LAUREL DECHER

“Life in the Seven Kingdoms is never dull . . .” –Jen McConnel, School Library Journal

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About LOST WITH LEEKS

Lost With Leeks cover image shows boy in hot air balloon with dragon

Finding Your True North

Argh! Twelve-year-old Crown Prince Nero is lost again.

How will he ever lead the Blackfly Kingdom?

His fairy godfather gave him a magnetic personality to make him charming.

Only now he’s a trouble-magnet–for compasses, maps and magical creatures.

Worse, his royal mom has kidnapped St. Nicholas. Nero’s got to map out a rescue right away!

For ages 9 to 12

For fans of Jean Ferris’ Once Upon A Marigold, Jessica Day George’s Tuesdays at the Castle series. It’s Gail Carson Levine’s Ella Enchanted meets The King’s Speech.

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Laurel Decher

Laurel Decher author as a kid

Reading Age:
9 to 12

A Seven Kingdoms Fairy Tale: Book 2

book recommendations for 10 year olds Seven Kingdoms book covers

Print length:

290 pages

Publication date:

Nov 2019

Paperback, hardcover, ebook, audiobook

Language: English

castle on an island

Can a prince with no sense of direction learn to lead before it's too late?

Prince Nero has his work cut out for him, herding St. Nicholas’ runaway reindeer, flying a hot air balloon and keeping a sometimes friendly dragon from piercing the balloon with its claws . . . all while patching up misunderstandings with his friends. (When your royal mom kidnaps St. Nick right before the holidays, it happens!)

How can he get everyone on his hot air balloon crew moving in the same direction?

If you’ve ever had to lead when you weren’t sure where you were going, this one’s for you!

Why read Seven Kingdoms Fairy Tales?

“Life in the Seven Kingdoms is never dull . . .” –Jen McConnel, School Library Journal

If you’re looking for kids books that ignite curiosity, you’ve come to the right place! These exciting children’s books are about exploring life’s possibilities and finding the magic hidden inside each of us.

In the Seven Kingdoms Fairy Tales, royal kids take on magical challenges that are difficult but worthwhile. When you’re on an extraordinary adventure, it’s funny how an ordinary thing can help. These smart and friendly heroes and heroines speak up, (and hatch dragons), take tests, (and defeat the Blackfly queen), deal with less than perfect scores, (and cupids), find their way around, (and get lost), stay friends even when they disagree, (and struggle with fairy godparents) and find a way to belong in a new place.

For ages 9 to 12. Read the books in any order.

Whether it’s speaking up at a feast, reading a compass or taking a test in a strange kingdom, these Tales are all about discovering the magic in your life!

What Readers Say:

“Funny magical story. . . about a prince who didn’t think he could be a leader because he couldn’t find his way around. While the main character Prince Nero may be lost, the author easily finds her way to her readers’ hearts.”
–eileen
Amazon reviewer
“delightful funny book that captures the readers heart from start to finish. A wicked Queen, hot air balloons, a friendly yellow dragon and a Prince with a lot of responsibility and a huge talent for getting lost make for a hilarious journey. . . will definitely be sharing it with my grandchildren.”
–Sharon Walker
grandparent
"This is an awesome book for older elementary kids (or intermediate schools) that is fun, interesting, and keeps young minds reading! Great book."
–Pat Eroh
GoodReads reviewer
". . .well paced and well executed. . . as with Book 1, I laughed along the way. What a silly, fun, sweet world."
–Deborah Halverson
award-winning author and editor

Where's Nero?

Listen (Chapter 1):

From the AI narrated audiobook. Produced with GooglePlay technology and edited by the author.

0:00 / 0:00
Chapter 1: The Blackfly Reputation

#SpoilerAlert

Would you like to read the deleted scenes?

Maybe you’ve read the book, but you’re still wondering exactly how St. Nicholas ended up in the dungeon.

Or you’d just like to see things from the Blackfly Queen’s point of view for a change.

What happened?

Deepen the Learning, Add to the Fun!

Take a mini-tour of the Blackfly Castle!

The inspiration for the Blackfly Kingdom in Lost With Leeks is my favorite castle. Shaped like a boat, it clings to a rock in the middle of the Rhine River in Germany. Take a mini-tour.

Test Your Skill!

Help Prince Nero out of the maze! Test your skill and your knowledge of the Seven Kingdoms with a maze or a puzzle.

Get a Quiz For Your School or Library!

Get quizzes for each of the Seven Kingdoms Fairy Tales, formatted as a ready-to-upload teacher quiz for AR.

Get into the spirit of fun with these St. Nicholas Day activities!

St. Nicholas Day falls on December 6th. At our house we celebrate the German way. We clean our boots and set them out like Christmas stockings and we bake “bread guys”.

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Lost With Leeks

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Copyright © 2019 Laurel Decher

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without permission in writing from the publisher, except by reviewers, who may quote brief passages in a review. Thank you for respecting this author’s hard work.

CONTENTS

  1. The Blackfly Reputation 1

  2. The Fairy Godfather 11

  3. Lost in Your Backyard 17

  4. Under the Ruins 25

  5. In the Saffron Castle 31

  6. A Geography Lesson 39

  7. To the Dungeon 54

  8. The Queen’s Command 64

  9. It’s Checked Out 72

  10. The Breakfast Buffet 80

  11. The Rally Begins! 89

  12. How to Corral a Crew 98

  13. Magical Migration 107

  14. How Leadership Works 117

  15. Hide and Seek 127

  16. Crew’s Control 136

  17. The K-L-I-C System 142

  18. Suspicious Activity 149

  19. The Circus of Vegetables 157

  20. The Sad Clown 164

  21. The Blackfly BookDrop 170

  22. St. Nicholas’s Rescue 178

  23. Terror of the Seven Kingdoms 186

  24. Bad Press 193

  25. The Loreley 198

  26. The Lost Prince 205

  27. A Remote Rescue 211

  28. Stranded in Strasbourg 221

  29. Geography by Nero 228

  30. Lichen Shortage 239

  31. The Home Stretch 243

  32. Now Boarding 249

  33. St. Nicholas’s Day 262

  34. The Order of the Octopus 274

CHAPTER ONE

The Blackfly Reputation

BLACKFLY PRINCE NERO spent the best summer of his twelve-year-old life in the dungeon. He was building a cable ferry with his new friend Twyla, the youngest princess in the Cochem royal family. The dungeon was her workshop.

It was a blast.

Princess Twyla had the best tools of anyone in the Seven Kingdoms, knew how to build with them, and didn’t mind sharing. The only thing she wasn’t good at was giving speeches.

That was fine with Nero.

Until he’d spent the summer with Twyla’s family, speeches were about the only thing he could do. In a speech competition, you had to find the right facts, fast.

He’d even started a stack of index cards with the names of Twyla’s tools and what each was for. That stack joined all the others in Nero’s fat, leather, briefcase. The briefcase was called an Ox because it could carry such a heavy load.

He was putting the finishing touches on a card stack about cable ferries—how to calculate the width of the ferry crossing, the speed of the river, the number of people who could cross at one time, and other fun ferry facts—when an emergency message came from his father, the Blackfly King.

#

TO: Nero, Crown Prince of the Blackfly Kingdom

FROM: King Schwartz, King of Blackfly Kingdom, etc. etc.

Nero,

Something must be done about the Blackfly debt. I’m going to the Parlez Vous Patisserie in Paris. When I get back, we will have something to sell that will delight customers. You know how much we need that. Until then, you are in charge of damage control. Do not fail me.

With affection,

Your Royal Papa.

P.S. Check the Proclamation Board in Cochem before you go home.

P.P.S. Try to keep XXX out of France. If I get kicked out of my pastry school, we’ll never manage this debt!

#

Cochem’s Proclamation Board was outside, near the castle gate. After stuffing a few index cards in his shirt pocket, Nero went up the dungeon stairs. He studied his papa’s message as he went.

“Damage control” was a duty he had done before. It meant keeping Queen Ash out of trouble, if possible, and smoothing it over afterwards, if it wasn’t. That’s what his fairy gift was for. It was a pity his magical charm didn’t seem to work on the queen.

King Schwartz must have realized Queen Ash wasn’t going to be able to pay the huge amount she owed without help. The queen’s latest fundraiser, Blackfly Quality Gingerbread, had only sold a few boxes after they’d re-labelled it as charcoal. The Parlez Vous Patisserie was his papa’s favorite pastry-making school in France. The king must be planning a fancy new dessert to sell.

Unlike Queen Ash, King Schwartz was an excellent baker, but it was almost the middle of November. Whenever the king got back, it would be too late to get a booth at the Christmas Market. That was the biggest market of the year. The other, smaller, markets wouldn’t make a dent in the queen’s debt.

“XXX” must mean Queen Ash. Nero didn’t think it would be hard to keep her out of France. But then he never knew until he’d tried.

When Nero saw the latest post, he gave a low whistle.

PROCLAMATION

November Issue: Nicholas Napping?

Ace Reporter, Bridget of the Cochem Dungeon, reports a serious situation in the Blackfly Kingdom.

St. Nicholas’ Day is approaching fast, but the children of the Seven Kingdoms may be disappointed. St. Nicholas may have disappeared. No matter how clean the children’s boots are when they put them out, they may find no presents in them on December 6th.

A troupe of flying reindeer disappeared near the Blackfly Kingdom last Thursday night.

Messages to the North Pole and to the Blackfly Kingdom have not been answered. The search for St. Nicholas continues.

Readers sighting St. Nicholas or flying reindeer are asked to contact the Proclamation immediately.

Queen Ash in the Proclamation. Messages to the Blackfly Kingdom have gone unanswered. Has the Blackfly Queen forgotten what she owes the Seven Kingdoms?

Nero copied the details onto index cards, ran back down the dungeon stairs. If he was leaving in disgrace, he’d rather get it over with. Twyla couldn’t have seen the Proclamation yet, but he didn’t want to be there when she did. Too embarrassing.

He stuck his head in the door of her workshop. “I have to get home right away.”

“So soon?” Twyla came over from her workbench, holding out the wrench she always used. “Here. Take it.”

Nero looked around, but there was no bolt up high that Twyla might want him to tighten. He looked back at her.

Her face turned pink, but she was still holding the wrench out towards him. “I want you to have it.”

“You want ME to have your best wrench?” Nero was touched. It was her favorite.

“It’s okay. Take it. You don’t have one—do you?” Twyla held it out again. He couldn’t make himself tell her why she would regret this.

“Thanks.” He put it in his Ox, wondering if he’d ever get a summer like this again.

A wrench was no match for the Blackfly troubles. No matter how much he felt like bolting Queen Ash into her castle until King Schwartz came back from France.

#
Three days later, Nero pounded on the bolted front door of the Blackfly Castle. Queen Ash didn’t need a doorbell because most visitors were involuntary. After a few moments, an archer opened the door and Nero and his archers went in.

“Found your way back,” the archer attending the door said to the other two.

Nero ignored them. It wasn’t a new joke.

“We’re B-A-A-CK!” They all gave each other high-fives and laughed as if they had braved a dragon in every kingdom or something.

Nero couldn’t help having no sense of direction. Or that the archers found it endlessly funny. Princess Twyla was right—fairy gifts were a pain!

The inside of Blackfly Castle was like a layer cake with a hole in the middle. The central tower filled up part of the hole. Open galleries on each floor made the castle look like an opera house.

Normally, the middle courtyard was quiet and deserted because the cozy rooms were up by the bread oven. Today, the courtyard was full of reindeer.

A fine net had been spread over the courtyard so they couldn’t fly away. Nero’s face burned. Any doubts about the Proclamation’s lead story were gone now. His heart sank. Of all the things Queen Ash had done, this one was the worse.

Nero walked up to the reindeer grazing near the edge and reached out to touch a velvet nose.

The reindeer plunged away from him and the whole group stampeded to the other side of the courtyard. They twisted their necks and looked at him, wide-eyed. He held up his hands to show that he meant no harm, but they didn’t budge. The biggest one closed its eyes and lowered its head, giving a moan that sounded like pain.

“Sorry, sorry. I’m going already.” Nero jogged up the steps to the level where Queen Ash had her office. Her windows overlooked the Rhine River. She liked to keep an eye on things, indoors and out.

The circular castle confused most visitors and new archers, but it was actually easier for Nero. He could always take an extra lap or two whenever he went the wrong way.

Outside Queen Ash’s office, Nero took a few deep, slow breaths. Everyone said he was a persuasive speaker. He had an InterKingdom Speech Tournament trophy.

But convincing Queen Ash to change her mind was the true test. On the trip, he’d filled up lots of index cards with his strongest arguments for letting St. Nicholas go. He looked them over one more time and stuffed the cards into his pocket.

He knocked.

“What is it now?” Queen Ash called through the door. “Did the prisoner escape?”

Nero went in and shut the door behind him. “Prisoner, Ma’am?”

“Oh, it’s you. Finally got tired of that little inventor princess?” Queen Ash held out her hand. Without saying anything, Nero bent and kissed it. The queen didn’t like hearing about the youngest princess of Cochem, even though Twyla was her niece.

He decided not to mention King Schwartz’s message. Damage control was easier when Queen Ash didn’t know Nero was doing it. “I came right home as soon as I saw your picture in the Proclamation.”

Queen Ash re-settled her crown and purred. “Nothing like being proclaimed to the Seven Kingdoms to put spring back into my heart.”

Nero’s time in Cochem had shown him that Queen Ash’s view of the world’s rules was not quite the same as everyone else’s.

Queen Ash went to the full-length mirror, checking herself over from crown to toe. Her hand went to her keys and played with the skeleton key to the dungeon. A sign that someone was probably in it. “How flattering was it?”

“Actually, it wasn’t flattering at all,” Nero said, thinking of the line about the “reckless Blackfly queen.”

But the queen’s gaze in the mirror was focused on her head. Her eyes narrowed. “They left my crown off again?”

“No, Ma’am. The Proclamation said that the Blackfly Kingdom had forgotten how much it owed to the other kingdoms.”

Queen Ash snorted. “As if Oliver would ever let me forget.”

Oliver was the queen’s older brother and King of Cochem Kingdom. She had “borrowed” his Velvet Purse full of silver and spent it painting his castle black. Unsurprisingly, King Oliver wanted his silver back.

Queen Ash laid down her spyglass and adjusted her crown. “I think I like being in a Proclamation or two. Oliver forgets he’s not the only one leading a kingdom. . .Unless I come up with something better?”

Before this conversation, Nero had hoped a new Proclamation might bury the bad news about the Blackflys. But standing in front of Queen Ash, he changed his mind. “I don’t think you need anything. . .else. The Proclamation should be up for a long time. It just went up yesterday.”

This brought Nero back to the reason he’d come home. “Would you like me to check on the prisoner?”

Queen Ash looked at him sharply. “St. Nicholas is perfectly safe in the water dungeon.”

“Of course, Ma’am.” Nero’s charm kept his voice as mild as milk. It was true then. As Crown Prince, he couldn’t act against the queen, but he had to save her from herself.

St. Nicholas!

Of all people!

Nero turned his face away. Even if he got St. Nicholas and his reindeer out tonight, the Blackflys would never live down the shame of locking him up in the water dungeon.

He coughed. “According to the Seven Kingdoms’ Christmas Agreement, St. Nicholas doesn’t owe tolls, Ma’am.”

“He flew over our airspace,” Queen Ash said. “It’s not like I’m going to MAKE any money on St. Nicholas. Do you have any idea how much flying reindeer eat? And the creatures are so spoiled! If you put down hay that got the tiniest bit damp once, a long time ago, they sneeze up a storm and trample all over it. Picky eaters.”

Nero grabbed the opening she’d given him. “If you’d like them to leave, you could unroll the black carpet for St. Nicholas and send him home. Make it look like he’s been here as an honored guest. Everyone in the Seven Kingdoms would think he’d stayed in the AirCastle room instead of the dungeon.”

Queen Ash frowned. “AirCastle is an idea.” Her head tilted side to side, as if she was thinking it over. “But I won’t make breakfast.”

“If he’s leaving, Ma’am,” Nero said, in his most charming voice, “he won’t need breakfast. Think what a savings that would be. Of course, the real savings would be the reindeer feed. Your AirCastle would be famous too, because you could say St. Nicholas had been here.”

Queen Ash tapped her foot on the stone floor, thinking it over.

Nero waited, hoping he’d said enough.

“Very well,” Queen Ash said. “But he’s not leaving until he’s paid up. Oh, and I’ll pick out his room myself. You get to go out and cut grass so we won’t have to buy it. Every day. If these beasts aren’t fed daily, they start leaping up in the air and make a mess of the whole castle. Take two archers! We don’t have time for you to get lost.”

Grrr. The queen had twisted his AirCastle idea right around. Nero could see himself hunting for grass, further and further away every day which would make it much harder to help St. Nicholas escape. He definitely didn’t want sneering Blackfly archers following him around. “But—”

“Now what?” Queen Ash went over to her desk, muttering about demanding children.

Pouring on the charm, Nero wove her complaint into what he wanted to say. “You’re right, Ma’am. Children will be demanding. Without St. Nicholas, the children will be unhappy on December 6th. And their parents—”

“That’s. The. Whole. Point.” Queen Ash spoke with exaggerated patience. “What do they teach in Crown Prince training? If no one cares whether St. Nicholas got out or not, I wouldn’t be able to hold him for ransom. It’s basic economics.”

Nero gave up his point about unrest in the Blackfly Kingdom because of unhappy families and tried with his last point. “The Fairy Council for the Protection of Magical Creatures will give us a lot of trouble about the reindeer.”

Queen Ash looked up from her desk. “Which is why YOU should be out cutting grass. The Council wouldn’t like them going hungry. Remind me again why you’re still here?”

“I’m going now, Ma’am.” Nero saluted.

“Excellent news.”

Nero backed out of her office, fuming. Persuasive speaking wasn’t enough. Magic wasn’t enough. How was he supposed to control the damage? Queen Ash acted like she was listening and then did whatever she wanted to do. What good was a magnetic personality when it had no impact on her at all?

The Blackfly Kingdom was supposed to be gearing up to sell King Schwartz’s French-style goodies. But no one was going to buy baked goods from St. Nick’s kidnappers. Queen Ash’s debts were going to ruin the kingdom, even if the Crown Prince wasn’t allowed to say so.

Hopeless. Nero threw his hands above his head. He hadn’t even gotten the key to the water dungeon.

#

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