Queen Liliuokalani: Royal Prisoner by Ann Hood

him and Maisie stay at the palace was aloha, Felix decided.
    When Maisie grew stronger and got her memory back, Felix knew he needed to tell her that he’d found Liliu. And that the crown was lost.
    The first thing was easy.
    “She doesn’t seem very…I don’t know…queenlike, does she?” Maisie said.
    “I know,” Felix agreed. “And not only is Bernice better queen material, she actually is the one in line. Unless a million things happen to change that,” he added.
    “So it’s unlikely that Liliu will be queen?” Maisie asked.
    He nodded. Felix could see her putting all the pieces together.
    “I guess,” she said finally, “that a million things are going to happen.”
    “I guess,” Felix said with a sigh.
    “Well, let’s give her the crown and see what happens,” Maisie said.
    “Um…,” Felix began.
    Maisie patted her inside fleece pocket and frowned.
    “I know my brain got a little scrambled,” she said, “but where is the crown?”
    Felix should have prepared an explanation. But he hadn’t. And now his sister was looking at him, waiting.
    “Uh,” he said. “About the crown.”
    “You already gave it to her?” Maisie said, still not angry.
    Not yet,
Felix thought.
    “Nooo,” he admitted.
    “What then?”
    “You had it,” he tried.
    “So?”
    “And you…well, you landed in the ocean. With huge waves.”
    A shadow fell over Maisie’s face.
    “Felix,” she said, “are you telling me the crown…”
    She couldn’t bring herself to say the words. She thought of the Pacific Ocean and how big and deepit was. She thought of the crown floating to the bottom of that big, deep ocean.
    Felix met his sister’s eyes.
    “Maisie,” he said, “the crown is gone.”

    The good news, Felix tried to convince Maisie—and himself—was that the shard was still tucked into the corner of Maisie’s pocket.
    “Big deal!” she said. “We don’t even know what the shard can do. We know we need that crown to get home.”
    “But,” Felix offered weakly, “we do still have the shard.”
    His sister just glared at him.
    Luckily, Lydia came in then and Maisie had to at least try to be nice.
    “Guess what day tomorrow is?” Lydia asked them. She didn’t wait for an answer. “It’s Restoration Day!” she announced.
    Maisie looked confused, but Felix remembered what Lydia had told him.
    “The day Hawaii got its independence back from England?” he said.
    “Wait,” Maisie said. “England ruled Hawaii?”
    “Very briefly,” Lydia explained. “Our king, Kamehameha, relinquished our islands to Britain several years ago. I remember the day so well. All of us from the Chiefs’ School had to march down to the fort and watch them lower and replace the Hawaiian flag with the Union Jack. Although our hearts were broken, Kamehameha promised to win back our islands for us, and he did.”
    She smiled at Maisie and Felix, and although Lydia was a plain girl, that smile made her look as beautiful as Bernice.
    “Every year on the anniversary, there’s a big celebration. And the anniversary is tomorrow. We call it Restoration Day because it was the day our islands were restored to us,” she said.
    “What do you do to celebrate?” Maisie asked.
    She wondered if it would be like the Fourth of July, with fireworks and parades.
    “You’ll see tomorrow,” Lydia told them.

    The next morning, the sky was not the beautiful cloudless blue it had been. Instead, low gray clouds threatened rain.
    “I hope we get there before the rain starts,”Maisie said as they climbed into a coach with Lydia, Victoria, and Emma.
    The coach made its way through the crowded streets of Honolulu. It appeared that everyone was heading to the Restoration Day celebration.
    By the time they reached the Nu‘uanu picnic grounds, the rain had begun. But no one seemed to notice or care. The streets were lined with people waiting for the parade that was moving toward them to arrive. And Maisie and Felix, in one of the royal