PodCastle

* Author : E. Nesbit
* Narrator : Jen R. Albert
* Host : Summer Fletcher
* Audio Producer : Peter Adrian Behravesh
*
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From Edith Nesbit’s classic collection The Book of Dragons, which is in the public domain. You can find the whole thing here.


The Island of the Nine Whirlpools
by Edith Nesbit
The dark arch that led to the witch’s cave was hung with a black-and-yellow fringe of live snakes. As the Queen went in, keeping carefully in the middle of the arch, all the snakes lifted their wicked, flat heads and stared at her with their wicked, yellow eyes. You know it is not good manners to stare, even at Royalty, except of course for cats. And the snakes had been so badly brought up that they even put their tongues out at the poor lady. Nasty, thin, sharp tongues they were too.
Now, the Queen’s husband was, of course, the King. And besides being a King he was an enchanter, and considered to be quite at the top of his profession, so he was very wise, and he knew that when Kings and Queens want children, the Queen always goes to see a witch. So he gave the Queen the witch’s address, and the Queen called on her, though she was very frightened and did not like it at all. The witch was sitting by a fire of sticks, stirring something bubbly in a shiny copper cauldron.
“What do you want, my dear?” she said to the Queen.
“Oh, if you please,” said the Queen, “I want a baby — a very nice one. We don’t want any expense spared. My husband said — ”
“Oh, yes,” said the witch. “I know all about him. And so you want a child? Do you know it will bring you sorrow?”
“It will bring me joy first,” said the Queen.
“Great sorrow,” said the witch.
“Greater joy,” said the Queen.
Then the witch said, “Well, have your own way. I suppose it’s as much as your place is worth to go back without it?”
“The King would be very much annoyed,” said the poor Queen.
“Well, well,” said the witch. “What will you give me for the child?”
“Anything you ask for, and all I have,” said the Queen.
“Then give me your gold crown.”
The Queen took it off quickly.
“And your necklace of blue sapphires.”
The Queen unfastened it.
“And your pearl bracelets.”
The Queen unclasped them.
“And your ruby clasps.”
And the Queen undid the clasps.
“Now the lilies from your breast.”
The Queen gathered together the lilies.
“And the diamonds of your little bright shoe buckles.”
The Queen pulled off her shoes.
Then the witch stirred the stuff that was in the cauldron, and, one by one, she threw in the gold crown and the sapphire necklace and the pearl bracelets and the ruby clasps and the diamonds of the little bright shoe buckles, and last of all she threw in the lilies.
The stuff in the cauldron boiled up in foaming flashes of yellow and blue and red and white and silver, and sent out a sweet scent, and presently the witch poured it out into a pot and set it to cool in the doorway among the snakes.
Then she said to the Queen: “Your child will have hair as golden as your crown, eyes as blue as your sapphires. The red of your rubies will lie on its lips, and its skin will be clear and pale as your pearls. Its soul will be white and sweet as your lilies, and your diamonds will be no clearer than its wits.”
“Oh, thank you, thank you,” said the Queen, “and when will it come?”