The Stone Arrow

Stories for Another Day

There was a man and his wife who loved each other dearly but they were not blessed with children, and this was a great sorrow for them. And then one night in a great storm, they heard a light knocking on their door. When they went to open it, there was a basket, with a beautiful baby girl laughing inside it.

The baby was wrapped in a blanket, and laid beside her in the basket, with her tiny fingers curled around it, was an arrow carved out of stone, with feathers that looked as if they had been spun from moonlight.

The man and his wife joyfully took the baby into their home and raised her as their own precious child. But the arrow they wrapped in the baby’s blanket, and laid it out of sight.

The child, whom they named Electra, was taught all the arts of cooking, singing, dancing, drawing and painting, music and fine embroidery. At these last two she excelled. There was no-one in the kingdom whose embroidery was finer or more beautiful, and she played the lute with such a sure touch that people would stop in the streets to listen to her play.

One day she was sewing by the window where the light was best, when she happened to look up and see a sleek, silver-grey dog slipping silently between the trees. She left her sewing and went after it without a second’s thought. Always ahead of her but just out of reach, the dog led her through the forest, along tracks that only the dog could see. Eventually they came to a clearing, in the centre of which was a woman, tall and exceedingly beautiful, except for heavy lines of sorrow that marked her face. In her hands was a bow, and she was shooting arrows at a target on the opposite side of the clearing.

When she saw Electra, her face broke into a smile, and she gestured to Electra to take the bow. It came to Electra’s hand as if she had known it all her life. She took an arrow and fitted it to the bow-string, and with the woman guiding her, shot straight and true into the target. They spent what seemed like hours together, and Electra improved minute by minute. Then the dog lifted its long, silver muzzle and gave a single bark. The woman sadly kissed Electra goodbye and disappeared.

It was nearly a month before the dog appeared again, and again led Electra to the heart of the forest where the woman was waiting for her, with the bow and arrows. They spent long, happy hours together until the dog gave its single bark. This time when the woman kissed Electra goodbye, she pressed the bow into Electra’s hand before she disappeared.

From then on, though Electra watched every day for the dog, it never came again. So she made herself a suit of forest green, with a cap and boots of soft, thick felt and made her way into the forest, taking the bow with her. Hour after hour she practised until she could strike any target she set herself, no matter how small or how distant, and she could load and fire every arrow in her quiver in the blink of an eye.

Now the king of that country was a cruel and dark-hearted man. In fact he was not the true king. Years ago he had come to the kingdom as a friend of the king. When he saw his chance, he murdered the king and shut the queen up in a high tower. Then he had himself proclaimed king. He knew something of the dark arts and he always wore a vest which could not be pierced by any metal, neither knife nor spear nor arrowhead. Likewise the lock of the high tower in which the queen was imprisoned was protected by dark magic, so the key could not be turned by anyone except the king himself.

The king decided that he wanted a wife. He ordered every beautiful young woman in the kingdom to be brought before him so that he could make his selection. His guards went through the land, collecting every beautiful girl they could find. Naturally Electra was one of those who caught the guards’ eye, and she was brought before the king, along with twenty other girls. But she had no desire to marry the evil king so she put mud on her face and rotten fish on her hands, and cobwebs in her hair, and she slipped a sharp stone into her shoe so that she seemed to limp.

When the girls were brought before the king, they all smiled as prettily as they could, except for Electra who kept her eyes downcast and fixed an ugly scowl on her face. The king passed her without even a glance, holding his nose because of the smell she gave off. But then out of nowhere the silver dog appeared. He ran to Electra and in his excitement he licked her face and her hands clean. Electra bent down to pat him and smiled. The king turned and saw straight away that Electra was by far the most beautiful of all the girls.

“This one shall be my bride!” he exclaimed. “Have her washed and prepared!” Electra was led away. She was bathed in perfumed water, her hair was brushed until it shone like gold, and she was dressed in a gown of satin and pearls. Then she was brought before the king. “Let the marriage take place at once!” he said.

Electra curtsied and said, “Of course, your Majesty. When will the feasting begin?”

“Feasting?” said the king.

“The marriage of a king should be celebrated with pomp and grandeur,” Electra said. “Of course there will be a grand feast, with entertainments.”

“Entertainments?” said the king.

“Contests in fencing, and wrestling, and archery, to show the skill of your men, and your own greatness and power,” she said.

“Of course!” said the king. He gave the orders and a feast was prepared. Tables loaded with rich food and wines were set up at the side of a wide playing-field where the contests were to be held. The king took his place at the head of the table and shouted, “Let the contests begin!”

The king’s best swordsmen came into the arena, and fought each other with displays of great skill and strength. Then those trained in wrestling and hand-to-hand fighting took the field. They fought long and hard, and it was the king’s guards who won every match.

The king clapped his hands, very pleased. “Now for the archery competition! My men are sure to win! And after that,” he looked at Electra with an evil smile, “the wedding!”

Electra got to her feet, saying, “I must get ready.” She slipped away from her ladies and ran home. She took off the satin gown and put on her forest green suit and her felt boots. She braided her hair up and covered it with her cap, then she took her bow and arrows and would have set off, but her father called her back.

“Electra! Take this!” From its hiding place he brought out the stone arrow which had lain beside Electra in the basket when she was a baby. Electra slipped it into her quiver with hardly more than a glance. She kissed her father goodbye as if it was the last time she would ever see him. “For I will never marry this evil man,” she told herself. “I will die first.”

She arrived back at the playing field just as the archery contest was about to begin. Targets were set up at the farthest end of the field. The king proclaimed, “He whose arrow is closest to the centre of the target will be the winner.”

Each of the archers shot in turn. The captain of the guard’s arrow struck in the dead centre of the target. When it was Electra’s turn, she laughed and said, “Do you see that speck of dust on the shield behind the row of targets?” The speck of dirt was almost too small for the eye to see, but Electra’s arrow struck it.

“Disqualified! The archer missed the targets, so he is disqualified!” shouted the king, but inwardly his heart shrank in fear. The next contest was to bring down a bird in flight. Each time a bird was released, each of the archers took his turn shooting it down. One by one the birds fell, but when it came to Electra’s turn, the king secretly gave an order for no bird to be released, so she could not possibly win. When Electra saw that there no birds for her to fire at, she laughed and said, “Do you see the moth fluttering in the highest leaves of the tree?” She fired her arrow at the moth and struck it, and it fluttered down to the ground.

The king turned pale. He called the captain of the guard to him. “If the mysterious archer wins the next round, tell the guards to fire on him and kill him where he stands!”

The last contest was to shoot at a flag that hung at the very top of a pole, many metres above the ground. One after another the archers shot and missed. Finally the captain of the guard stepped forward. Taking careful aim, he shot his arrow and brought down some threads from a corner of the flag.

The king clapped and declared him the winner, but Electra stepped up, her arrow already against the bow-string. “Not so fast,” she said. She raised her bow and loosed the arrow. It flew through the very centre of the flag and tore it from the flagpole.

The captain of the guard gave the order to his men to fire on her, and they turned their bows towards her. But Electra swung around to the great high tower of the castle and fired a second arrow before the guards could take aim. It burst the lock and the door opened. All the people cheered and shouted for joy to see their own beloved queen, Ilya, appear from the tower.

“Kill him!” the king shouted, pointing at Electra. As the guards raised their bows, Electra reached into her quiver and drew out her last arrow, the arrow made of stone. She aimed at the king and shot. The stone arrow pierced the armour over his heart and he fell dead.

The people cheered and clapped. The captain of the guard, seeing that the king was dead and the queen lived, ordered his men to lower their weapons. He himself led the queen down from the tower, to great shouts from the people.

Queen Ilya walked to where Electra was standing. She took her hand and drew Electra into her arms. “My dear child!” she said in a voice of deep joy. She turned to the crowds and said, “This is my own daughter, who has been living in secret for her own safety, ever since the king seized power and imprisoned me in the tower. Now you see her before you, the rightful heir to my throne!”

The feasting and celebrating continued for many days, with the princess Electra sitting at the queen’s side. The queen ruled wisely and well over the kingdom for many years, and was loved by all the people. Electra herself had many trials to overcome before she came to the throne herself, but that is a story for another day.