Born to Rule

is one-third a princess? Well, Your Highnesses, she is a full and royal princess, but she is quite small.”
    At that moment all eyes turned toward a truly tiny princess who wore a teeny-weeny tiara. She appeared rather frightened, and her eyes glistened with tears. She was the only one who had not been assigned a turret. “Princess Myrella of the Marsh Kingdoms, will you step forward, please?”
    The tiny princess walked up to the Queen Mum, who bent way down and said, “My dear little princess of the Marsh Kingdoms, we shall squeeze you into North Turret.” She handed her a rolled parchment with a purple ribbon.
    “Fat lot of good she’ll do the Purples,” someone said in a nasty voice. At that moment the eyes of the three princesses of the South Turret met.
    “ Sctonken meanie!” muttered Gundersnap.
    “Go suck a conch!” Princess Kristen blurted.
    “That is really royally rude of her to say!” exclaimed Princess Alicia.
    The three young princesses looked at one another and knew in that moment that although they were different in many ways, they were the same in an important one. Their hearts went out to the teeny tiny Princess Myrella of the Marsh Kingdoms.

Chapter 2
    HOMESICK

    Alicia looked around her room. She’d brought small touches of home that reminded her of Belgravia. Her glass bottles with her best perfumes sat on the dressing table, and a painting of her royal family hung above her bed. Still, she missed her own castle, especially now that it was quiet time and she had a moment to think about things.
    Some princesses brought their favorite stuffed animals to camp, but Alicia had her favorite book, Love Letters of a Forgotten Princess . It was a birthday present from her beloved aunt, the Queen of Albermarle. Almost every night she read at least one of the letters. It was on her nightstand now, adding a cozy touch to the room. Knowing it was there made Alicia feel just a bit less homesick.
    She sat down at the gold writing table, chose a quill, and dipped it into the crystal inkwell.
Dear Mum and Pop (or HM and HRH),
I think it is really stupid that they have this rule that I cannot call you Mum and Pop in a letter but must address you as Her Majesty and His Royal Highness. Why do they care what I call you in a letter? So I’m doing it both ways, which means that I’m not quite following and not quite breaking the rule.
Well, I don’t mean to complain but…guess what else? It’s not summer. You told me that the weather was “odd” here, but holy monk bones, it’s just started to snow! It was spring when we rode into the camp. Then spring turned to summer, which lasted for about an hour. Mum, Pop, I hate to tell you this: it’s the dead of winter now.
    A wave of homesickness hit Alicia. She put down her pen and gazed out the turret window. When her big sister, Lorelei, had come here five years earlier, she had told Alicia that it had mostly been spring and autumn, with only one day of winter in the first session. But she had also said there was “no telling” in a place like Camp Princess.
    The young princess sighed. Things like weather never upset Lorelei. She was brave and didn’t get homesick. Alicia picked up her pen again and continued writing.
So, Mum and Pop, I am including a list of what I need:
     
     
     
Silver-fox muff (not the red-fox one; it’s not as warm)
Earmuffs (I look stupid in them, but I’ll look stupider if my ears freeze and drop off.)
Please, please send me those new-style snowshoes with rawhide laces. I want to be able to hike over any kind of snow.
Ice skates — the latest models with the unprocessed staghorn blades .
Also, send my extra pair of high-top, fleece-lined suede boots — the purple ones. I’m on the Purple team for the Color Wars .
    Alicia paused again in her writing. She wondered if she should tell her parents about the rumors she had overheard about the ghost in the South Turret. Her mother might worry. And her father would call her a “puffball princess.” Oh, well, better not mention it, she decided.
    Why would a two-hundred-year-old ghost show up now, anyway? She’d certainly be out of fashion! Totally medieval! Alicia thought, trying to make a little joke to set her mind at ease. She went back to her letter.
My chambers are all right. I am in the South Turret. I share it with two others, a Princess Gundersnap from Slobodkonia and Princess Kristen, who is from somewhere called the Isles of the Salt Tears in the Realm of