Q is for Queen Kira #AtoZChallenge

Q is for Queen Kira of Castle Marsh

In a nutshell: Queen Kira of Castle Marsh (formerly Princess Kira of Chateau Dimerie); elegant, steady, determined and feisty princess who uses her logical brain as well as her emotional intelligence.  She is the rock on which Castle Marsh’s king (Fred) bases all his good work.  And she’s really nice with it!
Biggest secret: She knows Fred’s brother, Prince Engineer George, loves her too.  There’s nothing so sad as a gentle soul suffering from unrequited love.

First discovered in the Princelings and the Pirates, when Fred saves her from being held hostage by the pirate king.  She then has a heart-rending adventure in Princelings and the Lost City, when the victim of kidnap (yet again), but brings her influence to bear on her captors to get them to change.

Excerpt from The Princelings and the Lost City: 

[Princess Kira has been kidnapped by the Queen of Arbor, and now kidnapped again by some rebels causing Arbor trouble]

Princess Kira sat in the entrance to the cave, thinking.  Rosebud and Maisy were sitting a little behind her, chatting quietly together.  They seem to have got over their initial shock and were reliving the day’s events so far, starting with the concert.

Kira’s main thoughts at present were that she knew enough about Arbor’s problems to persuade someone like Lady Nimrod to help solve them.  She also recognised that she didn’t have a complete picture of the situation, and she still didn’t know what Jess’s mission was, or what would happen to her if Jess failed.

What mission would I send Jess on if I were queen of Arbor, she thought.  Why would I need to impersonate a princess in order to carry out the mission?

The main benefits of impersonating a princess, she decided, were to gain access to people that princess knew, and to be able to move around the circles of power in the way that princess did.  So no one would think it in any way peculiar if Princess Kira wanted to visit … whom for help?  Nimrod of course.  She recalled what the Queen had said about her particular attributes.  Access to Lady Nimrod was surely a major benefit of having captured her, rather than another princess, although Lady Nimrod was extraordinarily well travelled and it might be she knew most princesses.  Remembering what Lupin and Fred had said about the princesses whom Lupin had entertained in the process of selecting a bride, it sounded highly likely that Lady Nimrod knew absolutely everyone, Kira thought with a grin.

So if Jess was off to see Lady Nimrod at Buckmore, when would she get there? Well, if Fred stayed at Marsh as long as he had been planning it would be weeks yet, and in any case she would have to persuade him to take her back to Buckmore instead of going straight to Dimerie.  Or she could cut short her trip to Marsh and say she needed to get to Dimerie then go to Buckmore from there, Kira thought.  Probably a better idea.  It would also depend on the opportunities that arose, though.  But it did mean that it was probably at least a week to go till Jess got to speak to Nimrod.  Kira looked out at the young males in the clearing below and the guard dozing in the sunshine.  The girls behind her had also stopped chatting, and were dozing as well.  Well, it was siesta time in Arbor, thought Kira, and the flies did buzz rather soporifically.

Kira spent a few more seconds planning.  She knew the way they had come into the forest from Arbor.  She knew the way from Arbor to the clearing at the end of the tunnel to Seventh Happiness.  She had spotted another track leading off to the west as they had come into the Huguenots’ clearing.  Should she go back the way she had come or trust to luck and take a more direct route back towards Buckmore?  She thought about the distances involved, and decided to do something unexpected.
She slipped out of the cave, avoided the sleeping guard, skirted the clearing, and headed off on the path going west.  She was hidden from the view of the other Huguenots within seconds.

Buy The Princelings and the Lost City

▪   at Amazon.com

▪   at AmazonUK

▪   at Barnes & Noble for Nook

▪   on the Apple iBookstore

▪   at Kobo

▪   and of course in all formats at Smashwords

▪   links from Goodreads, IAN and Kindleboards

Buy the paperback at Amazon.com or BookDepository or order at your local store

Thanks, Jemima, for sending Queen Kira along to rescue my "Q" day! And here's my 2013 review of Lost City.

I'm doing a very simple A to Z with characters from my writing and the books of my author friends--and Jemima Pett gets the credit for the idea! I'm just posting a brief profile, sometimes a quote, and the book cover with links. Though you may also see some of my typical reviews (when I feature other peoples’ books) and the usual Friday Flash Fiction.