The Prince Problem by Vivian Vande Velde

Author:Vivian Vande Velde
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Scholastic Inc.

Amelia’s thoughts were jumbled and bouncing about like marbles in a sack. She saw several contradictory things all at once. Prince Sheridan was tying ropes to her wrists and ankles, four different ropes, each attached to a stick. He spoke with the voice of his henchman Jud. “What if them rats come back and chew through these while we be sleepin’?”

And he answered himself in Willum’s scornful voice. “Those rats was in the other wagon, mush-for-brains.”

Then Prince Sheridan stood, and he was very, very tall. So tall that the top of Amelia’s head didn’t even come as high as his knees. He loomed over Amelia. Sticks in his hand, he pulled up her right foot, then her left. Right, left, right, left: He had her walk in a circle like a puppet. At the same time Amelia knew she was still lying down on the ground. Outside. Almost—though not quite—asleep.

Even though he still controlled the movement of her feet from above, he also was standing in front of her, normal-sized.

The Prince Sheridan above tugged on the rope attached to one of her wrists, moving one of her hands into one of the waiting Prince Sheridan’s hands. The other he placed on his shoulder. Right foot, left foot, around and around her parents’ ballroom she danced with Prince Sheridan.

I don’t want to dance! Amelia screamed. But her voice had no sound, and she had no control of her dancing self.

Everyone in attendance in the ballroom wore Prince Sheridan’s face—and each section of the room clapped each time she and the prince passed.

And all the while the unseen Jud and Willum bickered in the background, first about dinner. (“We should of risked the chicken,” Jud whined.) Then about whether they should put the blanket over her as Prince Sheridan would have wanted—even though she was sticky with fruit compote. (Which, Willum smugly pointed out, had helped get them past the castle guards searching for the missing princess, just as he’d said.) Οr if one of them should take the blanket since she was, after all, asleep and would never know …

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