Page 79 of Tall, Royal and Grumpy

Riddle six took us to the larder room in the kitchen. On the way, we passed a group of children excitedly searching for the answer to their own riddle. The girls and boys whined and grumbled as Kareem mock scolded them for trying to cheat by asking us for help. A small smile touched my mouth as he spoke to them. Though my heart hurt for the little girl who had hoped every day for years that her brother would ruffle her hair affectionately the way he did as he sent the children off.

By the time we worked out riddle eleven, Kareem and I were running around with nearly as much excitement as the children, sure we were on target for a possible win. I couldn’t say it was like we had gone back to the way it was when we were children, but it was definitely the best our relationship had been since.

We were siblings again, not King Kareem and Crown Princess Esmeralda. Albeit siblings who had drifted apart, but still.

“I see it. I see it!” I called out to Kareem, grinning as I pointed at the red envelope. It was tied to a low branch on a cherry blossom tree on the far eastern side of the gardens. “And there’s two! Number nine. Someone hasn’t been here yet.”

Kareem came running over from the other cherry blossom he had been frantically searching, but I was already climbing onto the wooden bench under it. I took a wobbly step onto the armrest for added height to untie the string from around the letter marked with a big gold star.

“Esmeralda, be careful,” Kareem rumbled, suddenly appearing before me.

Two tugs on the string and the last riddle slipped into my fingers. “I got it.” I flashed the side with star on it to him above his head. Once he helped me down, I handed him the envelope. “Quickly, read it, read it, read it.”

Kareem tore open the envelope. “I live on my back and face the sky. Day and night. Stuck in my place, frozen in time. I have kept a thousand kisses secret in my lifetime and collected the tears of a million clouds. Sound too vague? Well, change your perspective and think. For I am the lion above the kings and queens, and you measly ants will get nothing more from me. Other than the pretty yellow prize. If you can find me, that is.”

My upper lip lifted in confusion. “What?”

Kareem let out a baffled puff of air and read it again slowly. And then again and again, but we were both coming up blank for any ideas to where the riddle led to.

“What always faces the sky?” I asked, trying to comb out a tangle in my wind-ruffled hair.

“Everything that is outside and inanimate,” Kareem said with a wave of his hand around us.

“Somewhere where you would go to kiss in secret.”

Kareem widened his eyes. “I don’t know why you’re looking at me for an answer. You’re the only one who’s been kissing someone recently out of the both of us. Where did you go?”

An indistinct sound fell out of my hanging mouth as my face flushed in embarrassment. I was too shocked to even process what I was shocked over. That he was bringing up Kai so casually or that that was the closest thing to a joke I’d heard from Kareem, like everything else, in forever.

“We didn’t go anywhere specific,” I squeaked, flinging my hands out.

Kareem waved the torn envelope around. “Okay, okay, forget that. Why does it say, ‘change your perspective and think’?”

“It’s a place that lays on its back and faces the sky, so maybe we’re supposed to do the same. Maybe lie on the bench and say what you can see?” Kareem handed me the envelope and flopped onto his back on the bench with a grunt. He hooked one leg over the armrest. “What do you see?”

“What you’d expect to see. The sky, clouds, trees.”

“You can’t stand on those, Kareem. Look for somewhere you can stand and kiss someone.”

“I don’t know.” He threw a frustrated hand up. “There’s only the palace. The balconies or the rooftop terrace.”

“What’s the ‘lion above the kings and queens’?” I asked, brows furrowed in thought. “Isn’t there a lion on Touma’s crest?”

“Touma’s crest?” Kareem echoed, and I looked up to find him squinting at something. Then his eyes popped. “The crest…I can see the crest on the rooftop.”

I twirled on my feet and followed the direction of his stare. And damn, he was right.

Touma’s shield-shaped crest with a golden lion sitting atop a column in front of a big, sprawling tree could be seen from where we were stood. Stuck to the front of the small building on top of the white terrace rooftop that had two flag poles sticking up high out of it.

I sucked in a breath, realising something else. “You can kiss someone in secret on the rooftop. It’s always facing the sky too.”

“The prize is on the rooftop.”

There was no second-guessing our deduction. Kareem was scrambling up and we were running back through the garden, yelling excitedly at each other.

“But how are we going to get up there?” Kareem said from my side just as we reached the single door entrance on the right side of the palace. “We don’t know the way.”

“I think—I think I know one way up,” I said, eyes darting around the palace’s red, gold, and off-white fairy tale interior before I was running down the left corridor. “Kai took me once.”

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