Everything had seemed normal that night. The princesses had eaten supper with their father and he had joked about Joc's cooking. He and Joc were good friends, enjoyed roasting each other, and it heartened Maelyn to see her father acting like his old self. In the two years since Runa's passing, he had aged and grayed, with new lines weighing down his features. But that evening, he seemed almost happy.

He went to bed and never woke up. It was Joc who delivered the news the next morning, after Nira, the queen's old nanny, assembled the nine confused princesses in the library. Their initial reaction was blank disbelief. It wasn't possible Father was gone. Not when they'd already lost their mother.

Yet they had not finished losing people. Only six months later....

Maelyn clenched her teeth and slammed her fist against the mattress. She hated when this happened. For weeks on end, she could maintain composure, stay strong for her kingdom and her family. Then these random nights came when her heart cracked and a torrent of imprisoned tears gushed through the fissure. No way to stop them. She covered her face and gave way; the sobs wrenching out of her, harsh and unbeautiful. No voice in them, just a string of long gasps.

When the tide passed, she sat up in bed, her face soaked and swollen. She fumbled in her bedside drawer for a handkerchief and her fingers brushed against a new journal she had purchased at the market that year. She had decided to adopt her father's habit of journaling, but seldom felt inspired to write. Only on nights such as these did the words flow freely.

It took barely a minute to dab her face, fetch a quill, and light the candle again. She remained on the bed, eyes reddened, still unable to breathe through her nose. She had already written about her parents' deaths. Time to pluck the next splinter out of her heart by writing about the servants.

When Father died, Uncle Jarrod came to the castle. I was seventeen. Father's advisors suggested I be crowned early, to give the grieving land a new queen. Uncle Jarrod declined. He named himself Regent of Runa and suggested we all 'carry on' until I reached age twenty and could lawfully be crowned. That law—by the way—is Uncle Jarrod's law, and he could easily have changed it.

We carried on. But it felt forced and artificial. The servants were distraught, too, because they had loved my father. Nobody could get used to the new way of things. I argued a lot with Father's advisors. Some of the maids became surly. An odd sort of... twitchiness... came over the staff, and I wish I had taken more notice.

It was the first night of October—I remember because that's when the fires get lit in our chambers again, after the summer warmth ends. One of the maids set it burning and wished me good night, and I felt happy to have the fire back. But my sleep was disrupted by troubling dreams. I woke up and read a book to get through the dark hours. Just before dawn, I heard a commotion outside my window. Thought it might be a bear. But when I looked out... I saw them. Our maids, our guards, our ladies-in-waiting. Carrying satchels and trunks, rushing into the forest like runaway thieves. I didn't have to ask why. Father was gone. They would no longer serve us, the false princesses.

Her face pinched as memory revived the pain of that morning. She dabbed her eyes but knew the writing would help her, like draining poison from a wound.

Some of my sisters would not accept this explanation, especially Coco. She argued that Joc would not have abandoned us, or the other servants, like Tessie and Nira, who had known us since we were babies.

Heidel thought maybe they felt unsafe. Father had given the realm an appearance of strength, which now rested on a 17-year-old girl. Only a matter of time before marauders claimed the castle and slaughtered us all. The servants were just getting out beforehand.

Plausible... but still heartless. Were they so concerned for their own safety that they would leave young girls unprotected? Yet the fact remained that they had gone... and Maelyn had seen them. No reason could excuse it.

I watched them go, the weight of their betrayal seeping into my heart. As the last one entered the forest, I whispered: "I dismiss you, all of you, as traders to the crown. You are no longer worthy to serve the nine princesses of Runa Realm. I banish you from this kingdom for the remainder of your lives."

Maelyn released a long sigh. Futile though it seemed, speaking those words of dismissal had given her a feeble sense of control. The pretense of a choice. Of course, her sisters knew the truth....

But Uncle Jarrod didn't.

She felt this like a revelation. Uncle Jarrod knew the servants had gone, but he didn't know why. Maelyn could control the why. She didn't have to look helpless and incompetent before him. With some cooperation from her sisters, she could make him see that everything had been her choice, and she knew exactly what she was doing.

*********

"MAELYN!"

Maelyn snapped awake, her mind swirling. Had she overslept?

"MAELYN! MAELYN! MAELYN! MAELYN!" Rapid knocks pounded the chamber door.

"Shulay?" Maelyn launched out of bed, knocking both the journal and her bedding to the floor. She rushed to the door and yanked it open. "What's wrong?"

"PEARL IS IN MY ROOM!" Shulay shouted. "SHE'S IN MY ROOM!"

Maelyn could not imagine what she was talking about.

"Pearl the COW!" Shulay cried. "The cow! Our cow! The milk cow! She's in my bedchamber right now!"

"The cow is in your chamber?"

"It's a disaster! Half my room is destroyed! My Kurzhan carpet is-" Shulay seemed to hear something and snapped her head to one side. Her eyes landed on something up the hall and Maelyn heard a faint giggle.

"YOU!" Shulay took off and Maelyn peeked out in time to see Arialain at the end of the hall, disappearing around a corner. Shulay sprinted after her, braids flying.

"Girls!" Now Maelyn was running, clothed only in her nightdress. "Girls, stop!"

"YOU ARE DEAD!" Shulay screamed. When Maelyn reached the corner, she saw neither of her sisters, but the open door to one tower told her enough. It housed a winding staircase Ari tended to use because it led straight down to the entry hall. Maelyn dove inside, fearful one of her sisters would break an ankle on the tight, triangular steps.

She still couldn't see them, but Ari's laughter rang up the dark stairwell, along with Shulay's livid shrieks. The patter of their feet made it hard to hear words, but Ari seemed to be shouting, "Goosed you! Goosed you!" - something Shulay liked to say when she'd fooled somebody.

"Shulay! Arialain!" Maelyn shouted, descending as carefully as possible. She heard the lower door crash open as Ari escaped on the bottom floor.

"WHOA! WHOA, YOU TWO!" someone cried. Maelyn joyously recognized the voice as Heidel's. When she exited the tower, she found Heidel in the entry hall, holding both Shulay and Arialain by an elbow. "I wondered what all that screaming was! Could hear it all the way from the kitchen!"

Maelyn paused to catch her breath. "Take them to the throne room. And don't put up with any nonsense. March, you two!"

The younger princesses whined in protest, but Heidel's grip was unyielding. By the time they reached the throne room, their tempers had cooled, and they asked to be released, promising not to act up. Arialain was already crying.

"Let them go, Heidel. Just stay here with me."

"Oh, I wouldn't dream of leaving!" Heidel folded her arms and glared at her sisters, standing like two prisoners before Maelyn's throne. Maelyn climbed the steps and sat, though it felt silly with her nightdress and unbrushed hair. This was supposed to be a day in which she didn't receive audiences. That's why she'd let herself sleep in, especially after the night she'd had. This was supposed to be a good day.

"I cannot believe what I just witnessed," Maelyn said.

"I didn't do anything wrong," Shulay snapped.

"You threatened Ari."

"She put the cow in my room, or didn't you hear that?"

"Well, you threw underdresses all over the entry hall just to embarrass me!" Ari said.

"What?" Maelyn didn't know about the underdresses.

"So you put the cow in my room?" Shulay cried. "That's a little uneven, don't you think?"

Arialain shrugged. "Just take her back outside."

"You dimwitted dwump!" Shulay leaned toward Ari, eyes blazing. "Cows... don't... walk... down... stairs!"

Silence settled for a moment.

"What do you mean, they don't walk downstairs?" Maelyn asked.

"I mean exactly that!" Shulay said. "They can go UP stairs but going down is much harder. They don't know how! If you push them, you risk them falling, either killing themselves or crushing you. Too dangerous to even try."

"Then how do we get Pearl outside?" Maelyn asked.

"We DON'T!" Shulay said. "That's what I'm trying to get across to you. We now have a cow that has to live in my room for the rest of its life."

"WHAT?" Heidel said.

"Nice work, Ari!" Shulay patted her sister's shoulder and smiled. "Genius as always."

A look of fear had come over Arialain. "No... we'll think of a way."

Nothing came to Maelyn's mind. This was serious. The cow couldn't be there when Uncle Jarrod came to visit. Her anger hardened as she regarded her younger sisters. "What a mess your childish pranks have gotten us into."

"So childish," Heidel said.

"More than that. You just ran through the castle shrieking like savages. Never would you have acted this way when Mother was living. Nor would the servants have seen this behavior. One look from Nira would have stopped you from even thinking it."

Shulay and Arialain didn't speak.

"Furthermore...." Maelyn looked at Shulay, whose sullen eyes stayed on the floor. "You've been away from the castle for almost two days with no explanation. Tell me why."

"Staying with Renaya," Shulay mumbled.

"Unlikely. Your note was much too vague. And you!" Maelyn shifted to Arialain. "You abandoned your post yesterday! I was forced to put Briette in your place! I can't have my sisters running all over the kingdom, giving no word about their whereabouts. It's unsafe."

"And stupid," Heidel said.

Maelyn nodded. "Heidel, what do you think would be fair consequences for all this?"

Heidel put a hand on her hip. "A solid stay in the dungeon would be good, and a diet of water and crackers. Six days at least."

Maelyn cleared her throat to avoid a smile. She was angry too, but that sounded harsh.

"Well... we must deal with the cow. Therefore—until we find a solution—I think Arialain should be responsible for tending the cow and cleaning up Shulay's chamber."

"WHAT!" Ari cried.

"While you're doing that, Shulay will tend the front door. And Shulay—since it's your cow—I think you must devise a way to get her safely outside again. And soon."

To her surprise, Shulay looked at her with eyes full of tears. "I didn't need this right now!"

"Neither did I." Maelyn waved a dismissive hand. "Now leave me! Both of you. Don't speak to me again today."

Heidel stood with folded arms, turning only her head to watch the younger two leave. She looked back at Maelyn with a dry smirk. "Fun morning! Want your breakfast in the kitchen now?"

"No." Maelyn stepped down from the throne. "There's no audience today. I'm going out."

"Good. Don't hurry back!" Heidel grinned.

Maelyn didn't want a carriage. She got dressed and left the castle on foot, taking the main road down the hill. It was depressingly empty. Never more than now would she have been happy to see Willow riding toward her on his horse.