Rescue Princesses #6: The Magic Rings (3 page)

“Of course I know that Queen Sofia doesn’t want horses in her garden!” said Lottie. “It was just an accident.”

The princess with the blonde hair shrugged.

Lottie gave Honey one final pat and closed the gate behind her.

“Thanks for helping us,” Isabella told the princess dressed in turquoise.

“That’s OK!” she replied. “We slipped
away from the grown-ups when we saw what you were doing.”

Isabella smiled at her. “I’m Isabella, by the way. I’m from Belatina, a kingdom of tropical rain forests.”

The princess in turquoise smiled back shyly. “I’m Amina from Kamala, by the Eastern Sea.”

Lottie grinned. “And I’m Lottie from the kingdom of Middingland.”

The princess with blonde hair took her hands off her hips and sighed. “I’m Princess Rosalind, from Dalvia in the cold North. We’d better get out of this mud and join the others before Queen Sofia notices we’re missing.”

“Just a minute,” said Lottie. “I have something to tell you. Actually, it’s an awesome princess secret and it will lead to big adventures.” She paused dramatically.

“Ooh, what is it?” asked Isabella.

The sound of voices grew louder. Queen Sofia was just around the corner.

“I can’t tell you yet.” Lottie fixed them with her green eyes and lowered her voice mysteriously. “People might hear us. But if you come and meet me at nine o’clock tomorrow morning under those trees, I’ll explain it all.” She pointed at the trees covered with blossoms.

“It had better not be boring,” said Rosalind.

“It’s not boring!” snapped Lottie.

“I’ll come,” said Isabella, pushing her dark curls over her shoulders.

“I will, too,” said Amina.

“Oh, all right, then.” Rosalind rolled her eyes. “I’ll come, too.”

“Great! It’s going to be fantastic! You’ll see,” said Lottie.

Queen Sofia marched into view, followed by a crowd of kings and queens. Lottie quickly stepped behind Amina so that they wouldn’t see the mud splatters and hay on her dress.

“Are you looking at the horses, girls?” asked the queen kindly. “There are lots of lovely horses in my stable. Some are very valuable because they’re racehorses and they’ve won a lot of prizes. That little foal might become a racehorse one day, just like her mother was.”

The princesses nodded and curtsied and then the group moved on.

Lottie beamed at Isabella, Amina, and Rosalind. These girls just might make perfect Rescue Princesses. Isabella seemed really friendly and Amina seemed nice, too. She wasn’t quite so sure about Rosalind.

The girls hurried over to join the back of the group, which was now heading toward the fountains.

“Oops! Sorry!” cried Isabella as she tripped over a stone and knocked over three princes.

Lottie frowned. She hoped that the girls would be able to climb and run and balance. Her sister Emily’s animal rescues had involved a lot of that kind of thing. Lottie was sure she could do it all (probably better than her sister). But what about the others? She crossed her fingers hopefully. Tomorrow she would find out what they could do.

Lottie woke up early the next morning, feeling full of energy. She took out the four magic rings, slipped the ruby one onto her finger, and put the others in her dress pocket. Somehow it just seemed
right for the ruby ring to be hers. She really hoped that something special would happen today and the jewels would start working. What was the point of having magical rings if they didn’t do anything?

Tiptoeing carefully, she went downstairs to the dining room and out through the glass doors into the garden. Little white clouds chased one another across the blue sky, and even the gray turrets on top of the palace looked bright and cheerful.

When she reached the blossom-covered trees, Lottie discovered that Amina and Rosalind were already waiting for her. Rosalind was wearing a short blue dress, and her blonde hair gleamed in the morning sunshine. Amina shifted from one foot to the other, her black hair swaying.

“Go ahead!” said Rosalind, not even
bothering to say hello. “Tell us this amazing
Big Secret
.”

Lottie looked at her sharply. “Where’s Isabella? I want to wait until everyone’s here.”

With the sound of hurrying footsteps, Isabella broke through the trees. “Sorry! Here I am!” she panted.

“I think we should go a little farther away,” said Lottie. “Follow me.” She led them past the duck pond and around the edge of the horses’ paddock.

Twinkle the foal came galloping across the field and stuck her head over the fence right next to them.

“Hello, Twinkle,” said Lottie, stroking her velvety nose.

Twinkle shook her head and whinnied a greeting.

“What a cute foal,” said Amina. “She reminds me of my horse back home.”

“She’s very pretty with that white star on her forehead.” Rosalind reached up to scratch between her ears.

Twinkle nibbled at Lottie’s curly hair, making her giggle.

“She really likes you!” laughed Isabella.

Lottie saw Peter up at the stable yard and waved to him. “Let’s keep going,” she said. “We can always come and see Twinkle again on the way back.”

They walked across the next field and into the narrow lane where Lady Slyden had driven her car the day before.

“Are we stopping soon? My feet hurt,” said Rosalind.

“Let’s go a little farther,” said Lottie, leading them down the lane.

The fields on either side were full of sheep. Lambs frolicked across the grass, shaking their little woolly tails. The lane twisted and turned. Rounding a corner,
the princesses found themselves by a stream with steep banks. Water tinkled along the stony riverbed.

Lottie stopped and turned to face the others. “OK, we’re far enough away from the palace now. But I need to ask you all something really important before we start.” She paused, looking at them. “Do you love animals?”

Isabella, Amina, and Rosalind nodded eagerly.

“My sister, Emily, started a secret club with her friends to rescue animals in trouble,” said Lottie. “And when she went away to the Royal Academy for Princesses, she handed it over to me. It’s Top Secret and for princesses only. No princes or grown-ups allowed!”

“I love secret clubs!” said Isabella, her eyes sparkling. “It would be great to rescue animals without any grown-up help.”

Lottie grinned. “We’ll be called the Rescue Princesses! If you want to join, you have to show me what you can do.”

“What do you mean?” asked Amina. “Will it be hard?”

“We’ll be climbing trees and doing acrobatics and stuff like that. We’ll do lots of training,” said Lottie. “But for the
tryouts we just need to find somewhere to test your skills.”

“So what animals have you rescued so far?” asked Rosalind.

“Only a bumblebee!” Lottie frowned at her. “But I’ve only just started.” She glanced over at the stream. “Look! We can use that log over there to balance on!”

The log bridged the gap between one side of the stream and the other. The banks were high and there was a long drop from the log down to the water.

“All you have to do is walk across and back again.” Lottie walked confidently along the log, placing one foot in front of the other. Halfway across, she suddenly realized how far she would fall if she lost her balance. But she held her breath and kept walking.

“See? It’s easy!” she told the others. “Now it’s your turn.”

Isabella, Rosalind, and Amina looked at her doubtfully.

“What if we fall off?” said Isabella. “My mom will be mad if I get wet.”

“You’ll be fine!” said Lottie impatiently. “Come on!”

“I’ll try.” Amina put one foot on the log. Then she skimmed lightly across it and back again.

“Fantastic!” cried Lottie, making Amina blush.

“All right!” said Isabella. “I’ll try, too.” But as soon as she began to walk, the log wobbled alarmingly. “Whoa!” she yelled, flapping her arms to try and keep her balance.

Amina pulled her back onto the bank again.

“Don’t worry!” said Lottie, hiding her disappointment. “It was only your first time! At least you tried.”

They all looked at Rosalind.

“I’m not sure I want to try out for your club yet,” said Rosalind, folding her arms. “How do I know it will be fun?”

Lottie looked at her and frowned.

“We’ll make it fun,” said Isabella. “
And
we’ll get to help animals.”

“And training together will be really cool. It’s not all about balancing. I know someone who can teach us ninja moves!” said Lottie, crossing back over the log to join the other princesses.

The others stared at her, wide-eyed.

“Ninja moves!” Rosalind’s blue eyes glinted. “I would definitely like to learn some of those!”

“And we each get a Rescue Princess ring.” Lottie pulled the rings out of her dress pocket. “My sister, Emily, and her friends used them. If you press the
jewel in the center, it lights up and then we can send messages to each other.” She held the rings out to show them.

“I want this one!” Rosalind grabbed the sapphire ring and pressed the jewel hard. “But it’s not doing anything! Maybe your sister was making it up.”

Lottie glared at her. “She wouldn’t do that! I don’t know why they’re not turning on yet. But maybe we all have to be wearing them at the same time. Maybe that’s how they work.”

“I’d like this one, please.” Isabella picked up the yellow topaz.

“Thank you, this is beautiful,” said Amina, taking the emerald ring.

“And I’ve got the ruby one,” said Lottie, showing them hers.

The princesses slid the rings onto their fingers and gazed at the sparkling jewels.

Rosalind pressed the sapphire again. “It still isn’t working.”

Lottie pressed her ruby, but nothing happened.

“Mine’s not working, either.” Isabella stared at her yellow topaz, and Amina also shook her head.

Lottie frowned. “I don’t understand. They should be lighting up by now.” She shook her head. What could be going wrong?

“Maybe you broke them on the way here,” said Rosalind.

Lottie flushed angrily. But before she could reply, a thundering noise swept down the lane. The princesses looked around, unsure which way it was coming from. It grew louder. The ground began to shake.

“What’s that?” called Isabella.

Amina turned pale.

“Come this way!” yelled Lottie, trying to get them to hide.

But before they had time to move, a huge dark shape burst around the corner and rushed toward them.

Rosalind let out a shriek, which made the dark shape rear up, and two massive hooves flailed in the air above them.

Lottie caught a glimpse of a figure with tall riding boots and cream riding pants, sitting on top of the giant animal.

“Don’t worry!” she called to the others. “It’s only a horse. It’ll be all right.” But her words were drowned out by a loud neighing and the cracking of a whip.

Isabella, Rosalind, and Amina started running up the lane toward the palace garden.

“Wait!” shouted Lottie, but the other princesses didn’t even look back.

The black horse calmed down and shook his bridle restlessly.

“Silly girls!” snapped the rider in a haughty voice. “You shouldn’t be sneaking around outside the palace. You nearly caused an accident.”

Lottie jumped, recognizing the voice of Lady Slyden, the woman she’d seen at the stable yesterday.

“Don’t stand there staring at me!” ordered Lady Slyden. “Go back to the palace like your silly friends.” She glared at Lottie, cracked her whip, and sped away without waiting for a reply.

Lottie watched her go. Then she turned slowly and walked back toward the palace.

As she went past the paddock, Twinkle trotted along and put her head over the fence again. Lottie stroked the little foal’s nose. But her heart felt heavy.
Not because of Lady Slyden’s rudeness, she didn’t care about that. She was disappointed that the other princesses had rushed off so quickly. As soon as they had seen danger, they had all run away.