The Tale of Many Lovers

Dan and Maggie Masterslave sat with their arms tightly clinched around each other's waists, and stared at a dwarf measuring water and herbs into a pot. The dwarf called out, "Tell me a story to pass the time."

"A story, good!" called another.

Dan didn't pay much attention as they told one that got Josh laughing, about two farmers and their pig, and another about some kobolds and a magic rune. He was almost asleep when he heard Antares say, "I will tell the Tale of Many Lovers."

Dan stirred. Hadn't he heard that name before? Masterslave looked up too, and a spark showed in her muddy green eyes. "Let us listen," they said simultaneously. Her words were like a slap, and Dan looked alertly at Antares across the campfire.

In olden times there lived a brother, a sister, and a brother. Some say they were the children of a King and Queen, and some say they were the children of a woodcutter and his wife. However that may be, they grew up healthy and handsome, and when they came of age they imagined joyous lives in front of them. But this was not to be, for all three were unhappy in love.

The first brother took a lovely woman to wife. But in the first year, before they even had a child, she left him for another man. The brother brooded on her betrayal, and decided she had left because the other man was handsomer.

The sister took a good man as her husband. But in the first year, before they even had a child, he caught an illness and slowly withered and died before her eyes, no matter what medicines and charms she used to return him to health. She cursed herself for being too weak to keep him.

The second brother did not marry. He courted a lady and when he thought she loved him he asked for her hand but she spurned him. He courted a different lady and when he thought she loved him he asked for her hand but she also spurned him. He did not understand his failure, and decided women were a troubling mystery.

One day the three of them went for a ride in the woods, and as they rode they lamented their misfortunes. Their hearts were bitter and their words were hot and they lost track of where they were, until their horses whickered and would go no farther. They found themselves deeper in the woods than ever they had ventured, at the edge of a glade they had never seen.

A dwarf sat on a fallen log in the center of the glade. His face was as old and wrinkled as the bark of the trees, and his fingers as twisted and skinny as twigs.

"Nay, it was no dwarf," said one of the dwarves.

"What?" said Antares. "The People have always understood it to be a dwarf."

"It was more likely one of you fairies than a dwarf. But you were telling the story well and I want no quarrel. Call him a kobold or a hobgoblin or somethin'."

"Very well," sighed Antares.

"Those are fine mounts," said the dwa—the kobold. "May I have them?"

"We are sorry, good sir," said the first brother. "But we will need them to reach home before nightfall."

"That will be as it will be," replied the kobold. "But I heard your sad tales as you approached. Boons I can give you to help you find the wives and husband you desire."

"We would like that indeed. But what reward will there be for you?"

"That will be as it will be," replied the kobold again. "Now here are your boons."

To the first brother he said, "You lament losing your wife to a handsomer man. To you I grant the ability to choose a woman who will love you for your looks." To the sister he said, "You lament that death took your husband because you lacked the power to keep him. To you I grant the ability to choose a man who loves your power." To the second brother he said, "You do not understand what it was inside the women you courted that led them to reject you. To you I grant the gift of seeing what is hidden.