Once Upon A Princess

8: Missing Royal

Amelia didn't spend long outside after finding out her ball had seemingly vanished. She offered up no explanations when Camil seemed frantic to provide one, and left her acting just as confused as she.

She was confused, certainly, just not about the mysterious disappearance. The only explanation was that the frog had taken her ball. Since she had shared her meeting of the frog with no one, she couldn't bounce ideas back and forth with anyone either. The princess was left to think about the matter herself.

She wondered first whether the motives were simply selfish. It seemed unlikely the frog would have taken it for itself, but she couldn't rule it out. Amelia didn't think the ball was real gold, but maybe it was. The frog could have taken it to sell it for money. But, in the end, the idea was a little ridiculous. It was a frog, after all. It couldn't be easy to sell something as an animal. And besides, the frog needed a princess to break its curse. It needed her. Didn't it? The next nearest princess was in Dunshure; nearly a month's worth of travel on horseback if you were human.

Without any answers and still electing to keep the frog to herself, Amelia found herself pondering most of the day away. The sun was on its last legs and the princess had eaten dinner alone before she decided to find the king. She hadn't seen him at all today, but she also hadn't seen her mother, and so it sort of evened out in her mind.

What she really wanted was to schedule another sword practice. It was easier to get the king to a lesson if it was officially scheduled in his day.

It turned out to be harder than expected. When she'd finally tracked down where he was, she was expressly kept from seeing him.

When she tried to explain she was only there to see her father, she was told by the rather snooty page he was in very important meetings.

"What sort of meetings?" she asked the page.

The page in question was standing at the barred entrance, apparently ordered to keep everyone out. She couldn't hear anything inside the double doors leading into the meeting room. For all she knew, her father was in there alone and sleeping.

The page looked annoyed at her question. Amelia noticed the strange hook in his nose. It looked crooked, too. She wondered if he'd broken it at some point.

He answered her question with a strange nasal voice. "It's nothing for you to concern yourself with, princess."

Amelia frowned. She wanted to fold her arms, but she felt that might look too much like a fit. Instead she tried something her father had done once, when a certain baron had tried to insist that raising tariffs on his land would benefit the people more than himself.

She tried to give him the most regal look she could, and extended her arm, letting one finger slowly lift to point at the page. She made a gesture with it; one for him to come closer. He gave her a curious gaze before bending to her level.

"Am I not the next in line for the throne?" she asked, trying to seem important and haughty. She hated it, but she knew she sounded like the queen. Somehow she'd missed the mark on her father's shrewd persuasion style and had landed on her mother's direct, challenging tactics.

The page seemed confused by the question. His thick brows drew together and his lips were pursed.

"You are, princess."

"So it seems to me that if I want to know what's going on in the kingdom, I have a right to know."

Amelia was sure he would see right through her. She didn't often engage in the political meetings unless her father had invited her.