In the huge crystal hall are all the girls running back and forth in impressive dresses. For a moment I think I am wrong and these are the princesses. Their faces have make-up and their steps are graceful.

I feel like a pig at a ball here.

Then a girl shouts across the room, "We're starting," and I know I'm sitting right.

Turned in on myself, I walk to a bench under the large window and mess around in my bag.

The two girls next to me snort loudly and then get up to sit somewhere else.

God, this was a bad idea.

All over the room are expensive paintings of landscapes and rulers. The floor is made of shiny wood and the walls are snow white. Crystal white.

The only wall different from the rest is the one made up of books. All over the surface, from the high ceiling to the floor, books stick out.

I see the typical books like those by Shakespeare and Jane Austen. But I also see other writers 

that are not at all familiar to me.

This must have been, before we came here, the reading room.

I am so distracted that I have not noticed that someone has come to sit next to me. It is only when she holds out her hand and smiles at me that I come back to the here and now.

The hand was sun-tanned and belongs to a girl who was different from the rest here.

She was just like me, dressed in pants and shirt with her black dreadlocks in a neat ponytail.

Her warm brown eyes take in me. Then her mouth departs in a grin.

"Hi."

I stand with my mouth agape.

Never before had I seen such a beautiful girl.

I look behind me to assure myself it wasn't to anyone behind me. Then I point up.

She chuckles and takes my hand. I stare at it.

"You're not much of a talker huh. Doesn't matter, I like a little peace and quiet." She gestures around her, to the smiling girls huddled around each other. 'It's nice to see there are still girls who take this job seriously.'

"They are indeed very made up for an applicant as a maid."

We look into each other's eyes seriously for a few seconds and then both start laughing. 

"Cedra Wolf." 

"Eliana Winter." At that moment the two big doors open and 2 men step in.

One is dressed like any other guard is the palace. The other wears a black suit with his hair pulled back tightly.

In his hand the man carries a piece of parchment which he unfolds with great display as soon as it is quiet in the hall. He puts a small gold pair of glasses on his nose and raises his head to see through the glasses.

He clears his throat.

"The royal family welcomes you to the castle and before we begin would like to thank you for coming. It is a great honor that the kingdom has so many loyal subjects willing to leave their families to serve the crown."

I wobble uncomfortably back and forth on the bench.

"Good, now on to practical matters." The slick guy looks above his glasses at everyone in the room. For a moment, his gaze lingers on me and Cedra.

Then he turns back to his text.

The guard points out a sentence to him on the parchment and then stands back perfectly straight, hands folded behind his back.

"Because of the shortage of maids, we had to distribute them throughout the palace. This unfortunately left the king and queen with no one to work for them. Even the prince had to give up his maid service on the occasion of the arrival of the princesses."

I know where this is going. The tension in the room rises with those words.

Everyone wants to serve the prince and everyone wants to get on a white foot with the king and queen.

"Therefore, three girls will be chosen for these tasks."

A shriek rings through the hall and the rest begin talking fiercely to each other until the guard calls for silence.

A disapproving expression is on the face of the slick little man.

"We will now take you all one by one to a room where you will be interrogated. Afterwards, it will be chosen who will be the lucky ones. The rest of you will unfortunately have to go home."

As soon as he has said the last, the two men turn abruptly and walk out of the room.

Immediately it erupts.

Girls are screaming and shaking at each other. Hair is done properly, and teeth are inspected in the reflective surfaces.

Cedra and I remain seated as before, taking in the chaos.

"I had a little dog once," I say to her out of the blue.

Cedra's eyes light up. "Really?"

I nod and rub my hands over my thighs. Our gazes are still on the girls. "The prince stole him."

That does cause her to look at me. A shocked expression passes over her face before she pulls him back into the fold. "Why?"

I shrug. "Because he felt like it. Because he could. Who knows?"

The doors open again and the first girl is taken away by two guards.

Slowly the room trickles out. Cedra and I say a few more things to each other before we are both silent. Withdrawn into our own heads.

Then Cedra is taken away and I am left alone on our bench.

After a few minutes I can't hold on any longer and start pacing.

Finally it is my turn and with unsteady steps I follow the guards to a classroom.

This one was a lot smaller than the reading room and seems to have been intended as a sort of broom closet. Although, of course, it was still bigger than my house in Havers.

Near the center of the table, the lacquered little man sits looking through some papers that are in front of his nose. The gold glasses keep dropping off and he keeps putting them back on.

To his left is a guard. This one I haven't seen yet. He has a remarkably round face and small eyes.

But I pay more attention to the two men on the right.

In the middle of the doorway I remain standing, and the breath I had sucked in gets stuck in my throat.

Shivers creep down my spine and make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

The two men both stop talking as soon as they catch sight of me.

"There's our little bad girl after all. We've been waiting for you."

Dante and Olivier both take a step forward and grin from ear to ear.