Page 11 of Twin Crowns

Wren froze.Oh no.She was wearing the hissing coronation crown! In front of Rathborne’s favorite spy! If Banba could see her now, she’d blast her out to sea in a hurricane.

She ripped the crown off so fast she took a clump of hair with it. “I was just making sure it fits,” she said as she set it on the dresser. “Happily, it does!”

Chapman’s mustache twitched in disapproval. “That’s what you said last time.”

Wren was careful not to look surprised. Her stomach twisted at the thought of her sister standing in this very spot doing the very same thing. Somehow, it made Rose feel much more real, and Wren didn’t like to think of her sister that way—as a person, rather than an obstacle on Wren’s way to the throne.

She pushed the image away before it gave rise to stirrings of guilt and fixed her hair in the mirror. “Yes, well, it’s just best to be sure, isn’t it, Chapman?”

“It’s far better to have your priorities in order,” he huffed. “You’re late for your afternoon date!”

Wren blinked. “My...what?”

“By the Protector, don’t tell me you forgot!” cried Chapman. “You know very well how important good timekeeping is to the Kingsbreath. It’s already past noon!”

“I’m late,” said Wren slowly. “For a date.Mydate. Yes. Of course.” She turned from the mirror, keeping her face the perfect picture of calm. Adatewas an unexpected development, certainly, but it was nothing she couldn’t handle. “Goodness. Wherehasthe time gone?”

“Perhaps you offended it in another life.” Chapman sighed. “You do always seem to be two steps behind it. I might add that it wasyouwho insisted on courting the prince in the first place.” Chapman removed a feather quill from behind his ear and jabbed it at the piece of parchment. “It’s all here in the schedule!”

Wren could just about read the entry he was pointing at.

Twelve noon—one o’clock: Princess Rose and Prince Ansel have afternoon tea in the lower gardens.

Who on earth is Prince Ansel?

Chapman clucked his tongue. “I do wonder whether you have a sieve in that head of yours sometimes. We just went over your schedule yesterday.” He ushered her from the room. “Come along. The Kingsbreath will have my head if you tarry another moment.”

Wren bit her tongue and followed Chapman down one winding stone staircase and then another, past probably the same stern-faced palace guards she and Shen had sneaked around the previous night.

Wren thought about all the princes she knew of from surrounding countries, but she couldn’t seem to place Prince Ansel.

“Now, why are you frowning like that?” said Chapman anxiously. “Prince Ansel will want to see you smiling on your date.”

“I’m just nervous,” said Wren quickly. “What if Prince Ansel doesn’t like me? What if he finds me bland? Or spoiled? Or overdressed? Or underdressed?”

Or—I don’t know—A DIFFERENT PERSON ENTIRELY?

Chapman waved his hand in dismissal. “Nonsense. You are the famed beauty of Eana, with no small fortune to your name. And by all accounts, your first date went rather well, didn’t it? Though I do maintain you should have let him win that game of chess. Nobody likes a show-off.”

Wren felt a smattering of respect for her sister. “Perhaps my brain is not such a sieve after all.”

Before them, the hallway vaulted into a marble archway thatoverlooked the sprawling courtyard. Chapman turned from her, murmuring something as he went, but Wren was too dumbstruck to share in his babble. She was adrift now, floating across the pale stones in a cascade of golden sunlight.

And there he was, waiting for her at the edge of the rose garden.

Prince Ansel.

Wren’s eyes widened.Hissing seaweed.

Ansel washandsome.

Being Rose was becoming more enjoyable by the minute.

6

Rose

The pale gold mountain rose unexpectedly out of the desert. It looked remarkably sturdy amid the shifting sands and sparkled magnificently in the high-noon sun.

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