Born to Rule by Kathryn Lasky Page B

Gundersnap, who was looking quite pale.
    “ Acht! This is…scary!”
    Alicia was relieved to see that Gundersnap was scared too, but before she knew it, Gundersnap had plunged her head under the water. When she resurfaced, she was indeed spouting water from her nose, and her bathing tiara was perched at an odd angle.
    Gundersnap blinked, then sputtered. “I opened my eyes. I saw a fish that looked exactly like my mother! Totally ice!”
    “Oh, it must have been the prickly blowfish,” Lady Gussie offered.
    “ Ja, ja . It was blown up like a balloon and had little stickers all over its scales.”
    “Very good, Princess Gundersnap,” said Lady Gussie. “Well, now we can put you in the advanced beginners class. Anyone who can put her head under can be a B-eight. Two more levels and you’ll be an intermediate, out of the moat, and ready for the lake.”
    Alicia stared at Gundersnap in amazement. How had she done it? B-8! If she didn’t do it, Alicia supposed she would be a B-flat! Left behind on the beach of the moat while her turretmates went off for lake swimming.
    The princess squished her eyes shut—she had no intention of seeing the blowfish that looked like the Empress Maria Theresa of All the Slobodks. She held her nose and stuck her head into the water. She was tempted to open one eye. But no. All they said was to get your face wet, not your eyeballs. She could still be a B-8 with her eyes shut. Her cheeks blew out. Air…I need air…is this long enough? Alicia thought as she burst through the water’s surface. She was sputtering and gasping, but she felt quite pleased with herself. Aunt Molly never did this! she thought. So ice!
    “Hooray! Hooray!” Myrella, Gundersnap, and Kristen were now clapping. Princess Alicia smiled. How curious, she thought. She had heard cheering crowds before. Whenever she and Mum and Pop and her sisters marched in a parade, the citizens of Belgravia would applaud them. But this was somehow different. She was now being cheered not simply for being a princess, but for being a wet princess—a princess who had accomplished something! How curious indeed. She felt a strange, wonderful new feeling of confidence.
    “Congratulations, Alicia.” Kristen came up and gave her a hearty slap on the back that jostled Alicia’s bathing tiara more than the dunking had.
    There was a sudden cool breeze, and everyone’s teeth began to chatter.
    “Oh, my stars and Saint Delphine’s corset, I swear it’s autumn coming on again!” cried Lady Merry. “Come, Princesses, out of the water before you catch your death of cold.”
    Lady Gussie was tweeting her whistle and waving her arms from the stone lifeguard chair. “Everyone out of the water!”
    “Who’s Saint Delphine, Lady Merry?” Gundersnap asked as a bathing maid was drying her off.
    “My patron saint, the saint of ample ladies. She was about the size of that turret over there.” Lady Merry pointed toward one of the smaller turrets.
    “No!” all three princesses said at once.
     
    The princesses returned to the South Turret. When Alicia entered her chamber, Gilly was setting out her clothes. “I think you’ll need your fur-lined underclothes. It’s getting cold, and it’s been a long day for you,” she said as she bustled around the room. “Let’s see, how many seasons since morning—at least two, because it wasn’t summer when you were with Duchess of Bagglesnort, then it was summer, and now it certainly looks like winter will be setting in. And you’ve been swimming. Oh, it tires me out just to think about it.”
    “How can that be, Gilly? You must be much more tired. You dressed yourself, and then you dressed us and brought our food.”
    “Oh, I’m used to it, milady,” Gilly replied with a smile. She then paused in her bustling and looked at Alicia. She had known a lot of princesses, but there was something special about Alicia. She seemed exceptionally sweet and kind, and not at all snooty. She didn’t take her