Coralina (The Nine Princesses Novellas Book 2)

by Anita Valle

  Coralina

  The Nine Princesses Novellas

  Book 2

  by Anita Valle

  Coralina

  Copyright © 2012 by Anita Valle

  All rights reserved

  No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission of the author except in the cast of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information, e-mail the author at anitavalleart@yahoo.com

  Anita Valle Art

  Cover art by Rob Sullivan

  Rob Sullivan Art

  First Edition: December 2012

  Second Edition: February 2013

  Characters

  Maelyn - Throne Princess

  Coralina - Festivity Princess

  Heidel - Kitchen Princess

  Briette - Chamber Princess

  Lace - Wardrobe Princess

  Jaedis - Market Princess

  Shulay - Garden Princess

  Ivy - Art Princess

  Arialain - Door Princess

  Prologue

  Little 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,” said Coco. 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,” said Nurse Merla 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,” said Nurse Merla. “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,” said Coco.

  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,” said the queen, “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,” said the queen. “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.”

  Chapter 1

  Princess Coralina waited until midnight before sneaking out of the castle. Though the sun gathered warmth with each passing day, the spring nights 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 small 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 reached the narrow end, she heard the sound of foliage crunching and snapping.

  “Kerrick?” Coralina rushed to the low 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 posit
ion, 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?” she teased.

  “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 ground. 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 patches of flour. “Oh Kerrick.” Coralina laughed as she brushed off his sleeves. “I’ll be dusting you forever, won’t I?”

  “I hope so.” Kerrick smiled and stroked her arms. “When do we marry, Coco? The queen is no longer here to stop us. You said in your eighteenth year-”

  “Shh!” Coralina touched a finger to his lips. “I need more time, my hero. Time to prepare Maelyn. She expects me to marry a prince.”

  Kerrick leaned against the wall and scowled. “Maelyn. Your favorite excuse.” His eyes were reproachful. “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 with.”

  Coralina gave him her sweetest smile. “Don’t fret, my Kerrick. You know you are king of my heart.”

  Kerrick plucked the leaves from a tendril of ivy that had snuck over the wall. “You never say ‘my love’,” he mumbled. “You call me your hero, your prince, your Kerrick. But never your love.”

  “It’s all the same!” Coralina laughed.

  “Is it?” Kerrick flicked a small leaf off the terrace and watched it spiral to the ground.

  Coralina rolled her eyes. “Holy Shoulders, Kerrick. You’re as dreary as my uncle in Grunwold.” She hopped up, seating herself on the low wall, and nudged him with the toe of her shoe. “Come! Let’s climb down and walk by 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.”

  Coralina huffed a sigh. “Bandits are nothing new, Kerrick.”

  “No, listen,” said Kerrick. “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 round as the full moon. “Robbed of what?” she whispered.

  Kerrick touched the rippling tresses on her shoulder. “Their hair.”

  Chapter 2

  “Princess Coralina, you dance like a fairy!” Prince Luxley cried. He was Coralina’s eleventh dance partner that evening.

  “Thank you!” Coralina flashed a grin at her favorite guest. A stunning man with thick black hair and sapphire eyes. He came from Bella Reino, the tropical kingdom where Coralina had been born. Their matching tones made them a handsome couple, and Coralina enjoyed the covetous glares cast by other ladies.

  Or perhaps the envy was over her gown. Smooth layers of lilac silk embroidered with pink butterflies. Her slippers were also lilac with a butterfly of pink glass mounted on each toe.

  Luxley offered his arm. “Come! Even a peerless beauty must tire from such exertion. Care for a drink?”

  “How thoughtful!” Coralina took his arm and they sauntered across the ballroom.

  The Spring Ball flourished around them. Wooden rings of candles hung above their heads, the small flames glittering in the floor’s polished tiles, in the darkening windows, in the crowns and jewels of the guests. Four men on lutes and fiddles played bouncy jigs, their feet tapping in time. Strings of dancers twirled to the music: lords and ladies of the realm, princes and princesses of other realms, and even a few kings and queens.

  Coralina and Luxley reached a narrow table crowded with sweets. The Kitchen Princess never failed to serve her finest: warm honey cakes, dense loaves of nut bread, marinated pears and apples, gooseberry tarts, almond candy, and tall pitchers of cider and mulberry wine.

  Luxley filled two goblets with cider. The dark window above the table mirrored the sparkling ballroom and swirling dancers. Coralina patted her curls knowing Luxley would admire them if she did.

  “Your hair is divine, Princess Coralina!” said Luxley. “Black as crows yet lustrous as moonlight on a frozen sea.”

  Coralina smiled and accepted her goblet. Luxley was scrumptious tonight. Time for a little stroll out of doors. She’d take him to Love Lake and, after feigning reluctance, let him kiss her.

  Coralina turned away with a sorrowful sigh.

  “Whatever is wrong, my beauty?” said Luxley, right on cue. Coralina looked down at her goblet, tracing the rim with her finger. “Oh… it’s nothing.”

  “Dear lady, you must tell me.” Luxley set down his drink to clasp her hand in both of his. Coralina blinked away tears she didn’t have. “I - I was thinking… how lovely it would be to walk in the moonlight.”

  “Why don’t we!” Luxley cried joyously.

  Coralina shook her head. “It’s too perilous. There are rumors of dangerous bandits in the kingdom. Maelyn forbade going out after dark.”

  “But my precious princess, I will come with you!” said Luxley. “And all the world’s villains shall not touch you while I am near.”

  Coralina lifted large eyes to his face. “Well… if you promise to keep very close to me.”

  “Oh hogs, Coco.” That was Heidel, the Kitchen Princess, adding a platter of tarts to the table and rolling her eyes. Coralina wanted to poke her tongue at Heidel but Luxley was watching. She needed to maintain her character as fragile female.

  “I’ll keep as close as a king to his gold.” Luxley curled his arm around Coralina and coaxed her to a slender door in the corner.

  They slid out of the clamorous ballroom into the gentle night. “Oh! It was hot in there!” Coralina closed her eyes, enjoying the cool rush of breeze on her skin. Luxley sucked in the air with flamboyant relish. “Ah, a perfect night! Where shall we wander, my lovely? That forest is most enticing.” He gestured to the black wall of trees that ringed the meadow surrounding the castle.

  Coralina shuddered. Nurse Merla once told her that goblins lived inside the Lumen trees, emerging to bite the toes of children who stayed out after dark. Though Coralina knew the story was meant to scare her into bed, the image of goblins inside the trees stuck with her.

  “Not the forest. This way.” She tugged Luxley’s arm but he faced the trees, frowning. “Someone’s in there.”

  “Don’t be silly,” said Coralina.

  “I saw something. It moved backwards into the forest.”

  “Then it was a deer, now come, Luxley!” Coralina seized her skirt and stalked away, hoping anger would squelch her fear. Of course it was a deer. The forest fairly simmered with deer.

  “Forgive me, my jewel!” Luxley dashed to her side. “I would rather suspect every leaf that rustles and every creatu
re that scurries than risk your safety.”

  Coralina smiled forgiveness. “Never mind. I want to show you something.”

  Hand in hand, they followed the south wall to the corner of the castle. About thirty yards out from the corner was a lake, small and roughly heart-shaped. A massive willow, hunched with age, clung to the bank, its dangling branches stirring the water.

  “Exquisite!” Luxley cried. “See how the moon shivers on the surface!”

  Coralina nodded. “As a child I would look down at this lake from my chamber. It looked like a heart to me and so I called it Love Lake.”

  “Enchanting!” said Luxley.

  Coralina grinned. “Father thought so too and made it the official name. But Maelyn doesn’t like it.”

  Luxley shook his head. “Sadly, Princess Maelyn lacks your sensitivity.” His hands settled on Coralina’s shoulders, his voice hushed with tenderness. “And how fitting, Coralina, that you and I should come here tonight. By the shores of Love Lake.”

  He was about to kiss her. She wanted the kiss but the moment was not yet right. Giggling, she broke away and ran up to the willow tree. “You haven’t seen the swing!”

  “The swing?” Luxley looked bewildered.

  “Here!” Coralina pointed. Shadowed by drooping branches, a plank swing on heavy ropes hung beside the tree, merely inches from the lake. “Father made it for us years ago. Isn’t it charming?” She tucked herself into the swing and smiled over her shoulder. Luxley stepped behind her and pushed gently.

  The swing glided over grass, then water. Coralina smiled, remembering long-ago summers when she and her sisters would swing high as they could before dropping into the lake. They challenged each other to make the biggest splash, or tear leaves off branches with their toes before hitting the water.