The Shoes that were danced to pieces

The trees were made of pure silver. Actual precious metals curled into thin branches and sturdy trunks. Their leaves shone under the faint light of the moon and from the lone candle held by the eldest sister. 

The soldier crept behind the concession of siblings, who were all dressed in their finest ball attire. His worn leather boots scuffed loudly behind the soft, silk dancing shoes that the twelve princesses wore. For princesses of considerable wealth, he thought, its odd that all their shoes are worn to pieces! He tried to lighten his steps anyway—he mustn’t get caught.  Of course, this was made easier because of the cloak he wore, which made him invisible. 

The soldier stopped to twist off a glistening branch of fine silver. He pocketed the evidence. 

“Did you hear that?” The youngest sister asked from the back of the line. 

Her sisters peered back at the seemingly empty forest and shook their heads.

“You’re being silly. There is no one there.” 

For hours the traveling party and their unknown guest continued down this winding path. To the soldier’s amazement, the silver forest eventually morphed into one of a brilliant gold, and then into a dazzling array of diamonds. The old veteran couldn’t quite believe what he was seeing, and at each interval he carefully collected a different precious material. 

“Did you hear that? I think someone is following us.” Said the youngest princesses every time he did this. Her sisters again dismissed her concern. 

“You’re being silly. We are alone, the old soldier drank our poisoned wine and is fast asleep right now.” 

The forest of gemstones ended quite abruptly at the edge of a lake.

“It’s just across the lake now,” one sister called back softly.

There waited twelve boats with twelve handsome princes. Ahead of the lake stood an elegant castle with turrets spiraling into the sky. Music could be heard playing from inside. This must be where they danced! 

He could guess by now that if everything went according to plan, he would be a prince himself quite soon… 

Only two days before, he was limping down a dirty alley and assessing whether he would have to start begging for money or food soon. Having been released from the war months before due to an injury, he had almost nothing left to sell off. 

It hadn’t been so bad at first, but after his release he looked for work. Nobody needed a farmhand during the dry season and no store could afford to have him apprentice or clean. It was wartime, after all. 

A few weeks after bargaining off his last family heirloom for a considerably low price and getting kicked out of the boarding house he was renting a bed in, he simply walked out of his small town and kept walking. 

He’d reached the capital in hopes of there being work for an old war hero like himself. No such luck. So here he was, contemplating begging like an old wench. 

And that’s when he read the notice that changed his life.

On the cobblestone wall, a notice from the king was scrawled in large print. It explained the competition for one of his daughters’ hand in marriage, if anyone—from any station!— could find out where they went at night to dance. 

Well that is not such a hard task!

Oh, what a dream. He was not foolish enough to believe that he, a common soldier, would be victorious. There was always politics at play. But perhaps they would feed him before they turned him away. 

“Interested in that competition, are you?” Behind him was an old woman, bent over a cane. 

“Yes, I would say that I am. So that I might wed a princess and become king one day.” He said. 

“Well that is not so difficult a task.”
“How do you mean?” 

“First use this,” The woman said, and gave him a cloak that would make him invisible to the rest of the world. Wow! How completely unexpected yet not so out of the ordinary that it warrants any further comment. 

The old woman leaned forward, “And take care not to drink any of the wine the princess will bring you in the evening; and as soon as she leaves pretend to be fast asleep.” 

And so the soldier went to the palace, as this seemed like very good advice. He bargained his life—for if he failed for three nights in a row he would be killed. 

There, he was dressed in fine robes and dined in luxury. The King accepted his request to compete for marriage, but told him of a young prince who tried his luck before. The young prince had failed to figure out where the princesses danced, and awoke confused and disoriented every morning. On the third morning, he was killed—as this was the rule of the trial.
The prince took this warning seriously, but was armed with the old woman’s cloak and her sound advice. 

Although they lived in a luxurious and spacious castle, all twelve sisters shared a single room with twelve beds—which made perfect sense to him. The old soldier was given an adjacent room to conduct his investigation. He settled in for the night, alert. 

He would not fail. 

Here he was, sailing across the lake to the ball. The youngest sister was quite on edge by now, as he had climbed into their boat and again she wondering if someone was following them. 

“I’m not sure why I am having so much trouble rowing tonight. It seems much heavier.” The prince huffed. 

“It must be the heat.” The young princess said, as the soldier was under the invisibility cloak. 

When they reached the shore, the soldier stepped deftly off the boat after them. They were all welcomed into the castle where a hoard of ladies and gentlemen were dancing. 

Through the night the sisters glided and spun with their princes. The old solider stood against a wall in his cloak, watching everything. 

Just before the sun came up, the eldest sister gathered the other dancing princesses. 

“We must get home before the soldier wakes up!”
The old soldier realized that the princesses were talking about him—as he was supposed to be sleeping in bed, drugged by their wine. 

So after he travelled across the lake he raced ahead of the sisters, all the way through the forest of diamonds, gold, and silver to the staircase that led to their room. The soldier climbed up the stairs as he had done earlier in the evening and appeared through the trap door to the princesses’ room. Their bed covers were still rumpled as they had been when he had left, through the secret door when they thought he was asleep—which was only hours ago but now seemed very distant. 

The old veteran hurried into his adjacent room. 

On his bed was the plate of food and the empty wine glass that the eldest princess brought to him the night before, which he had poured in a nearby plant. 

As the old woman had suggested, the soldier accepted but did not dare drink anything that they gave him. Instead, he accepted the drink and disposed of it, and then pretended to doze off. The soldier could still remember his beating heart as the sisters checked on him, making sure he was fast asleep before they began their journey the night before. 

He replaced his shoes by his door so that nothing was amiss, because he had grabbed them in a rush when he had heard the sounds of the princesses’ departing through the trapdoor. 

Once the princesses returned, he feigned sleep. In the late morning, after the princesses had checked that he was still safely in his bed, he awoke from a nap and decided to tell the King. 

The soldier produced the evidence; the branches of silver, gold, and diamonds. 

The King was baffled, and confronted his eldest daughter, who admitted that this was indeed where they went to dance each night. 

“Then, it is only fair, that this brave soldier gets one of the princesses’ hand in marriage. Tell me, who will it be?” The King said. 

Now the soldier was not too young himself, so he decided that the best match would be with the eldest daughter.
“I choose the eldest princess,” the old soldier said. Coincidentally, he was now marring the eldest child, and therefore heir to the throne. 

And so the princess and the soldier were married, and they danced together at their wedding the following week. Around and around they glided and spun on the dance floor, his future now solidly made. The old veteran would now become king.