Barbie: The Pearl Princess Junior Novelization

by Molly McGuire Woods

  Special thanks to Diane Reichenberger, Cindy Ledermann, Jocelyn Morgan,

  Tanya Mann, Julia Phelps, Sharon Woloszyk, Rita Lichtwardt, Carla Alford,

  Renee Reeser Zelnick, Rob Hudnut, David Wiebe, Shelley Dvi-Vardhana,

  Gabrielle Miles, Rainmaker Entertainment, Walter P. Martishius, and Sarah Lazar

  BARBIE and associated trademarks and trade dress are owned by,

  and used under license from, Mattel.

  Copyright © 2014 Mattel. All Rights Reserved.

  www.barbie.com

  Published in the United States by Random House Children’s Books,

  a division of Random House LLC, 1745 Broadway, New York, NY 10019,

  and in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto,

  Penguin Random House Companies. Random House and the

  colophon are registered trademarks of Random House LLC.

  ISBN 978-0-385-37517-7

  randomhouse.com/kids

  eBook ISBN: 978-0-375-98202-6

  Random House Children’s Books supports the First Amendment

  and celebrates the right to read.

  v3.1

  Contents

  Copyright

  Title Page

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Lumina the mermaid swam around her sea cave’s front yard, collecting shells and placing them on a pretend throne. Her best friend, a pink sea horse named Kuda, fashioned a tiara out of a clamshell. They were playing their favorite game: Mermaid Princesses.

  “What do you think, Kuda? Is it regal enough for a coronation?” Lumina asked, rolling out a red carpet made from sea flowers.

  Kuda draped a purple sea fan around her neck like a cape. “Excellent. When I am crowned Princess of the Sea, I shall make you Chief of Royal Awesomeness,” the sea horse announced.

  Lumina chuckled, looking at the throne. It glistened with sea pearls, the same kind that dotted her long golden-blond hair. “I don’t know,” she said, cocking her head in thought. “It still needs something.” Then she raised her fingers and wiggled them, as if casting a spell.

  Suddenly, the pearls magically glowed! Next, Lumina reached into the pearl waist pouch she always wore. She retrieved a fistful of pearls and flung them through the water. Like a conductor, she commanded the pearls to drape across the throne like twinkly lights, each one gleaming brightly. It was beautiful.

  “Now it’s perfect! Shall we begin, Your Mini-Majesty?” Lumina asked, curtseying in Kuda’s direction.

  “Oh, let’s do,” Kuda replied, nodding regally. “Alert the royal subjects.”

  Lumina smiled as a group of hermit crabs, oysters, and fish crowded into the courtyard to witness the make-believe coronation. Every time they played this game, Lumina wished she were a real mermaid princess who wore fancy gowns and lived in a palace. Not that living with her aunt on the outskirts of town was a bad thing. It just wasn’t very exciting.

  Lumina longed to see things she’d never seen, explore places she’d never been, and meet people she’d never met. But her aunt Scylla wanted her to stay close to home, where it was safe. Someday, Lumina thought as she picked up the clamshell tiara. She watched Kuda make her grand entrance. A pair of swordfish raised their heads to let the sea horse pass, as though she were passing beneath real royal swords.

  Lumina curtseyed again as Kuda arrived at the throne. “With the power vested in me by nobody in particular, I hereby crown you Princess Kuda, Ruler of the Seven Seas!” she said, setting the tiara carefully on the sea horse’s head. Then she reached into her waist purse and tossed more pearls into the water. Lumina swirled them around Kuda’s head and settled them atop her tiara. With a snap of her fingers—ting!—the pearls sparkled and glowed warmly.

  “Thank you, thank you, my loyal subjects,” Kuda said, quieting the crowd with her fins. “Ladies and jellyfish, let us celebrate my coronation with a royal ball.”

  Lumina offered her hand to Kuda. “Shall we dance, milady?” she said with a giggle. The ball was Lumina’s favorite part of their game. She loved to imagine a real royal ball held in the nearby kingdom of Seagundia’s palace. The gowns, the orchestra, the royal family: what a sight it must be! One day, Lumina thought, I will see it for myself. She only hoped it would be as beautiful as it was in her dreams.

  “Lumina!” The familiar voice jolted Lumina back to the present. She shot Kuda a look and waved her arms frantically, directing all the pearls back to their oyster shells and into her purse. The crabs, fish, and other “guests” scampered away just as her aunt Scylla opened the cave’s front door.

  “Lumina! What was all that commotion?” Aunt Scylla said, looking around the water for the source of all the noise.

  Lumina twisted her hands behind her back. “Um? Oh, we were just playing coronation, Aunt Scylla.”

  Her aunt nodded, unsurprised. “Ah. Well, I need help with the kelp cake, so please come join me in the kitchen.”

  Lumina nodded and headed for the door, Kuda swimming behind her.

  Aunt Scylla opened the door wider to let them in. “Say,” she remarked, “didn’t this door used to squeak?”

  Lumina grinned. “It did. I fixed it,” she announced proudly.

  “Thank you, dear,” Aunt Scylla said, smiling affectionately. “Always leaving things better than you found them.” She patted Lumina on the arm. “I’ll be in the kitchen. And I’m not even going to ask why there’s a clamshell on Kuda’s head.”

  Kuda’s pink cheeks blushed red. “I appreciate that,” she said.

  As soon as Aunt Scylla turned her back, Lumina snatched the tiara off Kuda’s head, sending a shower of pearls tumbling through

  the seawater.

  Aunt Scylla whirled around. “Lumina!” she cried, seeing the shower of pearls. “Were you using your pearl magic outside?”

  Lumina stared at her feet. “Um . . . well, maybe . . . just a little.”

  Scylla peered out into the yard, looking for anyone who might have witnessed Lumina’s secret power. “Lumina, I’ve told you and told you: ‘Keep your—’ ”

  “ ‘—magic to yourself,’ ” Lumina finished, trying not to roll her eyes. She had heard it a million times before.

  Aunt Scylla sighed. “You have a very special gift, but if word got out, all kinds of bad people might come looking for you.”

  Lumina blew out her breath. “But I don’t understand. Who’s going to see me way out here?”

  “You don’t need to understand,” her aunt snapped. “Please, just do as I say.”

  Lumina sighed. It was hard enough spending so much time alone, with only Kuda for company. She didn’t think amusing herself with a few pearls could do any harm. Sure, it was an unusual talent to have. But Lumina had been able to control all the pearls around her for as long as she could remember. She used to wonder where her magical powers came from. Had her mother been able to command pearls? Her father? But she had stopped searching for answers a long time ago.

  Her real parents were a mystery to her. The only family she had ever known was Aunt Scylla, who had adopted her when she was a baby. They’d lived in the sea cave, just the two of them, ever since. It was a nice, quiet life, and Lumina tried to be happy. But she couldn’t help wondering w
hat else might be out there for her.

  Kuda brought Lumina back to reality with a grunt. “Great,” the sea horse scoffed, rubbing her head where the clamshell crown had dug in. “Now your aunt’s mad. And I’ve got clam dents in my head.”

  “Oh, you look fine,” Lumina began. Then she squinted. “Except for your hair.”

  Kuda backed away. She recognized that glint in Lumina’s eyes.

  There was nothing Lumina loved more than creating things. Whether it was an elaborate throne in the front yard or a new hairstyle, she loved taking something ordinary and making it extraordinary. And she had to admit she was pretty good at it.

  Lumina reached for Kuda’s mane, a new style already in mind.

  “Uh-oh.” Kuda sighed.

  A short while later, after they had baked the kelp cake, Lumina got to work styling Kuda’s mane. She added a few pearls. Then she took them out. Then she put them back in, rearranging them to frame Kuda’s face. “Nope. Still not right.”

  She tried bangs. Then dreadlocks. Even a ballerina bun. But nothing seemed quite creative enough. Next, she spun Kuda’s mane into an elaborate updo. She stepped back to admire her handiwork. “I think that’s the one,” she said, satisfied. “Now you need something to wear.” She found a silk scarf in a drawer and draped it around Kuda like a gown. Using a starfish as a clip, she secured the gown in place. With a wave of her fingers she sprinkled it with pearls. “There. Now you look like a princess!”

  Kuda spun around to face the mirror. “Only if a princess’s hair is big enough to hold parties in!” she exclaimed, touching her mile-high do.

  Lumina waved her arms, and a string of pearls whirled around her own golden hair, dressing it to match Kuda’s. “Now we both look like princesses,” she remarked, turning to admire her reflection from the side. She sighed. “I wonder what a real princess looks like.”

  From her bedroom, Aunt Scylla listened sadly as Lumina and Kuda played dress-up. She picked up a pearl bracelet that had been Lumina’s when she was a baby and felt the beads. She knew that, more than anything in the world, Lumina dreamed of being a princess, living in the royal castle and attending royal balls. She also knew that Lumina was, in fact, already a true princess.

  Long ago—seventeen years, to be exact—Lumina was born in the royal castle. She was the only daughter of the king and queen of Seagundia—which made her Princess Lumina. With flaxen hair and the gift of pearls, Princess Lumina would one day be queen herself. But while the town rejoiced, there was one member of the royal party who did not want her around.

  Caligo, the king’s brother-in-law, had another plan. He wished for his own son, Fergis, to inherit the throne. So Caligo hatched a villainous plot to get rid of Lumina.

  Aunt Scylla was ashamed that she had kidnapped Lumina in exchange for payment from Caligo. But one look at Lumina’s beautiful, smiling baby face and Scylla couldn’t go through with the whole plan. So, to keep Lumina safe from Caligo’s evil ways, Scylla raised her far away from the castle as her own niece—and loved her just as much as if she were.

  Aunt Scylla shook her head free of the terrible memories. If only she could find some way to tell Lumina the truth. But every time she tried, she lost her nerve. She loved Lumina with all her heart, and telling her would only hurt her. Aunt Scylla replaced Lumina’s pearl baby bracelet in her keepsake box and shut the lid tightly.

  Across the sea at the royal palace, Caligo plotted once again for his son to rule the seas. It had been seventeen years since the princess disappeared, and he was getting impatient.

  Since Lumina’s disappearance, the king and queen had plunged into a deep sadness. They locked themselves away in the palace, refusing to see anyone or perform any of their royal duties. The kingdom missed their beloved king and queen.

  Caligo didn’t care whether the king and queen ever resumed their royal duties—just as long as they named Fergis the heir to the throne.

  “Your Gracious Majesties, all I ask is that you consent to appear in public just one night. It’s been seventeen long years. Your subjects need you. Your kingdom needs you. Dare I say it, I need you,” Caligo pleaded in a slimy voice.

  The king sighed a heavy sigh. “Caligo, I’ve told you many times. Queen Lorelei and I—”

  Caligo put up a hand to stop the king. He pretended to wipe a tear from his eye. “Of course, of course, and like you, I am inconsolable with grief. But we simply must face the fact that with you and the queen having no heir, the kingdom will one day pass to your nephew—my gallant son, Fergis.”

  Shaggy-haired Fergis knelt in the corner, lovingly tending to a flower box of sea plants. He beamed goofily at his father and pointed to an exquisite bloom. “Look, Father, look!” he cried. “A Crinoidea Porphyras! The first one of the season! Oh, rapture! Wait until I tell the botany club.”

  Caligo rolled his eyes. Fergis was nothing like him. But he was Caligo’s only shot at gaining all of the power that came with the royal throne. Whether Fergis wanted to or not, he would become king.

  Caligo focused his attention once again on the king and queen. “Now that he has come of age, tradition dictates that we confer upon the heir apparent our royal medallion, the Pearl of the Sea.” He eyed a glass case behind the royal couple. Inside the case lay a necklace with one enormous luminescent pearl hanging from it.

  The queen fingered the locket she wore around her own neck, close to her heart. It held a picture of her lost baby girl. She nodded solemnly. “I’m afraid Caligo is right. Perhaps it is time.”

  The king nodded in agreement.

  Caligo clapped his hands. “Excellent!” he cried, sounding a bit too excited. “And since he’ll also need to choose a suitable wife, we’ll give a royal ball. We’ll invite the most eligible young mermaids of the kingdom—for a chance to be my son’s queen!”

  He glanced at Fergis, who was whispering to a blue sea lily. “Hello, Neocrinus decorus. How are you feeling today? A little blue? Ha, ha—get it?” He chuckled to himself.

  The king rubbed his eyes. Fergis was not anyone’s idea of a gallant prince. But he would have to do.

  Aunt Scylla knitted her brows in concentration. She could hear Lumina and Kuda outside playing hide-and-seek as they looked for sea pearls. Carefully, Scylla poured a syrupy red liquid from one bamboo dish into another dish full of blue liquid. She had to get this latest scale-smoothing potion just right for a very high-maintenance client. Purple steam rose high into the air in the shape of a viperfish. Perfect. The steamy fish wound its way around a nearby houseplant, causing the plant to wither and die. Looks like I still have some work to do, Scylla thought.

  Just then, she heard a knock on the door. She waved the steamy viperfish back into its crucible and quickly returned all of her ingredients to the cupboard. She opened the front door and peered out. Nobody was there. That’s strange, she thought. Suddenly, an eel dangled in front of her face from the top of the doorway. He eyed her crazily.

  “Ahhhhh!” Scylla cried in shock.

  “Oh, my dear, did I frighten you?” the eel whispered menacingly. He let out a loud cackle.

  “Who are you, and what do you want?” Scylla snapped.

  The eel slithered along the doorframe, enjoying the suspense. “Murray at your service,” he hissed, bowing deeply. “Merely a humble messenger. I come bearing an ‘eel-mail’ from an old friend of yours: Caligo.”

  Hearing Caligo’s name, Scylla jumped back. She had tried so hard to put him—and her dreadful past—from her mind. “How did you find me here?” she asked.

  “Oh, I have a certain gift for finding those who don’t want to be found,” Murray replied. He slinked past Scylla into the living room.

  “Hey! Out!” Scylla commanded.

  Murray ignored her. “I admit tracking you down was a particular challenge. But my Bottom Feeders Network came through. Then it was simply a slither here, a slither there, and—voilà!—here I am.” He swam under the couch just as Scylla tried to grab him.

  “All
right, you’ve found me,” Scylla replied with a sigh. “What is it you want?”

  Murray reappeared. “A simple request, really. My employer is once again in need of your, um, professional services.”

  Scylla’s eyes narrowed. “Services? What services?”

  “It seems Caligo has grown a bit impatient waiting for His Majesty the King to die of natural causes. He has decided, therefore, to speed up the process a tad,” Murray announced darkly.

  Scylla nodded, understanding. “Ahh, those services.”

  Murray slithered around her feet and tried to settle himself in a nearby chair. “Precisely. He has convinced His Majesty to open up the castle for a royal ball, at which time the king will confer the Pearl of the Sea medallion on Caligo’s son. His Majesty will then toast the boy with a cup of merberry nectar.”

  Scylla eyed Murray with suspicion. “Which Caligo wants me to poison,” she concluded.

  “Exactly,” Murray replied, slinking out of the chair. “The king croaks, the son is crowned, everybody wins. . . . Well, maybe not the king. Don’t you love a happy ending?”

  Scylla had heard enough. “Well, you can tell your ‘employer’ that I’m no longer in the poisoning business. So unless you’re interested in buying some Gill Glistener or Scale Brighter, GET OUT!” She pointed to the door.

  Murray did not budge. “He said you’d say that,” he hissed. “I am therefore authorized to issue the following threat: ‘Do it, or I’ll tell everyone you killed the princess.’ ”

  Scylla gasped. “He wouldn’t dare!” she whispered fiercely.

  Murray flashed a sinister smile. “He said you’d say that, too. I am therefore authorized to respond: ‘Would so.’ ”

  Scylla’s eyes blazed with fury. She had made some mighty big mistakes in her life, but Caligo was truly evil. If he issued a threat, it was likely to come true. She couldn’t risk putting Lumina in any sort of danger. Scylla had no choice. “Fine. If it’s poison Caligo wants, it’s poison he’ll get.”

  “A wise decision,” Murray remarked. “Here, you’ll need this invitation to the ball. We’ll leave the sordid details in your expert hands. After all, it’s really all in the ‘execution.’ Wouldn’t you agree?” The eel chuckled smugly as he swam toward the door. “Now don’t be late—eight p.m., Saturday, at the castle.”