The Two Princesses of Bamarre

The kingdom of Bamarre is plagued by monsters, among them ogres, gryphons, specters, and dragons, as well as a fatal illness called the Gray Death that kills hundreds every year. An ancient prophecy declares the Gray Death will be cured when cowards find courage and rain falls over all Bamarre, but no one knows when or how this will happen. Bamarre's greatest hero, Drualt, is celebrated in an epic poem for fighting monsters and helping found the kingdom centuries ago.

Princess Adelina, called Addie, narrates the story. She is fearful and timid, afraid of nearly everything from monsters to spiders. Her older sister, Princess Meryl, is brave, energetic, and determined to quest for the cure someday. Their mother, Queen Daria, died of the Gray Death when they were small, and their father, King Lionel, is a cautious ruler who governs by quoting The Book of Homely Truths, a collection of proverbs. As children, Meryl plays the rescuer in their games while Addie plays the victim. Terrified of losing Meryl to a quest, Addie extracts a promise that Meryl will not leave the castle until Addie is married, then privately resolves never to marry.

When Addie is 12, Rhys, a new apprentice sorcerer, arrives at the castle. Sorcerers are born when lightning strikes marble; they live up to 500 years and never fall ill. When Addie is 16, a specter, a shape-shifting malicious creature, nearly lures her into the forest. Meryl saves her and commands the specter to prophesy. It tells Meryl that her next adventure "will not be what you expect."

Soon after, Meryl delivers a recitation of the epic poem but breaks off panting and unsteady. Rhys tells Addie he recognizes the symptoms: Meryl has contracted the Gray Death, which progresses through weakness, nine days of sleep, and three days of fever followed by death.

King Lionel departs with knights to consult the elf queen, Seema, but she knows no cure, and he turns back. Each day Meryl grows weaker. Addie's former chambermaid, Trina, dies of the disease, shaking Addie's belief that willpower can overcome it. After a week Meryl collapses. Addie climbs to the north tower and realizes that if their positions were reversed, Meryl would already be questing. She decides she must try, even at the cost of her own life.

Rhys gives Addie a magic cloak that renders the wearer nearly invisible, a magic tablecloth that produces food on command, and hand-drawn maps of Bamarre. Meryl gives Addie Blood-biter, the sword Rhys once gave Meryl, and advises Addie to seek a specter, since specters might know how to reach the fairies. Milton, the princesses' elf nurse, provides moily herb, an elf remedy that restores strength. Their governess, Bella, provides a servant's disguise and two items Queen Daria left her daughters. The seven-league boots travel seven leagues per step, and the spyglass sees across vast distances and through solid walls.

Addie crosses the drawbridge unrecognized. Her first steps in the boots go wrong, and she crashes into an ogre. She drags the creature into a tower, escaping with a dislocated shoulder that an unseen presence resets while she swoons. In Mulee Forest, she searches for specters. One disguises itself as Rhys and lures her toward a tunnel with a false story about a cure. The real Rhys arrives and proves his identity. Before vanishing, the specter reveals that "dragons and fairies know" the cure. Rhys shares what he knows: Dragons are lonely, enjoy conversation, and spin out their captives' deaths.

Addie chooses the dragon Vollys, the oldest in Bamarre. Through the spyglass she sees a gray pennant flying from the castle: Meryl has entered the sleep, the second stage. As Addie weeps, Vollys swoops down and carries her to a desert lair filled with treasure and the bones of former captives.

Addie bargains for her life, proposing an embroidery of the dragon and entertaining Vollys with proverbs. Vollys assigns Addie a cabinet for her "hoard," adding and removing items as rewards and punishments; when empty, the captive dies. Vollys discovers Addie's hidden seven-league boots and locks them away alongside the spyglass.

On the day Meryl's fever begins, Addie persuades Vollys to reveal the cure. Vollys recites a dragon poem explaining that the Gray Death originated from the dying breath of her mother, the dragon Yune, after Drualt killed her. The cure is a waterfall in the Aisnan Valley of the Eskern Mountains that descends from the fairies' invisible Mount Ziriat. The enchanted water will cure the disease, but only if the sufferer drinks it at the falls.

When Vollys's fury over the magic tablecloth sets the lair ablaze, Addie pries open a fire-weakened chest and recovers her boots and spyglass. Through the glass she sees Meryl in her final day of fever. When Vollys returns, Addie soaks her gown, draws Blood-biter, and boots herself through a wall of flame into the dragon's belly, driving the sword deep. Badly injured, she is dragged across the desert until the unseen helper guides her to safety.

Rhys arrives, and Addie tells him the cure. Together they carry Meryl to Surmic, a village near the valley. A young Surmic man named Gavin and five other villagers volunteer, reciting the final lines of Drualt as they arm themselves. During the climb, Rhys confesses his love to Addie, and she whispers that she loves him too.

At dawn, ogres and gryphons swarm the valley. Vollys herself arrives, bleeding but alive, having orchestrated the ambush. In the battle, Gavin is killed. Vollys captures the sisters, but Rhys wraps the dragon's head in cloud and they break free. When Vollys flames Rhys from the sky, Addie hurls his fallen sword into the dragon's throat. Dying, Vollys asks Addie to mourn for her, saying, "I would have mourned for you." Addie promises, and the dragon dies.

Meryl sprints toward the waterfall but turns back when an ogre seizes Addie. The sun rises. Meryl staggers and collapses, whispering, "This was our finest day." A boulder strikes Addie. She feels raindrops, then nothing.

Addie wakes in a chamber on Mount Ziriat. The fairies have sent the enchanted water down as rain over all Bamarre, curing the Gray Death and fulfilling the prophecy. Meryl, however, is moments from death and beyond the rain's power. The fairies offer her a choice: death or transformation into a fairy. Meryl chooses transformation. Though still herself in spirit, she is no longer human, and the sisters grieve what has changed.

A tall stranger is revealed to be Drualt himself, transformed into a fairy centuries ago. He is the unseen helper who aided Addie throughout her quest, and he and Meryl are now a couple. Surveying the kingdom through the spyglass, Addie grasps the full scope of her people's suffering. She recognizes a key difference between herself and Meryl: While Meryl craved adventure for its own sake, Addie wants to defeat monsters for the peace that will follow. Rhys recovers from his burns, and they marry in the fairy castle.

At the Aisnan Valley waterfall, the sisters part. Meryl must begin her fairy battles beyond Bamarre but promises to visit often. Addie breaks the embrace first, takes Rhys's hand, and faces toward her kingdom, resolving to fight for Bamarre's people.