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★★★☆☆ A daughter courted by the river

Little Knife

Leigh Bardugo

Little Knife is a Ravkan folktale (about 5500 words). I found it here, but it is included in the collection The Language of Thorns: Midnight Tales and Dangerous Magic.

Little Knife is a twist on the classic folktale in which suitors for the hand of a princess are asked to complete absurdly difficult tasks to prove themselves worthy. In this case, the princess is Yeva, the daughter of the Duke of Velisyana, a girl so beautiful that everyone who sees her wants her. The Duke, a merchant, asks suitors (the Prince and the townspeople) to complete tasks that will profit him in his business. Unusually for these stories, Yeva questions her father, asking how these tasks will find her a good husband. The Duke puts her off with answers that aren't really answers. Yeva, no fool, recognizes the evasion.

One of the townspeople is a Grisha sorcerer, a water summoner. He uses the River that runs through Velisyana to excel in the tasks the Duke sets. The River, which he calls "Little Knife", has her own ideas about all these things.

The upshot is an ending very different from the traditional fairy tale ones.

Little Knife

Amazon review

Goodreads review
 

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