“Never mind.” I shook my head. “Now, were you planning to actually hand that drink over?”
“What? Oh!” He looked down as if he had forgotten all about the glasses he held. I compared his laughing expression now with the day before as he patiently ignored Sir Oswald’s snide remarks, and I wanted to go back and give Corinna a piece of my mind. I refrained, but it was a close thing.
What’s got you steaming at the ears? Sophie glided up, her hand resting on Teddy’s arm, now, although Gabe and Millie followed close behind.
I’ll explain later, I said. Then couldn’t help adding, That was Corinna, Sir Oswald’s daughter.
Ah! Sophie gave me a knowing look, her eyes drifting significantly toward Jon.
I shook my head at her. Now is not the time. There’s something a bit more important going on tonight, remember.
She instantly sobered, just as a loud bell chimed through the packed ballroom.
“That seems early.” I glanced around at the locals.
“I don’t think it has a set time.” Millie glanced nervously toward the small door in the side wall. “I believe each ball is different.”
“Well, I’m glad not to be forced to wait around,” I said, and Sophie nodded her agreement.
“We should probably get going, before the officials come to round us up again.”
The princes followed us across the room, the crowd parting before us. When we reached the door, we found the other princesses gathered. Only Celine was missing, and I could see her hobbling through the crowd.
As soon as she arrived, the door opened, and we all filed through in order. One of the Talinosian twins drew a breath that sounded suspiciously like a sob, but everyone else remained quiet. What horrors awaited us tonight?
Chapter 12
After the destruction of the mirror palace during the previous event, Sophie and I had speculated that the trap door might lead us somewhere different tonight. But the ladder deposited us back in the same grove of silver.
We decided to lower Celine down by her arms in the end—Millie and I at the top, and Sophie and Lilac at the bottom. Celine bore the whole ordeal with grace, and we were soon making our way down the path once again.
“Do you think we’ll be doing the event in the ruins of the palace?” asked Hazel.
“How would we know?” Marigold rolled her eyes. “That’s a stupid question.”
Sophie grinned across at me. Little sisters, right?
I sent back a chuckle. We were pretty obnoxious, weren’t we?
Obnoxious, but lovable, Alyssa assures me, she projected solemnly.
The silver leaves gave way to gold and then to diamonds, before dropping away to be replaced by the still lake. Within seconds, the twelve small boats came into sight, their appearance that of aimless drifters, but their path sure.
I strained my eyes forward as we floated across the water, trying to catch a glimpse of the other side. When the shore came into sight, the castle looked exactly as it had on our previous visit. I tried to remember whether the outside had been damaged last time. I couldn’t remember.
The other princesses all exchanged wary looks, but no one spoke as I led the way up to the great palace doors. Peering inside, I looked around in astonishment. The entrance hall appeared untouched. Quiet exclamations and whispers broke out from the small crowd behind me.
“Like our dresses,” someone said, and I realized they were right. Our restored dresses had been the clue that should have led us to this conclusion.
I sighed. “Well, come on then, let’s get this over with.” I led the way to the throne room, much more confident in my steps now that I had explored the true palace. Once again, the heavy wooden table with the twelve chairs awaited us.
We seated ourselves and stared expectantly at our empty golden plates. They remained empty. When we exchanged confused looks, we saw the single parchment that had once again appeared in the middle of the table. Celine made no move to retrieve it, so Emmeline did so instead.
“The boats have gone and will not return you to the other side of the lake,” she read out. Both of the twins gasped. “You must work together to find your own way back across.”
She placed the parchment back down on the table in front of her and regarded us all. No one said anything.
After a moment, Hazel spoke. “At least this task sounds safer than the last one turned out to be.”
“Yeah,” said Celine, “until our makeshift raft sinks in the middle of the lake, and we all drown.”
One of the twins—I really needed to learn to tell them apart—gasped again, and Celine grimaced. “Sorry. The pain from my ankle makes me grumpy. I’m sure we’ll manage to make an excellent boat.”
“Of course we will,” said Sophie, a little too brightly.
Really? I asked her.
Well, we have to, don’t we? So we will.
I admire your spirit.
She rolled her eyes at me.
“I can’t swim.” Giselle glanced at her sister, Emmeline, who said nothing. Giselle didn’t seem particularly perturbed, she simply stated it as a fact. Thankfully the thought that we might all swim across hadn’t even occurred to me. The lake was wide, and I had to assume it was deep. It wouldn’t be much of a challenge if it wasn’t.
“What about this table?” asked Marigold. “We could turn it upside down and sit in it, like a boat.”
This time Hazel was the one delivering a withering look in her younger sister’s direction. “That’s a terrible idea. It’s far too heavy.”
Marigold opened her mouth to respond, so I rushed in before things could devolve into a fight. “I’m afraid Hazel is right. I don’t think the table would have enough buoyancy.” I cast my eyes around the rest of the throne room. Other than the thrones themselves, it was empty.
“I’m happy to say there’s a noticeable lack of falling masonry this time around. So I vote we spread out and look through this palace, see if we can find anything useful.”
A couple of the younger ones looked reluctant, but Millie smiled at them. “We’ll stick together in twos or threes.”
This seemed to alleviate their worst fears, and I quickly found myself wandering through the rooms with Sophie. Millie had taken the young twins under her wing, and Blanche had volunteered to help Celine. Emmeline and Giselle had stuck together, as always, and Lilac, Hazel and Marigold, the local princesses, had also chosen to go exploring together, despite their earlier tiff. All of which resulted in me and Sophie finding ourselves unencumbered.
It didn’t take me long to realize we had a problem. The layout might mirror the real palace, but none of the furniture had been replicated. The rooms were all empty. I stuck my head into the fourth room we had encountered and then withdrew it with a sigh. The windows didn’t even have curtains, so there was no point going in.
Sophie peered into the next room and then paused and stepped inside. I followed close behind, hoping she’d found something. Another empty room greeted us, except that this one had rows of tall cupboards built into each wall.
You never know… Sophie walked all the way down to the end of the room to open the furthest cupboard first. Perhaps she just wanted to prolong any small hope.
I saw her shoulders slump before I received her projection. Empty.
We checked each cupboard, just in case, but every shelf turned up bare. We met in the middle of the room.
What do you think will happen if we can’t get across?
I didn’t even want to think about that option, but if we didn’t find something soon, we were going to have to consider it. Another head appeared around the doorway.
Blanche’s gaze locked on to us. “Oh, you’re already here.” She looked up and down the room and then back at us hopefully.
We both shook our heads, and she seemed to shrink a little. “Nothing here either,” she said to someone, presumably Celine, outside in the corridor. “Well, except for Lily and Sophie.”
I sadly surveyed the cl
osed cupboards. If only they had held something of use. I paused and looked at them again.
“Actually,” I said. “I might have an idea.”
“Really?” Blanche stepped into the room, and Celine appeared behind her.
I pointed at the cupboard doors. “Do those look like pine to you? Do you think we could get them off?”
All three of the others turned to stare at the cupboards. “I think we could,” said Celine slowly. “And there’s plenty of them.”
“Let’s give it a try.” Sophie was almost rubbing her hands together in anticipation.
The three of us who were uninjured took to the destruction of the room with enthusiasm. Celine watched our efforts a little enviously before hobbling out into the corridor. She started calling loudly for the other girls to gather.
It ended up taking the combined efforts of Sophie, Blanche and me to pull a single cupboard door free. As the other girls trickled in, Celine explained the situation, and they all attacked doors of their own. The twins made almost no impact on their chosen cupboard, but Emmeline and Giselle managed to remove one.
A great deal of bickering sounded from the cupboard being demolished by the three Marinese princesses, but they all appeared extremely pleased with one another as soon as it came free. I shook my head and hid a smile. One benefit of mind-to-mind communication was that Sophie and I had been able to hide a lot of our petty squabbling from others.
Each group of girls removed a second door, and then we took a break to survey the results of our efforts. My arms ached, and I rubbed my shoulder which I had wrenched a little pulling the second one free.
Look at poor Pearl, projected Sophie.
One of the twins was staring at the detached doors and shivering violently. Her sister put an arm around her, but she didn’t look much more confident herself.
“I want to be brave,” said Pearl, her voice small. “But I’m scared. I can’t swim either; what if I fall off and drown?” Her eyes flicked briefly to Celine and then away again. “What if my door drifts away from everyone else’s?”
“Oh, Pearl.” Sophie crossed over to put an arm around her. “We’ll help you.” She looked down at the doors. “And I think they’re big enough for two of us. So you won’t be on your door alone.”
“She raises a good point, though” I said, trying to put a positive spin on her words. “We need to think about how we’re going to steer and propel ourselves.”
“And stick together,” said Sophie. “Maybe we can come up with a way to tie ourselves to each other, so no one floats away.”
A mischievous smile crept over Celine’s face. “There’s really only one solution. And it’s a good thing we’re all girls because I’m afraid it’s going to be rather indecorous.”
“Oh dear,” I said, guessing where she was going.
She grinned at me. “We’ll have to kick our way across, and they’ll only hamper our movements anyway.”
“Hamper our…” Emmeline’s voice trailed off as understanding hit. “You want us to remove our dresses. Absolutely not.”
Celine glared at her. “What other option do we have? We can still wear our underthings, of course. I don’t much fancy getting a splinter halfway across the lake.” She grinned at the rest of us, and Millie half-laughed, half-groaned.
Emmeline’s face hadn’t responded to Celine’s glare or her grin. “I am not worried about drifting away from the group.”
Opal whimpered, and I strode up to Emmeline.
“I don’t care what you’re worried about,” I whispered at her. “I’m not exactly worried either. We’re doing it for the sake of the younger ones. This is a collaborative exercise, remember? We all need to make it across, and we all need to make an effort to participate.”
She stared at me for a moment, then looked away. “Very well.”
I rocked back on my heels, swallowing my next argument. I hadn’t expected her to be so easily convinced. I glanced at Celine who shrugged. Her expression suggested she understood the two icy Eldonian princesses as little as I did.
I sighed and turned back to the others. “Well, that’s settled then. We’ll use our dresses. If we position the doors sideways…” I knelt down to measure the length of the wood with my hands. “We can lay them flat on the water with the longest side facing forward. Then two of us can lie across them, side by side.”
“How will we move forward?” Marigold frowned down at the cupboard door in front of me.
“We’ll lie with our stomachs and chests on the board, but our arms hanging over the front and our legs dangling off the back. That way we can still paddle and kick.” I looked up at them all. “If we get into pairs and tie two dresses together, we can use them to connect our rafts, like ropes between us. We won’t have enough length to tie them on, but one girl can hold the end of the dress connecting them to the raft in front, and one can hold the dress connecting them to the raft behind. I actually think this might work.”
“No might about it,” said Sophie. She rubbed Pearl’s arm. “Good thinking, Pearl.”
Turning Pearl’s fear into a helpful suggestion was a nice touch. Hopefully it might convince the magic of the Tourney that the young twins were doing their best to contribute.
“Let’s get these down to the lake, then.” Millie leaned down and lifted the end of one of the doors. Blanche stepped forward to help her. Emmeline and Giselle made no move to help, but Hazel and Marigold, the two younger Marinese princesses, managed a door between them. Pearl attempted to help Lilac but wobbled awkwardly as she tried to lift her end. Opal stepped forward to join her and, between them, they got it under control.
I looked toward Emmeline and Giselle, only to discover they had already left the room. Three doors remained, along with Sophie, Celine and I. Celine grimaced down at her crutches. “Sorry, twins.”
I shrugged. “We can lift three.” We stacked them on top of each other, and picked them up. I staggered for a moment before properly balancing the weight.
Thankfully the room had been on the ground floor, so we didn’t have to navigate any stairs. I had a nightmarish vision of Pearl or Opal losing their footing and tripping down an entire flight, only to be squashed by their dropped cupboard door.
“At least the water’s warm,” said Sophie. “It could be worse, really.”
I winced. “Don’t say that. I’m still waiting for the ceiling to start falling in.”
No collapsing stone impeded us, however, and we reached the edge of the lake without incident. Everyone put down their burdens and then stood around awkwardly. Sophie turned her back to me. “Can you undo my laces, Lily?”
I worked as quickly as I could, glad to see the others all following Sophie’s lead. As soon as we had both scrambled out of our dresses, we went to help Celine who was struggling to balance while she tried to pull her gown over her head. Soon we all stood in our underclothes and petticoats.
“I hope the dresses come out unscathed again,” said Sophie. “Since this is one of my favorites.”
“Just as long as we don’t drop any into the lake,” said Celine. “It would make someone’s arrival back aboveground a little awkward.”
A quiet snort that might have been a hidden laugh drew my eyes to Giselle. I thought that might have been the first sign of emotion I had seen from the younger girl. When she met my eyes, I smiled, but she just looked away. I sighed. Like brother, like sister.
Sophie and I knotted our dresses together, using the three-quarter length sleeves. I tugged at the knots. “I think they’ll hold. Especially once they’re wet.”
“I’ll check the others,” said Celine, clearly eager to be helpful. Within minutes we had six makeshift rafts, each with their own lifeline.
We don’t actually need six lifelines. Sophie sent me an image of the six rafts in a line across the lake. We only need five.
I know. But I don’t want anyone wearing a dress if they lose their grip and end up underwater.
Sophie’s eyes flew up to
meet mine, her face slightly pale in the strange light of our underground kingdom. She didn’t say anything, though, so I turned to the others.
“I think Blanche and I should each take a raft with one of the twins,” said Millie, clearly not speaking about Sophie and me.
I ran my eye over everyone else, counting in my head. The Eldonians would stick together, as they always did. “Marigold, why don’t you go with Sophie,” I said. “And Celine and I can lead the way and set the pace.”
Celine sent me an apologetic look. “I can kick with one foot.”
I shook my head firmly. “Absolutely not. You can’t risk further injury, remember. You can hold our lifeline, and I’ll do the kicking. That’s why I want us in front. We’ll set the pace, however slow that is. It doesn’t matter how long it takes, just as long as we all arrive on the other side. The water’s warm, so we won’t have to worry about that, either.”
“Let’s get going then,” said Emmeline, dragging one of the doors toward the water. Her sister moved to help her.
Between us, we dragged the six rafts into the water. The ground dropped away gradually, so we were all able to stand in a clump, nearly up to our waists in water, with the rafts floating between us. It was impossible to see through the water, even at this shallow depth, and I suppressed a shiver. Anything could be down there. I sternly told myself not to think about it.
Instead, I helped Celine to drape herself across the closest raft, and then placed her crutches horizontally, tucked between her chest and the wood. It didn’t look comfortable, but she didn’t complain. Her face looked determined as she gripped the raft with one hand and our lifeline of dresses with the other.
I pushed her a little way away from the shore, and fed the other end of the makeshift rope to Lilac. With some squirming and splashing, she and Hazel managed to get themselves into position, and Sophie handed Hazel a second lifeline.
Emmeline took the other end, and I left Sophie to help the others get into position while I pushed our lead raft further into the lake to make room for the line to form behind us. Hoisting myself up onto the raft, I tried not to jostle Celine. Her crutches poked into me, and she apologized and attempted to move them out of the way.
Beyond the Four Kingdoms Box Set 1: Three Fairytale Retellings (Four Kingdoms and Beyond Box Sets Book 3) Page 10