Overview

On the day when she is supposed to marry Georges, the brewer's son, Brilliante finds her feet leading her out of town and away from that life: across the river and into the enchanted woods, to find a bewitched farm, a beautiful maiden who needs to be rescued, and a new life. The Brothers Grimm, Perrault, and Disney may not have found any magical lesbian stories; we'll just have to provide them ourselves! Once upon a time, in the north, where the rolling plains begin to rise into the mountains, there was a girl with hair as black as coal, and eyes as bright as diamonds, and she was called Brilliante. Her father was a merchant in the town, and her hand was promised in marriage to Georges, the brewer’s son. Now Georges was handsome and rich and pleasant enough, but whenever Brilliante looked at him, her heart was leaden, and when, on the occasions that he walked out with her, he happened to kiss her, her mouth was filled with the taste of ashes. So it came to pass that, on the morning of her long-anticipated wedding, Brilliante walked out of her parents’ house dressed in the crimson gown traditional for brides in that region, and passed north along the great river that flowed out of the heart of the mountains. At first she had intended merely to clear her head on the way to the church. Yet as morning gave way to afternoon, she was still walking north, past the last farms and into the wild countryside of the mountain foothills....