Donatella Dragna was unaware that she was living underneath the dome of a giant snow globe.
All Tella knew was that it was Great Holiday Eve Eve and … It was snowing inside her sister’s palace?
Tella briefly stopped walking. Her frost-blue skirts swished around the toes of her shoes as the air around her swirled with glittering silver shimmer and snow.
This falling snow inside the palace was new. Not that Tella was surprised. Every day for the past few weeks, Tella had woken up to find that her sister had added some new and elaborate decoration to her palace. Each wall and hearth and doorway was decked with strings of golden bells, candied cranberry sprigs, wreaths of Unicorn Holly imported from the Magnificent North, and now there were enchanted snowflakes that fell, fell, fell … yet never quite touched the ground or Tella’s perfectly curled hair.
“Watch out!” someone cried.
Tella ducked just in time for a snowball to fly over her head.
A stable boy dressed like a gingerbread man bolted past, followed by a pair of maids dressed like snow angels. Their felted shoes softly pitter- pattered as they scurried by.
“Sorry, Your Highness!” both maids cried breathlessly. But they didn’t stop chasing the gingerbread boy, who threw balls of snow over his shoulder as he continued to run.
As someone who appreciated theatrics, Tella was the last person to accuse anyone of going over the top. But she felt as if her sister was creeping close.
This was Scarlett’s first Great Holiday as empress, and she had commenced preparations at the start of the Cold Season. It had begun when she renamed her palace Nutcracker Castle. Then she’d gone on to change the names of everything inside the castle as well.
The Holiday monikers were only supposed to be temporary. But Tella wondered if that would be the case as she reached the pair of double red doors that would lead her to the royal gardens.
Two guards, dressed up in Holiday uniforms as shiny as candy-red apples, stood a little straighter as she arrived at their post, and then they quickly opened the doors.
Out here, in the palace gardens, the snowflakes weren’t enchanted. They didn’t stop before they reached Tella’s hair and dampened the shoulders of her winter-blue cloak.
She’d been told it didn’t snow much in Valenda, and yet for the past two weeks, the snow never seemed to stop. It fell quietly as Tella passed a row of shimmering ice sculptures.
There were frozen ballerinas in snowflake skirts. Carved ice trees full of frosted ornaments. A fluffle of luck bunnies in frozen crowns. A dazzling pair of horses attached to a bejeweled sled driven by a snowman. Then there was the enormous Holiday clock, which actually appeared to be ticking, counting down the minutes until tomorrow night.
Tella shivered with nerves as she hurried up the steps to pass the final outdoor sculpture: a shimmering statue of the Merry Queen: Monarch of the Great Holiday.
The Merry Queen wore a cloak of stars, a crown of sunbeams, and in her hand she held her wand of wishes. The statue appeared to be positioned mid-wave, but the real Merry Queen was said to wave her wand only once, at exactly midnight on Great Holiday Eve.
The story went that anyone who was pure of heart and made a wish at the exact moment the Merry Queen waved her wand would find their wish come true.
Tella had never had a wish come true, which was fine with her, since Tella preferred not to be too pure of heart.
Nevertheless, as she passed the Merry Queen ice sculpture, Tella quietly made a wish—just in case the Holiday queen was more real than myth and was also in the mood to grant a wish to a girl who probably didn’t deserve it.
After passing the Merry Queen, Tella finally entered the Holly Jolly Holiday Ballroom. Or was it the Jolly Holly Holiday Ballroom?
Tella couldn’t quite get it straight. There were too many Holiday name changes, and she swore half the names had the words jolly or holly.
Once inside, Tella carefully wove her way around snowmen made of marshmallow fluff and ladders with servants hanging bunting formed of glittering leaves, crimson berries, and fragrant cinnamon sticks wrapped in golden ribbon.
A minstrel was singing the classic “Dancing Gingerbread” song as everyone worked, making it seem like the party had already begun. Tella could hear laughter trip down from the mezzanine level as she reached the center of the ballroom, where finally she found her sister.
“It looks absolutely wonderful!” Scarlett exclaimed, clapping happily as she watched an ice sculptor finish carving a rose on the great ice carousel that Scarlett had commissioned for tomorrow’s ball.
The carousel was nearly two stories tall, covered in jumping horses and unicorns, great fluffy wolves, proud stags with star-strewn antlers, mermaids and mermen, bears wearing bells, and a handful of snow sleds large enough for entire families to ride, and lots and lots of roses. The entire carousel was sparkling white and red ice, and lined in a gorgeous row of elegant ice roses that glittered like diamonds when the carousel spun. They
crowned the top of the carousel, and the poles of the carousel, and the steps leading up to the platform of the carousel.
Carousels weren’t typically part of the Great Holiday, but Scarlett had insisted on having one. She said the carousel was for the children who’d be attending the Spectacular.
But Tella wasn’t certain she believed her sister.
The Great Holiday had always been Scarlett’s favorite day of the year. As a child, she had preferred it to her own birthday, the Hot Season Fair, the Growing Season Festival, and the Harvest Night Market. For weeks, Scarlett would make paper ornaments to decorate her room and paper chains to count down the days.
Tella used to think the Great Holiday was Scarlett’s favorite because their father always traveled during that time. But now, looking at all her sister’s preparations, it was clear that Scarlett truly loved the Holiday for itself. In addition to the ice carousel, the ballroom was filled with stations set up for fishing presents out of ponds with large candy canes, huts for
crafting Holiday crowns and necklace garlands, and booths for topping hot chocolate with every confection a person might think of, from dollops of caramel cream to sticks of fluffy red cotton candy.
It wasn’t so much an empress’s dream as it was a child’s dream—the child that Scarlett had never quite gotten to be while living under the same roof as their father.
Tella was happy to see her sister finally bring one of her childhood fantasies to life. And she really hated to spoil it.
Tella did not want to be the destroyer of dreams or the wrecker of holidays.
But there was no other choice.
If Scarlett did not change the date of the Great Holiday, then Tella’s life would be ruined. Over. Ended. It would be a catastrophic, disastrous, earth- shattering mess.
“Ahem.” Tella cleared her throat.
Scarlett jumped and clutched her chest as she turned in a swirl of magical skirts. Today her gown was pure Holiday white with a sprinkle of slowly falling red snowflakes.
“Tella, you surprised me,” she said breathlessly. “What are you doing here? And—” Scarlett darted a look over Tella’s shoulder. “Where are your guards?”
“Don’t worry about them. They’re perfectly safe. I took one of the passages out of my room. I imagine the guards are probably still standing outside my door, thinking that I spend far too much time sleeping or primping, or doing whatever silly things they imagine princesses do.”
Scarlett frowned. “I thought we talked about this.”
“We did,” Tella said brightly. “And I still don’t agree that I need to be watched every second. No one who has ever tried to kill me has succeeded, and I’m far too much trouble to kidnap.” Tella waggled her brows.
Scarlett didn’t scowl, but the red snowflakes on her white gown fell a little faster and turned a heated shade that Tella would have described as particularly frustrated.
“Being a ridiculous amount of trouble is not the same as being invincible,” Scarlett said. “Tomorrow is Great Holiday Eve. Think of what a
gift you could be if some group of bandits found you tromping about alone and decided to take you hostage and bring you back to their leader.”
“One could only wish that something exciting like that would happen.” Tella sighed.
Scarlett pursed her lips. Again, it wasn’t exactly a scowl. But for just a second, Tella thought her sister looked a little nervous. Her cheeks were pink, but her lips were nearly white.
“Be careful what you wish for,” Scarlett warned. “Holiday magic is a real thing.” Her eyes darted up toward a nearby tree crowned with a doll that resembled the Merry Queen.
“The Merry Queen is just a myth,” Tella said.
Scarlett made a delicate snort. “I’ve heard people say the same thing about you.”
Tella grinned widely. “See what I mean? I am basically invincible. You don’t need to worry about bandits running off with me. However…” Tella softened her voice. She really didn’t want her sister to worry too much. But she needed her to worry a little. “I might be in a small stitch of trouble.”
“What kind of trouble?” Scarlett asked.
“Nothing that my big sister, who is the empress of an extremely
powerful empire, can’t fix.”
Scarlett narrowed her eyes. “Does this have anything to do with that card game from last week?”
“Which one?”
“The one where you bet one of the head guards a half dozen baby dragons from the Magnificent North?”
“Oh, no,” Tella said. “I already got that sorted. I don’t need any dragons.” Although she actually would have liked a tiny one for a pet, but this was not the time to ask. Tella took a deep breath and looked up at her sister hopefully. “I just need you to change the date of the Great Holiday.”
