The Two Princesses of Bamarre: Part 2

By GAIL CARSON LEVINE

Once, when I was four years old and playing in the castle courtyard, a shadow passed over me. I shrieked, certain it was a gryphon or a dragon. My sister, Meryl, ran to me and held me, her arms barely long enough to go around me.

"It's gone, Addie," she whispered. "It's far away by now." And then she crooned a stanza from Drualt.

"Step follows step.
Hope follows courage.
Set your face towards danger.
Set your heart on victory."

I quietened, soothed by Meryl's voice and her warm breath on my ear.

Meryl was my protector, as necessary to me as air and food. Our mother, Queen Daria, had succumbed to the Grey Death when I was two and Meryl was three. Father rarely visited the nursery. Bella, our governess, loved us in her way, but her way was to moralise and to scold.

Illustrator: Mel Grant

Publisher: HarperCollins

Age group: 8-11 yrs


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