Free The Flight of the Golden Bird by Duncan Williamson

woman,” he said, “tell me!”
    She says, “Your sons the princes have never left the palace.”
    “Well, woman, go find them! Why do ye keep me in such suspense? Go find them, bring them back – so that my little girl can see them!”
    She says, “Husband, it’s not within my power tae bring them back.”
    “Well, where are they, where are they? If you know so much – tell me!”
    She says, “They’re in the pond in the palace garden –
twelve white swans.”
    The king said, “Twelve white swans in the garden are my
sons
– that my little girl wants?”
    “Yes, that’s where they are,” she said. I went to my old friend the henwife, who works in her magical powers, and I got a potion to turn them into swans because I didn’t want to… all these years I’ve enjoyed their company… they are swans but they’re still my sons!”
    He says, “Woman, you have deceived me!”
    She says, “I haven’t deceived ye; wouldn’t it be worse if you’d sent them all into the world to be killed, off into battle, fighting somewhere? I knew where they were all the time.”
    “Well,” he said, “tomorrow you must bring them back!”
    Oh, the queen and the princess the next morning, true to their word, they made their way to the old henwife once more. The old henwife by this time was getting very old and frail because many years had passed, and when the queen came in she barely recognised the old woman. But they came in and they sat down.
    The old henwife says, “What brings you now, my queen? What is it you really need this time?”
    She says, “I want my sons back.”
    And the old henwife said, “It’s a hard task ye’re giving me... there’s nothing I can do.”
    “There must be
something
,” she said, “ye can do. There must be something you can do!”
    “There’s nothing
I
can do,” the old woman said; there’s nothing
you
can do, but there’s something that the
princess
can do if she wants tae do it.”
    “And what would that be?” says the queen.
    “Well,” says the old woman, there’s only one thing she can do, but it’s a hard task she’s got to perform: she must go into the churchyard at the hour of ten o’clock, and within two hours she must make twelve shirts from the stingy nettles that grow in the churchyard; and she’s only got two hours to do it. She’s tae use the stingy nettles, spin them with a spinning wheel and make them into twelve shirts before the clock strikes twelve, and throw them over the twelve white swans.”
    “I’ll do it, Mummy,” says the princess. “I’ll do anything in the world!”
    So the queen said, “To help you out, I’ll get some o’ the men to gather the nettles for ye.”
    “Now,” says the old henwife before they leave, “she’ll be disturbed during her work making these shirts, because this particular night that I give her the power to bring her brothers back… is also the night of the Harpies!”
    And the queen says,
    “What are Harpies?”
    “Well, Harpies,” says the old henwife, “are birds with human faces. And they’ll come, they’ll start digging in the graveyard for bodies. They won’t come near the princess because she’s alive. They only go after the dead... but if the princess gets one fright, the spell’ll be broken for ever and she’ll never see her brothers again!”
    Fair enough. So, back they went to the palace. The queen sent some workers to gather all the nettles. It had to be the churchyard nettles, no other would do; the nettles that grew in the old churchyard where they buried everybody.
    All the nettles are gathered and heaped in the corner of the yard. Ten o’clock the princess walks down with a spinning wheel and she starts. She spins the nettles and starts making shirts. She works hard, she never stops. But all of a sudden she hears a flap o’ wings coming, women’s faces, long hair – they’re scratching the earth with their nails for people that are new-buried. And they’re throwing bags o’