some some tales get lost over time They fall through the cracks of pavements or are washed out into the ocean But some child playing on the street or digging in the sand will catch sight of a story gleaming like a chip of old china or lost silver They will pick it up hold it to the light and never rest until they have experienced every moment Perhaps you are one such child
CHAPTER ONE A Girl and Her Brothers There There were once eleven brothers without a mother Her last gift to them was a baby sister whom she named Eliza which means joyful Because their father the King of the North was a busy man it was up to the princes to wipe their little sister's tears and bandage her cuts and bumps The king's every spare moment was taken up with a plague that was sweeping through his eleven kingdoms It was the same illness that had taken his beloved wife In the streets beyond the palace fires blazed People were tossing the blankets and clothes of the sick into the flames to try to burn away the disease Sometimes as the princes ran through the lines of trees and long gardens of the palace bits of black ash blew over the wall like clouds of flies For their own safety none of the king's children were allowed outside the palace walls
A Girl and Her Brothers The king often said One day boys you will rule the Eleven Kingdoms of the North Study The brothers read and read marching back and forth through the gardens to learn everything by heart But the youngest brother clowned and cartwheeled behind them As she grew Eliza loved him best He could imitate the trill of a swallow perfectly If she fell in a puddle he would whisk her up saying Little sister Can't resist her Let's assist her home and dry Eliza enjoyed reading even more than her brothers The story she loved most was about a fairy queen called Fata Morgana She had hair as dark as the night and eyes as bright as the stars With her magic spindle Fata Morgana wove the threads of people's lives the threads that connect each of us to one another
