Born to Rule

looked at Alicia with great sympathy and said, “This happens sometimes, especially with male weebs.”
    “But I feel so bad, Princess Eloise. I know that this contest counts for a lot. The Purple team needs all the good songbirds it can get. I know it’s been a long time since we’ve won the Color Wars.”
    “That it has been!” said a princess named Lana, who was a Crimson.
    But Princess Kinna said, “You know, I’ve heard that if you go out on a snowy and moonlit night and find a female weeb, that will make a male weeb sing.”
    “Really?” Alicia asked. Could she do that? At night? Would that really make him sing? She couldn’t bear to be the princess who was responsible for losing the most important contest of the Color Wars.
    “There are no shortcuts with a weeb,” Princess Eloise said. “Just patience. Princess Kinna, those are just old tales.”
    Princess Kinna shrugged and went to sit by the fire.
    It’s so embarrassing, Alicia thought, being the only princess with a nonfunctioning songbird! And to think Gundersnap’s bird not only knows how to sing but to march as well. Born to rule, that girl!
    A few Crimson princesses who were sitting by the fireplace began to giggle and steal glances at Alicia as she stood with her stubborn bird. Kinna exploded out of the armchair. The one hundred and forty-eight braids that were laced with strings of diamonds trembled as she spoke a rather fierce-sounding language to the snickering girls. Even though the princesses did not understand what she was saying, they looked taken aback by her outburst.
    “All right,” Kinna said calmly, “I see my words need no translation. As captain of the Purples, I remind you that I have the right to report you for poor sportsmanship and unprincesslike behavior in the face of competition. This would result in demerits for your total team score.” Her black eyes glistened like river stones.
    There were no more snickers about Alicia and her bird.

Chapter 12
    A RUSTLING IN THE NIGHT

    More than a week had passed since Alicia caught her bird, and still it remained fiercely silent. There were only a few days left before the songbird contest. The motto that the Queen Mum had proclaimed kept ringing in Alicia’s ears: “If one can teach a songbird to sing beautifully, one can lead a nation. Remember, Princesses, you were born to rule.” Alicia pictured herself on the island she was supposed to rule—not on a throne, but in an ice-cream wagon, selling snow cones, or worse! If only the stubborn weeb would cooperate and sing.
    She heard a knock on her chamber door. “Come in,” she called.
    It was Kristen.
    “I’ve come to help. Look at this.” She held up a funny little whistle. “It’s a pitch pipe.”
    “What does it do?” Alicia asked.
    “Maybe it will help your bird find his right tone. You know, his key. We can play the do-re-mi thing,” Kristen said.
    “Oh, I’m so sick of the whole do-re-mi thing,” Alicia said with a sigh.
    Just then Gundersnap and Myrella came in.
    Gundersnap carried a small vial.
    “What do you have there, Gunny?” Kristen asked.
    “Honey! There is a saying you can catch more bees with honey than with vinegar.”
    “But he’s not a bee, Gundersnap. He’s a bird,” Alicia said mournfully.
    “This is a desperate situation, is what it is. Come on, let’s try it,” Kristen said.
    “Come on, do try,” Myrella urged.
    “Has being sweet worked for you, Myrella, with those awful turretmates?” Alicia asked.
    “Not really, but then again, they were born sour.”
    Gundersnap walked over and put two drops in the weeb’s cup with an eyedropper.
    “This doesn’t sound like a remedy your mother the empress tried with you, Gundersnap,” Alicia said.
    “ Nachtung , never. No. She dosed us with vinegar once a month. She said it made us strong.”
    Alicia and Kristen exchanged looks. It was their fervent hope that they would never have to meet Maria Theresa, Empress of All the Slobodks.
    The princesses waited. The honey did nothing. The bird remained silent.
    Luckily there were other activities besides songbird training in the days to come. Alicia loved jewelry design and making lanyards with semiprecious stones. And in upcoming sessions, there were going to be campfires and sleep-outs by the lake, the Purple team in their purple silk tents, the Crimson team in crimson silk tents. There would be more canoeing, which Alicia was becoming quite good at, and sailing. Alicia was also