Born to Rule

Rolm—wherever that is. I heard it’s a very wild place. She has the best boots, though!
I miss everyone so much. I think of you all having breakfast in the lake pavilion and watching the swans glide over the crystal-blue water. Meanwhile, I’m here snowbound in June in a stone turret! Does that seem quite fair?
    Alicia hastily crossed out the last sentence and wrote, “I’m going to try very hard to get as much as I can out of what Mum calls ‘the Camp Princess experience’ and give it what Pop calls ‘the old camp try.’”
    Rah-rah, she thought miserably.
    “Well, I shall say good night,” she wrote, and then signed the letter.
Yours truly,
Alicia Quintana Mariela Margarita, Princess of All the Belgravias
P.S. Please be sure to take Gryffie out for a good fly at least twice a week.
P.P.S. Please send me my falconer’s glove because someone said the ones here are made of inferior leather.
P.P.P.S. Please don’t let little Isabella play with my best jewels.

Chapter 3
    TURRETMATES

    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