Free The Flight of the Golden Bird by Duncan Williamson Page A

earth, they’re hunting for bodies and they’re digging and they’re digging and digging. They’re squawking and they’re screeching, they’re skreeking at her, looking at her, and she’s carrying on, spinning away. She never pays any attention to them for nearly one hour and a half. And she’s working hard, working hard, and they’re hopping around with their evil faces, their evil grins; they’re tearing up the bodies from the graves. They’re eating them, they’re squawking and fighting like a lot o’ vultures over the bodies, and they’re sharing bones and tearing hair and everything.
    And the princess just stood there and spun away, paid no attention. And she worked hard and worked hard! Then all in a moment – twelve o’clock – she had twelve shirts, but one sleeve wasn’t finished when the clock struck twelve. The Harpies disappeared as fast as they came.
    She gathered up the shirts, she ran down to the palace into the garden round to the little lake, she waded into the pond to her waist. And one by one she put a shirt over every swan’s head till she came to the last one. And as she put a shirt over each head, a young man walked out, a tall, handsome young man walked out of the water and stood in the bankway: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven – till she came to the last one. But the last shirt had only one sleeve. When she placed it over, he walked out of the pond, off the little lake into the garden. Lo and behold, there stood the twelve young princes and one of them had a wing. One had a swan’s wing, a white wing.
    The princess was delighted. She cuddled them, kissed them,took them all up to the palace. And the king who had forgiven the queen now saw that his daughter was happy, was overjoyed. He turned to the queen, said, “Woman, it’s a wonderful thing you’ve done.” The boys were no older; they never got old, the swans. They were just young – the way they were from the minute they were put in there. “It’s a wonderful thing you’ve done,” he said to the queen, “but what’s gaunna happen to him?” The youngest was left with a wing instead of an arm.
    The princess loved him more than the rest; she loved him best because he was next to her, he was the youngest. They sat down and she told the story. And the boys felt very bad about their father, but they loved their mother. They all came and kissed their mother, they forgave her for what she did. But they never forgave their father.
    And the princess said, “We shall have tae find a way to get my brother’s wing away and bring back his arm.”
    After many days of feasting and rejoicing at the palace the princess began to enjoy the company of her brothers. They hunted and shot and fished and did everything together, and she really loved to be with them. The king, who saw that the princess was happy, was overjoyed. Now he had his sons back and he had his daughter, who was happy for ever and just the radiant beautiful little girl she ever was.
    But the queen felt sad and the king felt kind of guilty when he saw the youngest brother, who very rarely spoke and never did much because he had a wing, and he always kept it hidden under a cloak. And if the princess ever had any time to spare she spent it with him.
    But one day she said to her mother, “Mother, this just can’t go on. We’ll have to find a way tae get my brother’s arm back.”
    “Well, says the queen, we’ve asked so many favours off the old henwife, and she’s getting an auld woman now; I just hate going back tae her so many times.”
    “Well, Mother,” she says, “there’s only one thing we can do – we must, for wir brother’s sake!”
    So the princess and the queen visited the old henwife once more. They landed back, and lo and behold, the old henwife was happy to see them. They sat down and talked for a wee while and she said, “What’s yir trouble this time? I hear you’ve got yir sons back once