homework. As night fell, they headed to the tower for astronomy. Uralia was waiting patiently outside the door of the observatory turned classroom. She was soft-spoken and smiled gently as each boy walked in. When class started, she led them out to the balcony. “We’ll be taking a bit of a quiz for class today. I want you to identify and locate the constellations as we go along. I hate doing this by paper, so it’ll be one quiz for the whole class. However, if you don’t participate, I will not give you points no matter how well your peers answer for you. I will either tell you a constellation or show you the location. You will need to locate it by pointing or name the constellation depending on which type of question I ask, so pay attention. Let’s begin.”
Adrian secretly loved this class. One of the few memories he had of his father was going out on an overnight campout. It had just been the two of them. “No ladies tonight, eh?” he remembered him saying. They’d gone out to a meadow some distance from the castle and had set up mats and blankets to sleep under the stars. He remembered it being a warm, summer night. There had been just enough breeze to keep them comfortable and not a single cloud in the sky. They had stayed up for hours it had seemed to the young boy, talking and gazing at the stars. His father had told him the story of every constellation they found. He showed him the brave warrior and the beautiful princess he’d saved from the terrible sea monster, her mother sitting on her throne, and then the horse who had run so swiftly he’d begun to fly, earning him wings from the fairies. Young Adrian had fallen asleep to the sound of his father’s voice those many years ago, not knowing that within a few short weeks, he would be gone. Now as he gazed up at the starry skies, he could hear his father’s voice as a whisper through the years. “Find the hunter, Adrian. Did I ever tell you about the hunter?”
He blinked back a tear from the memory. Now was not the time to be sentimental. He refocused on Uralia and the constellation she was asking them to locate.
The next weeks passed unbearably slowly for Kaelen and Lucian. For Kaelen, it was a matter of living as a girl. Between double etiquette and fencing-turned-sewing, Kaelen managed to get three dresses sewn and two small samplers completed. In botany he learned to arrange flowers and dry them. He now had several vases of flowers in his room and he would never admit to anyone that he actually liked the arranging. After two weeks of failure, Aurelia had let him take the spinning wheel to his room to practice daily. By the third week he was spinning gold about half the time. When classes were almost finished, he was usually spinning gold and if not gold, bronze. This was another unexpected pleasure. It was especially gratifying when Gelasia allowed him to use the golden thread to embroider the green dress he made. One of the best things had been the fact that Nathan was still talking in a garbled fashion, leading many boys to believe his punishment was permanent.
Lucian had found classes a complete waste of time since he couldn’t do anything in most of them. He still enjoyed fencing because even though he couldn’t participate, he could at least help the other students. Once Tallia took his arm out of the sling, he was even able to start doing little bits to demonstrate as long as Raphael didn’t catch him. The classes where he had to do a lot of writing were the first that he could return to. Tallia allowed him to start writing again during the second week after the attack. She still refused to allow him to do any physical activities which made physical education a disaster. If Achilles thought that Lucian might use his arm, he immediately escorted Lucian to Tallia.
The last day of finals, everyone got a barrage of mail. An older boy told them that this was normal. “Everyone always gets a ton of mail at the end of semester. Parents telling you how proud they are, the fairies giving you the new schedules, and if you’re really lucky, you get something from your princess. Although, I suppose some people wouldn’t think of that as lucky.”
Lucian found himself sitting amidst of pile of letters. There was the usual letter from his mother and three from Allegra telling him how much she missed him and the last detailing her first art show. That letter also included a small, honorable mention ribbon she’d earned on one of her projects. He also had two letters from the fairies, one containing his spring schedule and the other containing a supply list. Surprisingly, he had a letter from Clarissa telling him she was sorry he’d been injured and hoped he was soon well again. At first, Lucian couldn’t figure out how she’d known, but then Jacobi admitted to telling her about it. “You write to your princess?” Lucian asked.
Jacobi blushed. “Yeah, George does too.”
Blushing just as deeply, George said, “I like her. I want to know what’s going on.”
Kaelen was also surrounded by letters. One of them was from his princess. He went to where the others were standing. “I never thought I’d say this, but I need help.”
“I don’t think we’re qualified, Kaelen,” Adrian teased with a smile. When he didn’t laugh he added, “I’m just kidding.”
“What’s going on, Kaelen?” George asked.
He read his letter out loud:
Kaelen,
There’s a rumor going around that you wear a pink dress! Please tell me that’s not true. I’m about to die of embarrassment. My prince wearing a dress! Well, you can imagine the terrible things all the girls are saying. You better not be wearing dresses, Kaelen. My parents would never approve! Just what do they teach you at the school of yours anyway?
Please let me know soon what’s going on. I can barely look my friends in the eye!
Esmé of Altheirian
“What am I going to do? A gentleman never lies to a lady. I’m still a girl. It’s true that I wear dresses. What am I supposed to tell her?”
“Well, you know, Kaelen, you are a girl,” Lucian said.
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“If you’re a girl, then the gentleman’s code doesn’t apply. You don’t have to lie, just don’t tell her the whole truth.”
“How?” Kaelen asked.
“Easy,” George said. “I’ve got lots of sisters and they lie all the time. The thing is, it’s okay to lie if it’ll save another lady from embarrassment. It’s like when Phyllis asks Sarah how she looks. Sarah will never admit that Phyllis looks hideous. So, she makes up a compliment and then suggests something to make it better. Usually that helps make Phyllis look better and it prevents hurt feelings.”
“Yeah, besides, Kaelen, you haven’t worn a pink dress in weeks,” Jacobi said. “Whatever happened to that anyway?”
“It mysteriously vanished,” Kaelen replied through grit teeth. “So what should I say?”
“If it were me,” Lucian began, “I’d say, ‘Dear Esmé, I’m sorry you’ve been embarrassed by such a silly rumor. I do not wear a pink dress. I hope this makes things better for you. Kaelen.’”
“Yeah, that’s good. Besides, there’s not a single lie in it!”
Kaelen sighed. “Alright, I guess that works. I can’t believe they know over there. How would they have found out about any of it?” He looked at Jacobi and George suspiciously.
“Don’t look at us!” Jacobi said. “I might write to my princess, but I would never tell her that you wore a dress. I think I merely said you’d been punished when I told her about Lucian. Besides, even if I had told her, Clarissa would never tell anyone. She’s too sweet.”
“Eleanor wouldn’t have either and I know I didn’t tell her about your punishment. Someone else must have said something,” George added.
“Well, I suppose the damage is already done. No sense getting upset over it. Write your princess and tell her you don’t wear a pink dress,” Adrian said as Kaelen looked ready to start seeking revenge. “That’ll stop any further damage better than getting into more trouble.”
“Hey, I’m supposed to get the last of my stitches out tonight right after supper,” Lucian said.
“Can I go with you?” Kaelen asked.
“If you want to,” Lucian shrugged. “Adrian can tell you, it’s really not all that interesting. She just washes m
y arm and looks at it. The last couple of times she’s been able to take some of the stitches out. Today the last ones are supposed to come off as long as Tallia doesn’t see anything wrong.”
“Well, as interesting as your arm is,” Adrian said, “I’m starving. Let’s go eat.”
During the meal there was laughing and talking and Kaelen finally realized what he had missed out on all those months of being selfish and stuck-up. He still thought he was better than most of the people here; but the friendship and companionship of the other boys his age made things worthwhile. Before he could stop himself he suddenly interrupted the conversation, “Thanks.”
“Thanks? We were talking about how Uralia has really pretty eyes,” Jacobi said.
“Oh, no, not about that. I wasn’t really paying attention to that. Thanks for being my friends. I didn’t know what I’d been missing. I guess, it’s nice to have friends,” Kaelen explained.
The others looked at him for a moment. “Who are you and what have you done with Kaelen?” Adrian teased.
Everyone laughed and they continued chatting until Lucian said he needed to go see Tallia. He and Kaelen walked silently down the hallway to the infirmary, the only sound the pattering of shoes and the green skirt swishing around Kaelen’s ankles.
They heard talking outside the door as they walked up. Curious, the