The Nine Princesses Revised Edition (Volume One)

Chapter 50: Rivals.

She woke suddenly, snapped out of a dream. Heavy night still soaked through her chamber. A sound had awakened her—or was that part of the dream? Coralina squirmed, groping for the slippery thoughts before they melted away.

It had centered on Joc, their former cook. He stood in the kitchen, preparing supper at his worktable as he had every night in Coralina's memory. She sat on a stool, watching him, and her feet dangled well above the floor. She had been much younger in the dream.

Coralina rolled to her side, twisting the blankets around her. Though it hadn't been unpleasant, the dream distressed her. She missed Joc. Possibly more than she missed her own father. The king's attention had always been divided by his kingdom, his queen, and his eight other daughters. But Joc always had time for her. And usually a candy bird.

Nine months now since the servants had abandoned them. They fled just after the king's death and Joc had gone with them. No one in Runa had seen them since. Even Kerrick, Joc's only son, did not know what became of his father. And Maelyn, too wounded to hire new servants, had worked out a system in which the princesses cared for themselves. Coralina became Festivity Princess, responsible for banquets, balls, and theater.

The sound returned to startle her: a heavy, scraping groan from somewhere over her head. Coralina looked at the ceiling. Maelyn? Though each princess had her own chamber, they couldn't fit them all on one level. Seven princesses slept on the third floor, minus the eldest and youngest. Maelyn slept on the fourth floor, in a vast chamber near their parents' former rooms. And Arialain had chosen a tiny tower far above the rest.

Another groan. Coralina kicked off the covers. She'd have no further sleep until she knew why Maelyn was moving furniture around. In the middle of the night. She lit a candle and carried it upstairs. Maelyn answered the knock, her face scrunched with apology. She knew she'd woken Coralina.

"I can't find Father's journal." Maelyn said in a strained voice. Coralina followed her into the chamber, wincing at the blazing light. Every torch and candle was burning strong. The chamber itself looked as if a dragon had crashed through it. Cabinets hung open, trunks were ransacked, garments and shoes littered the floor. Large pieces of furniture had been shifted and the carpets curled back. The mattresses on Maelyn's bed lay stripped and askew.

"Holy Shoulders," Coralina said. "Did you look in the library?"

"That's where I started." Maelyn stared at the mess with one hand pressed to her forehead. "It's not on the shelf. I'll check the other bedchambers in the morning. Maybe one of our sisters borrowed it and forgot to tell me."

Coralina doubted this. They all knew the journal's contents. Father had used it sparingly, usually to record a special event. He wrote his entries like stories and later read them to his children. The story of when he met Runa, their mother. The story of the terrible plague that massacred most of the world. The story of finding his nine daughters as he traveled in search of a cure. Coralina knew her own story by heart.

The king came to Bella Reino, an island realm of blazing skies and dazzling plants. On the sizzling beach, a haggard old woman watched a cluster of children play in the seawater and the king learned these were her grandchildren, all of whose parents had perished in the plague. Eleven boys, and one small girl merely two years of age, nearly hidden beneath a tangle of curls. When the king proposed raising the girl as his own, the weary woman said, 'Take her! Though I warn you, she's much to manage. Terrorizes the boys until they do her bidding and I expect she'll do the same to you.' The king beckoned to the girl, who pointed at his gold crown and refused to come forward until he offered it to her. She planted the crown in her dark hair and laughed, allowing the king to lift her in his arms. Her eyes were of the deepest violet, like sunset over the sea, and the king knew he had found a jewel.