The Nine Princesses Novel

Chapter 22: Coralina's Plan

The royal carriage lumbered over the farmland that lay between Merridell and Creaklee, a sort of green ocean between the two towns. Except for grazing cattle and stranded trees, the land held nothing to draw the eye. Coralina slouched by the window, waiting for cottages to clutter the horizon. Today she would begin the carpenter's punishment.

Her bitter mood was not sweetened by her two sisters on the opposite bench, both in crippling fits of laughter.

"How did you fall? Head first or feet first?" Jaedis cried.

"I don't remember," Coralina said sourly. "But I do remember the cold. And the dark. And the terror!"

Heidel grinned and brushed her fringe to one side of her forehead. Her autumn-red braid sat on her shoulder, fraying. "I'd have given my supper to see Luxley get clubbed. Often wanted to do that myself."

"What's wrong with Luxley!" Coralina cried. Why did everyone see this backward? Gord was a hero whereas she and Prince Luxley were a pair of buffoons.

"He's a puffed pastry," said Heidel. "He needed squashing."

"What did you think when you came out of the water?" Jaedis asked with hushed excitement. "Did you think you'd been attacked? Did you think Gord was a bandit? Did you think Luxley was dead?"

Coralina might have replied but Jaedis began jabbering about how she would have felt. When the king, their father, had adopted nine baby girls from nine different realms, he found Jaedis last, in a kingdom so far east almost no one had ever heard of it. Like her native people, Jaedis had slippery black hair, shiny as glass, and eyes that nearly squinted shut whenever she smiled. She never minded that her features often drew stares from strangers. Jaedis liked everyone. And everyone, it seemed, liked Jaedis.

Coralina smoothed the skirt of her gown and tugged the low-cut neck a bit lower. "So. What do you know about him?" As Market Princess, Jaedis travelled all over the kingdom to buy supplies for the castle. She knew the people even better than Maelyn.

"Gord? Hmm. Well. He's a carpenter – you know that. Very big. You know that too! Um... a good man. Well-respected in Creaklee. Let's see, what else? Oh! He has a little girl, his wife is dead, and he's going blind."

Coralina was startled. "Going blind?"

Jaedis nodded. "He survived Red Fever two years ago. But it weakened his eyes and he's gradually losing his sight."

"You mean... Maelyn hired a blind man to guard the castle that night?"

"Oh, he's good," Jaedis said earnestly. "Even with poor eyesight. He knows how to catch a criminal."

Coralina sniffed. "If his eyes worked, perhaps he might've noticed that his 'criminal' was actually a prince!"

Heidel laughed. "I'd have hit him anyway."

Jaedis began chattering about what she planned to buy in Creaklee, and a few friends she intended to visit. Since Jaedis' idea of friends meant anyone who wasn't dead, Coralina knew she'd have plenty of time.

Blind. Coralina sank into the white velvet seat and listened to the carriage wheels grinding over the road. Blindness made things difficult. But not impossible. It just meant she'd have to use more than her looks. The carpenter had to pay a price for humiliating her at the Late-Spring Ball. And Coralina would not be content with a reprimand.

She would go straight for the heart.