Princess Academy Read Online Free PDF Page A

said, “Then let’s have no more nonsense and in you go.”
    As soon as Olana was beyond earshot, Katar turned to glare at the girls. “And try not to act so ignorant,” she hissed.
    Miri stared down as she entered the building, letting the tip of her boot slide across a floorstone—white as cream, with the palest streaks of rose. It seemed remarkable that with no one to tend it, the stone had held its luster for so many decades. The villagers had to clean and oil the wooden chapel doors regularly to keep them undamaged.
    Olana led the girls through the cavernous house, warning them to stay silent. The walls and floor were bare, and Olana’s voice and the click of her boot heels echoed over Miri’s head and under her feet, making her feel surrounded.
    “The building is too large for our needs,” said Olana, indicating that most of the dozen or more chambers would be left closed and unused so they would not need to be heated through the winter. The academy would confine itself to three main rooms.
    They followed Olana into a long room that would serve as a bedchamber. Several rows of pallets lay on the floor. The far wall held one hearth for warmth and one window facing home. Miri mused that the girls on pallets farthest from the fire would be mighty cold.
    “I have a separate bedchamber just down the corridor, and if I hear noises at night, I . . .” Olana paused, an expression of disgust crawling over her face. “What a stench! Do you people live with goats?”
    They did, of course, live with goats. No one had the time to build a separate house for the goats, and having them indoors helped both the goats and the people keep warm in the winter. Do I really stink? Miri looked away and prayed no one would answer.
    “Well, a few days here might air out the odor. One can hope.”
    Next they visited the huge chamber in the center of the building that would serve as a dining hall. A large hearth with a carved linder headpiece was the only indication that the room might have been grand once. Now it was bare but for simple wood tables and benches.
    “This is Knut, the academy’s all-work man,” said Olana.
    A man stepped through the adjacent kitchen doorway and cast his gaze up and down as though unsure if he should meet their eyes. His hair was gray around his temples and in his beard, and he gripped a stirring spoon in his right hand in a way that reminded Miri of her pa with his mallet.
    “He will be very busy,” said Olana, “as will you all, so don’t waste time addressing him.”
    The introduction seemed brusque to Miri, so she smiled at Knut as they left, and he returned a flicker of a smile.
    Olana led the girls back through the main corridor and into a large room with three glass windows and two hearths. Wood fires were a rare luxury in the village, and the smoke was fresh and inviting. Six rows of chairs with wooden boards secured to their arms filled up most of the space. At the head of the room, a shelf of leather-bound books hung over a table and chair.
    Olana directed them to sit in rows according to their age. Miri took her seat on a row with Esa and the two other fourteen-year-olds, put her hands in her lap, and tried to appear attentive.
    “I will begin with the rules,” said Olana. “There will be absolutely no talking out of turn. If you have a question, you will keep it to yourself until I ask for questions. Any nonsense, any mischief, any disobedience, will result in punishment.
    “This teaching position was supposed to be an honor. I’ll have you know I left a post at the royal palace tutoring the prince’s own cousins to climb up here and baby-sit dusty goat girls, though I suppose you don’t even know what the royal palace is.”
    Miri sat up straighter. She knew what the palace was—a very big house with a lot of rooms where the king lived.
    “Well, deserved or not, you are now part of a historic undertaking. In the past two centuries, the princess academy has merely been a