LAUREL DECHER

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

SLJLogo

About TROUBLE AT THE VALENTINE FACTORY

Book cover image Trouble at the Valentine Factory
cupid with gilded wings in a bookstore
Spotted this cupid hanging around in a bookstore . . .

Will Valentine's Day be the sweetest day of the year? Or the rudest?

". . . a zany story of ingenuity and collaboration . . ."

--Jen McConnel
SLJLogo

The eleven-year-old royal Saffron twins—Princess Saffy and Prince Magellan–have to save the Seven Kingdoms from the Blackfly Queen’s dangerous new magical candies!


She’s making Consternation Hearts with magical powers, a.k.a. candy hearts with messages good for every day of the year. . .like

“Go to the Water Dungeon!”

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.

Read sample
Listen to sample
Find store
Get illustrations
Book activities
Info for libraries

Laurel Decher

Laurel Decher author as a kid

Reading Age:
9 to 12

A Seven Kingdoms Fairy Tale: Book 2.5

book recommendations for 10 year olds Seven Kingdoms book covers

Print length:

202 pages

Publication date:

Jan 4, 2022

Paperback, hardcover with jacket, ebook, audiobook

Language: English

Michelstadt city hall

Will the Rude Hearts Keep Friends From Sticking Together?

The trouble starts when the Blackfly Queen introduces a brand-new holiday guaranteed to make her the most beloved queen in the Seven Kingdoms: Valentine’s Day!?!


This year, Valentine’s Day falls on the same day as the Rose Monday Parade. Instead of delighting the crowds with traditional candies, the queen has a dastardly plan. Can the Saffron twins stop her in time?

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:

"Gr 4-7–Decher’s fourth book in the “Seven Kingdoms” series is a zany story of ingenuity and collaboration. Life in the Seven Kingdoms is never dull, especially not with fairies popping by to ask for favors . . ."
–Jen McConnel School Library Journal
"Action, adventure, and pure imagination run the show. I have not read the three previous books, but now I know they will be ones worth reading. . . Readers who are fans of fantasy, dragons, competition, and good versus evil will love this story, regardless of age."
–Rachel Dehning reviewer, Reader Views
". . . fits nicely between books 2 and 3, but could be read on its own. . . read with my 9 and 5 year olds, who have both enjoyed all of the books we've read by this author."
–Marie Reed Amazon reviewer

What's all the buzz?

Kid Power

Seven Kingdoms Fairy Tales are about smart kids making their world a better place. #kidpower

#Deleted Scenes

This adventure just wouldn’t stop! If you read the story and want to see a few scenes and snippets that didn’t make it into the book, this is a Valentine for you:

See Deleted Scenes!

Listen (Chapter 1):

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

0:00 / 0:00
Chapter 1: Masks and Candy

Deepen the Learning, Add to the Fun!

Bee a Hero!

The real town of Michelstadt has a castle that houses bees. Why do they love bees so much?  Take a mini-tour.

Take a Holiday!

Can you guess which holidays are celebrated in Germany?

__Valentine’s Day

__Rose Monday

__Washerwomen Day

__Black Licorice Week

Find out and join in on the fun!

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 on the Rhine River!

The Rhine River is the parade route for the Rose Monday Parade in Trouble at the Valentine’s Factory. Join the celebration with this virtual visit to the Rhine promenade in Bonn, Germany.

Available wherever good books are sold.

digital paperback editions of Valentine Factory
hardcover
audiobook cover

eBooks:

AppleBooks_logo
GooglePlay_logo
Kindle_logo
Kobo_logo
logo for Barnes and Noble nook
Smashwords store logo
fnac_logo
tolino
Vivlio logo
Or find stores at:
Book2Read logo on green background

Paperback & Hardcover:

Blackwell's logo
Free worldwide shipping
Amazon_logo
BarnesNoble_logo
logo Indigo bookstore
hive logo
logo for BAM bookstore
Toppsta
logo for Bookshop.org

Find your local indie bookstore

Or find stores at:
Book2Read logo on green background

Library:

OverDrive_logo
bibliotheca_logo_272x81
scribd logo
Palace marketplace logo
libell-e_Header_Logo
logo_onleihe
logo

Audiobooks:

GooglePlay_logo
AppleBooks_logo
Kobo_logo
kobo_plus_logo
kobo's availability by country
Barnes Noble audiobooks logo
audiobooks dot com logo
logo
Everand is the new name for Scribd
storytel logo
Mondadori logo
Or find stores at:
Book2Read logo on green background

Available wherever good books are sold.

digital paperback editions of Valentine Factory
audiobook cover
hardcover

eBooks

Apple

GooglePlay

Kindle

Kobo

tolino

FNAC

Vivlio

Smashwords

Paperback & Hardcover:

Blackwell’s (free worldwide shipping)

Bookshop.org (IndieBound)

Hive.co.uk (find your local indie bookshop)

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Toppsta

Audio:

Apple Books

audiobooks.com

B&N audiobooks

bol

Bookmate

Everand

Feltrinelli

GooglePlay

kobo and koboPlus

(check availability by country)

Mondadori

Spotify

Storytel

Library

OverDrive

Hoopla

Palace Marketplace

Scribd

cloudLibrary (bibliotheca)

Baker & Taylor

Onleihe

Libell-e.de

BorrowBox

Or find stores at:
Book2Read logo on green background
Bumpity Boulevard Press logo
Legal
Terms and Conditions
Privacy Policy

Trouble at the Valentine Factory

digital paperback editions of Valentine Factory

Copyright © 2022 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.

ISBN 978-3-949220-03-6(ebook)

ISBN 978-3-949220-04-3 (paperback)

LCCN 2021906043

Illustrations: Maryna Bolsunova (Cover art) Jordyn Alison Designs (Love Struck Font)

 

 

CONTENTS

  1. Masks and Candy 1

  2. The Fairy Kingdom Asks for Help 8

  3. New Blackfly Holiday 19

  4. Sticky Assembly 26

  5. A Tea Party 37

  6. Pencils and Kamelle 48

  7. Consternation Hearts 48

  8. The Cupid Hunt 53

  9. Archery Contest 58

  10. Dragon Treats 69

  11. Tiebreaker Round 78

  12. Where There’s Smoke . . . 92

  13. A Blackfly Valentine 103

  14. The Washerwomen 117

  15. The Saffron Float 120

  16. Breakfast on the Barge 130

  17. Barrelling Along 135

  18. Dragon in Action 142

  19. The Last Barrel 149

  20. Return of the Cupids 156

  21. Broken Treaty 164

CHAPTER ONE

Masks and Candy

SAFFY

scene separator VALENTINE

FEBRUARY IN THE Seven Kingdoms was cold and clammy. Wind howled through the river gorges. Rain beat against stone castles, dripped down from garderobes, and washed down into the rivers. The Rhine and Mosel Rivers climbed their banks and reached into the villages, hitting the high-water marks on the flood towers.

In the great hall of the Saffron Castle, the royal children were preparing for the Rose Monday parade. The eleven-year-old twins, Princess Saffy and Prince Magellan, were designing the Saffron Kingdom float out of paper mâché. They were determined to make the best one in the Seven Kingdoms.

At the same time, Saffy was keeping an eye on eight-year-old Princess Star, seven-year-old Prince Cardi, and six-year-old Princess Nelke. They were wrapping the Saffron Kingdom’s fresh honey caramels—called Kamelle—in clean twists of saffron-colored paper and packing them in boxes. A mountain of them. The crowd watching the parade would expect the Saffron family to throw them by the handful.

It had been a hard winter in the Seven Kingdoms. This year, as a new thing, every kingdom was adding friendly messages to their caramels, except—of course—the Blackfly Kingdom. Queen Ash didn’t do friendly.

Magellan was deep into one of his elaborate maps. Saffy had asked about the parade route an hour ago, and Magellan had been drawing ever since. The parade route couldn’t be that interesting. It was always the same route around the German Corner, the place where the Rhine and Mosel Rivers met, in the center of the Seven Kingdoms.

Building the Saffron Kingdom float was the best part. Riding on it was fun unless it rained. Wet paper mâché turned into miserable lumps on the deck and wet candy made everything sticky. Doing the gracious-under-fire stuff was her duty: Saffy was the Saffron Crown Princess, but waving and throwing candy wasn’t heroic.

She wanted to do more for her kingdom. That was why she spent so much time on the archery range. Some day, the mysterious Fairy Rangers might notice her hard work, and she was determined to be ready.

As soon as the parade was over, she’d put in her time on the archery range again. The short winter days hadn’t helped and neither had the rain. Any good weather in the last few weeks had gone to preparing for the parade.

Saffy looked over at Magellan’s sketch again. Those black pyramid-shaped things didn’t look like the barrels that normally dotted the parade route. People stood on the barrels and gave speeches about avoiding deadly seriousness. No one could stand on a pointy pyramid.

Magellan was counting the pyramids on his fingers and making hash marks. Classic. He would do anything to avoid multiplying.

“Are you figuring out how much coal we still have?” Saffy asked.

Magellan scowled and started his counting over again.

“I’ll take that for a yes,” Saffy said. Magellan wasn’t thinking about the parade either. He had his own problems.

Their Saffron dragon had a habit of snacking on coal from open barges. The captains didn’t like that at all. They kept writing letters to King Pink, who sent the letters on to Magellan’s royal parents in the Saffron Kingdom, who pointed out to Magellan that something needed to be done about the dragon. So far, they hadn’t been able to cure the dragon’s bad habit.

The youngest princess, Nelke, touched her gluey pointer fingers to her equally gluey thumbs. They stuck together for an instant and she pulled them apart, making gluey strings.

She leaned over Magellan’s sketch. “We need more glue. Can you go ask Papa for some?”

“Look out!” Magellan whipped his sketchbook to safety.

Saffy tapped her twin on the shoulder with the feathery end of her pen. “Your turn. I went last time.”

Magellan scooted further away from his brother and sisters and drew another coal pile. “I’m busy.”

Saffy signaled Cardi and Star and they jumped up from the table, shaking their candy boxes like musical instruments and advancing on Magellan from either side.

“Wait—you have licorice now?” Nelke squealed, reaching out her gluey hands towards her brother’s and then her sister’s boxes of candy. They held them higher and shook them harder, drowning out Nelke’s words. “I saw a black one!”

Probably Magellan’s coal-black fingerprints. Saffy brushed her away. “Shush—you’re just looking for an excuse to unwrap them.”

Cardi and Star shook their boxes right next to Magellan’s ears.

“Cut it out, you two!” Magellan grabbed for the noisy candy boxes and missed. He rescued his map, rolling it up as he went, but the others drove him towards the spiral stair that led to King Arun’s office.

At the last minute, he made a dash for the opposite side of the hall, leaving the three youngest Saffrons to argue.

“Oh, come on, Magellan.” Saffy caught right up with him. “It’ll only take a minute.”

“That’s what you think.” Magellan met her gaze fully for the first time in hours. When he fell into his sketchbook, he was gone. “If I go up there and ask for anything, he’ll ask me how many of us are making masks, how much glue we need for each one, how many people live in each of the Seven Kingdoms, and how many boxes of candy we need for the parade. Then he’ll make horrible multiplication problems out of it. I won’t get back for a year.”

King Arun had been giving Magellan lots of extra practice lately. Saffy frowned. “If you’d learn your times tables, you wouldn’t have this problem. What’s seven times nine?”

“Don’t you start.” Magellan gave her a scathing glance. “I’ll go already. If you get tired of waiting, send a rescue party.”

He crossed the great hall, swerving first to pick up his map and pencils, but Saffy beat him to it. “After you come back. I’ll keep them safe from the hordes.”

Magellan huffed, but he went to the stairs.

A voice floated down from one of the grandparents’ balconies. “Now if Queen Hildegard was still alive, there’d be no trouble with cupids and honey . . .”

“Grandma Saffy?” Saffy called up to the balconies. “Are you talking about Queen Hildegard?”

“Shhhh! The children—” That was Grandpa Saffron’s voice.

The little Saffrons didn’t care about the famous Ranger Queen who had worked side-by-side with the fairies, but Saffy did.

“They can hear us talk about the honey shortage. That’s no secret. Just the—” Grandma Saffy made a mysterious fluttery motion with her hands.

“True. There’s no other explanation for bees being out when it’s so cold.” Grandma Dadi looked over the edge of the balcony and waved. “Good morning! I didn’t know you were down there. Are you making a mask for me? I’d like a golden honey-colored one.”

Magellan waved back and vanished into the stairwell, but Saffy shepherded the others back to making masks and garlands, staying within earshot of the grandparents. What fluttered like Grandma Saffy’s hands and made bees come out in winter? Saffy’s insides did a funny flip. What if the Fairy Rangers came to the parade?

“But I need paper for Dadi’s mask!” Nelke protested.

“Until Magellan gets back, you can make borders on the ones you already made.” Saffy would help Nelke wash the glue off her fingers later. If Saffy took her to wash her hands now, she might miss the grandparents saying something important about the mysterious Queen Hildegard.

When Saffy grew up, she wanted to be exactly like her.

Nothing more was said about Queen Hildegard. The grandparents talked steadily about honey for the next hour. After a while, even Saffy stopped listening. But while she painted flowers onto her mask, she wondered what cupids, the children of the Fairy Kingdom, had to do with honey.

PROCLAMATION

Honey Shortage?

Beekeepers all over the Seven Kingdoms are worried about their bees. “The bees shouldn’t be dancing around in the middle of winter,” a Saffron Kingdom beekeeper said. “They are much too active for their own good.”

A severe honey shortage is expected this year. People of the Seven Kingdoms are asked to start bee-friendly flowers and herbs on their windowsills, and plant them as early as possible. Kingdoms with royal greenhouses will be offering transplants free.

Ace Reporter Bridget of the Cochem Kingdom interviewed beekeepers from every kingdom. “The honey that is left is especially nice. There just isn’t much,” said a beekeeper in the Rose Kingdom. “We’re hoping we’ll have enough to make Kamelle for the Rose Monday parade. But the bees have to come first.”

Kamelle are the traditional candies thrown from the floats for the parade-goers. In the Seven Kingdoms, they are always made from honey.

King Arun and Queen Mitali have planned an Emergency Assembly for February 3rd in the Saffron Kingdom’s great hall. Anyone with information about the honey crisis is invited.

PROCLAMATION

Carnival Royalty Elected!

Queen Sweetheart and King Rugosa of the Rose Kingdom will be this year’s Carnival royalty. Congratulations have poured in from around the Seven Kingdoms.

“Well, from almost all of the kingdoms.” Queen Sweetheart wouldn’t say which kingdom didn’t send congratulations, but Ace Reporter Bridget thinks Proclamation readers will be able to guess.

“The Rose Kingdom is making lots of Kamelle to toss from the float,” the queen announced. “This year we’re making honey gummy candies for our Kamelle.”

“If any kingdoms have extra honey right now, they can send it over,” King Rugosa added.

CHAPTER TWO

The Fairy Kingdom Asks for Help

MAGELLAN

scene separator VALENTINE

THE NEXT DAY, Magellan went into the Saffron tunnels to take the dragon out for a spin. He’d just turned the last corner to the dragon’s favorite cavern when Merrill & Webb—the twins’ fairy godparents—popped up in front of his face. He jumped. Even in the dark, Magellan’s tunnel vision let him see perfectly. No one had ever sneaked up on him in here.

The fairy godparents were gripping their briefcases like the Fairy Kingdom’s biggest ever legal case was about to begin.

“Excuse me, Prince Magellan.” Still in mid-air, Merrill gave him a respectful head bow. “Have you seen any cupids—”

“Inside the tunnels or outside, anywhere at all,” Webb cut in without waiting for Merrill to finish, a sure sign that the lawyers were flustered.

“Cupids?” Magellan asked. “Like plaster ceiling decorations?” Some palaces had those. He couldn’t remember seeing any in the Saffron Castle.

Both fairy godparents turned pale.

“Are you both feeling okay?”

“Have you seen any ‘plaster ceiling decorations’, recently?” Webb made the quotation marks crystal clear.

Merrill added, “Or heard about new ones in the other kingdoms?”

Both lawyers fixed him with their gaze.

“No, sir,” Magellan said. “Does the Fairy Kingdom want to decorate?”

“It’s confidential,” Merrill said.

“We have to take precautions.” Webb released the latches on his briefcase and opened it.

Open briefcases meant fairy wands were coming out.

Magellan took a wary step backwards.

Webb pulled out a scroll and handed Magellan a fairy pen made of goose down. “Sign here that you won’t repeat anything we’re about to tell you—”

Okay. No wands. But the pen was in Magellan’s hand before he could refuse it. It stuck to his fingers even when he tried to shake it off. That was more than static electricity.

Magellan had two personal rules for fairy godparents: don’t ask for things and stay away from their briefcases. Staying away from briefcases was actually a survival skill, not a rule. Every royal child in the Seven Kingdoms was given a fairy godparent gift, but asking for something specific was dangerous. Look at Queen Ash’s magical blackflies! Yech!

He’d always wondered what she’d asked for. Whatever it was, it couldn’t have been worth blackflies. His neck tickled just thinking about them.

“Is Princess Saffy at home today?” Merrill asked.

“Yeeees,” Magellan admitted. She was here in the tunnels too, probably up in their dragon’s favorite cavern. But he planned to let the fairy godparents look for her. That would give him time to warn her.

“Could you take us to her, please?” Merrill’s question was a command.

Webb put the scroll back in his briefcase, but left the pen stuck onto Magellan’s hand.

Magellan considered his options. Refusing fairy godparents was never a good idea. Saffy would ask the lawyers straight out what they wanted before she signed anything. That was the way she was.

“Okay.” He led the way through the tunnels and called out before the tunnel turned sharply into the cavern.“The fairy godparents are here!”

At the sound of his voice, the Saffron dragon stuck its head out, filling the whole doorway.

The fairy godparents flew past Magellan, but they couldn’t get through the door.

“Sorry, it won’t move until I scratch its neck.” Magellan scratched the scales on the back of the dragon’s neck.

“Creeee,” murmured the dragon. It wouldn’t move until Magellan stopped scratching.

Merrill cleared his throat. “Prince Magellan—”

“—the clock is ticking,” Webb finished, briefcase at the ready.

Magellan pushed the dragon’s chest until it stepped back. “Come on. Move it.”

The fairies whizzed over the dragon and into the cavern. Magellan pushed the dragon’s chest harder. “I mean it. Now!”

By the time Magellan got around the dragon, the fairy godparents were whispering to Saffy about the scroll. The head-splitting frequency of their voices made Magellan cover his ears. He called over to Saffy, “If this is top secret, I can go.”

No such luck. She waved him over.

“He’ll have to sign if he stays,” Merrill said.

“With your signatures,” Webb said, “you are promising you won’t tell anyone what we are about to tell you.”

“No exceptions?” Saffy asked.

“None,” Merrill said.

“What happens if I do?” Magellan asked.

Merrill said something about “lip sealant”, but Webb brushed it off. “That won’t be necessary. I’m sure we can trust the twins with this.”

Saffy nodded. That was good enough for Magellan. He’d like his hand back anyway. He waved the goose down pen. “I’m ready.”

He scribbled his name on Webb’s scroll and ripped the goose down pen off his finger. “Ouch! You people need better writing tools.”

“Thank you, Prince Magellan.” Webb plucked the pen out of Saffy’s fingers after she signed then packed away the things.

Magellan took in Saffy’s scowl and waited for the godparents to spill.

“Seven cupids left school in the Fairy Kingdom this morning,” Webb said. “We think they are in the Seven Kingdoms.”

Magellan gave a soft whistle. Not plaster decorations, real cupids. Magical fairy kids running away from school. With a few kids like that, he could find the top secret Border to the Fairy Kingdom.

“They have to be found and brought back to the Fairy Kingdom before February 14th,” Merrill said.

That was the same day as the Rose Monday parade. The Seven Kingdoms were spread out all along the Rhine and Mosel Rivers. Lots of nooks and crannies where cupids might hide. Fourteen days was tight.

“Why February 14th?” Saffy asked.

Merrill gave a noncommittal “Hmmm” and passed the conversational ball to Webb with a glance.

Webb picked it right up. “Let’s put it this way: it wouldn’t be good for your bees.”

Saffy’s eyes narrowed. “What do cupids do to bees?”

An excellent question. The Saffron dragon came over and pushed its head under Magellan’s hand. He scratched the dragon’s neck scales and watched the fairy godparents confer with each other in their own language. Something was definitely going on.

Finally, Webb said, “the bees, uh, respond to the cupids and, er, respond even more on the ancient holiday named after St. Valentine. The patron saint of bees.”

Saffy opened her mouth, but Merrill got in first. “Our children have an instinctive way to defend themselves, but Valentine’s Day makes everything . . . worse. The cupid’s defense isn’t reversible if we don’t get them back to the Fairy Kingdom the same day. And the—” Merrill waved a hand for a word that didn’t come.

“—charm?” Webb suggested.

“Yes, exactly. The charm is stronger on Valentine’s Day and that makes the danger greater.” Merrill straightened his tie, and Webb adjusted his jacket sleeves to cover his shirt cuffs.

“Did the cupids wake up our bees in the middle of winter?” Saffy fired at them.

“Hmm. After a manner of speaking. I suppose . . . Well, it’s actually quite likely . . . they can have a pied piper effect.” Webb pressed his lips together as if he regretted letting out those words.

Magellan shook his head. A pied piper? A cupid played a flute and the bees danced out of town?

In the air in front of the twins, the fairy godparents edged nearer to each other so they were wingtip to wingtip. “I don’t need to remind you, Princess Saffy and Prince Magellan, that you have both signed a confidentiality agreement.”

Saffy’s eyebrows shot up. She didn’t like threats. “You mean it’s against the treaty that cupids are here?”

Webb froze, then both fairy lawyers grimaced.

“No comment,” Merrill said, stiffly.

Saffy gave a quick nod.

Magellan gave a low whistle. He’d been stuck on the fact that the cupids were visiting at all. Normally, the Fairy Kingdom and the Seven Kingdoms stayed out of each other’s way unless a royal child was born. Then the fairy godparents came to the christening, gave the child a gift, and went away again. That was all part of the treaty between the two kingdoms. Fairy godparents visited from time to time, but cupids? Never.

“What kind of Valentine’s Day danger?” Saffy laid her hand on the bow slung over her shoulder.

Webb cleared his throat as if about to answer.

Merrill held up a hand. “If I may?”

“Of course,” Webb said. “Go right ahead.”

Merrill’s gaze traveled from Saffy to Magellan to the dragon and back to Saffy. “What do you know about cupids and Valentine’s Day?”

Magellan rolled his eyes. “You’re not going to tell us the stories about cupid darts are for real.”

“Correct. We’re not.”

“That’s confidential. But whatever you’ve heard . . . It’s probably true,” Merrill’s voice was grave.

Webb added, “But on Valentine’s Day, the effect is somewhat different. And more . . . permanent.”

A life sentence. Magellan blinked. On Valentine’s Day, he planned to stay at least two kingdoms away from any place with cupid sightings.

Darts that made people fall in love and embarrass themselves were an excellent reason for getting cupids out of the Seven Kingdoms. Magellan would be happy to put up posters telling them to go home. But go looking for them? No.

“Why us?” Saffy asked.

The two lawyers exchanged a look.

“Because you have air transportation,” Merrill said.

“So does the Royal Aeronautical Academy,” Saffy shot back.

Magellan coughed into his elbow. Nice one. The fairy godparents could count the Saffron twins out. They had costumes to make, masks to paint, and Magellan had maps to draw to pay for his dragon’s coal-snacking habit.

“Your family has a long history with the Fairy Kingdom.” Webb locked eyes with Saffy. “It would be a great favor.”

Saffy went still.

Magellan bit back a groan. It was her Ranger Queen thing. Saffy was never going to be able to resist.

When Saffy was little, she’d tied an old saffron yellow sash around herself, pretending to be Queen Hildegard. As she got older, she’d stopped playing dress up, but she practiced her archery every day. Queen Hildegard’s archery was legendary.

But here was the thing: Saffy didn’t need archery practice. Thanks to the fairy godparents, she was a straight shooter. She always hit the bullseye. Always.

Magellan was sure she only spent hours on the archery range because she wanted to be discovered by a Fairy Ranger and be invited to join the team.

This was a done deal. The fairies needed a favor, and Saffy was going to sign up.

Magellan whispered into the dragon’s ear. “Hope you like cupids.” Whenever Saffy signed up for something, Magellan tagged along. It saved her from most of the Crown-Princess-has-to-have-archers-with-her-at-all-times problem. He never got lost, so she never got lost. Somehow the Saffron family had decided “not lost” meant “safe”.

Oh, she still got stuck with archers if their parents knew she would be in actual danger. Like rescuing unpredictable cupids on a tight deadline.

But their parents wouldn’t know. He and Saffy had signed away their talking rights.

“What if the cupids don’t want to go home?” Saffy asked.

She was on her game today. The cupids might be having a ball doing whatever cupids did. How would he and Saffy get them to go home?

The fairy godparents stiffened. Webb plucked a handkerchief out of his pocket and polished his gleaming briefcase. “Of course they’ll want to go home. Lost cupids don’t just hang around on ceilings—” Webb’s voice broke. He covered his mouth with his handkerchief.

Merrill took out his own handkerchief and polished his shiny shoes. “There’s no reason they wouldn’t want to go home. If they need any help, I mean if they get stuck, you can call us.”

Saffy opened her mouth, but Magellan caught her eye and gave a tiny shake of his head. When the fairy godparents started polishing their shoes, a direct question wasn’t going to help. Saffy shut her mouth and shrugged.

Magellan took the dragon’s snout in both hands and shook it gently back and forth. “You’re not always ready to go home either, are you?”

The dragon gave a huff of annoyance and tugged its head free.

“It would be better if the cupids came home before anyone realized they’d been here,” Merrill said. “They’ll be taking the long way home, because they don’t have Free Passage. Officially, that’s reserved for fairy godparents.”

“You’re giving us Free Passage?” Saffy looked thrilled.

Magellan perked up. Free Passage was the ability to cross the secret Border between the Fairy Kingdom and the Seven Kingdoms. He had plans to put that secret Border on a map someday.

“Actually—” Merrill looked at Webb.

Webb shook his head. “Under no circumstances.”

Merrill squared his shoulders and gave Saffy a respectful head bow. “Not at this time.”

“How about a map?” Magellan suggested.

The fairy godparents exchanged a look. “That wouldn’t be possible. You wouldn’t be able to read a fairy map.”

“It’s not necessary,” Webb said. “The cupids know their way home.”

Magellan had never met a map he couldn’t read. Wait—if the cupids knew their way home, they were not lost. They weren’t going home because they didn’t want to go home.

Before Magellan could get the words out, the fairy godparents flew off.

“Where should we start?” Saffy asked.

“Are you sure about this?” Magellan was willing to go along with what Saffy wanted to do. She was the Crown Princess and more than that, his twin sister. But this wasn’t his idea of a workable project. “We’re supposed to capture some dangerous cupids without attracting anyone’s attention and take them home. We don’t know where they are or where their home is. And they don’t sound like they want to go. Oh, yeah, and there’s a tight deadline.”

“Okay. You figure out where they are and where they have to go.” Saffy ticked it off on her fingers. “I’ll figure out how to round them up. That’s the part that’s worrying me.”

Magellan wasn’t surprised. Ranger Queen, here we come.

In his head, he pictured a map of the Seven Kingdoms, running through all the places the cupids could be. Rose Kingdom? Cochem? Indigo? Marigold? Blackfly? Or even their own kingdom?

“Once we find them, we could chase them home,” he said.

Saffy objected. “They can fly.”

Magellan patted the Saffron dragon. “So can we.”

scene separator VALENTINE

That's the end of the sample. To close this window, click anywhere on the purple background or on the X in the upper right-hand corner.

Get the whole story
audiobook cover