1 A Secret Mission

The Lost Stone

CHAPTER 1

A Secret Mission Prince Lucas raced up the spiral stone staircase in the castle to his bedroom. He kneeled on the floor and then pulled a pile of clothes out from under his bed. There was a pair of worn trousers, a shabby shirt, a felt hat, scruffy leather boots, and a wool cloak. Lucas had gotten the clothes for a handful of coins from a boy in the village. Now the prince stood before a mirror and tried on the hat. This outfit will make me look like a normal eight-year-old boy, he thought. Nobody will ever know that I'm the prince of Wrenly.

And that was the problem. Lucas had grown bored of being a prince. Most kids would think, He must be CRAZY! Lucas had everything a boy or girl could wish for: a cozy goose-feather bed, toys fit for a prince, the best cooks in the land to make his meals, and a view of the sea from the top of his turret. Lucas even had his very own horse, named Ivan. But there was one thing the prince did not have.... Friends. Lucas wanted a friend more than anything in the world. He'd had a friend once—a pretty, green-eyed girl named Clara Gills. Clara's mother, Anna, made dresses for Lucas's mother, Queen Tasha. Anna always

brought Clara when she came to the castle. Clara and Lucas had played hide-and-seek and twirled on the swings in the royal playroom. But not anymore. Lucas's father, King Caleb, had forbidden it. He had said a proper prince does not play with village children. Lucas had cried until his nose got stuffy. So day after day Lucas watched the village children walk to and from school. Sometimes they stopped at the bakery for breadsticks. In the afternoons Lucas watched the children climb trees and play tag in the meadows. How he longed to laugh and play along with them!

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