Of course, the location and some of the characters belong to Tamora
Pierce. Enjoy!
Five weeks later Kadar found himself waiting in the throne room for the arrival of yet another princess. This time the councilors had chosen Princess Petunia of Tusaine. Kadar had seen her once at a state affair when he was seven and she was five. He had pulled her hair and she had pinched him. He didn't feel that his earlier meeting with her boded well for their relationship. But then, it had taken a good hard yank at her hair to get her to scream, so maybe she wasn't very sensitive.
The fact that Princess Helene had actually detected a few objects had gotten people excited about the project again so Petunia had a more regal greeting than Helene had received. She was petite and plain and Hachel didn't have a comment for Kadar beyond "Why would a sweet little boy like you want to pull her hair?" to which Kadar said something along the lines of "maybe because my demonic friend dared me to."
At dinner Petunia began to get on Kadar's nerves. She was completely paranoid. It seemed that she lived in a constant fear of assignation attempts, rebellions, plagues, wars, serial killers, and spiders. Kadar had never even considered half the things she was afraid of. Dinner conversation continued as follows:
Kadar: "I hope you will enjoy the humble repast my home may provide"
Petunia: "I'm not taking a bite until my poison-tester has sampled everything."
Kadar: "Would you care to dance after dinner?"
Petunia: "Oh, I couldn't possibly go beneath that beam in the ceiling. An archer could be waiting there to shoot me."
Kadar: "Would you care for some white wine?"
Petunia: "Was that servant here before? Great Goddess he has a knife! Are you sure he isn't dangerous?'
Kadar: "He's been here my entire life and as far as I know the only thing he has harmed is a cheap glass statue which I always hated anyway. He probably has a knife because he is going to carve the meat."
Petunia: "Eek! A spider. It'll bite me." Here she went into hysterics and wouldn't be calmed until one of her ladies-in-waiting carefully pointed out that it was only a piece of black lace from someone's gown.
Kadar spent the evening wondering how he could get rid of her and resisting the temptation she give her curly black hair a good yank. Then she got something in her nose and sneezed; after the sneeze she immediately decided she had a potentially fatal illness and must take to her bed immediately.
Kadar wished her goodnight and promised to send a healer by in the morning before breakfast. Then he escaped to the archery practice field where he shot arrows by lantern-light, each time pretending he was shooting through Petunia's head. The archery practice had little effect on his mood (or perhaps he stayed in a bad mood because he missed several shots) and he went to bed grumpy.
Hours later, a sudden scream woke him from his nightmare ( in which he had been sitting and eating dinner with Petunia, Gwyneth , and Brunhilda and had suddenly caught a terrible case of the hiccups.) Kadar sat up in bed, hiccupped, shuddered, yawned, and threw a robe on over his clothes before hurrying down the hall. Princess Petunia's screams were filling the entire palace.
"Spies! Murderers! Assassins! Killers!"
Kadar broke into a run. Knocking at the Princess's door, he made an unfortunate discovery. Apparently, Petunia had rolled over the stone beneath her mattress in the middle of the night and become convinced it was some sort of death-charm which would kill her through continued contact. Kadar had to publicly humiliate himself by explaining to her that it was a surprise gift. He needn't have bothered; she didn't believe him.
The Princess's delegations left early the next morning. Petunia chose to have breakfast aboard ship rather than risk poison in the palace. Kadar wasn't sorry to see her leave. He put on a resigned smile and headed off to a meeting in order to decide which princess the invite next.
Sign # 6 that you are a bookworm: You have become an expert book smuggler and you manage to bring a paperback to every pointless assembly you are forced to attend.
Thank you for reading and please review.
Five weeks later Kadar found himself waiting in the throne room for the arrival of yet another princess. This time the councilors had chosen Princess Petunia of Tusaine. Kadar had seen her once at a state affair when he was seven and she was five. He had pulled her hair and she had pinched him. He didn't feel that his earlier meeting with her boded well for their relationship. But then, it had taken a good hard yank at her hair to get her to scream, so maybe she wasn't very sensitive.
The fact that Princess Helene had actually detected a few objects had gotten people excited about the project again so Petunia had a more regal greeting than Helene had received. She was petite and plain and Hachel didn't have a comment for Kadar beyond "Why would a sweet little boy like you want to pull her hair?" to which Kadar said something along the lines of "maybe because my demonic friend dared me to."
At dinner Petunia began to get on Kadar's nerves. She was completely paranoid. It seemed that she lived in a constant fear of assignation attempts, rebellions, plagues, wars, serial killers, and spiders. Kadar had never even considered half the things she was afraid of. Dinner conversation continued as follows:
Kadar: "I hope you will enjoy the humble repast my home may provide"
Petunia: "I'm not taking a bite until my poison-tester has sampled everything."
Kadar: "Would you care to dance after dinner?"
Petunia: "Oh, I couldn't possibly go beneath that beam in the ceiling. An archer could be waiting there to shoot me."
Kadar: "Would you care for some white wine?"
Petunia: "Was that servant here before? Great Goddess he has a knife! Are you sure he isn't dangerous?'
Kadar: "He's been here my entire life and as far as I know the only thing he has harmed is a cheap glass statue which I always hated anyway. He probably has a knife because he is going to carve the meat."
Petunia: "Eek! A spider. It'll bite me." Here she went into hysterics and wouldn't be calmed until one of her ladies-in-waiting carefully pointed out that it was only a piece of black lace from someone's gown.
Kadar spent the evening wondering how he could get rid of her and resisting the temptation she give her curly black hair a good yank. Then she got something in her nose and sneezed; after the sneeze she immediately decided she had a potentially fatal illness and must take to her bed immediately.
Kadar wished her goodnight and promised to send a healer by in the morning before breakfast. Then he escaped to the archery practice field where he shot arrows by lantern-light, each time pretending he was shooting through Petunia's head. The archery practice had little effect on his mood (or perhaps he stayed in a bad mood because he missed several shots) and he went to bed grumpy.
Hours later, a sudden scream woke him from his nightmare ( in which he had been sitting and eating dinner with Petunia, Gwyneth , and Brunhilda and had suddenly caught a terrible case of the hiccups.) Kadar sat up in bed, hiccupped, shuddered, yawned, and threw a robe on over his clothes before hurrying down the hall. Princess Petunia's screams were filling the entire palace.
"Spies! Murderers! Assassins! Killers!"
Kadar broke into a run. Knocking at the Princess's door, he made an unfortunate discovery. Apparently, Petunia had rolled over the stone beneath her mattress in the middle of the night and become convinced it was some sort of death-charm which would kill her through continued contact. Kadar had to publicly humiliate himself by explaining to her that it was a surprise gift. He needn't have bothered; she didn't believe him.
The Princess's delegations left early the next morning. Petunia chose to have breakfast aboard ship rather than risk poison in the palace. Kadar wasn't sorry to see her leave. He put on a resigned smile and headed off to a meeting in order to decide which princess the invite next.
Sign # 6 that you are a bookworm: You have become an expert book smuggler and you manage to bring a paperback to every pointless assembly you are forced to attend.
Thank you for reading and please review.