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the label, she cackled and said “Oh, Sleeping Heavenly Peas! Best investment I ever made. Certainly a better deal than those beans the troll king offered me. Beanstalks that grow into the sky? What on earth would you do with one of them?”
    “Grow beans too high to be stolen?” Katerina said, as she crossed from the chair and flopped onto her bed. She spread her red woolen skirts around her and picked at a loose thread.
    “Pish. He claimed they would lead to riches. From beans? Who needs riches when you have a throne?” Cauchemar put the jar back on the shelf and began running her long slender finger along the labels of the other jars. “Who needs beans when you can send silly little girls to sleep with a few measly peas? Who needs to worry about food when a whole kingdom waits on you hand and foot? Now, hurry and gather your things. I just need a few items from my supplies, and we’ll be ready to go.”
    “Gather my things? Ready to go where? Am I leaving the tower?” Katerina gasped as she leaped up from the bed.
    “Keep up, child. I said it’s time to take your place on the throne. You can’t very well do that from in here, now can you? We’re headed to my other home.”
    “But Auntie, I’m not a princess. I’ve no claim to a throne. How can I just take one?”
    “Well, of course you can’t just take it. That would require an entire army. I have power, but not like that. I said ‘take your place on a throne.’ You, my dear, have a power greater than an army of ten thousand men.”
    “Magic?”
    “No. You have an aunt with ambition who has planned well for you. Though, I admit, magic has helped.”
    “I still don’t understand,” Katerina said, as she crossed the tower to the window. Leaning out, she saw Peter’s lantern flickering behind the row of bushes. Glancing over her shoulder to check that Cauchemar was still caught up in her jars, she motioned to Peter to dim the lantern. Then she pointed at her ear, signaling him to listen carefully.
    “Do I have to spell everything out for you?” Cauchemar groused, as she turned from the shelves toward the girl. “All beauty and no brains, I think, just like your…” she mumbled as she crossed to the window.
    “I’m sorry, Auntie. It’s just, I spend so much time memorizing your rules that it crowds other things out of my brain. Please, come sit with me here on the window sill and explain it all to me. I’m frightened to be out in the world. I feel so safe here in my tower; I might feel better if I knew where I was going and why.”
    “Oh, very well. A little night air will do me some good. Scoot over,” Cauchemar said, as she bumped the girl to the side with her hip and sat on the sill. “Where do I start?”
    “Follow your rule. ‘Skip the prattle and endless natter. Make them get right to the heart of the matter.’”
    “Very good, child!” Cauchemar beamed and patted the girl on the knee. “Fine. There is a young prince that is seeking… well, no… not seeking… let’s say in need of a bride. You’ll be that bride.”
    “But why would he marry me? He’s never met me. I’m not even a princess.”
    “What have I told you!” The old woman slapped the girl lightly on the hand. “You are a princess. I’ve trained you to be a princess. You must believe you are a princess and, most importantly, say you are a princess.”
    “And if I just show up, he will believe me and marry me?”
    “No. Of course not,” Cauchemar said, rolling her eyes. “But I have laid the groundwork for that. You’ll pass the test.”
    “A test?” Katerina cried out. “I haven’t studied for any test.”
    “But you have, my dear. All you must do is stay awake all night, as I have had you do for these past two years.”
    Katerina looked at her aunt, her brow wrinkling. “That makes no sense.”
    Cauchemar grunted and leaned her head against the windowsill. “There is an old legend that a true princess is so sensitive she can feel a pea beneath