Free The Princess Curse by Merrie Haskell Page B

and waving me a dismissal.
    “Carry on?” I said. “Carry on with what?”
    “With your experiments to awaken the sleepers, of course. Waking the Duke is our first priority.”
    “What? No! You don’t understand. I found a list.” I didn’t quite know how to explain myself, so I stripped off my cowl and pulled the little scroll from behind my ear. “It’s a list of ‘plants which confer upon the wearer invisibility.’ And we’ve been experimenting with them, Didina and I, though with no success thus far. But I can’t actually try everything listed here. We—I don’t have the resources.”
    The Princess leaned forward in her chair, trying to read the vellum scrap I held. I handed it to her without a qualm, since I’d memorized the words by now.
    “Which of these things have you tried?”
    I told her how Didina had been working on the list, and how I’d tried pig’s weed my own self.
    “It may very well be another fool’s errand, trying to figure out this list,” the Princess said. “What was your plan, if you managed to discover a method for becoming invisible?”
    “The same as anyone’s, Princess. Hide and watch. Only with a more refined method of hiding.”
    “I see.” She waved the list languidly for a moment, then said, “Let me keep this for a bit, so I can supply you with the items you are missing. Then I want you to begin your experiments anew. And come tell me right away if you discover anything. But whatever you do, keep trying to waken the sleepers. We have, perhaps, two weeks before the Duke of Styria dies and war becomes inevitable.”
    That was a sobering deadline, even though I was elated at the prospect of the Princess Consort’s help. I agreed to the Princess’s plan, and she dismissed me.
    Outside the solar, I ducked behind the zmeu tapestry—and trembled.
    I steadied myself with a pinch of sage under my tongue, but I’d need a calming tea to really make a difference. I dropped my head back against the wall, willing myself not to cry.
    Didina’s ma and the Duke of Styria were both dying, and Didina herself was asleep in the western tower, and someday she’d start slipping away, too. And if war came to Sylvania—would Pa keep me here, or would he send me away? Without me, what would happen to Didina? Adina couldn’t wake her, and no one else even knew how start trying.
    I had to work fast. And secretly. Pa was going to be righteously angry with me if he found out I was involved in any of this.

Chapter 12
     
    I wanted to go to Adina, but I couldn’t face her yet. I went to the herbary instead, and found Brother Cosmin uncharacteristically busy.
    “There’s an emissary from the Hungarian King just arrived, late last night,” Brother Cosmin said. “We have no time to waste.” He pointed to a list of about a thousand tasks that he’d written out for me.
    “Didina—” I began, and started to sniffle.
    “I know,” he said, shaking his head, his mouth a narrow white slit where he pressed his lips tight. He jabbed his finger at the task list. “We have work to do.”
    I couldn’t believe him—to think only of work at a time like this! And this was Brother Cosmin, who barely ever thought about work at all. My tears dried up. I slammed over to my table and looked for something to pulverize.
    Brother Cosmin didn’t speak, not even when Pa burst through the door and grabbed me up in a tight hug.
    Fortunately for me, Pa hugged the breath out of my lungs before I could speak, because it took me a moment to realize he had no idea that I’d been in the princesses’ tower the night before. He was just reacting to Didina’s situation. He didn’t suspect my involvement.
    I figured this out because he wasn’t shouting at me.
    Pa left again in short order, and Brother Cosmin still didn’t say anything—just pointed at the next item on the list when I finished something. He had me bundle countless stems of santolina and rue into fumigants for the castle fires, and boil