The flutter of a curtain brought pine spices into the dormitory, touching each youthful figure with its night time fragrance. Sharshua Dragonsong wrinkled her pert bronze nose at its sharpness and thought of home where Cycad and Rhododendron lorded over all the other trees and shrubs on her father's mighty estate. The whisper of the curtain matched the whispers from one corner of the high-ceilinged room and the Octora Winkel girl elbowed herself upright on the pillow.

"Is it permitted to enquire?" she said in her polite way borne of generations of civil interchange among the ruling families. The response was a pillow soaring past the dimmed lights and plumping softly upon Sharshua's dark head.

"Permission granted," came a laughing voice full of fun and Sharshua recognised the local girl, carefree Bubbles Bannatyne whose curly auburn hair was a deep fascination to the Octora girl. The direction from which the pillow had come suggested the citizen of Frangea Winkel was not in her bed, and the sweet scent upon its soft fabric proclaimed the true owner.

Princess Rapture's languid tones echoed the jovial words of Bubbles and with a swift and silent series of movements Sharshua made her silken way across the plush carpet and approached Rappy's bed with great curiosity.

There in a pool of shaded light the two girls who were the best of friends, lay full across the princess's bed consulting news bulletins upon a forbidden tablet. Sharshua hesitated at this arcane activity. Bubbles tilted the screen so her eyes took in the forbidden colours and words.

"Now you know," she laughed huskily and Sharshua knelt upon the floor, fascinated.

"These are men," she said breathlessly, glancing from one face to another in the frame of the tablet. Her black eyebrows almost joined in a pretty frown beneath her severe fringe as she tried to read names and explanations.

"They are the new members of the Council of Barons," the princess casually stated. "Since the attempt on my father's life there has been a clean sweep of people at the top."

Her father.

Everyone in the room knew who he was. King Zolid the Third of House Saxotiern, ruler of the Highly Romantic Winkel of Xenia far away in the north, a wonderfully barbaric land ruled over by warlords and barons. She was an only child, officially designated as Princess Rapture, and thus heir to the throne. Known more prosaically as Rappy to the other five girls who shared Dormitory Flare, one of the eight dormitories in the exclusive girls' school on Mount Syzywyg among the pines. They were first years, one and all, aged only eleven yet already at their ease amid new surroundings for this was the third term, a time of hot summers, swim fests and hiking among the hills. The boys' school was suitably three peaks away but close enough for battles and raids as the girls found out last autumn to their cost when bombarded by pine cone missiles within days of their arrival during a recreational walk. They vowed revenge but had been too busy to carry out any of the half-formed plans thus far as the dormitories within Miss Plazenby's Extremely Exclusive Seminary were often at odds with each other over the various sporting cups and plaques on offer during the school year. Sunshine Allouette, also of Dormitory Flare blazed forth in suitable style that the memory of a Plazenby girl was long, very long. She painted pictures of her children's children seeking out the descendents of Chancefleet Boys and laying suitable traps with triumphant glee. Her people roamed the deserts of the Greetiyah Winkel among the western wilds of Winkel World and it was their tribal traditions to exact revenge for a slight. She was fierce and loyal, a true asset to the school's sporting register.

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This night however she was too sleepy to remember anything as she slumbered, oblivious to the soft cooing whispers from across the way in the cosy nook with its cloudy hangings and shrouded lights and restless spirits whispering exchanges within, sighing over the handsome faces of the ruling barons of a distant land.

"Who is that pretty boy?" Bubbles said, tapping a slender finger at the bright screen as she squirmed next to the princess. The night was so warm she had left her gown draped across a chair so that her pyjama top and shorts glowed with reflected light, bare arms and legs almost luminous upon the dark bedspread. Rappy turned the tablet so the face expanded. They could see a high forehead topped by black wavy hair, youthful grey eyes separated by a proud high-bridged nose. It was the mouth Bubbles noticed first though, smiling and generous and kind, or so it seemed, for the man was grinning mischievously at the picture taker who had posted this publicity shot of the new Council in the princess's Home Winkel. She thought he might make a good teacher at Mount Syzywyg, a music teacher. There was something melodious about his smile, and Bubbles imagined a voice full of soft harmonious tones, affectionate and caring. When a sigh filled the air she thought it had been her unguardedly letting loose a deep emotion, but it came in unison from the Massking twins who had quietly snuck across the room from their adjacent beds to satisfy their own curiosity at this midnight discussion.

"He's a handsome fellow," Divvy said and Fizzy supported the observation with another sigh, twirling a blonde pigtail in affirmation. Princess Rapture viewed all these reactions with supreme delight.

"That I must declare," she breathed in soft accents as was her wont, "is our new Prime Mover, Baron Valerit Traid. He had been a page at court before the coup attempt. Once the executions had been finalised, with pardons all round of course, for father is a bear only on occasion, and mother does weep so, his prompt actions escalated him to the top spot. Isn't he a dear? Very sporty, a masterful skater, very eager to get next year's Frozen Games held in Xenia's Glacial Park Zone."

All this information was absorbed by the girls with increasing respect.

"He's just a boy," Bubbles gasped. "Prime Mover already."

"He is twenty one, of a good family," and Rappy turned the tablet to herself as if wishing to contemplate the sporty first minister of her father's government, monopolising him in a telling way.

"He was a page?" Sharshua hesitantly stated. "Now he is a complete book perhaps?" she added without intended humour but Bubbles fell off the bed in such a fit of giggles that the thump upon the carpet made everyone freeze. They were out of bed late at night and even extremely exclusive girls could receive punishment if caught in a transgression. In a flash everyone was under cover, though the twins in panic chose the wrong beds. Luckily they looked exactly alike so that when Miss Thornshrike made her rounds and was unusually thorough in bed inspections she did not spot the mistake.