“It wasn’t, at first,” the stone prince admitted. “I had special tutors in all sorts of interesting things to prepare me for being of great service to a king. My father even sent me to a special school for people who’re supposed to do special things.”

“Did you do well?”

“I was the top of my class,” the stone prince said with a flash of pride. His face fell again. “That’s part of the problem.”

“I don’t understand,” Cimorene said. “This way. And can you walk a little faster, please? I’m in a hurry.”

“It’s been three years since I graduated, and everyone’s still waiting for me to do something spectacular,” the stone prince said, lengthening his stride. “The rest of my classmates are already making names for themselves. George started killing dragons right away, and Art went straight home and pulled some sort of magic sword out of a rock. Even the ones nobody expected to amount to much have done something. All Jack wanted to do was go back to his mother’s farm and raise beans, and he ended up stealing a magic harp and killing a giant and all sorts of things. I’m the only one who hasn’t succeeded.”

“Why not?”

The stone prince sighed again. “I don’t know. At first it seemed as if I wouldn’t have any trouble finding a king to serve. Every time there was a war, both kings asked me to lead their armies, and every king for miles around who’d lost his throne to a usurper sent a messenger to my father’s court. It should have been simple. Only they were always so worried about whether I was going to side with their enemies that it was easier not to pick anyone.”

“I see,” said Cimorene. Privately she thought that the stone prince had been rather wishy-washy.

Some of her opinion must have crept into her tone because the stone prince nodded glumly. “You’re right. It was a mistake. As long as I didn’t pick a king to serve, all the messengers and ambassadors and envoys stayed, hoping to persuade me. The inns around the castle were stuffed with them. It got to the point where I couldn’t show my face without at least three of them pouncing on me.

“Finally I couldn’t stand it any more, and I ran away. It was a relief at first, not having everyone hovering over me waiting for me to do something great. But after a while I started feeling uncomfortable. Then I realized that even if nobody around me expected me to do anything special in the service of a king, I expected me to do something.