Born to Rule

fit in anywhere.”
    “Well, I guess it’s worth a try,” said Myrella. “It’s very nice of you. I’d much rather have you as turretmates than them.”
    “I’ll get right on it,” said Gundersnap. “Draft a proposal.”
    The other three princesses blinked at one another. Princess Gundersnap was all business. There was no denying that.
    “And I,” Alicia said, “shall put on my thinking tiara to figure out where this tapestry might be.”
    “You have a thinking tiara?” Myrella asked.
    “Yes, pure silver, but quite plain with no diamonds. Lightweight, fits any hairstyle, simple but elegant, no distractions. I can concentrate quite well in it. It’s been in the family for years.”
    “Not from Batwhistle, the pawnbrokers?” asked Myrella.
    “No. All our tiaras are heirlooms. It’s really the best way, Mum says.”
    “Very practical,” said Gundersnap. “I would no more wear another family’s tiara than swap underclothes with them.”
    “Eeeew!” All four princesses wrinkled up their noses in disgust, and then they all burst out laughing.
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Chapter 6
    PRAYERS AND WHISPERS

    When the three princesses returned to the South Turret that night, Gilly Zand the other maids were waiting for them with their freshly pressed nightclothes. They also handed each girl a scroll with the activities list for the next day.
    Alicia unrolled hers and glanced at it with a frown. “A swim test?” she said. “What’s that?”
    “Swim test, weather permitting,” Gilly corrected. She looked out the window at the swirling snow.
    “But I don’t know how to swim,” Alicia said.
    “ Nocht, me neither. Can’t swim,” Princess Gundersnap added.
    “Don’t know how to swim?” Princess Kristen looked up from her activity scroll. “Amazing! I could swim before I could walk. All children in the Realm of Rolm know how to swim.”
    “Then you shall probably be put in the advanced group that goes to the lake outside the castle walls and not the moat,” Gilly told her.
    “Moat?” Princess Alicia said in alarm. “Is it clean? Sanitary? I don’t want to come down with anything.”
    “What about crocodiles? We have crocodiles in our moat at home,” Princess Gundersnap said.
    “Oh, how horrible,” Alicia said. Another one of the empress’s ideas, no doubt! she added silently.
    “Don’t worry, milady,” reassured Gilly gently. “We have no crocodiles, and we have the cleanest waters in all the kingdom.”
    “Makeup!” Kristen suddenly roared, looking at the list. “What’s this about makeup? I don’t wear makeup! What would I need with rouge?” Indeed, the Princess of the Isles of the Salt Tears seemed rather violently pink in the cheeks.
    “If I may be permitted, Princess Kristen, I think you will find the Duchess of Bagglesnort very informative,” Gilly said. “She is considered a great beauty, and her knowledge of cosmetics is quite profound.”
    “How profound can makeup be?” Kristen scowled.
    Alicia and Gundersnap looked at each other and began to giggle.
    Gilly herself suppressed a smile, but she knew she simply could not laugh in front of the princesses. It would be grounds for dismissal if she were discovered laughing at the expense of one of the counselors, especially the Duchess of Bagglesnort, who was a very mean-spirited lady. If Gilly were to laugh and it got back to the duchess, she would not be acting like a proper lady’s maid and would have to pack her belongings and hit the road.
    “Well, it’s time for your nightly prayers and then to bed, miladies,” she said. “Tomorrow is going to be an exciting day at camp. You’ll need all your energy.”
    “For makeup?” Kristen muttered under her breath.
    “For swimming?” Alicia said anxiously.
    “Well, possibly for chasing after songbirds in the Forest of Chimes—if it is an autumn day,” Gilly told them.
    Each princess bade the others good night and then knelt in prayer by her bedside.
    Kristen prayed for an iceboat, “especially, dear Lord, if winter stays.”
    Alicia prayed that it would continue to be winter for just a little while, so she would not have to take her swim test. “Oh, dear Lord. I’m a little bit homesick. I miss Mum and Pop so much, and I really don’t want to swim in a moat. It sounds so…so…icky.”
    And Gundersnap prayed for a dwarf and a pony. “Please, dear God, make Gortle’s headaches go away and his poor bent legs not pain him. And make Mummy not call on him