The Sleeping Beauty (novel)
| Author | Mercedes Lackey |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Series | Tales of the Five Hundred Kingdoms |
| Genre | Fantasy novel |
| Publisher | LUNA Books (Harlequin Enterprises) |
|
Publication date
|
2010 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover |
| Preceded by | The Snow Queen |
| Followed by | Beauty and the Werewolf |
The Sleeping Beauty is a novel by Mercedes Lackey, published in 2010 as the fifth book of the Tales of the Five Hundred Kingdoms series. As in the previous book, The Snow Queen, characters from earlier books are either mentioned or appear as secondary characters
The Sleeping Beauty was written by Mercedes Lackey as the fifth installment in her Tales of the Five Hundred Kingdoms series.
Lily is the godmother to the Kingdom of Eltaria, which is quite wealthy due to its vast number of mines. After its queen dies, Lily takes on the appearance of an evil sorceress, with the name "Sable", and marries its king in name only, so that he won't be trapped into marrying a real evil sorceress and Princess Rosamund won't have a wicked stepmother. However, this doesn't stop the Tradition from focusing on Eltaria, particularly on Rosa, who ends up with two Traditional paths tangled up and directed at her—the Beauty Asleep and Snowskin. While her outer appearance is that of a Sleeping Beauty, Rosa ends up being attacked by the Huntsman and is captured by seven dwarves. However, unlike the ones in the Traditional tale, these dwarves are renegade ones, who shackle a chain about her ankle and turn her into their slave. Godmother Lily locates Rosa, and donning the disguise of an old bee-woman named Maggie, goes to help the Princess. Since there is no way to remove the chain from Rosa short of cutting her foot off or having the dwarves do it, Lily reveals herself and gives Rosa a potion that will simulate death.
Meanwhile, Prince Siegfried of the Kingdom of Drachenthal arrives in Eltaria, with his companion, a Wise Bird. Siegfried is a Hero, but unlike most from his land, he is intelligent and listens to the good advice of the Bird. Seigfried encounters Rosa and plans to awaken her with a kiss, just as Godmother Lily is in the middle of performing an awakening spell. At the same time, another prince, Leopold of Falkenreid also encounters Rosa. The two princes get into a minor fight over who will kiss her, in which time Lily manages to complete the spell right before Leopold wins and tries to kiss Rosa. Rosa recovers from her ordeal and begins training as a Godmother, partly to relieve her boredom.
Unfortunately, King Thurmand dies shortly after, leaving "Queen Sable" as Regent until Rosa turns of age at twenty-one. This means that their enemies will descend on Eltaria, intent on taking over, unless measures can be taken to prevent it. Godmother Lily, however, comes with a plan: for one hundred princes to come and take part in trials to see which one of them will win the hand of the princess. Adventurers are also allowed to take part, however, they are not housed at the castle like the princes. Seigfried and Leopold decide to stay and take part in the trials, and they strike a bargain to help each other through the trials until the last task. The first trial consists of a race on horseback, in full armor, with a break in the middle to herd three sheep into a pen (either doing it yourself, with or without magic, or hiring a shepherd) and line up a dozen eggs without breaking them. Seigfried, who understands the speech of animals, finds out that sheep love clover and bean plants, and gathers some for him and Leopold to use to herd the sheep, while Leopold buys them each a small dustpan and a wooden spoon to deal the eggs.
...
Wikipedia