“No more,” he whispered. “I will bring you more suitors.”
“Oh Father, we are way past being mad . . .We are furious.” Lisbelle dragged out the words, which only seemed to make the king more uncomfortable.
He backed into a chair, causing the legs to scrape across the floor. I winced at the noise, and he stared at his daughters as if they were ghosts. The king fled the room.
Risa flicked her hands across her gown and her hair. Little shards of glass fell to the floor. She stared out after her father’s retreating form. “I’ve received word that the King of Baist, Candor, and Florin arrived this morning for the council. Be wary, my sisters.”
Therisa returned, and a collective sigh came from the room. She turned to her sisters. “I heard one is a werewolf, and the other is a former apprentice of Allemar. Now is the time to be vigilant.”
Ten heads nodded in agreement, and I stood there trying to put together the mystery that was slowly unraveling piece by piece.
“And be wary of the girl in the magical menagerie,” Lisbelle warned.
“Which one?” Risa asked.
“The silk dancer with the painted face,” Lisbelle answered. “I have a weird feeling about her. She seems familiar.”
“But you always can read people. It’s your gift,” Risa answered.
“I know,” Lisbelle said through clenched teeth. “There’s just something odd about that one.”
My mouth dropped open in surprise, and I covered it quickly with my hand, pretending to yawn.
One by one, the girls looked to Lisbelle, and a worried smile passed between them. Except for me, I raised my lips and tried to paste on a fake smile, even though I had no idea what was going on.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Is this what it was like to be a princess? I sat in the sunroom with the eleven sisters, and I finally took note of their names and figured out who was related to whom.
The king had married three times. With his first wife Helen, there was Analisa, followed by triplets; Karisa, Louisa, Marisa, and then Risa and Therisa. All of them were beautiful with honeyed locks and green or brown eyes. After Queen Helen passed from a mysterious illness, the king married Thena, who disappeared shortly after Princess Grace was born. The rumors were she ran away with a lover.
Not even six months later, in an attempt to secure his throne with a male heir, King Leonel married a beautiful noblewoman named Brielle, who died a few years ago. She birthed five beautiful girls; Annabelle, Clarabelle, Lisbelle—the blondes—while Maribelle and Willabelle were redheaded twins. All daughters went by the shortened version of their name—Anna, Clara, Mari, and Willa—except for Lisbelle. So there was a group I internally called the “Isa girls,” the “Belles,” and Grace. Seemed easy enough, especially when Grace was the outcast sister, as the only daughter of the king’s second wife, who I learned was actually his favorite and possibly his one true love. It only created a greater divide and jealousy among the daughters, often leaving Grace segregated. For the time being, that helped me . . . thankfully.
Lunch was set out on the second-floor palace terrace, and the guests strolled through the glass doors to meet with the princesses, and I was one of them. I clung to the stone railing and looked out over into the gardens at the colorful tents beyond. My mind and heart were at complete odds with each other. When I had been in the tents, my goal was to get into the palace and find out what was going on so I could track down the son of Allemar. Now that I was in the palace and trapped impersonating a princess, I wanted nothing more than to shed the disguise and go back to freedom. Especially after everything I had seen from the night before.
There was no way for me to escape. I was being tailed by Ardax. Each time I tried to slip away, he was there, not even using glamour to try to disguise himself. I didn’t know if the king commanded him to stay with us, or if he’d figured out who I was. The other princesses seemed just as uncomfortable by the addition of added elven security.
This wasn’t a job for me. I had no magical abilities. This needed Rosalie and Meri, or even Aura. She could figure out who was behind this by listening to their thoughts and feelings. How was a blade going to fight magic?
It couldn’t.
I suddenly felt unworthy of the task set before me, and I was utterly alone.
I couldn’t trust Ardax, and I wasn’t sure if I could even trust Percy, though I hadn’t seen him since last night. I couldn’t get a message to Bravado, and even Nimm had vanished early this morning. I had hoped he could get a message to Saphira.
I had spent the better part of the morning running from one end of the terrace to the other, avoiding the many suitors and their talks of money, land, and how many servants they had attending to their every whim.
The first suitor could not stop talking about his latest endeavor of removing all the hated gnomes and hobs from his province because their looks were an affront to nobilities.
“Surely, by removing the fae from your lands, you are almost guaranteeing drought and disease, for it is the fae’s good fortune that brings healthy crops,” I said.
“You must be joking,” Lord Packer replied.
“I am not. The fae are magically tied to the land. Their health and happiness directly correspond to your wealth. If you choose to ban their entire species because they do not conform or look the way humans do, then be prepared to pay the price. Even trolls and goblins are a part of the very cycle of our kingdoms, and to disregard any species in favor of another is only declaring famine and possibly war.”
Lord Packer quickly retreated, leaving me in peace until the next man filled in beside me with equally inane comments and questions. How could I possibly sneak away when I was under constant surveillance by every eligible male?
I had to draw the line in the sand and make it obvious that I wasn’t available.
It became a game to see how fast I could subtly insult their intelligence and remove my name from the marriage market. By evening, the word must have spread because no man dared approach me.
But even more disconcerting was that from the second-floor balcony, I could see the slow disappearance of the Magical Menageries tents. One by one, the colorful canopies disappeared among the greenery, and soon they were gone, and with it—my magical charmed tent.
My hand clutched the front of my dress as I tried to settle my panicked breathing. This wasn’t good. I couldn’t be around this many people for long without negatively affecting them.
When I asked a passing servant, the man shrugged his shoulders. “It seems the owner of the menagerie has accused the palace of kidnapping and imprisoning one of their performers. So the king has asked their presence to be removed.”
“No.” I turned to stare at the last wagon as it headed through the front gate, driven by Ogress. As if sensing my gaze, she turned and pressed her green lips to her fingers, and held them up to me in a wave, wishing me luck.
Did she know? It sure seemed like she knew something was going on.
As her wagon passed through the gates, I watched as the guards pushed the two-story metal doors until they slammed close. I winced as the sound carried across the courtyard below, and more guards than I had seen the first day moved to stand in front of the gates.
Why were there so many guards?