Let Slip The Princesses of War Read Free Page A

them).  Beauty always chafed under Ms. White’s command.  Beauty thought she should be running the show.  And she wasn’t alone.  A lot of people thought Ms. White was too cautious, using the Company to protect her own kingdom but not doing much about fighting Mallory or getting back lost territory.  I won’t say I didn’t see the attraction of Beauty as a leader. 
    A couple of years back, Beauty was taken by a Malevolent squad while investigating a report of a sleeping spell in a border town.  Her whole team returned and said they had been under a spell and when they had awoken Beauty was gone without a trace. A lot of people thought there was something suspicious about her capture.  Of course, Beauty was the perfect choice to investigate a sleeping spell (although, apparently it wasn’t a sleeping spell after all).  A lot of people thought it all seemed too perfect, thought it might have been a setup. I won’t say I didn’t see the logic of the theory. 
    Ms. White stood up.  “Let me be frank with you.  As you all know, there was some tension between Beauty and me.  What you might not know, is that we had a big argument just before she left on her last mission.  Some things were said that, perhaps, were best left unsaid.
    “To make a long story short, it’s possible that once you free Beauty, she may be… reluctant to join your quest.” She handed me a sealed envelope made of elegant paper.  “If she is, please give her that.  I hope it will convince her to assist you.  It’s unlikely that your mission can succeed without her aid.  You will need to pass a sleeping spell in order to obtain the weapon.”
    And of course, Beauty was one of only two people in the world who were immune to sleeping spells.  Ms. White was the other.  Apparently, sleeping spells are like some kind of disease.  Once you have it, if it doesn’t kill you, you can’t get it again. 
    I put the envelope into an inside pocket of my coat. 
    Ms. White sat back down and Shay continued.  “Beauty will be the 4 th member of your team, but you will need one more.  I can’t tell you anything about the 5 th member, because one of the protections on the prison is that nobody who knows the identity of the prisoner can release him.”
    Him?  The whole room heard it.  There was a him?  There had been no hims in years.  Oh, peasants hims, sure.  But hero hims? Prince hims? Nope.  Not since Mallory tricked all the princes and heroes in all the kingdoms into meeting in a single location and killed them all.  We, all us queens and princesses, all told them it was a bad idea, but you know how princes are.  I mean, I loved my husband, the King, but he was kind of a dumb, ‘er – pull sword, kill dragon’ kind of guy.  Sweet sure, but well, they’re all dead.  So that should tell you all you need to know.  
    Well no one knew what to say.  There was so much tension and confusion in the room.  
    Shay finally continued.  “We can’t tell you more, so best to just put it out of your minds.  The prisoner is being held in Beauty’s old palace.  The sleeping spell has been recast and strengthened, the wall of thorns regrown.  Nobody but Beauty will be able to enter without falling under the spell’s power.  Once inside she’ll have to awaken the prisoner, or take him if she can’t awaken him.”
    We all nodded.  Traditionally – the sleeping spell requires the kiss of a prince to break the spell.  We were fresh out of princes.  And the subject, untraditionally, was a him! 
    Cinderella broke the silence.  “And if we can’t awaken HIM?  Are we just supposed to drag a sleeping prince with us all over Malevolent territory?  Seems like a good way to get us all killed!”
    Ms. White answered, “If you can’t awaken him, do your best to return him here.  There’s no point continuing your quest, you won’t find the weapon without his help.  Bring him back here and we’ll try to wake him.  But, if