“So, audiences aren’t usually this big?” Kai asked Amira now, as a mob of teenagers shoved past them to get to the few remaining seats.
“Nope,” said Amira. “It’s usually just us, a few diehard statistics nuts, and the last handful of marriage hopefuls.” She indicated the row of beautiful debutantes shivering under thick blankets and furs on the front bench with homemade signs indicating their preference for Prince Cyrus or Prince Chase. “Everyone reads about the games and talks about the games without bothering to attend. But, you know. Everything about this year is different.”
This year, the Royals team wasn’t just made up of Cyrus, Chase and their closest friends and cousins: this year, they had a Princess on theirside.
Seventeen-year-old Princess Camilla of Charming had recently returned to public life. Her dark hair had been styled into something trim and fashionable, but she still looked more bohemian artist than Royal daughter, with her tattooed arms and her mocking, sarcastic ways. Kai glanced across to her now, just as Camilla leaned over and shared a fist-bump with two of her teammates: Serena, Countess of Argyll, and Gawain of Gaheris. Both were distant Charming cousins, and favourites of the Princes.
Kai liked Princess Camilla a lot. Even though her life had become so busy and complicated since she embraced royal duty, she still made time to help him understand the magical affinity for ink that they both shared. He could not quite believe that she had let her brothers talk her into this activity — but Camilla was laughing as Cyrus shoved a spiky helmet over her fashionablehair.
“She’s pretty,” said Amira with an arch expression.
Kai rolled his eyes at her. “Please don’t.” There was nothing about Camilla of Charming that was remotely close to histype.
“Don’t worry,” smirked Amira. “No one will accuse you of treason or journalistic bias if you cheer for the Hounds instead.”
Because yes, there was Kai’s type, on the other side of the pitch. The blond, wide-shouldered Hound cadet Dennis was wrapped in leather and about to take to the field in a crazy game of spikes and kicking. Kai let his eye linger for a moment before he blushed and looked away. “That’s not happening either.”
He had thought it might, but they had settled comfortably into being friends, and that was fine. It was enough. He knew better than to expectmore.
“Such a disappointment to me, Kai,” Amira said gravely, shaking her head. “If I can’t live vicariously through your romantic exploits, I’m going to have to get myself a girlfriend, and who has time for that nonsense?”
The whistle blew, and the game began. Kai tried to follow it, but there were three spiked leather balls in play, and he couldn’t remember how many points were scored if a ball hit a side post before being knocked into one of the wide pits in the grass, or when a ball was hurled into one of the three ‘nests’ that were suspended over the icy pitch. There was a whole lot of terrifying, well-padded violence. After Dennis got a bloody nose from catching a spike to the face, Kai decided he couldn’t even watch anymore.
His eye was drawn to the side of the pitch, where the Sarge stood observing “his” team as if he wished he could be out there with the other Hounds. Sergeant Clay had broken his leg playing two years in a row, and both teams (including the King himself) ganged up on him, declaring he should stick to coaching from now on. Given that this was the one time in their lives that both princes had agreed with their father on anything, Sarge had graciously givenin.
Kai frowned as a tall, brown stranger approached the Sarge. The man had a military look about him, all handsome competence and shoulders beneath a soft blue turban. Like Sarge, this man’s face was hard-worn for someone who couldn’t be near fortyyet.
Sarge was startled to see the other man. They exchanged a professional handshake and an awkward half-hug, then promptly started arguing with each other. Eventually, the Sarge stormed off, dragging his acquaintance with him. Friend or enemy? It was hard totell.
“Is that a story?” Amira asked, leaning against Kai’s shoulder without taking her own eyes off thegame.
“You never know,” Kai muttered.
One thing he had learned since coming to work at Castle Charming: everything was a story, but the most interesting ones could never make it to the frontpage.
Coming Soon: Let Sleeping PrincesLie
Castle Charming #3
* * *
Spring at Castle Charming means spinning wheel season… which is bad news for the royal family (who are definitely cursed) and extra bad news for Kai, who has no idea he’s a member of the royal family. All he wants to do is hang out with his boyfriend, learn magic, and write stories for the Charming Herald… but when the royal curse finally takes its next victim, it doesn’t matter who gets the exclusive.
You can listen to the new Castle Charming serial right now for free on the Sheep Might Fly podcast… or wait until May 2018 when the book will be released! (my Patreon subscribers get the book a month early, just saying)
Also by Tansy Rayner Roberts
CASTLE CHARMING
Glass Slipper Scandal
Dance, Princes, Dance
Let Sleeping Princes Lie (coming in May2018)
* * *
BELLADONNA UNIVERSITY
Fake GeekGirl
Unmagical Boy Story
The Bromancers
* * *
MOCKLORE
The Mocklore Omnibus
Ink Black Magic
Bounty
* * *
MUSKETEERS IN SPACE
Musketeer Space
Joyeux
* * *
SHORT FICTION:
Love and Romanpunk
Please Look After This Angel & other winged stories
* * *
SUPERHEROES:
Kid Dark Against The Machine
Girl Reporter
* * *
NON-FICTION & ESSAYS
It’s Raining Musketeers
Pratchett’s Women
About the Author
Tansy Rayner Roberts is an award-winning author and critic who lives in Tasmania, Australia with her family. She has a PhD in Classics, which she misused scurrilously to create the short story collection: Love and Romanpunk. She writes about, though not exclusively, pirates, witches, superheroes, fairy tale newspapers and magical share houses. When not writing, she runs a literary gift shop: Alice & Austen.
You can listen to Tansy across three different podcasts: Galactic Suburbia, providing a feminist point-of-view of the SF publishing world; Verity! six smart women talking about Doctor Who; and Sheep Might Fly, where Tansy reads aloud her stories as audio serials.
Sign up to Tansy’s newsletter and collect a free copy of her magical university story Fake GeekGirl.
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Acknowledgments
The writing of this story and production of this book was funded by the pledges of some wonderful Patreon supporters. You are all my favourites.
Thanksto:
Aifin
Alison Moore
Amy Hannam
Belle McQuattie
Bliss Ehrlich
Cary J Lenehan
Cat Sparks
Charlotte Ashley
Chris Bobridge & Alisa Krasnostein
D Franklin
Damien Saunders
Deborah Layne
Elanor Matton-Johnson
ErinKent
Faith Williams
Grant Watson
Heather Berberet
Heidi Stabb
IanMond
Jay Watson
Jenni Hughes
KarenHall
Karen McKenna
Karin Landelius
Kate Gordon
Katharine
Kevin Lossner
Lara Hopkins
Laura
MarkWebb
Matthew
Megan Hungerford
Melina
Mick Green
Mieneke van derSalm
Mihaela Marija Perkovic
Mike Thompson
Mindy Johnson
Miriam Mulcahy
Narrelle Harris
Not_the_brain
Pamela Freeman
Paul Weimer
Rebecca
Rebecca Harbison
Rivqa Rafael
ScottLeis
Scott Lynch
Tania Duffield
Tehani Croft