Power of a Princess

by E. D. Baker

  “Welcome to Fairengar,” she said as she joined her friend.

  The fey near Tomas leaned closer as if to listen in.

  “Thanks,” Tomas said, his face lighting up. “I hoped you’d be here. It was the reason I asked Father to bring me.”

  “I’m here to help the fey settle in, then I’m going back to Eliasind.”

  “I hope it takes a long time for them to settle in,” Tomas said with a grin.

  Aislin laughed. Her heart felt lighter now that Tomas was here. Even when they were stuck in Morain, he’d had a knack for making her feel better.

  “King Ozwalt didn’t come?” Aislin asked him, looking around.

  Tomas shook his head. “His health is failing and he doesn’t go far from his bed anymore. Father has been taking on more and more responsibilities lately.

  “So this is Fairengar,” he said, looking around, his eyes wide in awe. “I thought that was the kingdom in the land between the mountains.”

  “The royal palace of the fairies and its surrounding land is called Fairengar, no matter where it is,” Aislin explained. “This area actually used to be part of Fairengar once before, and now it is again.”

  Another voice broke into their conversation. “Aislin, I’m so happy to see you!” Princess Selene cried as she slipped between the fey.

  The last time they’d seen each other was when the two princesses had been traveling together. Soldiers had mistaken Aislin for Selene and taken her away. So much had happened since!

  “I was so worried about you,” said Selene. “I’m sorry to have put you in danger. I should have been the one to go with them.”

  “It’s all right,” Aislin told her. “It wasn’t your fault that they took me instead. It turned out that they were Tomas’s men and everything worked out in the end.”

  “I’m so relieved to hear you say that,” Selene cried. “I was afraid that they’d been horrible to you and that it was all my fault. I couldn’t bear to think that my first real friend might have suffered because of me.”

  The three girls who trailed behind Selene had been nasty to Aislin when she’d stayed in the castle in Morain. Seeing Aislin now, they clustered around the half-fairy princess and gave her ingratiating smiles.

  “It’s so good to see you again!” Laneece gushed.

  “We’ve all missed you!” cried Joselle.

  “You look wonderful!” Merrilee exclaimed. “That color is so slimming on you.”

  “Merrilee!” Joselle said, scowling at her friend as she nudged her.

  The three girls turned and smiled coyly as Rory walked up. “There’s my betrothed!” the prince said, shouldering a nymph out of his way. Aislin shuddered. She knew that King Tyburr had wanted to set her up with his son, but as far as she knew, Rory disliked her as much as she disliked him.

  If this hadn’t been a formal event, Aislin would have told Rory exactly what she thought of him. Instead, she knew she had to be polite, or as close to it as she could come with Rory around. But it didn’t mean that she had to let him touch her, as he clearly planned to do. When he continued to approach, and leaned in—as if he was going to kiss her!—Aislin held up her hand to fend him off.

  “I’m not your anything,” she replied. “And don’t come any closer.”

  Rory’s expression flicked sour for a second, but then turned back into a smile. “But I thought we had an understanding,” Rory said, opening his eyes wide as if that would make him look innocent.

  “You’re not fooling anyone, Rory, so cut it out,” Tomas told him. “Neither Aislin nor I have forgotten how you treated us in Morain. You lost your chance to be our friend back then.”

  “People can change,” Rory said, looking belligerent.

  “You haven’t changed one bit,” Selene told him.

  The fey around them started to turn toward the exit. Aislin realized that her grandparents were no longer on the dais; the royal audience was over.

  “I need to go freshen up,” Selene said, glancing down at her rumpled dress. “Two days in a carriage didn’t do me any favors.”

  “We’ll see you at the ball tonight,” Rory told Aislin.

  Aislin nodded and tried not to show her surprise. When she thought about it, she decided that she should have expected that her grandparents had planned a ball for that evening; it would explain why she needed that beautiful gown. The ball itself would be so much fun. Too bad Rory was going to be there.

  Although Aislin had owned many beautiful gowns, the moonbeam dress Sage and Parsley had created was something special. Only fairies could weave moonbeams, and only the very best fairy seamstresses could gather them from a full moon and create a fabric that shimmered with its own special light. Sage and Parsley were in fact the very best fairy seamstresses who had ever lived. And to make the gown even more dazzling, they had added thousands of diamonds, letting it sparkle and shine.

  The two fairies had come to help Aislin put on the gown in case it needed any last-minute adjustments. When she slipped it over her head and smoothed it over her hips, she already felt beautiful, but when Sage produced a mirror in front of her and flicked her fingers to dim the fairy lights in the room, the princess gasped. While the gown would have been lovely in the daylight, it was beyond extraordinary now that the sun had set. This dress had been crafted especially for her and fit her perfectly. It had already been glowing when she put it on, but her pedrasi side took strength from the diamonds themselves, and sent it back into the moonbeams, making the light even stronger. Aislin looked like a celestial being come down to earth.

  The gown was more than just beautiful. Aislin had never worn a gown embellished with any kind of stones before. As she stood there gazing at her reflection, she could feel power from the diamonds leaching into her, making her blood thrum as it coursed through her veins. The power from each kind of stone was different. A diamond’s was pure and clean. It was one of the most invigorating stones she’d ever felt.

  “I feel wonderful!” she told the fairy seamstresses. “Could you add diamonds to all my clothes?”

  “That might be a little extreme,” said Sage. “You don’t need to wear gowns this beautiful all the time.”

  Aislin brushed the diamonds on the gown’s bodice with her fingertip. It was enough to give her another surge of power. “I don’t want them for the way they look. I want them for the power they give me. They wouldn’t even have to be anywhere you can see them.”

  “Ah, this would be for your pedrasi side,” Sage said. “I understand. I’ll see what I can do.”

  Aislin was still admiring the dress when the same fairies who had fixed her hair before flew through the window to create an even lovelier hairstyle, only this time they tucked diamonds into her curls instead of flowers. When they had finished, the princess cast one more glance at her reflection and turned toward the door. If her grandmother wanted her to impress the humans, this dress was perfect.

  Aislin stepped into the corridor and found all her ladies waiting for her. They were wearing their very best gowns and the bodice of each gown bore the mestari emblem in silver, which seemed to glow of its own accord. Deela’s and Lin’s gowns had lots of pleats and folds, some of which concealed the weapons that they insisted they needed. Poppy’s dress was made of newly opened buds and smelled wonderful, while Twinket and Kimble were dressed in spidersilk gowns with matching leggings, just as they’d requested. The mestari all looked lovely, though none could compare to Aislin and her moonbeam gown.

  “Wow!” Deela exclaimed. “I’ve never seen that many diamonds in my life!”

  “I’ve never seen such a beautiful gown!” said Lin.

  “You don’t look real!” Poppy said in a half whisper.

  “Will those stones come off if I touch you?” Twinket asked. “I don’t want to knock any off if you pick me up.”

  “No, they won’t come off,” Sage assured her. “Not even if someone tried.”

  “I don’t know what the big fuss is about,” said Kimble. �
��It’s just a dress. Let’s go get this thing over with. I hate wearing dresses and this one itches.”

  Aislin stepped over the threshold of the door leading into the great hall, but the room wasn’t at all what she’d expected. Instead of the vast room where everyone ate supper, it felt as if she was outside in the forest. Twinkling stars surrounded the moon shining overhead. A gentle breeze caressed her cheek, smelling of loam and leaves, pine needles and wildflowers. Waist-high red mushrooms with white polka dots surrounded the perimeter of the moss-covered dance floor, making it look like a fairy circle. Closing her eyes, she sensed rock still cooling from the day’s heat. She heard an owl hoot and mice scurry into the safety of holes in the ground.

  “Her Royal Highness, Princess Aislin of Eliasind, Fairengar, and Deephold,” announced the herald in ringing tones.

  There was a gasp as the fey spotted Aislin in her diamond and moonbeam gown. Fairies descended on her before she could take another step. The colors of the ladies’ gowns and the gentlemen’s tunics reflected off her diamonds, dazzling in the light of the corridor.

  “You look so beautiful!” some cried.

  “You look amazing!” cried others.

  Aislin was pleased to see that her mestari were also receiving admiring glances. And then the music started, and the fey headed off to find partners for the first dance.

  When the herald announced the next arrival, the princess walked farther into the room.

  “Fairies sure can decorate!” exclaimed Kimble as she followed the princess.

  Aislin didn’t have time to answer as Selene and her ladies-in-waiting descended on her. Merrilee, Joselle, and Laneece curtseyed so deeply that they looked as if they were about to sit down.

  “I love your gown!” Selene cried. “What is it made of?”

  “Moonbeams and diamonds,” said Aislin.

  “Real moonbeams?” Merrilee asked.

  Laneece gasped. “Those can’t all be real diamonds! It’s just not possible.”

  Tomas had just walked up behind Selene’s ladies-in-waiting. As he moved to stand beside Aislin, he gave the human girl a withering look. “You’re talking to a fairy princess. Anything is possible for Princess Aislin. Show some respect, Laneece.”

  “We never guessed that you were a fairy princess,” cried Merrilee. “I mean, you look beautiful now, but you looked so dowdy and uninteresting back in Morain. None of us had any idea that you were anything special.”

  Aislin turned slowly to look at the girl, but couldn’t decide if she was intentionally rude or did it without thinking. Either way, Aislin didn’t want to have anything to do with her. The look the princess gave Merrilee would have chilled her to the bone, if only she’d been looking at Aislin’s face and not her gown.

  “Walk away now, before I turn you into a toad,” Poppy told Merrilee. “And don’t say another word to Aislin.”

  Merrilee looked outraged. She asked Aislin, “Are you going to let her talk to me like that?”

  Aislin shrugged. “I don’t know why not. These are my mestari, so they outrank you in every way possible. They may talk to you however they please. Poppy has every right to turn you into a toad.”

  “What’s a mestari?” asked Laneece.

  “It’s like a super special lady-in-waiting plus the queen’s champion and guard,” Kimble said, holding her head high. “I’m one, too.”

  “I’m an honorable one,” Twinket boasted.

  “Is that a talking doll?” Merrilee said, her eyes huge. “How very odd!”

  Aislin looked at Poppy and said, “Just make sure you turn her back before the night is out.”

  “No problem,” Poppy replied. “Although I can’t promise that there won’t be any aftereffects.” She pointed at Merrilee, her finger surrounded by purple sparkles. There was a puff of purple dust and a toad squatted where the lady-in-waiting had been standing.

  Selene’s other two ladies-in-waiting gasped and turned pale, but Selene just said, “It’s about time someone stood up to her. I told Merrilee that she had to learn to be nicer to people.”

  “We don’t want her to get stepped on, now do we?” Deela said. She bent down and scooped up the toad, then carried it toward one of the mushrooms that edged the dance floor.

  “Is that thing an orc?” Joselle croaked. “I’ve never seen one up close before. And it’s wearing a very pretty gown. Why would you dress up a monster like that? Is it one of your mess … whatevers, too?”

  “Selene, it seems your ladies never change,” said Aislin. “Do you mind if Poppy takes care of her, as well?”

  “Please do,” Selene said. “They all need to learn to be nicer.”

  “No!” cried Joselle. “I didn’t mean … I was just …”

  Once again purple sparkles surrounded Poppy’s finger and a lady-in-waiting transformed into a toad. Deela came back from moving the first toad in time to see it happen. “Not another one!” she said. “What did this one say?”

  Lin leaned toward her friend and whispered into her ear. The orc’s face got darker and she glared at the toad. “I’m not moving this one,” she said. “It can take its chances with the dancers.”

  Music began to play and Aislin glanced toward the side of the room where fairies, pedrasi, satyrs, and a gnome played drums, pipes, and bandolinos. It took two fairies to play a long stringed instrument that she’d never seen before.

  Fey and humans drifted into the middle of the dance floor as the musicians began the music for another dance. Aislin was looking around when she felt a tug on the back of her gown and heard a crackling sound, and then Laneece cried out.

  “That hurt!” Laneece exclaimed, looking indignant. “Your dress shocked me!”

  “That’s a great anti-theft system you’ve got there, Princess!” exclaimed Kimble. “I saw the whole thing. Lady Sticky-Fingers tried to take one of your diamonds, but it sparked and turned her fingers red. Just look at them!”

  They all glanced at Laneece’s hand. The fingers on her right hand were now bright red, as if they had been dipped in paint. She examined them, turning her hand front to back. Aislin thought the girl looked more puzzled than hurt.

  “This color will come off, won’t it?” she asked Poppy.

  “Don’t look at me,” the fairy replied. “That wasn’t my spell. But I’d guess that it’s permanent. You were a thief who was caught red-handed and now the whole world will know it.”

  “I just wanted to see if it was real!” Laneece wailed. “I wasn’t going to keep it.”

  “Yeah, right,” said Deela.

  Clutching her hand to her chest, Laneece ran back into the corridor.

  “Your ladies need to learn that you shouldn’t insult or try to steal from the fey. Every unkind thing they do has consequences among our people,” Poppy told Selene. Tomas grinned as he glanced at the toad hopping toward Selene’s feet. When he looked back up, his face was serious again. “Pardon me,” he said to Aislin, “but I notice that you have yet to dance. Would you do me the honor?” He held out his hand, palm up.

  “I’d love to,” Aislin said, placing her hand on his.

  They waited by the edge of the dance floor until the next dance was about to begin. Aislin was familiar with the dance, and Tomas was not, but he managed to catch on quickly. They twirled around the fairy circle to the music until they were both out of breath. The next song was slower and they were actually able to talk.

  “Did I tell you that you look amazing?” Tomas asked her. “You have to be the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen. You literally took my breath away when I saw you come in.”

  “Thank you,” she said, smiling up at him. Aislin knew that a fairy had given Tomas the gift of truth at his christening, which meant that he always told the truth no matter what. It was nice to know that he really did mean what he said.

  “So, you have mestari attending you?” said Tomas. “You never mentioned them before.”

  “I didn’t have them before,” Aislin said, glancing between
the dancers as she looked for her ladies. Poppy was dancing with a fairy knight with dark green hair while Deela was twirling around in the arms of a satyr. Twinket and Kimble were both dancing with sprites and seemed to be having a wonderful time. She didn’t see Lin dancing, but she finally spotted her friend on the side talking to a pedrasi warrior. Aislin was happy to see that her mestari were enjoying themselves and that the fey were treating them with the respect that they deserved.

  Suddenly the music demanded that Tomas twirl her. When he was holding her again he said, “This place is unbelievable. I know we’re still in the palace, but it really feels as if we’re outside. I know that fairies can make glamours that look like the real thing. I just never imagined that they could be this good.”

  “My grandparents are very powerful fairies,” said Aislin. “They can do some amazing things.”

  “I didn’t see your father in the throne room today. Is he here now?” Tomas asked.

  Aislin shook her head. “My parents had to return to Eliasind. Not all fey are happy about the move and some are causing trouble because of it.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that,” Tomas said. “I like your father, and I was looking forward to meeting your mother.”

  Aislin smiled. “You’d like my mother. She’s a wonderful person and—”

  “May I cut in?” asked a pedrasi warrior named Kivi as the dance ended. “I understand that’s allowed among humans and I thought I’d give it a try.”

  “Yes, it is a custom in some places,” said Tomas. “But not one I like,” he added under his breath.

  He looked disappointed as he stepped away from Aislin, but then the music started up again and Kivi whirled her away across the fairy circle and she lost sight of Tomas. “You look amazing,” Kivi said in a loud voice. “We met in Deephold a few times, but you might not remember me. I was training to be a guard and …”

  Aislin tried to listen while the pedrasi talked about himself, but she couldn’t stop looking for Tomas. She danced the next dance with Captain Larch, the captain of the fairy guard. A satyr asked her to dance after that, and then a male fairy courtier whom she had seen around but never met. After that, Sycamore, Captain Larch’s second-in-command, asked her for a dance, as well.