Second Term at Tall Towers Read online

  Contents

  Cover

  Half Title Page

  Also by Lou Kuenzler

  Title Page

  Dedication

  Chapter One: Keeping Lookout

  Chapter Two: The Dragon

  Chapter Three: Keep Off the Grass

  Chapter Four: Cousin Precious

  Chapter Five: One Hundred Lines

  Chapter Six: Monday Morning Ballet Class

  Chapter Seven: Eyes in the Dark

  Chapter Eight: The Little White Unicorn

  Chapter Nine: Dragon’s Heart

  Chapter Ten: Finding a Dance

  Chapter Eleven: Answering Back

  Chapter Twelve: The Gemstone Meadow

  Chapter Thirteen: Behind the Ivy

  Chapter Fourteen: Saving Flump

  Chapter Fifteen: Huffle

  Chapter Sixteen: The Runaway Unicorn

  Chapter Seventeen: Cows

  Chapter Eighteen: Feeding Huffle

  Chapter Nineteen: In the Glade

  Chapter Twenty: The Outdoor Theatre

  Chapter Twenty-One: Dress Rehearsal

  Chapter Twenty-Two: Hetty Blows the Horn

  Chapter Twenty-Three: A Daring Leap

  Chapter Twenty-Four: A Mother’s Love

  Chapter Twenty-Five: A New Home for Hetty

  Chapter Twenty-Six: The Show Must Go On!

  Back Ads

  Copyright

  Princess Grace was perched high in a tree on top of a cliff on the shores of Coronet Island. She was staring up at the cloudless blue sky through a pair of old binoculars, which were slung around her neck on a piece of string.

  “Are you all right down there, Billy?” she asked, lowering the binoculars and calling to the scruffy black and white unicorn below. She’d tied Billy to the trunk of the tree with her Tall Towers Princess Academy school uniform sash.

  Grace was pretty sure this was not what the Tall Towers rules meant when they said: A princess must always make sure to use her sash when wearing her school tunic. The strict First Year form teacher, Fairy Godmother Flint, would not be at all pleased if she knew that Grace was using the satin sash as a unicorn rope – especially as it was starting to look a bit frayed where Billy was chewing the end of it.

  But it was Friday, when the princesses were allowed to ride their unicorns for an hour after school. As soon as class was over, Grace had grabbed her binoculars and dashed to the stables. She hadn’t stopped to find a proper rope … or even a saddle. She’d left Billy in his halter and ridden him bareback along the beach at full tilt.

  Ambling back to school along the high cliff path, she’d spotted a perfect lookout tree. Hundreds of birds were swooping about the cliffs, searching for the best place to make their spring nests.

  But it wasn’t birds that Grace was interested in.

  “Who’s up there? What are you doing?” said a sharp voice from beneath the tree.

  Grace looked down through the branches and saw the school gamekeeper with a crossbow slung across his back. His tiny niece, Hetty, stood just behind him.

  “Oh. It’s you, Princess Grace,” the keeper sighed. “I should have guessed.” Keeper Falcon was a fierce-looking man with narrow eyes and quick movements like a fox. He always seemed to find Grace in the wrong place at the wrong time.

  “Hello, up there,” waved the little girl. Young Hetty could not have been more different from her uncle. She had a round, open face, with big, wide eyes and a sprinkle of freckles on the end of her nose.

  “I love your unicorn. Can I stroke him?” she asked.

  “Of course,” said Grace. “His name’s Billy. Give him a really good scratch behind the ears. He loves that.”

  But Keeper Falcon coughed and nudged his niece fiercely. “Where are your manners, Hetty?” he growled.

  “Sorry.” Hetty blushed and dropped to one knee in a deep curtsy. “Good afternoon, Your Majesty. I hope you are having a pleasant day.”

  “Very pleasant,” smiled Grace. “But you don’t need to curtsy to me.” It seemed ridiculous. The little girl was a year or so older than Grace’s own sister, Princess Pip. Just like Pip, she clearly wished she had a unicorn of her own.

  I know just how that feels, thought Grace. Until she had come to Tall Towers last term, having her own unicorn was all she had ever dreamed of too.

  “Go ahead,” she smiled. “Stroke Billy as much as you like.”

  “That’s very kind of you. But Hetty must know her place,” said the gamekeeper with a stiff bow. “She is lucky enough to live with me now her poor mother is dead. Your kind headmistress, Lady Du Lac, is generous enough to let her stay here on Coronet Island. It’s Hetty’s job to help me with the chores…”

  “Like feeding the peacocks and doves,” said Hetty brightly.

  “But you must remember that you are a servant, Hetty. Not a royal princess like the other girls,” the keeper barked.

  At the harsh tone of his voice, Hetty jumped backwards as if she had been slapped.

  “Sorry, Uncle,” she murmured. “I just wanted to stroke the unicorn, that’s all.”

  “Well, mind your manners,” snapped the keeper. Grace was shocked at how strict he was. He bowed again as he turned back towards her. “Are you birdwatching up there, Young Majesty?”

  “No. It’s not birds I’m looking out for,” said Grace, dropping down to a lower branch. “It’s dragons.”

  “Dragons?” Keeper Falcon’s head shot up and he peered at Grace through narrowed eyes. “Have you seen any?”

  “Not yet,” said Grace.

  Hetty burst out laughing.

  “There aren’t any dragons on Coronet Island,” she chuckled. “They’d eat up all the princesses if there were. Princesses are a dragon’s favourite food, everyone knows that.”

  “Shh! That’s no way to talk to a princess.” Keeper Falcon hushed his niece. “But Hetty is right,” he continued. “There haven’t been any dragons on this island for fifteen years. I saw to that myself.”

  “The Dragon Purge – they were all driven away from here,” said Grace sadly. She did not want to be eaten by a dragon, of course. But she was fascinated by the magnificent fire-breathing creatures all the same. She’d read in the school library how the fierce Coronet Crimson dragons who used to visit the island every spring had been moved to new nesting sites to keep the Tall Towers princesses safe. Now the rare red dragons were believed to be extinct.

  “But you never know what I might see … I’ll keep a lookout just in case,” she said brightly.

  “Do as you please. But you won’t see anything,” said Keeper Falcon with a shrug. “I’ve staked my job on keeping dragons away from this island. Now that the Coronet Crimson is extinct, this place is safe for ever.” He clicked his fingers for Hetty to follow him. “Come on. We have plenty of real work to keep us busy. Let’s leave this young princess to her pleasant games.”

  Grace blushed. Was she really being silly to hope that she might see a dragon?

  But Hetty hung back for a moment as her uncle strode away.

  “Let me know if you spot anything,” she whispered, standing on tiptoes and staring up at the tree. “Especially if it’s the size of a flying rhinoceros with bright red scales…”

  “I will,” promised Grace, as Hetty blew Billy a kiss and hurried away.

  Grace watched as Hetty ran to catch up with her uncle.

  “If only Princess Grace would behave like the other pupils at this school,” she heard the gamekeeper tut as Hetty ran alongside him.

  “I think she seems fun,” said Hetty. “And her unicorn is the cutest one I’ve ever seen.”

  Grace smiled. It was true. She couldn’t imagine anyone else in her class
climbing to the top of a tree to keep a lookout for dragons. Her long brown plaits were bristling with twigs and leaves, and her school tunic was tucked into a big pair of blue-and-yellow-striped bloomers. (They should have been regulation white if Grace was obeying the school rules.)

  Grace wriggled round in the tree, turning the binoculars towards the twisting turrets and sparkling spires of Tall Towers Princess Academy, which shimmered like a crown at the edge of the harbour. At least Hetty didn’t think she was a total disaster as a princess, but Grace could see why Keeper Falcon wasn’t quite so sure. Sometimes, she still couldn’t believe she was a proper princess pupil at such a beautiful, elegant fairy tale school.

  Grace remembered how strange everything had seemed when she’d first arrived from Cragland, the small, rocky kingdom where she and her little sister, Princess Pip, lived with their father, his herds of hairy yaks and his fierce warriors. But now, halfway through her second term, Grace felt part of Tall Towers at last. She felt she belonged here – even if she was the clumsiest princess in the whole class. It didn’t seem to matter that her curtsy was a little wobbly or that she still couldn’t balance a book on her head in deportment class. At least she was better at unicorn-riding than anyone else and she adored Billy and spent every free moment galloping about the island with him. It didn’t even matter that her spiteful cousin, Princess Precious, was a First Year too, and was always trying to turn the class against her. No matter what went wrong, Grace knew she always had her two best friends, Princess Scarlet and Princess Izumi, to help her out.

  Peering through the binoculars, she could just make out the faraway figures of the two princesses standing under an apple tree on the smooth, green lawn at the front of the school. Elegant Scarlet was practising some sort of dance move, her long red hair fanning out behind her. And Izumi had her neat, dark head bent over a pile of cards.

  “Those must be the invitations for the Ballet of the Flowers,” groaned Grace, swinging her legs over a branch and beginning to climb down towards Billy. “I’d better get back and see if I can help write out the envelopes … just as long as I don’t make too many blotches.”

  The First Years had been asked to stage a spring ballet for all the school governors. Rehearsals were due to begin first thing on Monday morning. The other princesses in the class were buzzing with excitement, but Grace wasn’t quite so sure. She didn’t really see herself as a dainty, dancing flower – more of a tangly beanstalk with big feet.

  “I wish it was a riding show, don’t you, Billy?” asked Grace. “I never feel clumsy when I’m on your back.” But just as she spoke her foot slipped. A branch cracked.

  “Arghhhhh!” Grace came tumbling down, the leaves of the tree whooshing past her as she fell. She landed with a soft thud on the moss below. Billy shook his head, almost as if he was laughing at her.

  “Very funny!” said Grace. She sat up and was tickling him on the nose, when suddenly she blinked and grabbed the binoculars.

  Staring into the sky above, she saw a bright flash of red as something shot over the top of the trees. “A dragon,” she gasped, her heart thumping like a drum. The huge creature was fast, and it was flying low.

  “Wow!” Grace could clearly see its scaly, red belly, its thick, leathery tail and silver-tipped wings. “A Coronet Crimson…” But it couldn’t be. Keeper Falcon had driven all the Coronet Crimson dragons from the island fifteen years ago. He had told her so himself. And now they were extinct.

  Grace’s hands were shaking so hard that the binoculars slipped from her fingers. She fumbled to pick them up.

  “I didn’t dream it, did I?” she whispered. Perhaps she had banged her head when she fell from the tree.

  But Billy had seen something too. He pulled hard against the blue sash that kept him tied to the tree. He stamped his hooves, his nostrils flaring wide with fear and his ears lying flat against his head.

  “Steady,” soothed Grace as she scrambled to her feet and peered through the binoculars again.

  “There it is!” She caught a last glimpse of the dragon as it shot away like a firecracker, heading in the direction of school. If Grace closed her eyes she could still picture its huge clawed feet almost brushing the top of the tree above her, and its bright crimson scales shining like rubies in the sun.

  “Keeper Falcon, come back,” she called, grabbing Billy and running desperately along the path in the direction where he and Hetty had gone. But it was hopeless. The keeper might be anywhere in the woods by now.

  “Quick,” she said, turning Billy around and throwing the sash over his neck to make a pair of reins. “We need to ride to Tall Towers and warn everyone that there’s a dangerous dragon on the island.”

  She leaped on to Billy’s bare back and galloped flat out towards the school.

  Grace clung to Billy’s neck as they charged towards Tall Towers.

  Skidding through the golden gates at the end of the driveway, Grace just had time to read the big brass sign that said, “STRICTLY NO UNICORNS IN THE GARDENS. KEEP OFF THE GRASS”, before Billy careered across the middle of the lawn.

  Never mind about rules, thought Grace. This is an emergency. She needed to warn her friends about the dragon – it might have come to the island to look for princesses to eat. She glanced up at the cloudless spring sky. There was still no sign of the creature anywhere, just three puffs of white smoke.

  “Scarlet! Izumi!” she called. Her friends spun around in surprise.

  Billy’s head was down, and clods of turf flew up from the perfect, green lawn as he thundered, flat out, across the grass towards them.

  “Steady,” said Grace. She was galloping even faster than the time she had ridden a knight’s charger in a real joust last term.

  “Look out,” shouted Princess Izumi, as Billy headed straight for the apple tree where they were standing.

  “I saw a dra—” cried Grace, then suddenly realized she was out of control. Without a proper bridle she had no chance of steering Billy. Spooked by the big dragon flying over him and excited by the wild gallop back to school, he was like a cork exploding from a bottle of fizzy lemonade. Nothing was going to stop him now.

  “Careful,” screamed Princess Scarlet, leaping out of the way.

  Billy swerved.

  “Whoa!” Grace shot forward over the top of his head.

  As she spun through the air, she glimpsed a flutter of white, like snow. But it couldn’t be snow. It was a beautiful spring day. Perhaps it was blossom falling from the tree. But the flakes were too big.

  Thud!

  Grace landed on her bottom. As she bounced across the ground, she realized that the white filling the sky was the squares of card.

  “The invitations for the ballet show,” she gasped, toppling over as she bounced, and skidded to a halt with her nose flat on the grass. “Oh, no.”

  Artistic Princess Izumi had spent hours drawing pretty spring flowers round the edge of each invitation. And Scarlet, who had the neatest handwriting in the class, had been up until midnight writing them out.

  Now one hundred white invitations were scattered in the mud churned up by Billy’s hooves.

  The charging unicorn had come to a stop by a tinkling fountain a little way off. A corner of white card was poking out of his mouth like a half-eaten slice of toast.

  “Spit that out!” cried Grace. But Billy chewed … and swallowed. He took a long drink from the fountain. Three more invitations were skewered on the end of his horn like white marshmallows on a stick.

  “Oh my goodness,” gasped Scarlet.

  “What a mess,” shuddered Izumi.

  “I’m so sorry,” said Grace, looking up at her friends’ shocked faces. “I didn’t mean to make you drop the invitations. But I came to warn you. There’s a dragon on the island.”

  “There can’t be,” said Izumi, glancing up at the sky.

  “There haven’t been dragons here for years. Have there?” said Scarlet, her hands shaking.

  “I was up a tree. The
n I banged my head,” said Grace. “But I definitely saw it. It was huge and bright red.” Still sitting on the grass, she stretched out her arms to try to show how large the dragon had been. “I think it was a female. She had silver wings.”

  Before Grace could say anything else, there was a creak of hinges and Fairy Godmother Flint, the strict First Year form teacher, poked her thin nose out of the staffroom window in the high tower behind them.

  “Thank goodness you’re there, Fairy Godmother. We need to get everyone inside. I’ve just seen a dragon,” Grace called up, leaping to her feet.

  “I find that most unlikely,” said old Flintheart, barely even glancing at the sky. “Before we let our imaginations run away with us, let us remember – dragon or no dragon – it is strictly against the school rules to ride across the grass.” The stern teacher did not need to raise her voice or shout – even from so high up, every word was icy-clear and furious. “You are in disgrace yet again, Young Majesty,” she sighed.

  “But, Fairy Godmother,” said Grace, looking at the deep gashes Billy’s hooves had made in the perfect green lawn. “I really did see a dragon. It was as big as a flying rhinoceros, and had crimson scales and silver-tipped wings.”

  Grace stood on tiptoes, scanning the pointed towers and high rooftops of the school, almost hoping to see the dragon perched like a giant red cat on the tiles. At least then everyone would believe her.

  “First things first: I suggest you clear up this mess.” Fairy Godmother Flint pointed down to the scattered cards. “I will see you in the courtyard in five minutes to explain yourself.”

  Before Grace could say another word, Fairy Godmother Flint closed the window firmly.

  “That is so unfair. Why won’t she believe me?” Grace spun around to face her friends. But she saw that they weren’t looking up at the teacher, or searching the sky for the dragon. They were staring at the ground, looking at the tattered invitations spread across the lawn.