TEN YEARS EARLIER

Coco did not believe she was cursed. The idea was absurd, just another of Nurse Merla's grim stories.

"Mother says my beauty is a gift," Coco said. She sat on a tall chair before a gilded mirror. The nurse stood behind, tugging a brush through Coco's bountiful curls.

"Every gift comes with cost," Nurse Merla said in her tight voice. The only person who never smiled at Princess Coralina Corissa. And the only one who didn't call her Coco.

Coco shrugged. "The treasure room is full of gold."

"Not that kind of cost," Nurse Merla said. "Would you like to hear the name of the curse that beauty brings?"

But Coco was no longer listening. She fluffed her curls with her small hands and considered which gown she would wear that day.

Nurse Merla's withered fingers settled on Coco's shoulders. Their eyes met in the mirror.

"Men," Nurse Merla whispered.

"Men?" The word conjured only one image in Coco's mind. Her father seated on his throne amidst a gaggle of chancellors, soldiers, and advisors, all talking of grave matters in grave voices. "Men are dull as dirt."

"At seven years, it is natural to think so. But the day will come when you do not find them dull."

"And what will the men do?" Coco asked. The permanent frown lines around Nurse Merla's mouth deepened. "Anything you want."

This did not sound like the stuff curses were made of to Coco. She gazed at her reflection. Shimmering curls of night-black hair. Flawless olive skin. Dramatic purple eyes set off by thick lashes. The fairest princess in a hundred kingdoms... and she knew it.

"What gloominess are you telling my daughter?" The queen laughed as she turned into the bedchamber, her blue gown brushing the stone floor. With vibrant red hair and milk-white skin, the queen looked as much like Coco's mother as a fox to a black kitten. Coco sometimes wondered what her birth mother had looked like. If they shared the same amethyst eyes and gently tanned complexion....

"Nurse Merla says my beauty is a curse, and the curse will bring men who do whatever I want," Coco said.

The queen's smile vanished like a snuffed candle. She selected a violet gown from the overstuffed wardrobe and quietly helped Coco to dress. "Now," the queen said, "Go out and join your sisters until breakfast is served. They're playing in the garden."

"What about Nurse Merla?" Coco asked. By her mother's cold expression and her nurse's rigid stance, she felt something was amiss.

"Go alone for now," the queen said. "Your nurse and I and are going to talk." She kissed Coco's forehead and nudged her toward the door.

Coco skipped out of the chamber and down multiple staircases of polished stone. But on the castle's first floor, she took a capricious turn for the kitchen.

"I want four candy birds," she told Joc, the cook. Joc often made marchpane and enjoyed molding the sweet paste into animals for the princesses' amusement.

Joc stood at his worktable, slicing a steaming loaf of manchet bread. He laughed. "Not before your breakfast, little lady. You know the queen's rule."

"I want them!" Coco shouted, stamping her foot. Joc chuckled. "You'll get them, Princess—after your breakfast. Kerrick, hurry with that fruit."

Joc's son Kerrick, a boy of ten years, nodded as he stacked a pyramid of pears, apples and currants on a silver platter. But he stared more at Coco than at his work.

Coco looked at him and decided to try weeping. She could summon tears at will, and though Mother could tell the genuine from the false, she knew Kerrick couldn't. "But I'm so hungry!" Her voice rose pitifully high and her lashes moistened with tears. The struggle in Kerrick's face pleased her.

Joc laughed again and pushed a small pear into her hand. "Eat that if you're hungry, little pretender." He swung his head toward the door. "Off with you, now. Find your sisters."

Coco pouted through the corridors and out the main door. She flopped down on the doorstep, unwilling to circle to the gardens behind the castle where her sisters would be playing, each attended by a nurse. A squirrel dashed across the round glade before her. It reached the fringe of Lumen Forest that ringed Castle Hill and scampered up one of the massive trees.

Kerrick suddenly dashed out the door. "Look!" He held out three candy birds. "My father wasn't looking, so I grabbed them." He dumped them into Coco's skirt and grinned, clearly expecting her praise.

Coco narrowed her eyes at the birds. "I wanted four." Kerrick smacked his forehead and ran back inside.

Coco nibbled one of the birds while waiting for Kerrick to bring the fourth. A sharp heel clicked on the step and Nurse Merla sailed past, bearing a large satchel.

"Where are you going?" Coco asked. Nurse Merla turned around. "You're getting a new nurse tomorrow. The queen doesn't like the things I say to you."

"Oh." Coco bit the head off her candy bird.

"Who gave you those?" Nurse Merla asked. "You haven't had your breakfast!"

"Kerrick." Coralina smiled. "And he's fetching me another."

Nurse Merla shook her head and started down the dirt road that sloped away from the castle. "I was wrong," she said over her shoulder. "Your beauty isn't a curse. It's a weapon."

Seventeen-year-old Coralina waited until midnight before sneaking out of the castle. Though the sun gathered warmth with each passing day, the spring night still held a hint of winter's memory. She slipped out through a small door onto the terrace and waited for her vision to accommodate the moonlight.

"Kerrick?" she whispered. "Are you here?"

Her toe caught a piece of loosened stone as she walked. It clattered across the floor and smacked the low wall surrounding the terrace. Coralina winced. Loud enough to rouse a corpse, she thought. Or worse, her sister Maelyn.

The castle's lower floors were built wider than its upper floors and so the terrace formed a walkway that wrapped around the walls. A good vantage point for sentries – when they had them. But since the servants had abandoned them, privacy was easy to find.

As Coralina neared the narrow end, she heard the sound of foliage crunching and snapping.

"Kerrick?" Coralina rushed to the wall and peered over the battlements. She laughed. "What is taking so long?"

"The ivy doesn't like me tonight." Kerrick grumbled from six feet below, clinging to the lush ivy that lathered the south wall. He adjusted his toehold and hoisted himself a few inches higher. From her position, Coralina could see only the top of his dark head and wide shoulders.

She leaned her overgrown bosom on folded arms and smiled. "Shall I throw you a rope?"

"Have you got one?" Kerrick grunted another inch upward. Coralina laughed again. "My hair might be long enough!" She draped her cascading curls over one shoulder, pleased with how they shimmered in the moonlight. She hoped Kerrick would look up at her and notice.

He did.

The sight of her seemed to spur his strength. Within seconds, he reached the top of the wall and swung his legs over the battlements. His feet had barely touched the floor when Coralina flung herself in his arms.

They kissed rapidly, eagerly, pausing here and there to whisper or laugh, then kissing some more. Kerrick tightened his grip around her waist, lifting her straight off the floor. Coralina had once disliked being short until she discovered how portable it made her.

Kerrick eased her down again. He smelled of fresh bread, his clothes marked by specks of flour. He had the look of a soldier who'd already seen battle, with a firm jaw and troubled eyebrows. But he was only a baker. Coralina laughed as she brushed off his sleeves. "Oh Kerrick. I'll be dusting you forever, won't I?"

"Hope so." Kerrick stroked her arms. "When do we marry, Coco? The queen is no longer here to stop us. You said by the spring-"

"I know," Coralina said quickly. "Just a little more time, my hero. I can't plan a wedding just now, I've got the late-spring ball in a few days, and the play to do next month. And I have to prepare Maelyn, mentally - she's not expecting this. Let's wait for the summer."

Kerrick leaned against the wall, folding his arms. "That's what you said last year – wait for the summer. Then we waited for the fall. Then you said we couldn't marry in winter, we had to have nicer weather. Now here we are again." His eyes reproached her. "Truth is, you don't want a poor man. A man without title."

Coralina laughed. "How can you call yourself poor? You're a prosperous baker."

"It's not enough." Kerrick shook his head. "Not enough to marry a princess."

"You could live here. Least it's familiar," Coralina said. Kerrick had grown up in the castle, the son of Joc, their former cook. Like the princesses, he couldn't imagine why the servants – his father included – had disappeared so suddenly.

"You want us living here? With all your sisters?" Kerrick asked dryly.

Coralina laughed. "Well, when you say it like that...." She could joke because she had no plans to marry Kerrick at all. When would he figure that out? They'd been friends since childhood and she loved him dearly, but she wasn't about to marry the cook's son. He was good for a few sweet kisses and she liked that. Couldn't that be enough for him too?

She stepped over and kissed his cheek, curling her arm up behind him. "Don't fret, my Kerrick. We'll find a way."

Kerrick plucked the leaves from a tendril of ivy that had snuck over the wall. "Thought I might come to the ball this time. I found someone to take care of the orders for me. We should be seen together as much as possible, so people will get used to it."

"Oh...." This didn't work for Coralina. Luxley was coming to the late-spring ball – Prince Luxley of Bella Reino. She was hoping to end the night engaged to him.

"I think you should stay and complete your orders," Coralina said, stroking his back with her fingertips. "You don't enjoy the balls, you never have. What if this person fills the orders wrongly? You'll lose customers. Like you said, you need to earn as much as possible. To marry a princess." She smiled.

Kerrick sighed. "I know, but... we're always sneaking around like this."

"It won't be for much longer, I promise."

"I still think I should come to the ball."

"NO!" Coralina cried, dropping her arm. "You're not listening! Maelyn will go berserk if you show up at the ball. She has enough trouble right now with Arialain and her unwelcome suitor. If she finds out about you, she'll raise a rumpus, and all chances for us will be lost. Forever! Is that what you want?"

Kerrick closed his eyes. "All right. Fine."

"You won't come to the ball?"

"No, I guess not."

"Good boy." Smiling sweetly again, Coralina rewarded him by pulling him in for more kissing. She loved the way he twisted her to-and-fro as they kissed, and held the back of her neck with his fingers. Afterward, he stroked her face with both hands, gazing at her with loving eyes. But some worry remained in them.

Coralina grinned. "Come!" She hopped up, seating herself on the low wall behind her, and nudged him with the toe of her shoe. "Let's climb down and walk around Love Lake. There's enough moonlight!"

"No!" Kerrick grabbed her arms as if fearing she would tumble off the terrace.

Coralina giggled. "Don't worry! I know how to climb the ivy. And," she whispered, touching her nose to his, "I'm not the only princess who uses it for sneaking out of the castle."

Kerrick drew back, plainly uninterested in whichever princess shared her flair for ivy climbing. "It's not the ivy, Coco. It's the bandits."

"Bandits are nothing new, Kerrick!"

"No, listen to me. These are new. Word is they escaped from the Barren Realm. They're brutal, they're clever, and they're targeting women."

Coralina gasped. "Women... in Runa?"

"Four women have been robbed," said Kerrick. "A milkmaid in Creaklee. Two daughters of a farmer in Hexwick. And only yesterday, the wife of a merchant in Merridell."

Coralina had both hands pressed to her chest, her eyes as round as the full moon. "Robbed of what?" she whispered.

Kerrick touched the rippling curls on her shoulder. "Their hair."