Read Online Wrede, Patricia C - Enchanted Forest 01 by Dealing, Dragons - Free Book Online Page B

mean.”
    “I don’t understand,” Cimorene said.
    “It’s because I’m not a very satisfactory princess,” Alianora said. “I tried , I really did, but. ... It started when the wicked fairy came to my christening.”
    “She put a curse on you?”
    “ No. She ate cake and ice cream until she nearly burst and danced with my Uncle Arthur until two in the morning and had a wonderful time. So she went home without cursing me, and Aunt Ermintrude says that that’s where the whole problem started.”
    “Lots of princesses don’t have christening curses,” said Cimorene.
    “Not if a wicked fairy comes to the christening,” Alianora said positively. “And that was only the beginning. When I turned sixteen, Aunt Ermintrude sent me a gold spinning wheel for my birthday, and I sat down and spun. I didn’t prick my finger or anything .”
    Cimorene was beginning to see what Alianora was getting at. “Well, if you didn’t have a christening curse ...”
    “So Aunt Ermintrude told Mama to put me and a spinning wheel in a room full of straw and have me spin it into gold,” Alianora went on. “And I tried! But all I could manage was linen thread, and whoever heard of a princess who can spin straw into linen thread?”
    “It’s a little unusual, certainly.”
    “Then they gave me a loaf of bread and told me to walk through the forest and give some to anyone who asked. I did exactly what they told me, and the second beggar-woman was a fairy in disguise, but instead of saying that whenever I spoke, diamonds and roses would drop from my mouth, she said that since I was so kind, I would never have any problems with my teeth.”
    “Really? Did it work?”
    “Well, I haven’t had a toothache since I met her.”
    “I’d much rather have good teeth than have diamonds and roses drop out of my mouth whenever I said something,” Cimorene said. “Think how uncomfortable it would be if you accidentally talked in your sleep! You’d wake up rolling around on thorns and rocks.”
    “That never occurred to me,” Alianora said, much struck.
    “Was that everything?” Cimorene asked.
    “No,” Alianora said. “Aunt Ermintrude persuaded one of her fairy friends to give me a gown and a pair of glass slippers to go to a ball in the next kingdom over. And I broke one before I even got out of the castle!”
    “That's not so surprising,” Cimorene said. “Glass slippers are for deserving merchants’ daughters, not for princesses.”
    “Try telling Aunt Ermintrude that,” Alianora said. “I think she was the one who found out that Woraug was going to ravage a village just over the border and arranged for me to go and visit on the right day so I could be carried off. She didn’t even warn me. I suppose she thought that if I knew, I’d mess it up somehow.”
    “I don’t think I would get along very well with your Aunt Ermintrude,” Cimorene commented thoughtfully.
    “Oh, it wasn’t so bad, at least at first,” Alianora said. “Woraug ignored me most of the time, especially after he found out I can’t cook, and it was a real relief not to have Aunt Ermintrude around any more. Only then Gornul brought Keredwel and Zareth brought Hallanna, and ...”
    “And they’ve been making life miserable for you ever since,” Cimorene finished. “Why don’t you stand up to them?”
    “I tried, but you don’t know what they’re like,” Alianora said, sighing. “Keredwel goes on and on about correct behavior, and Hallanna dissolves in tears as soon as it looks like she’s losing an argument. And they’ve both had dozens of knights and princes try to rescue them. I’ve only had two.”
    “How do you do it?” Cimorene asked. “I’ve had nine already, and they’re a dreadful nuisance.”
    Alianora stared at Cimorene, then began to giggle.
    “What’s so funny?” Cimorene demanded.
    “Keredwel bragged for a week because two knights and a prince tried to rescue her the first month she was here,” Alianora explained