Born to Rule

said.
    “L&B?” Alicia asked.
    “ Longbow and Blade, a sports catalogue for knights and squires. It’s got mostly weapons, but in the back they have clothing and other gear.”
    “Oh.” Alicia blinked. She read mostly fashion catalogues and magazines. She particularly liked the one called Classic Crown Jewels. In the back there were ads for fabulous jewels from kingdoms that had lost all their money and gone broke. Or, as her father would say, had gone “belly up and crown down.”
    The parlor was filled with a soft tinkling sound. “Enter,” the three princesses said in unison. Gilly, the lady’s maid, led a small parade into the parlor. She and two other maids each carried an exquisitely beautiful ball gown.
    “Time to dress for the Banquet Royale, miladies. It’s the first of the camp season and always the fanciest,” said Gilly. Kristen groaned.
    Behind each maid stood a small boy holding a plump velvet pillow. On top of each pillow was a gold and enamel box that held each princess’s jewels, which were normally kept in the royal camp vault. Still smaller boys held other pillows on which their newly shined tiaras perched.
    Alicia looked at the tiara on Kristen’s pillow. It was made of strange teeth, each tipped with a small but glittering blue sapphire.
    “Princess Kristen,” Alicia asked, “if I might be so bold, I would like to ask you a question.”
    “You call asking a question being bold?” The redheaded princess laughed. “Fire away. Ask me anything.”
    “Well, I notice the teeth in your tiara are the same as the one in your barrette. What kind of animal do they come from?”
    “They’re from a shark. Great white,” Kristen answered.
    “A shark!” Alicia and Gundersnap exclaimed. Their tiaras had diamonds glistening among pearls, with the occasional ruby sprinkled in—although Gundersnap’s still resembled a battle helmet more than a tiara.
    “By the bones of Saint Michael, how comfortable can a shark-tooth tiara be? I think it would be very scary,” Alicia said.
    “No, not at all. I’ll tell you what is scary—when the shark is alive and staring you in the face. Dead sharks’ teeth on my head? No problem.”
    “You must hurry, miladies,” said Gilly, sending the princesses to their chambers to be assisted in dressing by their maids.
    “I am to be your maid,” Gilly told Alicia as she laid her gown on the bed. “I think that your hair worn up with a curl or two coming down on each side would make the tiara sit ever so prettily on you head. You’ll learn all about hair and makeup with the Duchess—”
    Gilly’s words were cut short by a shriek coming from Kristen’s chamber. Alicia and Gilly rushed to the princess’s chamber, almost colliding with Gundersnap and Mary, her chambermaid. What had gone wrong?
    “It bit me. I swear it bit me!” Annie was crying.
    “What are you carrying on about, Annie?” Gilly said firmly.
    “It did not bite you!” Kristen said.
    “What was it?” Alicia asked. Could a ghost bite? she wondered.
    “The princess’s tiara, milady. I was trying to arrange it on her head, and she moved. I swear to you it bit me.”
    “Nonsense!” Gundersnap stepped forward. “The shark is dead. The teeth don’t bite without the shark. Now, show me, where did it bite you?”
    “There, see.” Annie held out her finger. There was a tiny red mark there.
    “You probably got that when you pulled your hand away. The rest is your imagination, notting else!” replied Gundersnap. “As Empress Mummy always says, imagination is a waste of time and leads to trouble.”
    “Thank you, Annie.” Kristen stepped between Gundersnap and Annie. “I’ll fix my own tiara. I do it all the time at home, anyhow.”
    “You do?” came a chorus of shocked voices.
    “Of course I do. I sail my own boat, I ride my own charger, I shoot my own crossbow. You think I can’t put a silly little tiara on my head?”
    With that proclamation, Kristen picked up the tiara and jammed it on top of the mass of red curls that Annie had so artfully arranged. They were now all squashed down under the shark-tooth tiara that sat slightly askew on Princess Kristen’s head.
    Alicia looked around Kristen’s chamber. A crossbow hung on the wall. Ribbons from various competitions were suspended from the silk canopy of her bed. A jousting lance was propped in the corner, and she had replaced her dressing table top with a shield that held her combs and brushes. On the walls hung