Crowns ~ Smosh

Eight

I would like to dedicate this chapter to my English teacher who told me that we were not going to have a snow day and then we did. So in your face, Mrs. Whitehaus. And in celebration you guys are getting a long chapter!!

The children were in their mother's dance pavilion, waiting for the cobbler to come repair the shoes they had worn through. While they were waiting, they were dancing, spinning around each other and humming the music they had learned while in the golden pavilion.

The cobbler finally arrived, and quietly fixed their shoes while watching them dance around. The cobbler didn't know if he had ever seen them act like this. He saw their surface happiness in the younger ones, but as his gaze drifted to Mari and David, he saw the worry lines on their foreheads. When he glanced back to the younger royals, he noticed the small welts on their bare skin and how they all glanced back up at the castle with a scared expression. Something was very wrong, but his job was just to make and fix shoes, and as much as he cared about the young royals, there was nothing he could do to stop whatever was causing them so much pain. And so when the shoes were repaired, he wished the royals a quick goodbye and went back to town.

~*~

"One, two, three, and four," Duke Bereta counted the heads of the princesses snuggled into their beds. "Excellent. I will see all of you in the morning, no excuses. Goodnight." Silence followed that statement and soon the Duke repeated himself in a frustrated tone. "I said goodnight."

"Goodnight, Your Grace." The princesses replied in a monotone voice.  The duke nodded his head satisfied, and blew out all the candles in the room and shut the door.

In the princes room a similar situation was happening.

"One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and eight," Duke Raub counted. He relayed an identical message to the one delivered to the princesses to the princes, before he too blew out all the candles and shut the door. 

Once outside their rooms, the dukes met with each other and Sunny. They turned to him each narrowing their eyes at their servant.

"I want to know where they go, to whom they speak, and when they sneeze," Duke Raub snapped, and Sunny stationed himself in a chair outside the rooms of the young royals.

"My only reward is your happiness, my lords," Sunny replied in his usual monotone voice. 

"Correct, Sunny," Duke Raub said, and he and Duke Bereta walked off, leaving Sunny alone in the hallway. One the dukes were gone, Sunny settled into his chair, and closed his eyes. It was going to be a long night having to stay in that chair and he was going to make the best of it.

"Are they gone?" Ericka asked. "I thought I heard voices." 

"I don't hear anything now," Mari responded from her place crouched by the door. "Courtney, go get your brothers." 

Courtney nodded and raced across the common room to her brother's bedroom. They all got to their feet almost immediately, all too excited to actually fall asleep. They met the three other princesses in the common area.

"Ready?" David asked his siblings, and each nodded. "Let's go." 

Olivia started her dance and soon enough each of the siblings were descending the staircase into the only place they felt safe these days. And then when they got there the only thought on their minds was what they were going to dance to tonight. 

"Who am I?" Joshua asked, draping himself across one of the railings and fanning himself with his hand. 

"The Duke of Doom," Damien laughed, joining him in his ridiculous impression.