Wanna Dance With Somebody

We never meant for all those princes to die, you know. That was all Dad’s idea.

I mean, three days isn’t a lot of time to figure out how a dozen girls are getting in and out of their room with no one the wiser every night. If none of our guards, nursemaids, governesses, or ladies’ maids had been able to figure it out since the whole thing started--years ago, mind--how was some random second-or-third-born son after an inheritance supposed to do it in three days?

Marta, my oldest sister, told him it was a bad plan, but of course he didn’t listen. Never does, really. I can’t blame him, being a king is busy work, but it certainly didn’t help the situation. 

And it’s not like we could just stop. Or tell anybody. That’s how these things work, isn’t it? I’m still not sure if it was a curse on our mother, or a fairy’s gift gone wrong, or just some sort of ancient, ancestral contract, but from the second Marta turned fifteen, we all had to go. As far back as I can remember, we had to go. It was just the way things were.

Honestly, it wasn’t so bad. And I know I’m not the only one who thought so. I guess it was mostly me and the rest of the younger set who really got excited, but even Marta and Katriana enjoyed the balls themselves. And that place was truly beautiful. 

Maybe it was the food and drink, maybe the music, maybe just being in that gilded underground palace, but we were never tired the way we should have been when we got back. The only evidence of our nightly excursions were, of course, our worn-through slippers. 

Which, I mean…Dad is the king. I feel like it wouldn’t put him out too bad to just buy us another pair of shoes. Or maybe just sturdier ones. 

But whatever. 

Also, an invisibility cloak feels like cheating. I know he didn’t make that thing on his own--that kind of magic is from witches and witches only. Well, maybe a fairy, I guess. Still, definitely not a random foot soldier. 

He still won’t tell us where he got it, which is infuriating. Maybe he told Marta, but I don’t think she’d be keeping it a secret if he had. 

I’m pretty sure it was a witch. I’m gonna get it out of him, eventually. I hope he introduces me.

Anyway. It still feels like cheating. And y’know what, I knew there was something weird that night. Athos--I don’t actually know if that’s his name, but it’s what I called him since he never told me the real one. He never seemed to mind--mentioned something about the boat being heavier than normal, which I didn’t think much of at the time, but I knew. I knew I’d heard something back in the silver and gold forest.

I should’ve put the two together. Maybe things would have turned out differently. Maybe we could have talked to the soldier about it, before he brought all those twigs and stuff to Dad.

But no. No, I’d just joked that Athos was saying I’d gained weight, and he’d smiled and rowed us across the lake, same as he always did. That was what it was like, between us. I mean, we’d basically grown up together--each prince was a sort of shadow to his princess, growing and changing with her over the years. I knew Katriana liked hers quite a bit, and they often talked on the side of the dance floor during the balls. She didn’t usually much care for boys, but she liked him. Probably because he didn’t much care for girls. 

I do wish they hadn’t been cursed. I mean, maybe we used to be, but it didn’t feel like it. It was just a party. And it was only at night, when we didn’t have to smile and curtsy at the court. We all knew our duty to the kingdom, and we did it gladly under the sunshine. 

Was it really hurting anyone, to enjoy ourselves? To not have to be perfect princesses, just for a while? To get to dance and laugh and stuff our faces and talk to someone who didn’t expect us to be anything but what we are?

I wish they hadn’t been cursed.

“As many nights as thou hast danced with a princess of the land.” It was a lot of nights. I have no idea the specific number, I was barely able to dance when the whole thing started. So a long time. But…I guess they aren’t really human?

I hope not. I hope Athos gets a lot more nights for fun.

I wonder if I’ll ever see him again…

Agnes misses her prince, too, I can tell. Twin thing, maybe--yes, yes, she is technically older, which she never lets me forget, but I still say six minutes shouldn’t count for much.

I think we all miss them. The others don’t talk about it, and tell me it’s not worth dwelling on it. 

That’s why I think they miss them. The older girls talked the same way about Mom, after she died.

Dad’s definitely happier, at least. He still keeps two times as many shifts of guards on our door, just in case, but he doesn’t grumble at us all through breakfast anymore. So that’s nice. 

And, y’know. No more dead princes. So that’s quite a number of potential diplomatic disasters avoided. Seriously, I don’t know what Dad’s long-term plan was with that. 

I guess it’s fine, the way things turned out. That soldier is nice enough, when it comes down to it, and Marta actually smiles whenever he comes into the room. Not the way she did when her nighttime prince would spin her across the dance floor, but it’s a smile.

I dunno. Dad says I’ll forget about it, eventually. Maybe he’s right. Maybe that’s better, to forget, knowing I can never have it again. 

I just miss the dancing.