Born to Rule

You are a bit behind the Crimsons.”
    “Don’t remind me,” Alicia said glumly.
    “Ah, but the Purples have been known to come from behind, milady. Strong finishers they can be!”
    “Let’s hope so. Can you help me figure out what to wear?”
    “Princess Kristen always wears those lightweight silk pantaloons with the matching vest and the plumed hat.”
    “Yes, I know, but I think the pantaloons make my butt look big.”
    “Oh, nonsense, milady!”
    “Are there going to be any princes on the river from Camp Burning Shield?” Alicia asked.
    “No, no. They’re having their boar hunt this week.”
    “Don’t tell Princess Kristen. She’ll run off to join them—and not for the princes but the boars. She loves hunting.”
    “Ah, she’s a tomprincess all right, that one,” Gilly replied.
    Certainly not a puffball, thought Alicia. “I’d better wear the pantaloons; they’re easier to paddle in,” she said to Gilly. “And with only three days until the songbird contest, we Purples need every point we can get!”

Chapter 13
    THOSE CHEATING CRIMSONS!

    “One, two, power stroke ! One, two, power stroke !” Princess Kinna, in the bow of the canoe, set the pace. Princess Alicia was in the stern. Kinna was a powerful paddler. Alicia had to match her stroke for stroke. If her bird couldn’t sing, she could at least help the Purples by paddling.
    In the lead was a Crimson canoe with Princess Morwenna and Princess Zelenka. Perhaps Kristen and Maggie of Schottlandia would catch them, or perhaps she and Kinna would, Alicia thought with great excitement.
    They were coming into the final bend of the river. Kinna, an experienced river paddler, had told Alicia that heading for the outside of the curve would give them a boost from the current. But Kinna was not the only paddler who knew this. All three canoes were now heading for the outside of the bend.
    Maggie and Kristen pulled ahead of the Crimsons’ canoe. Good! thought Alicia. She saw Zelenka look around and say something to Morwenna. Then suddenly Kristen’s canoe seemed to go off course. “Foul!” Maggie called.
    “I don’t believe it!” Princess Kinna said. The Crimsons had slammed the Purples’ canoe! “That’s cheating!” But there was no one on the riverbank to see it.
    Princess Morwenna looked back, then turned her face to heaven. Who’s she praying to, Alicia wondered. The patron saint of cheaters? “Well, by Saint Timothy, the patron saint of canoeing,” Alicia muttered, “we’ll overtake her!”
    Then Kinna shouted, “Ramming speed!”
    Alicia had never paddled so hard. She remembered Kinna’s advice: It’s all in the shoulders. That’s where the power comes from. Hers were aching. But it was paying off. They were sweeping alongside the Crimson canoe now.
    Now the real race began! It was the last hundred feet, bow to bow. The princesses onshore were screaming their heads off. The Purple and Crimson cheerleaders had torn off their tiaras and were waving them madly in the air. There were cries of “Go Purple!” “Go Crimson!” “Go Kinna!” “Go Zelenka!” Someone yelled out, “Pray and paddle, Morwenna!” Alicia heard, “You can do it, Alicia!” From the corner of her eye she saw Gunny, stomping on the bank, rallying the team.
    “Tie!” Lady Gussie called out as both canoes glided across the finish line at the exact same moment.
    “Tie!” Alicia flopped back in the canoe. “If only we could have stroked a little bit harder. We could have won!”
    “They haven’t seen the last of us,” Kinna said grimly. “Come on, let’s go.”
    “Go where?”
    “To congratulate the Crimsons,” Princess Kinna said as they pulled up onto the riverbank. She climbed out of the canoe and began to walk toward Zelenka and Morwenna. The tall princess had her one hundred and forty-eight braids pulled back into a large ponytail. Alicia followed her reluctantly, keeping her eyes fastened on the bobbing cluster of braids.
    “Congratulations, sister princesses.” Kinna made a shallow curtsey. Morwenna and Zelenka looked somewhat startled.
    “That’s what I like to see!” Lady Gussie boomed. “Royally good sportsmanship!”
    Kinna stepped closer to the princesses.
    “You know what we do to cheaters in Mattunga?” she whispered. Kinna was trembling so hard with barely concealed anger that her braids shivered.
    “We dangle them over the crocodile pit. To cheat is an insult to your god, your family, and your ancestors. And