Born to Rule (3 page)

Alicia put down her quill and slipped the letter into an envelope. She dropped on a blob of wax she had melted over the candle and then pressed her royal seal, a swan with a crown, into the warm wax.

She looked up at the row of gold-braided cords hanging on the wall. Each cord was connected to a different bell in some other part of the castle. She tried to remember which bell would summon the Steward of the Post. She would ask one of her turretmates. She hoped Kristen was there, because she found Gunder-what’s-it a little hard to understand.

Alicia walked into the parlor. Shoot! It’s Gunder-thunder! she thought as she saw the princess sitting in the window seat.

“Pardon me, is Princess Kristen here?” Alicia asked, hoping that she was able to disguise the disappointment in her voice.

“Nocht,”
the other princess grunted.

Alicia assumed that
nocht
meant “no.”

“Well, I have a bit of a problem,” she said.

The other princess looked up and blinked.

Oh, dear, thought Alicia, she is rather unfortunate looking, but she has lovely eyes. Sad, though. Does she ever smile?

“Vot is the problem?” Gundersnap said.

“Uh…I am not quite sure which cord to pull for the Steward of the Post. I have a letter to send, Princess Gun…” Alicia paused.

“Gundersnap,” the other princess said and snapped her fingers to illustrate the last part of her name. “It’s the third cord from the left.”

“Thank you, Princess Gundersnap.”

“Come with me. I show you what I did to help.”

Alicia followed Gundersnap into her bedchamber. Under each cord, cards in neat writing showed who would be summoned by a pull.

“That’s very clever,” Alicia said. “Thank you.”

“I am not clever. I am practical,” Gundersnap replied.

“I think you are clever and practical. You can be both, you know,” Alicia said.

Princess Gundersnap chewed on her bottom lip as if she were considering the idea. Alicia looked around the chamber. There were no portraits of Gundersnap’s parents, but there was one of a lovely gray pony. “Is that yours?” Alicia asked.

“Yes, yes.” Gundersnap smiled, and suddenly her eyes sparkled. “That is my dear, vonderful little Menschmik. He was a birthday present and just a little colt when he was given to me. I have raised and trained him. There has never been a sweeter pony.”

Suddenly both girls heard a loud clatter coming from the parlor. The two princesses ran out to see what the noise was. Princess Kristen of the Isles of the Salt Tears in the Realm of Rolm lay on the divan with the thick furs she wore as a cloak. A pair of goggles was perched on top of her head, and under her dress Alicia could see leggings crusted with snow.

“Not a decent iceboat in the fleet!” Kristen groaned.

“Vot?” Gundersnap said.

“A what?” Alicia said at the same moment.

“You don’t know what an iceboat is?” Kristen asked.

Alicia and Gundersnap shook their heads.

“Picture a rowboat with sled runners and a sail,” Kristen said.

“I can’t,” Alicia replied.

“I’m trying,” Gundersnap said.

“It’s like sailing on ice. I won all the races at home. Well, almost all the races,” Kristen said.

“Don’t your legs get cold out there?” Alicia asked.

“Nope.” Kristen pulled her dress higher. “I only wear double-fold cashmere leggings and underwear. None of that lacy stuff.”

“Where did you get them?” Alicia asked.

“
L&B
winter catalogue,” Kristen said.

“L&B?”
Alicia asked.

“
Longbow and Blade,
a sports catalogue for knights and squires. It’s got mostly weapons, but in the back they have clothing and other gear.”

“Oh.” Alicia blinked. She read mostly fashion catalogues and magazines. She particularly liked the one called
Classic Crown Jewels.
In the back there were ads for fabulous jewels from kingdoms that had lost all their money and gone broke. Or, as her father would say, had gone “belly up and crown down.”

The parlor was filled with a soft tinkling sound. “Enter,” the three princesses said in unison. Gilly, the lady’s maid, led a small parade into the parlor. She and two other maids each carried an exquisitely beautiful ball gown.

“Time to dress for the Banquet Royale, miladies. It’s the first of the camp season and always the fanciest,” said Gilly. Kristen groaned.

Behind each maid stood a small boy holding a plump velvet pillow. On top of each pillow was a gold and enamel box that held each princess’s jewels, which were normally kept in the royal camp vault. Still smaller boys held other pillows on which their newly shined tiaras perched.

Alicia looked at the tiara on Kristen’s pillow. It was made of strange teeth, each tipped with a small but glittering blue sapphire.

“Princess Kristen,” Alicia asked, “if I might be so bold, I would like to ask you a question.”

“You call asking a question being bold?” The redheaded princess laughed. “Fire away. Ask me anything.”

“Well, I notice the teeth in your tiara are the same as the one in your barrette. What kind of animal do they come from?”

“They’re from a shark. Great white,” Kristen answered.

“A shark!” Alicia and Gundersnap exclaimed. Their tiaras had diamonds glistening among pearls, with the occasional ruby sprinkled in—although Gundersnap’s still resembled a battle helmet more than a tiara.

“By the bones of Saint Michael, how comfortable can a shark-tooth tiara be? I think it would be very scary,” Alicia said.

“No, not at all. I’ll tell you what is scary—when the shark is alive and staring you in the face. Dead sharks’ teeth on my head? No problem.”

“You must hurry, miladies,” said Gilly, sending the princesses to their chambers to be assisted in dressing by their maids.

“I am to be your maid,” Gilly told Alicia as she laid her gown on the bed. “I think that your hair worn up with a curl or two coming down on each side would make the tiara sit ever so prettily on you head. You’ll learn all about hair and makeup with the Duchess—”

Gilly’s words were cut short by a shriek coming from Kristen’s chamber. Alicia and Gilly rushed to the princess’s chamber, almost colliding with Gundersnap and Mary, her chambermaid. What had gone wrong?

“It bit me. I swear it bit me!” Annie was crying.

“What are you carrying on about, Annie?” Gilly said firmly.

“It did not bite you!” Kristen said.

“What was it?” Alicia asked. Could a ghost bite? she wondered.

“The princess’s tiara, milady. I was trying to arrange it on her head, and she moved. I swear to you it bit me.”

“Nonsense!” Gundersnap stepped forward. “The shark is dead. The teeth don’t bite without the shark. Now, show me, where did it bite you?”

“There, see.” Annie held out her finger. There was a tiny red mark there.

“You probably got that when you pulled your hand away. The rest is your imagination, notting else!” replied Gundersnap. “As Empress Mummy always says, imagination is a waste of time and leads to trouble.”

“Thank you, Annie.” Kristen stepped between Gundersnap and Annie. “I’ll fix my own tiara. I do it all the time at home, anyhow.”

“You do?” came a chorus of shocked voices.

“Of course I do. I sail my own boat, I ride my own charger, I shoot my own crossbow. You think I can’t put a silly little tiara on my head?”

With that proclamation, Kristen picked up the tiara and jammed it on top of the mass of red curls that Annie had so artfully arranged. They were now all squashed down under the shark-tooth tiara that sat slightly askew on Princess Kristen’s head.

Alicia looked around Kristen’s chamber. A crossbow hung on the wall. Ribbons from various competitions were suspended from the silk canopy of her bed. A jousting lance was propped in the corner, and she had replaced her dressing table top with a shield that held her combs and brushes. On the walls hung several portraits of her family, a sister and two brothers, all of them with fiery red hair and freckles.

A luxurious animal fur had replaced the plush velvet quilt on her bed. When Kristen noticed Gundersnap looking at it, she said, “I’m allergic to velvet and really prefer to sleep under the skin of animals I have brought down myself.”

“What’s that one?” Alicia asked, nodding at the bed fur.

“A bear.”

“A bear!”

“Yes, he ate my favorite pony.”

Gundersnap gasped. “How horrible.”

“Terrible!” Kristen said. Her face paled, and her freckles seemed to stand out more. But then she leaped up and slapped the fur. “But he got his!” She gave her tiara a final shove. “Come on, Princesses, let’s go!” she whooped, and sailed out of the chamber. Alicia and Gundersnap followed happily, their wide skirts rustling. The maids were left aghast and shaking their heads.

“We have our work cut out for us with that one,” Annie said.

“I think perhaps with all of them,” Gilly replied.

“You do?” said Mary.

“Yes, I do,” Gilly said mysteriously. “But don’t get me wrong. I think they are good princesses.”

Chapter 4

THE GRAND BANQUET ROYALE

The entire Great Hall was decked out in splendor for the grand Banquet Royale. Candles blazed on tables set with cloths woven with threads of gold and silver. The princesses sparkled like gems in a jewelry box. Their gowns had been embroidered with pounds of pearls and touches of diamonds here and there. Tiaras gleamed as the princesses made their way to the table where their team banners hung.

“It’s beautiful!” Princess Alicia exclaimed.

Princess Kristen was squinting and looked slightly annoyed.

“You can hardly see through the glare of the jewels. I should have worn my sun goggles. There are enough diamonds around here to skate on.”

“Don’t tell me you don’t like jewels!” Alicia said.

“It’s not that I don’t like them,” Kristen said. “But it’s like eating too much candy. Instead of a tummy ache, I am getting an eye ache.”

“But what about the ones you’re wearing yourself?” asked the tiny Princess Myrella, who sparkled with emeralds. Myrella sat across from Alicia, Gundersnap, and Kristen.

“Sapphires remind me of the blue waters of the Realm of Rolm,” Kristen said.

Troubadours strolled through the hall, stopping to sing at each table.

“Oh, I hope they sing about Merlin,” Alicia said.

“Merlin?” asked Gundersnap.

“Merlin the magician, the one who protected King Arthur when he was a boy. You haven’t heard of him?” Alicia asked.

“
Nocht
,” replied Gundersnap. “Magic is not practical, so I would not have heard of him.”

“But Merlin could be very practical. Merlin could change Arthur into a fish or bird to teach him lessons for becoming a true king.”

“Hmmph,” said the Princess of Slobodkonia. “Fish are to be fried. Did this Merlin give instruction in war craft?”

“War craft?” Alicia looked confused. She had never thought of war as a craft.

A troubadour with a lyre strolled up to their table and began an eerie, mournful song. Alicia felt a chill run along her spine. The song was not about Merlin or Arthur. It was about a ghost.

“A spirit floats between the shadows

From ancient times so long ago.

What does she seek? What has she lost?

This weeping ghost, this phantom crossed.”

Could the stories about the ghost be true? Alicia wondered. She’d felt foolish thinking a ghost had caused the scream while they were getting dressed earlier. Still, why did the troubadour come right to the end of the table where the princesses of the South Turret sat? Alicia glanced at Kristen and Gundersnap, but they seemed unconcerned.

When the troubadour had finished his song, Princess Parisiana from the Majestic Realm of Chantillip said, “Now, kind sir, enough about our ghost princess. Have you a song about a cute prince, perhaps one from Camp Burning Shield?”

All the princesses laughed heartily. But a grand lady at the head of their table, the Duchess of Bagglesnort, who was absolutely encrusted with jewels, gave a disapproving sniff. And in a sharp voice she said, “Such laughing is coarse! Our conversation must be as fine and as sparkling as our jewels.”

Silence immediately fell like a thick fog on the table. Alicia stole a glance at the woman and felt a twinge of dislike. She supposed that this duchess was considered beautiful, but to Alicia her face looked like a mask that might crack apart.

Princess Kristen rolled her eyes. The Duchess of Bagglesnort took note.