Page 1 of The Abandoned Princess

PART I

THE TOWER

CHAPTER 1

The voices of the sailors could be heard from the bowels of the ship, their shouts of alarm punctuated by the slap of the waves against the hull and the uneven tilt of the ship. I had picked up sea legs quickly at the beginning of our voyage, but it was becoming more and more difficult to keep my balance.

“I think we should all head up on deck.” Giselle—the oldest of the girls included in our delegation—sounded worried.

“I second that.” Cassie joined the Eldonian princess at the cabin door. “I don’t fancy being caught below decks if the ship’s going down.”

“I’m sure it won’t come to that.” Daria’s worried gaze was directed my way.

“Imagine if it did!” I might be three years younger than the youngest of them, but that didn’t mean I was scared. “I’ve never been shipwrecked before. We could all cling to pieces of wreckage and kick our way to shore.”

We might need to remove our long dresses to successfully achieve our own rescue, but I didn’t mention that since the others already seemed horrified enough.

“Perhaps we could try the longboats before we’re reduced to scrounging for flotsam,” Giselle said as she hurried us toward the deck.

I sighed as I climbed the steps. What was the point of leaving home on a grand adventure if my companions were just as obsessed with being sensible and responsible as my family back home?

It had seemed like the most marvelous thing when I was invited to join the Eldonian delegation to the Four Kingdoms—the new lands discovered beyond a stretch of previously impassable ocean. I suspected my sister-in-law, Isla, was responsible for the idea, and I had been suitably grateful before my departure. I just hoped my three companions—two Eldonians and one Elamese—would make the most of any adventures we encountered. If our ship going down before we reached our destination didn’t rouse a speck of excitement in them, what would?

I certainly couldn’t rely on Lori to be anything but sensible. I was fairly certain my parents had chosen a maid three decades my senior and without an ounce of excitement in her blood with studied purpose. Just like Daria, they worried I needed to be watched.

I peered around the deck for Lori, hoping she hadn’t noticed my arrival. Given our current situation, she would no doubt attach herself to my side the moment she found me.

But my attention was pulled back to my companions when someone suggested the ship might be steadying—a most disappointing possibility. Before I could comment, however, the captain appeared.

“My men have plugged the hole with their hammocks. And now they’re hard at work on the pumps.” My heart sank until he continued. “But a lot of water got in, and it’s only a temporary solution.”

I brightened again. Perhaps we were going to have a proper adventure after all.

I stayed quiet as the older royals discussed the situation with the captain, knowing I would do my cause more harm than good by speaking up. I might have been born a princess, but with a nine-year age gap between me and my older siblings, I had always been treated like a baby. The only way I could learn anything interesting was by silent observation—or spying as my brother and sister called it.

It wasn’t that I liked creeping around and listening to people—it was just the only option when everyone was determined to overlook and exclude me, always attempting to relegate me to the nursery.

My hopes were rewarded, however, when the decision was made to set some key delegation members ashore on the closest beach. The damaged ship would then follow the wind south to a more accessible port in Lanover with Giselle’s older brother and his wife, Celine—originally a princess of Lanover—aboard. Celine was unwell, so she was relieved to head for her parents and leave Princess Giselle as the new delegation head.

Recognizing my moment to speak had arrived, I pounced.

“Naturally I’ll accompany you ashore and continue on to our destination, Princess Giselle,” I said, in my best formal tones.

Everyone turned to look at me with matching expressions of disapproval.

“As the lone representative from Trione, I couldn’t possibly miss the opportunity to greet the Arcadians,” I added.

Giselle and Daria exchanged a look, and I could easily read their thoughts from their expressions. They knew perfectly well my real reason for refusing to stay tamely with the ship. But it was true I was the only official delegate from my home kingdom, and while I was only thirteen, I was also a royal. It would be difficult for them to deny my claim.

I grinned in triumph as it was agreed that Cassie, Daria, and I—along with our various attendants—would join Giselle in a haphazard disembarkation onto the closest deserted beach.

I half hoped I would slip while climbing down the rope ladder to the longboat and end up in the ocean. But the process was managed in a disappointingly staid manner, and when the longboat reached the beach, I was swept into the arms of a burly sailor and deposited on the sand before I could protest.

Did they think I would panic if I encountered a drop of water? I might not have the good fortune to be half-merfolk like some of my family, but I had still grown up in a palace by the ocean. I could have swum myself to shore from the ship without the help of a piece of flotsam if it had come to it.

I couldn’t stay downcast for long, though. Finally something adventurous was happening to me that didn’t revolve around my older brother or sister. And they weren’t even here to tell me to be careful or to try to take charge.

Daria was closest to me in age, but she didn’t seem to share my excitement. And when I turned to Cassie, she looked more thoughtful than pleased with the unexpected development. Giselle joined us on the sand, but she seemed burdened with the weight of her unexpected new position as head of our delegation. She’d brought her strange horse, Arvin, though, and something about him always made me smile.

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