“The less of an image I preconceive, the less of a chance that I’ll be disappointed in him,” said Clara, shrugging. “Look, I’m not really keen on the whole idea of him, anyway, since, as I said before, I’m not really ready to be thinking about that part of my life yet. So…” She shrugged, and turned to Jill Anna, feeling slightly guilty for using her to change the topic, but desperate to get the conversation off of a mysterious Fire Prince that she didn’t want to exist. “So how about you? Is there a young man back at the village who has your heart? Perhaps one of the soldiers takes your fancy?”
Was it just Clara, or did the needle actually speed up for a few seconds? “I assure you, there is no one in my village, for I have not been out of the castle for years. Nor do I take any particular interest in any of the soldiers.”
“One of your fellow servants, perhaps?” Dina prompted.
“No, I cannot say that I’ve had sufficient contact with any of the men to gain such an attraction,” Jill Anna answered. “Leastways, not any of them with proper character. Besides which, I’m a mere…” she hesitated a moment, before she quietly said, “seamstress.”
Clara wondered if she had been about to say something else, and if so, what.
“Come now,” said Dina, with a shake of her head. “A seamstress is nothing to be ashamed of. You’re a beautiful young woman. I’m sure that, should Water Princess or I recommend you to any of the soldiers…”
“It is not necessary,” said Jill Anna, coldly. “As I said, I take no particular interest in any of the soldiers.”
“Then who do you fancy?” asked Dina. “Surely I’m not the only one here who takes interest in boys.”
“Jill Anna does like someone,” Jasmine piped up. “Not sure who, she says it’s none of my business, but I’ve seen her sighing often enough, and she’s basically said as much.”
Jill Anna shot a glare across the Monopoly board but made no effort to protest.
“Oh!” said Dina, a mischievous grin spreading across her face. “Who is it then? One of the nobles? Is that why you’re so reluctant to admit it? You think you have no chance with him?”
“I…” Jill Anna protested, leaning forward to examine the dress, her face noticeably red. “I am a mere seamstress and have no business longing after the life of a noblewoman.”
“Whether or not you ought to be doing something isn’t the question here,” Dina countered. “The question is if you think one of the noblemen is, as the Water Princess puts it, cute.”
“I don’t find that choice of phrasing quite acceptable,” said Jill Anna.
“I agree,” said Clara. “You have some good-looking gentlemen here, but none of them can be quite called cute.”
Dina rolled her eyes. “You know what I mean. You clearly have someone, but you think that, as a seamstress, you could never attain him. So you pretend you don’t like anyone, but your sister has noticed. You can’t hide any longer.”
“Sister?” Clara asked.
“You aren’t aware that Jasmine is Jill Anna’s youngest sister?” asked Dina, turning to Clara, with a look of astonishment. “They both practically live in your room.”
Clara gave a sheepish shrug. “I guess it never occurred to me,” she admitted. “Makes sense though, why Jill Anna was the first seamstress Jasmine thought of when I asked for one. And why they still seem to get along despite their constant bickering. Should have seen it…”
“I thought I told you who she was when I got her for you,” said Jasmine, looking concerned.
“No, you didn’t,” said Clara.
Jasmine shrugged. “Oh, well. Not that it mattered. You know now, though.”
“That’s nice, but now,” said Dina, turning back to Jill Anna. Clara winced inwardly. She had thought she had sufficiently distracted the girl off of the subject. She was deeply regretting even suggesting the topic of boys. “You still haven’t told me who it is you fancy.”
“It’s growing late,” Clara piped up, grabbing the dice and throwing them back into the box. “As fascinating as this subject has been, we’re going to have a long day ahead of us tomorrow, from what I hear, so I, at least, am going to need my sleep.”
“Why?” asked Dina.
“Because, for some reason, I am physically incapable of sleeping in,” Clara explained. “I wake up every morning at 5:30, no matter how late I stayed up the night before. I like it that way, but I also like my sleep. So, it’s time for us to crash. Why don’t we all count up our money and property values, and declare the richest person the winner?”
There were moans of disappointment, but since Clara saw this as the only way to get Dina off of Jill Anna’s case, and the two younger ones had been yawning fiercely for some time, Clara stood firm on the issue. Money was counted up, Clara assisting in determining how to count it, and even doing some of the math for Jasmine, and Jill Anna was declared the winner.
“Not bad,” said Clara nodding. “We’ll have to play another day.”
“So … should I return to my rooms?” asked Dina.
“Oh, no,” said Clara, shaking her head. “Jasmine and Sera can share Jasmine’s bed – they’ll both fit, and I think they’ll find that it’ll keep them warmer overnight. The three of us can pile into mine.”
Jill Anna looked up from her sewing with a startled look. “But, Water Princess!”
“It’s big enough for all of us,” Clara countered. “I don’t mind sharing, so it’s perfectly fine. If your complaint is the fact that you’re still sewing, feel free to continue to sit up and do so. We’ll leave you a candle. However, I’m going to bed, and I don’t want to hear any more talking. I’m a light sleeper, let me warn you!”
Chapter 8
Clara spun around in front of the mirror. The dress Jill Anna had made for her was perfect. A shimmering blue velvet edged with white fur, falling to her ankles. Very warm, and very pretty. Part of her wanted to protest the potential of her legs getting twisted up, but this was the style everyone was wearing, and the dance was designed to suit this dress. Sapphires glittered in the fancy twist Jasmine had put in her hair, and around her neck and wrists.
“You know,” she observed, “I think people may be taking this whole blue thing way too far. I may be the Water Princess, but I surely don’t have to wear it every day of my life.”
“I did consider orange, the color of RivRe,” said Jill Anna. “But you said you looked terrible in it, so I went with the color of your eyes and RivSo. And, of course, the RiWa which you came out of.”
“Right, there is that.” Riva were what the seven great bodies of water were called in Rizkaland. They were something of a cross between a river and an ocean since they all flowed downward from the top of the world – which was, apparently, cylindrical, not spherical like her own world. Each was a different color – another strange thing about this world, water coming in multiple colors. So far, Clara had mostly encountered blue water, since the nearest Ri – what they called rivers – was blue.
“I think you’re going to be the prettiest girl there,” said Jasmine, nodding in approval.
“Well, as the Water Princess and guest of honor, she has every right to be,” Jill Anna agreed.
“All right,” said Clara, “if the two of you are done discussing my beauty, I believe I have a party to attend.”
“Yes, of course,” said Jill Anna.
Clara wasn’t sure if she was excited. On one hand, this was the fanciest birthday party anyone had ever thrown for her. On the other, she didn’t really like fancy birthday parties.
There was a knock at the door: Jakob, here to ask if he might escort her to the ball. She accepted the offer – she was supposed to, after all – and they made their way down to the great ballroom. Servants bustled here and there through the halls, carting food and guiding ladies of rank.
“Nervous, Water Princess?” Jakob asked.
“A bit,” she admitted. “We don’t have balls in my world, and I’ve never been much of a party person.”<
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“You don’t know how to dance?”
“Tricky question there,” she answered. “It depends on what you’re dancing. I’ve taken courses in several different styles – ballet, tap, jazz, even some ballroom, despite not ever having a use for it. So it’s mainly an issue of if your dance is anything like what I know.”
“Understandable,” said Jakob. He paused and then added, “If it’ll make you feel any better, you can always use your martial arts skill on any partner that displeases you. That should cause quite the stir.”
“Well, as it happens, I’m not here to make a stir,” she countered, not amused with the suggestion. “I save that for competitions.”
“Competitions?”
“Something we have in my world. We compete to see who’s the best at something. Someday I’m going to go to the Olympics, which is the biggest athletic competition our world has. Not sure yet what I’m going to do, but I’ll have to figure it out soon enough. I wanted to go this year, since it was in Athens, but the next one’s Beijing and I have family there, so I’m looking forward to it.”
“Martial arts?” Jakob suggested.
“It’s a possibility, though I might also go with some form of gymnastics. Now, I don’t want to discuss it anymore. Isn’t that the ballroom?”
“It is indeed,” Jakob acknowledged. “But as Water Princess and Lor’Son we use a special entrance in back.”
“Oh.” Clara nodded. “I feel special.”
Jakob laughed. He was probably the only person who laughed at her sarcasm, which was why she liked him. That and the fact that, to her knowledge, he hadn’t told anyone that she actually was pretty good at martial arts. She would have thought that had he told his father, her lessons with Sir Martin would have stopped.
And of all her lessons, those were her favorites. She had actually learned a few new things from him, though she had pretended to fail at them. Not a good idea for the long run, but she made sure to practice them in the mornings so that she could get the proper muscle memory. She just had to make sure she did it before Jasmine woke up.
“And here we are,” he announced, snapping her out of her thoughts. He pushed open a panel in the wall to reveal a tight spiral staircase.
“Wow. A lot of effort to hide an entrance to a ballroom,” she observed.
“Prince Anselle and Princess Isabelle were fond of hidden passages and doorways,” Jakob explained, handing her into the room. He spoke of the original inhabitants of this castle and rulers over Upper Klarand, his own ancestors, part of the ten teens who had founded Klarand. “They’re all over the castle, though not all make sense. Most people know this one exists, but not many know how to open it.”
“Sounds fun,” she admitted, wishing she had learned about these passages sooner. “I’ll have to look for more later.”
“I’ll be happy to show you a few, since they can be difficult to locate if you don’t know where they are,” Jakob offered. “I probably know only about half of them. My father knows where most of them are, but it is rumored that Anselle and Isabelle didn’t tell their children of all of them, and there are a few that were so well hidden, that they still remain a mystery to this day.”
“Sounds like a challenge.”
“Though the more pressing challenge would be finding a way to get rid of the Lady Dragon.” They reached the top of the staircase.
“Now what?” she asked, not wanting to respond to his pointed comment about the dragon she was supposed to find a way to get out of Klarand.
Jakob reached over her shoulder and pressed against the panel that blocked her way. It slid open, and she blinked a few times at the sudden onslaught of light. At the same moment, a loud voice boomed, “Presenting her Majesty, the beloved and long-awaited Water Princess.”
She stepped onto a platform at the top of a tall, but fairly wide, flight of stairs, and at the base of these stairs milled a glittering crowd of people. She swallowed and gave a small wave, unsure of what she was expected to do. No one had said anything about her giving a speech or anything like that.
Lord Erik, who had apparently been standing beside the ornate door she now saw when she glanced behind her, stepped up to her rescue.
“This is a day of joy,” he announced. “For not only is our Water Princess here with us at long last, but today we gather to celebrate her sixteenth birthday. May she live a long and happy life with us as our Water Princess.”
There was a loud cheer, and she felt Lord Erik give her shoulder a squeeze. Her stomach clenched. A long life as their Water Princess? She had been under the impression that she would get rid of the dragon lady, then pop back home, her family none the wiser. The prophecy didn’t say anything about her residence in Klarand being permanent.
Almost every book she had read on the subject (which were, to tell the truth, few and far between – she preferred more classical literature) had the kid go back home as soon as the dragon was slain. Staying in Klarand? She was going to have to talk to someone about that.
Jakob was at her elbow again, bowing and asking if he might have this first dance. As the Lor’Son, it was his duty to offer, apparently, especially since there wasn’t a Fire Prince in the picture yet. She accepted, not knowing who else she would dance with, and together they descended the stairs.
They assumed position, the music started, and they started to dance.
The first dance was a waltz, and it was easy to follow Jakob’s lead. They wove in and out among the other dancers at the dictation of the music.
“See there?” said Jakob. “You’re a marvelous dancer. You needn’t have worried.”
“I wasn’t that worried, I know my skill,” she responded. “However, what was that I heard your father talking about? About me staying here for a long time? I was under the impression that I could go home once I got rid of the dragon.”
Jakob didn’t answer at first.
“Oh, come on,” she protested, with a sigh and roll of her eyes. “Hiding yet another thing from me? I really don’t like it when you people do that. I have a life and plans back home, may I point out, and I look forward to living them. Getting stuck here for the rest of my life is not part of it. May I remind you of my mother, and how distressed she’s going to be if she loses her only child? I’ve worked her through depressions before. It’s not pretty. My staying is not in the prophecy, so what makes you think I will?”
“The prophecy we told you isn’t the only one we have that speaks of you and the Fire Prince,” Jakob admitted.
“Oh?” This was the first time she’d heard that.
“We have not meant to mislead you,” said Jakob. “We simply hadn’t felt the need to tell you about the other prophecies. Few of them are direct mentions, but it is clearly the two of you. We didn’t want to overwhelm you, so we only told you of the task at hand.”
“And what a way to let me know about them,” she nearly growled out. “So, what am I expected to do after the dragon’s gone? You don’t appear to have any other enemies in need of vanquishing. You just…” A thought occurred to her that made her stomach roll. The few times a character ever did remain after the main battle was ended, it was because they were needed to rule.
“Thirty-one years ago, King Damask and Queen Evelyn died without heir,” Jakob admitted.
“Who? I’m sorry, but I’m not familiar with these names.”
“The king and queen of the Kastle,” Jakob clarified.
“Oh.” Clara’s eyes narrowed. “Thirty-one years without a king and queen. You appear to be doing just fine, save for the whole dragon business.”
“Not exactly.”
“Okay, what’s the catch now?”
“We have not been without a king and queen,” Jakob explained. “Less than a year after the deaths of King Damask and Queen Evelyn, we were sent a Wind Prince and Leaf Princess. They have ruled over us.”
“Okay, so why do you need the Fire Prince and me? Can’t they take care of the problem?”
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�It was not the task set before them, and they should surely fail if they were to attempt it,” Jakob explained. “They have been besieged in the Kastle for some time now, and no one even knows if they’re still there. I believe they are, but it’s hard to be sure. Besides which, they are brother and sister.”
“And…”
“The first prophecy we received concerning you and the Fire Prince was that you would be the heirs to the Wind Prince and Leaf Princess.”
“That’s what I thought it sounded like.”
Neither said anything else until the dance was over. She thanked him politely for the dance, and before he had a chance to ask her for another, she excused herself under the pretense of needing a breath of fresh air.
She wove through the crowd of people as quietly as she could. At last, she reached one of the balconies she had caught sight of from the platform when she first entered the room.
There was no one else out there, so she walked right out to the edge and gripped the railing tightly, squeezing her eyes shut to block out the thoughts that rushed through her.
She hadn’t asked for this, she knew that for a fact. She had never, ever dreamed of becoming a queen, or even a princess. She had never wanted an unknown “Fire Prince” to be the man she was destined to marry. She wanted to go back home and to the life she was used to, with her best friends, parents, and athletics where she wasn’t trying to hide her skill.
What sort of queen would she make? She hated leadership, barely made a good team player. She preferred a life that she could live to her own drumbeat and not have to listen to anyone or tell anyone what to do.
“Poor thing. I wonder how many people realize how utterly human their Water Princess really is.”
Clara opened her eyes with a start and turned to see a young woman of about her age standing beside her, gazing out across the dimming landscape. She had a mass of frizzy brown hair that fell nearly to her waist, and she was dressed in a simple red dress, though the effect was negated by the multitude of gaudy jewelry she wore. She refused to meet Clara’s eye.
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