Aleydis did her best not to fidget as her personal maid Ellie finished up her hair. After all, it was Alrik’s birthday ball tonight and she wanted to look her absolute best.

Still, it was hard not to fidget. It had been nearly a month since she’d told her parents that she wanted to be a diplomatic envoy. They hadn’t seemed upset about the idea, had even promised to look into it for her. But since then, they hadn’t said anything on the subject. Even Alrik hadn’t mentioned it and he would’ve told her if he’d thought it was a bad idea.

He was the best brother ever. He never called her stupid or told her that something was a bad idea. Instead, he would talk her through her idea and help her understand if it was a good idea or a bad one.

Like the time she’d wanted to sneak her pony out of the stables and ride to the like to pick their mother’s favorite flowers for her birthday. He’d helped her see that while it was a nice idea for a present, many people would be worried if she suddenly disappeared, might even think that she’d been kidnapped. Alrik and Kadin had ended up going with her to the lake and between the three of them, they had been able to pick enough flowers for an enormous bouquet.

It had been a lovely day.

However, perhaps they hadn’t had time to look into academies for her yet. Something had been going on for the past month. Their parents had even missed meals several times, which was very unusual. Normally, at least one parent ate with them if they both couldn’t make it. They’d said that even though they were the king and queen, they were parents before that and their family came first.

So if they couldn’t make it to a meal, that meant that something very serious had come up. Not only that, but Alrik had been very busy lately as well. He hadn’t had any time to play with her or even take a walk with her in the garden. She had managed to drag him out for a walk exactly once and a servant had come and retrieved him halfway through.

Even Kadin had been very scarce around the palace lately. Normally, when Alrik couldn’t spend time with her because of his prince duties, Kadin would come and check on her for him. But other than seeing him from a distance a few times, she hadn’t seen him either.

She wished that someone would tell her what was going on. If she was going to be a diplomatic envoy, she would need to know what was going on in Colbini. And she wasn’t too young to know important things anymore. She was already ten and her studies covered a large range of topics, from education constants like math and languages to things like leadership and management of a castle or a town.

She didn’t think that it had to do with the drought. Her tutor had had her studying weather patterns recently and she’d had to trace major weather events for the past five hundred years. This drought cycle seemed to happen every thirty years and the rains should return in the fall like normal, if the pattern held true to norm, so there was nothing to fret about.

She had made sure to send a runner with that information to Mother, Father, and Alrik as soon as she’d spotted the pattern, but she hadn’t received a message back, so she didn’t know if she had been helpful or not.

But if it wasn’t about the drought, she had no idea what it could be for. Colbini was a small country, mostly self-sufficient with no notable imports or exports. There was no reason for anyone to declare war on them and they did not have the military strength or desire to wage war on another country. Why would they create such a senseless loss of life when they had everything they needed in Colbini?

Ellie broke into her circling thoughts. “All done, Princess. Take a look and let me know what you think.”

Aleydis pushed her thoughts away to deal with later and looked into the mirror. She had chosen a pale blue dress for the ball tonight with only a little bit of lace on it. She wanted to look pretty but she didn’t want to take any attention away from Alrik. After all, it was his birthday today, he deserved to be the star of the event.

A single bracelet and pendent along with simple earrings that Alrik had given her for her birthday and her jewelry was complete. Ellie had managed to work wonders with her light brown hair. She had placed a couple of braids to hold the hair out of her face, securing them at the base of her head with a small knot of daisies. Then she had somehow managed to coax her stick-straight hair into gentle curls.

In compliance with her position of princess, a delicate tiara rested lightly on her hair, secured with tiny strands of hair held in place with what felt like dozens of pins. Relief filled her when she realized she wouldn’t have to worry about her tiara slipping during the ball, even if she danced or anything.

It would be mortifying if her tiara fell off and people would undoubtedly gossip about what a clumsy child she was. She should’ve known that Ellie would have her back, the maid always seemed to be three steps ahead of whatever worries she had.

Twisting, she beamed up at her. “It’s perfect. Thank you so much!”

Ellie smiled down warmly at her, reaching out and carefully tucking away one last strand of hair. “You’re welcome. I know how important this is to you. Do you have your present or did you send it ahead to be put with the others?”

Aleydis hopped up from her chair and scurried over to a side table where a pretty box with a carefully tied ribbon sat. "I wanted to give it to him myself."

Ellie smiled fondly at her. "Very well, Princess. Off you go and remember, no running in the halls."

Aleydis whined, "But I don't want to be late."

Ellie rolled her eyes but her smile didn't disappear. "As if I'd let such a thing happen. And you know that a ball doesn't officially start until the royal family arrives, so there is no way that you could be late. Now go, your family is most likely waiting for you. And no running."

Knowing that she would only prove Ellie right if she stuck out her tongue, Aleydis chose to retreat before word of her behavior got back to her mother from the other maids. With one last wave and smile, she headed out, clutching the package tightly so she wouldn’t risk dropping it.

Thankfully, it only took a couple of minutes to reach the waiting room where her family was gathered. They looked calm and relaxed, not tense or worried like they would be if something was wrong, so Aleydis allowed her worries to float away for the night. This was to celebrate her wonderful brother’s birthday, of course nothing would go wrong.

Ignoring their parents for the moment, she skipped over to where Alrik was chatting with Father and held out the present, chirping happily, “Happy Birthday Alrik!”

He smiled widely at her, carefully taking the present, “I said that you didn’t have to get me anything, Aley. The picnic you planned for tomorrow is more than enough.”

She pouted at him. “As if a picnic would be good enough for your birthday. That’s for all of us to enjoy and relax. No, I got this just for you.”

Mother came over and examined the box. “Please tell me that it isn’t a dagger or something of the sort. You know that you’re not supposed to go to the metalworkers without a guard to keep you safe and there’s been no report of you going out with one recently.”

Although the words were serious, her tone was teasing, so Aleydis responded in kind. “Mother, I’m ten now. I’m much too grown up to do such silly things.”

They shared a long look before bursting into giggles which were made worse by Alrik pouting, “But I like daggers.”

Aleydis promised, “I’ll get you one for your next birthday. But Ellie and I worked really hard to get this for you. It almost didn’t come in time.”

Mother asked, curiosity filling her voice, “Ellie helped you? Whatever in the world could it be?”

Father grumbled, “Well, if you both would quit distracting him and let him open it, then you would know by now.”

Mother wrinkled her nose at Father but fell silent. Alrik gave her a longsuffering look before winking at her, causing her to have to smother another round of giggles. Satisfied, he turned his attention to carefully unraveling the ribbon.

Aleydis held her breath, discreetly crossing her fingers behind her back that he would like her gift. It had taken her ages to find the right gift, she’d been working since last fall to track it down.

The ribbon fell carelessly to the floor and he lifted the lid, peering in before pulling out a small, leather-bound book. Handing the empty box to Father, he cautiously examined the book. “What is this?”

Taking a deep breath, Aleydis answered slowly and calmly like her dictation teacher insisted she do. “It’s Queen Angharad’s diary. She ruled a small country 1,500 years ago near the ocean. The kingdom is gone now, it was swallowed up by other countries three hundred years after her reign. However, she seemed to share a lot of the same ideas as you, Alrik, so I thought you might enjoy seeing what she did while she was queen.”

He didn’t say anything, opening up the diary and flipping through it, pausing here and there to look closer at something before moving on.

The whole time, her nerves were getting larger and larger and she almost snatched it back. Finally, he closed the diary and looked up at her, smiling widely. “I love it, it’s perfect!”

Relief flooding her, she moved forward and started sharing a little bit more she had learned about the queen during her search. After all, her brother deserved only the very best.