Broken Crowns by Lauren DeStefano

save us, then?” I say. “You?”
    â€œNo,” he says softly. “Not me.”
    He allows the other man to lead him back toward the castle. Down here, he is not a prince, but a prisoner.
    â€œWait!” Nim calls after him. “Your sister, Celeste, is she all right? Is she alive?”
    The prince stops but doesn’t turn to face us. “Celeste is a silly princess with silly ideas that she can think the way a king thinks. She fancies herself the political sort. But she only ever makes things worse. You would be wise to forget about her.”
    Nim’s shoulders sag with what may be despair or relief, or both. The prince spoke of Celeste as though she were still alive and well, and that’s something.
    â€œI can’t stand that little nit,” Pen mutters.
    â€œBut he listened,” I remind her.
    Nim is staring off into the darkness. The lantern has been blown out, and the prince and his escort have disappeared from view. Even in the frail bits of moonlight, I can see the pain in Nim’s eyes.
    â€œAre they twins?” he asks. “Celeste and her brother.”
    â€œNo,” Pen says. “But they are equally annoying.”
    â€œStop,” I whisper to her.
    She softens. “Don’t let what he said get to you,” Pen says to Nim. “You’ll see her again. You can try to come back to Internment with us.”
    Nim shakes his head. “I can’t leave Havalais. Someone will have to keep an eye on things here once you’ve gone. I don’t trust my father, or the king.”
    Two kings who can’t be trusted. What a fabulous predicament we’re all in now.
    We walk back to the hotel, all of us silent, knowing there are no words that could reassure any of us.

5

    It’s a week before Jack Piper returns home. Nimble plays a contrite role that is painful to watch, but it pays off. He convinces his father that we could be of some help to the king.
    Jack Piper, whether it is arrogance or exhaustion, mistakes our scheme for gratitude for Havalais’s hospitality. Over dinner he tells us that he’s arranged a meeting with King Ingram in the morning.
    I stare at my plate, trying to ignore Judas’s and Amy’s stares. True to my promise to Pen, I have not told anyone about our encounter with the prince. Not even Alice or my brother.
    If things go as I hope, I’ll tell Lex that I’m leaving. He may wish to stop me, but he won’t be able to. He knows that he owes me that much, after letting me think our father was dead. I have to try to find my father as well.
    Thomas clears his throat. “Pen?” he says. “Can I speak with you privately?” His calm tone is a mirage.
    â€œIt’d be rude to leave the table before dinner is over,” Pen says, mirroring his tone.
    Basil and I exchange worried glances but say nothing.
    When the Pipers begin clearing the dinner plates, I have never been so relieved in my life as I leave that dinner table. Pen, poised and cool, follows Thomas outside. Basil and I go upstairs.
    Once we’re in my room, I close the door behind us and drop onto the edge of my bed.
    Basil sits beside me. “That’s going to be an ugly fight the two of them have.”
    â€œI wish she had just told him,” I say. “He would have been happy. He wants her to go home. He begged me to find a way to get her back to Internment.”
    â€œUnless she means to go without him,” Basil says.
    â€œI believe that’s it,” I say. “She’s forever evading him. It’s been that way since we were children.”
    â€œThey’ll work it out eventually,” Basil says. “They always do.”
    I think of Pen’s drawing, the ugly word she wrote over and over on that scrap of request paper, and I wonder if I will ever fully understand her. I wonder if she would want anyone to.
    And am I any better than she is? I’ve got secrets of my own. Even