“Well done, my dear.” Mother patted me on the shoulder. “I think you made an excellent first impression, even in those shoes.”
I rolled my eyes. I had sent the princes off on their first challenge, and Grenie had gone along to spy on the princes for me. The competitors had been given four hours and the help of one servant to forage and cook a dish for tonight’s dinner. They could only travel by foot or horse-back, no faerie gates. I had told them they would be judged on the taste of each dish, but really, it was more a test of resourcefulness and creativity. Two traits important to both a husband and a ruler.
Finally, I would get some data to judge the princes by. My notebook was ready to go.
The rest of the crowd had dispersed. Some would return home through the Lily Gate, and some would stay for tonight’s feast. Which should be interesting, to say the least.
“I’m going to go lie down for a minute.” My pregnant mother walked off toward the castle with a stately waddle. “Wake me for the feast.”
My father and I watched her go.
“It’s amusing that she believes there will be anything worth eating tonight.” Papa raised an eyebrow in my direction, and I laughed.
“Not everyone is a trained chef like you, Papa, but hopefully they’ll come up with something.”
“Hmm, I have asked the cook to whip up a little snack anyway. Just in case,” he said, then offered me his arm. “So, tell me, ma chouchoutte, what happened to your beautiful croquembouche?”
We walked together out of the courtyard to the gardens. The castle grounds were ringed with gravel paths lined with hedges. Fountains and pools dotted the gardens, all blooming with water lilies, with the large pond featuring the Lily Gate in the center.
“It was those shoes Mother made me wear. I slipped on a stepping stone and fell.” I loved my papa, but the talking frog was more than I wanted to explain right now. “Cream puffs everywhere. The fish will eat well tonight.”
“A tragedy.” Papa shook his head regretfully. “I should have stolen one for your mother, while I had the chance. It might have been her only chance at decent food today.”
* * *
“Perhaps I should have eaten in my room,” said my mother four hours later, with a grimace, as she looked over the table of (possibly) edible offerings.
“Are you all right, ma chérie?” Papa fussed. “You look a little green.”
Speaking of green, where was my spying amphibian? I glanced around the courtyard, which now glowed with candles on linen covered tables. No sign of the frog. Circling the long table, I flipped open my notebook and eyed the platters while continuing to look for Grenie. There were fish stuffed with herbs and mushrooms, a bowl of…was there a nice way to say slop? Minus points for that one. One plate seemed to hold a pile of moss. Things looked dire. Wait. An impressive cake dominated one end of the table. I drew closer to inspect the artfully arranged sugared wildflowers on top.
“How did he manage to bake a cake with foraged ingredients?” I murmured to myself, tapping my pencil against the paper.
“He foraged them from your kitchen.” Grenie hopped out from behind a bowl of dandelion green salad.
“He got the ingredients from the castle? That’s bending the rules more than a bit.”
“Nope, he stole the entire cake from the larder, and threw some wildflowers on top of it.” The frog hopped back up onto my shoulder.
I picked up the paper from beside the cake and read it.
“Prince Haldor of Álfheimr, you are going home.” I crossed his name off my list with a flourish.
I circled the table, tasting anything that looked edible, and making notes. My father sampled some dishes with an air of longsuffering, but my mother declared that she would wait for the cooks to finish the actual dinner.
I gave high marks to three dishes in the end. Foraged root vegetables roasted with wild garlic by Prince Aodahn, fish baked with herbs and mushrooms by Prince Declan, and in a crystal pitcher at the end of the table...
“Is that iced mint tea?” I walked over and sniffed the golden liquid. “It is!” I poured myself a glass.
“A favourite of yours?” asked the frog, peering at my drink.
“Yes, especially if it’s sweetened with...” I took a sip and sighed happily. “Honey. Perfection. I haven’t had iced mint tea in ages. I used to drink it all the time when I was younger.”
I picked up the label, written in the same elegant hand as the letter earlier. Of course. Naven. I flipped it over and read the note on the back:
In memory of the time we found the hummingbird’s nest.
“Hummingbird’s nest? Does that mean something to you?” Grenie hopped down to examine the note.
“You read?” I supposed I shouldn’t be surprised, although it did add to the mystery surrounding my little green friend.
“I’m an amphibian. I’m not illiterate.”
“Right.” I laughed. “When I was ten, I spent a summer at the Juniper Court. My parents were busy...” My mother had been pregnant and lost the baby. The Tuatha Dé Danann lived long lives, but they didn’t have children easily. I could see behind her current sharpness to how on edge she was with this pregnancy. I shook my head. “Naven was the youngest of six siblings, and the only one within a decade of my age. He took me out on adventures whenever the weather was good, and sometimes when it wasn’t. We found a hummingbird’s nest one day and spent the whole afternoon lying on our stomachs in a mint patch, watching the parents flitting in and out. We took some of the mint back to the castle, and the cooks showed us how to make tea. We gathered mint and drank iced tea for the rest of the summer.”
“It sounds like you were good friends,” remarked the frog.
“I certainly thought so. Which makes this all the more irritating. Why is he playing this game instead of just talking to me?” I crumpled up the note and shoved it into my pocket as I stalked up to the dais.
“Prince Declan is the winner of round one,” I announced. “My congratulations on his lovely fish and mushrooms.”
The shaggy-haired prince looked up from his conversation with another prince in surprise. I gave him what I hoped was a sincere smile.
“You may join me for dinner,” I told him. Then I named the ten princes who would be going home. I heard some grumbling, most loudly from the cake stealer, but I ignored them. I ran my hand over the crumpled paper in my pocket.
Where was he?