Chapter One
Camelot
Agatha smiled, victorious, as she pinned Tedros to the ground with her boot.
"How's that, prince?" she said teasingly.
"That was unfair! You had surrendered!" Tedros groaned.
Agatha shook her head and smirked. "I had my fingers crossed!"
One of the maids came in.
"Tea, Your Highness and Agath – OI! What are you doing!" the maid shrieked in horror, dropping the silver tray. Cups and plates broke apart and food stained the carpet. "Your Highness, your shirt! It's covered in mud stains! Agatha, come here!"
Agatha and Tedros exchanged glances.
"Agatha," Elle said in a warning tone.
Agatha sighed, very softly, and went over. Just as Elle was about to leave the room with Agatha, Tedros found his voice.
"Elle, don't punish her. We were just playing!" Tedros said.
"You were playing very hard," Elle fretted, "and your shirt. It's new, you know!"
"But we were having fun," Agatha spoke up. "He didn't care. Besides, Tedros has five million other shirts he can wear."
"You stay quiet, young lady," snapped the maid, and turned back to the young Prince. "I can't let her go unpunished. We've had to wash twenty-three shirts this week because of her! Agatha!" Elle beckoned towards the girl, and continued toward the door.
Tedros dropped into another mode – he knew that the pleading, wheedling mode wasn't working.
"I am your Prince," he said, steeling his tone as his expression turned serious too. "I can fire you if I want to, you know that, Elle. Put Agatha down. Put her down now!"
Elle released Agatha. Her eyes had widened with fright. "Don't fire me, Your Highness. I need this job, for my family."
Tedros was already smiling again. "I won't, now that you've released Agatha. Come on, Agatha, let's go to the kitchen!"
Agatha smiled gratefully at Tedros. "Sure, let's go! Do you think the Cooks will let us taste some of the food they made?"
"She will if I order her to!" Tedros smiled back cheekily. "Race you!"
With a shriek of laughter, the two friends ran to the kitchen.
"Cooks, do you have some food we can sample?" Tedros called.
A twinkly-eyed, plump brunette turned around.
"Aye, it's you two youngsters again," Hannah said in her lilting, Irish accent. "Come to test our food?"
"I assure you, it's perfect," Sienna, a willowy, pale-skinned woman with black curls said in her crisp English accent.
"Oh, but we're hungry!" Tedros finally admitted.
"So hungry," Agatha echoed, rubbing her stomach. "Please?"
Ivan shook his head. "Oh, you always know how to get something out of us. Hannah, Sienna, why not let them try the parfaits we made?"
A tall glass was filled with layers and layers of crushed waffles, chocolate, sliced fruit, and ice cream, with a perfect swirl of cream and a cherry on top, slid across the smooth table and landed in front of Tedros. Agatha received an identical parfait too, and soon the two were tucking in.
"So, youngsters," Lukas interrupted, "looking forward to meeting Sophie?"
The twelve-year-olds looked up, startled.
"Sophie? Who's Sophie?" Tedros questioned.
"You don't know?" The Cooks eyed each other warily. "She's from Woods Beyond. You know, Gavaldon."
"Of course we know where Gavaldon is. Why is she coming?" Agatha asked.
"To keep her safe from the School Master, of course," Hannah replied.
Like every child in the Endless Woods, a cold shiver went down Agatha and Tedros' spines when they heard the two words School Master. A crazy, infamous kidnapper, he took children every four years to go to the School for Good and Evil, a school all children feared.
"Gosh, that man is crazy," Tedros shuddered. "I can understand why Sophie's family would like to send her here. But it's a very small chance that the School Master."
"There are rumours, rumours that say Sophie will be taken for Good. She is incredibly beautiful, on the inside and the outside, we hear. The Elders are certain that she will be taken should she remain under their care. She's not safe in Gavaldon. She's only safe in Camelot, where there are magical force fields protecting the kingdom," Hannah explained.
"But her family. Wouldn't they miss her?" Tedros and Agatha persisted.
"She has only her father," Lukas said quietly, "and her father, he is sick. The town doctors think he won't outlive the year. That's why they're sending Sophie here. She's around your age. Twelve."
"Oh, the poor girl," Tedros said sympathetically, but Agatha remained quiet.
Another girl? Who was incredibly beautiful, on the inside and the outside? Would Tedros somehow fall in love with her? Agatha was suddenly worried. She had never thought of this before.
Agatha knew, all of a sudden, why she was suddenly feeling like this.
She loved Tedros.
She couldn't let this Sophie girl steal him.