The oath was just that, and more. There was mention of magical backlash should any lady attempt to break their word, either through leaving without permission or by not giving the Trials their full effort. There would be no half-assing these tests to deliberately get eliminated; everyone was now here to win.

“The first trial begins now and concludes at the end of the week with a final test,” Lady Savannah, an older woman with impeccably styled gray hair and a deep green velvet gown, informed us. She'd pushed her jewel-studded mask up onto her hair, and the age lines around her eyes were clear to see.

A small part of my mind wandered as she spoke, pondering on whether she'd been a part of the last queen's household or if Filamina had brought her on when she ascended the throne.

Technically, King Titus and Queen Filamina were royals in their own right; however, their kingdom had been a much, much smaller land mass than Teich was. When the last queen had been murdered and her daughter disappeared, they’d stepped in to fill the void and had done the best they could to maintain the balance of nature with royal magic.

“This first week focuses on training. Certain skills are required of a royal, so each day, beginning today, you will be given a brief introduction to a new skill and then tested on your mastery of it come sundown. In the evenings, you'll dine with the royals themselves, and that shall be your chance to get to know your prospective husband, lord, and king.” Lady Savannah sounded like she barely even remembered the days when our queen had ruled overall and never took a king. Times sure had changed.

“Ma'am?” One of the girls—a mousy sort of girl who smelled vaguely like ink and parchment—raised her hand tentatively, and Lady Savannah nodded to her. “How will girls be getting eliminated? There are still twenty-one of us here, so I am guessing there is about seven each week who will go?”

“Very observant, Lady...” Savannah trailed off, raising her eyebrows in question.

“Agatha, ma'am. Lady Agatha of Rockford.” The mousy girl announced her title with a hint of pride that made me smile. She clearly loved her home and wasn't ashamed to proclaim it.

Lady Savannah nodded. “Lady Agatha is indeed correct; each night the lady with the lowest competency in that day’s training subject will be eliminated. At the end of the week, there will be a final trial that sums up everything you have learned. The lowest score on that will also go home, but the highest... well, the highest scoring lady will spend the night with one of the princes.”

Girlish giggles broke out among my companions, but I tasted bile. Were they serious? The lucky winner of the first trial got the privilege of spending a night in a prince’s bed like a common whore? What the hell kind of game was this?

“Now, now,” Lady Savannah chuckled, holding her palms up to silence the chatter. “Nothing unseemly, of course. Just a chance for one-on-one time to... talk. Get to know each other without the outside distractions of tests and eliminations.”

I couldn't stop a huge eyeroll at this line. Nothing unseemly? Who was she kidding? Had she never met those three smooth-talking, walking hard-ons?

“Let's get you going now to the first training which will be in”—she paused to consult her notes— “in botany. Quickly now, ladies, straight over to the greenhouse with you.”

A stunning girl with raven-black hair made an outraged sound, propping her hands on her hips. “We don't get to change first? You can't possibly expect me to do gardening like some commoner while dressed like this. This dress is silk. Do you know what happens when you get mud on silk?” The arrogant sneer to her lip said she was seriously not used to taking orders from anyone. This... could be entertaining.

“I do, Lady Gracelin,” the older woman responded with a withering smile. “I also know what happens when you defy the royals. Now, move.” Her command snapped out like a whip, and the dark-haired beauty—Lady Gracelin—looked like she'd been slapped.

The bitchy part of me wanted to smirk at her being told off, but I had better sense of self-preservation than that. These ladies were technically my competition, yes. But I didn't want to win this ridiculous game, and they were my best chance of making sure that didn't happen.

Not that I considered myself even remotely in the running to win this damn thing, but with the binding oath forcing us to try our hardest and my out-of-the-ordinary intuition working on my side, I needed to do everything I could to help someone else win. Just in case.

“What sort of queen requires botany?” one girl, a pretty blonde with delicate features, pondered aloud as we all walked across the palace grounds in the weak morning sunlight. “Unless maybe it's floral arranging? I could see that as a valid skill, and it’s already something I'm quite accomplished at.”

“I highly doubt it's flower arranging,” the mousy girl that had spoken earlier commented. “That doesn't really seem important enough to include in the Trials.”

The blonde bristled and planted her hands on her hips. “I'll have you know, Lady Agatha, that floral arrangement is an art form and one that should never be underestimated. You can't just trust your house staff to slap a bunch of flowers in a vase and be done with it.”

The mousy girl, Agatha, rolled her eyes, and I hid a smile. She had more spunk than I'd originally given her credit for.

“I'm sure we will soon find out,” a pretty redhead interrupted before things could turn nasty between Agatha and the blonde. Actually, each of the twenty other ladies still currently competing for the crown—and a prince's hand in marriage—were stunningly beautiful, which made sense, given the blindfolded inspection we'd all just been subjected to.

Considering we had been expected not to speak, and I didn't see any other likely rulebreakers in this group, that inspection could’ve only had to do with physical appearance.

There really wasn't much more time to debate or ponder anyway as we approached the impressive glass structure that was the palace greenhouse. The double doors stood open, and several men in palace uniforms pottered around, doing whatever they did to tend the plants. All twenty-one of us entered and made our way down the rows of plants until we reached the end where a bunch of cushions were placed on upturned crates. A quick glance around told me I wasn’t the only one curious about today’s lesson.

“You have got to be kidding me,” the haughty Lady Gracelin from earlier scoffed as she eyed up the seating that had been laid out. “I am not sitting on that dirty cushion. Is this a joke or something? We are aristocrats, for Reichan's sake.”

Agatha rolled her eyes again, brushing past Gracelin and choosing a seat. I smothered my own smile over her swearing to Reichan, god of wealth. Figures.

“Either you sit on that dirty cushion or you stand for the next six hours, Lady Gracelin,” a man responded, joining our group with his arms loaded full of leather-bound notebooks. Several women just gawked at him, but some took his suggestion and snagged themselves the more comfortable looking seats before they disappeared.

For my part, I squinted at the man curiously. There was something about his voice that sounded almost... familiar. I couldn't quite place my finger on it though. Perhaps we'd crossed paths in the Pond? But what a palace gardener would be doing in the slums of Lakehaven, I had no idea.

While I scrutinized him, I saw the moment his shoe clipped a plant pot and the stack of notebooks began to topple from his pile. Lunging forward, I managed to catch a few while he regained his balance, then placed them back on the top of his pile with a small smile.

“Thank you, er, Lady Callaluna, isn't it?” He gave me a lopsided smile that did indescribable things to my insides as I made the mistake of meeting his eyes. They were a vibrant, clear blue—the color of a summer sky—and seemed to hold me locked in place for far longer than what would be deemed acceptable for an actual lady.

Breaking his gaze and desperately trying not to blush, I nodded. “Yes, sir. Lady Callaluna of...” I hesitated. Where the hell was Lady Callaluna from, again?

“Of Riverdell,” he finished for me, his lips still holding that slightly secretive smile. “Of course. Please, take a seat; we have a lot to cover this morning.”

Riverdell. Yes! Must remember that... Come to think of it, I really needed a hell of a lot more information on my new identity in general. Hopefully Mistress Mallard was going to follow through on her promise to train me up for this role.

Pursing my lips together to keep from betraying myself as a Pond dweller through speech alone, I sat my expensively dressed butt down on a cushion beside Agatha and tried really damn hard not to check out the young gardener's ass when he bent over to pick up the one notebook I’d missed.

“Welcome, ladies,” he greeted us all after he'd stacked his notebooks on an empty crate. “I will be your tutor for botany and alchemy. You can call me Lee.” He scanned all twenty-one of us with his stunning blue eyes, and I could swear he hesitated a little longer on me. But maybe that was wishful thinking on my part.

Damn, I really was sex starved.

It had never really been something I'd thought that much about before, never been something I craved, like Juliana claimed she did. Sure, I'd done it a couple of times before, but I couldn't say I'd really enjoyed it... But this morning, first with the princes and now here with Lee the gardener, I was starting to wonder if I had been doing things all wrong.

“This morning, until we break for lunch, you'll be learning all about plants that can be utilized for both healing and harming. This is a subject that is very dear to one of the prince's hearts, so you'd do well to pay attention and learn. You never know when the knowledge you gain here today will save your life.” Lee continued addressing us all with a certain air of confidence that told me all I needed to know about his position as a tutor in these trials. He clearly knew what he was talking about.

Lee began handing out the notebooks to each of us, and I took the opportunity to check him out a little more. He was taller than me, but that wasn't hard. I was average height for a lady, and he had at least a head on me. His frame was lean but strong, his tanned forearms visible from under his rolled-up shirtsleeves showed firm muscles, which had doubtlessly been built up over time in the gardens here. I wasn’t foolish enough to think that the gardeners had an easy job, especially considering how well-maintained everything was.

“I'll be presenting each species to you as we discuss them. I recommend you make thorough notes or, perhaps, sketch what they look like.” His eyes caught on mine as he said this, and I got the feeling that was a loaded suggestion. Less if you like and more this is what you need to do to succeed.

His sunshine-streaked, honey-blond hair flopped over his forehead, and he broke eye contact to brush it away while I ducked my head to my notebook. It was a shame I sucked at drawing, but maybe this would be a good lesson for me to fail. Smiling to myself, I closed the notebook again, intending to take no notes.

As soon as the thought about deliberately failing this botany class entered my head, a sharp stabbing sensation lanced through my body, and I screamed in pain, falling to the dirt floor in a heap.

“What in Zryn's balls was that?” I groaned, then clamped a hand over my mouth. Certainly a lady wouldn't be swearing to the god of wrath's testicles. Or maybe one would, had she felt what I'd just experienced.

“That, Lady Callaluna,” Lee murmured quietly as he knelt to help me up out of the dirt, “is what happens when you consider breaking the binding oath. Stings, huh?”

“You know what it feels like?” I frowned up at him while half-heartedly brushing dirt from my dress.

Lee shrugged. “You'd be amazed how often those binding oaths are used around the palace. That was just a warning shock; it'll be worse next time.”

“You were thinking about leaving?” Gracelin exclaimed, folding her arms over her impressive chest and staring at me like I was clinically insane. She was perched on the very edge of a crate like she was afraid it would bite her. “What idiot would give up their chance at being queen because of a stupid plant class?”

Feeling my cheeks warm and cursing my pale complexion, I ground my teeth together and tried not to verbally flay this arrogant airhead. “I wasn't,” I gritted out. “It must have been a mistake.”

Lee watched me with narrowed eyes a moment longer, and I ducked my head back down to my notebook, flipping it back open once more. So much for that idea.

Thankfully, he began his lecture moments later, and the stares and whispers moved off me as everyone gave the handsome gardener their full attention.

For the next six hours, he instructed us in countless flowers, herbs, roots, and seeds. Some held impressive, almost unbelievable healing qualities, while others could kill a man, or woman, dead in seconds.

As it was turning out, this class was proving to be more interesting than I had really anticipated. Several of the deadly plants I was already familiar with from the Pond, although I’d had no idea they could be used as a poison. That was definitely information I stored for a later date.

“Ladies,” Lee addressed us, standing from his own crate, where he'd sat cross-legged all morning to lecture. “That concludes the first half of the day. You are now invited to lunch with Her Majesty Queen Filamina. After that, your test of today's class will commence.” He paused, and his lush lips tightened a fraction. “I'm sure I don't need to impress upon you the importance of doing well in these tests. Losing... does not bear a desirable outcome.”

His eyes were burning into the top of my head as he said this, but I kept my gaze securely locked on my notebook in my lap. I'd given enough away already, and it was only day one, for Aana's sake.

Now, I just needed to make it through lunch with the queen without betraying myself as an imposter.