she went to the stake,
and
all who saw her wondered at the strange garments that filled her arms as she walked. Cora thought of nothing but her brothers, and she closed her eyes and prayed for a miracle.

Then, all at once the air was filled with the sound of beating wings, and the crowd looked up and saw six white swans flying overhead. Down and down they fluttered to where Cora was standing, and they surrounded her in a cloud of feathers. Cora took a shirt and covered the first swan, and as she did so, the bird's neck shrank and shrank, and its head grew and grew and soon a man stood before her. She did the same with the other shirts she had woven, and there all at once were her six beloved brothers: complete men but for the youngest who, because she had not woven the left sleeve of the sixth shirt, still had one swan wing. Cora cried out with joy and her brothers kissed her and held her in their arms and rejoiced in their new human forms.

‘You have saved us, little sister,' they said. ‘You have saved us with your silence, and now your own life is in danger. Speak. Tell your husband everything.'

Cora said: ‘My heart is singing to see you again, my brothers, and you, my dear husband, must now know the truth, which I could not speak before.'

She turned to the Old Queen and pointed at her. ‘You took my children from me and murdered them. You are the wickedest of women.'

‘No, no,' cried the Old Queen. ‘How could I murder my own grandchildren? They are living in a cottage beyond the forest.'

The Prince spoke sadly: ‘You may not have murdered them, Mother, but you were willing to stand by and see my wife go to her death. You will perish instead of her.'

And so the Old Queen was burned at the stake, and Cora's children were brought back to the
palace
and lived happily there for many years, listening over and over again to the story of the six swans. They knew that it was true, because the youngest of their uncles still had one wide, white wing hidden under his cloak.