Rescue Princesses #3: The Moonlight Mystery Read Online Free PDF Page A

just as Lady Malika swept around the corner.
    “What are you all doing?” she asked, looking at the girls with narrowed eyes.
    “Nothing,” said Lulu.
    “Really, nothing at all,” added Emily.
    Tufty gave a little meow beneath Lulu’s dress, which Jaminta tried to drown out with a loud cough.
    “It’s nice to see you in a proper dress for a change, Lulu,” said Lady Malika.
    Lulu’s skirts shook as Tufty bounced around underneath, trying to find a way out. “Er … thank you, Aunt,” she said.
    Lady Malika frowned for a moment. Then she gave them one of her half smiles and walked away down the corridor.
    “That was close!” whispered Emily.
    Picking up Tufty, Lulu raced away, with the others following close behind.

    After taking the little lion cub back to Lulu’s bedroom, the princesses hurried out in the truck with Ally to search the grasslands again. To their disappointment, there was still no sign of the lioness or the missing cubs.
    As the sun began to set, they returned to the palace to eat dinner with the grown-ups and Prince Olaf. Afterward, they gathered in Lulu’s room, wearing pajamas. Their jeweled rings glimmered on their fingers. It was a hot night, and the windows were flung wide open to try to catch any faint breeze.
    “If only we’d found some kind of clue.” Lulu sighed, folding up the map of the grasslands.
    “Let’s try again tomorrow,” said Clarabel. “We’ll find them somehow.”
    There was a knock at the door, and Ally entered carrying a tray of sugared marzipan shaped into little flowers and stars. The girls settled down on Lulu’s bed to eat the candies. After his afternoon of mischief, Tufty had fallen fast asleep.
    Ally crossed to the window to close the curtain, but stopped and gasped when the full moon came out from behind a cloud. As shafts of moonlight hit the mountain, its enormous black shape began to shine, until the whole peak transformed into glittering silver.
    “What’s wrong, Ally?” Lulu leaned forward. In the moonlight she could see that Ally was very pale.
    Ally stared at the mountain. “So that’s why it’s called Shimmer Rock! I’m sorry, Your Majesties,” she smiled weakly. “It made me think of something from long ago.”
    “Why does Shimmer Rock sparkle like that, Lulu?” asked Jaminta.
    “Well, the stories say that there’s magic in the mountain,” said Lulu. “But if you go right up to it and look closely, you can see millions of tiny crystals inside the stone. The moonlight makes the crystals shine.”
    “What is it, Ally? You look so strange!” Emily peered at her.
    Ally hesitated. “I’ve heard about this mountain before,” she said slowly. “Although I didn’t know then that it was called Shimmer Rock. It all happened when I was working as an undercover agent searching for the missing Onica Heart Crystals.”
    “I remember you telling us about them before,” said Emily. “You said they’re the most famous missing jewels in the world!”
    “They were the most prized treasure in my kingdom, a long time ago,” added Jaminta, who came from Onica.
    “That’s right. They were very famous and highly prized jewels,” agreed Ally. “I was told that they’d been crafted out of gems that came from a ‘land of lions,’ but it was a secret exactly where that was. Now I think that maybe it was here.”
    “Those Heart Crystals must be very beautiful,” said Clarabel.
    “Maybe jewels could help us find the missing lions.” said Lulu excitedly. “How about your pearl, Clarabel? Remember how you used it to find the dolphin last time? Maybe you could use it to find the lions.”

    Clarabel shook her head. “It’s an ocean gem, so it only works for ocean creatures. Are there any other jewels that we could use, Jaminta?”
    The princesses all looked hopefully at Jaminta. She had great skill at shaping gems to give them a special power, something she had learned from a master gem maker at home in the kingdom of Onica.
    Jaminta