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Plot

The story is told in 3rd person from Miri Larendaughter’s point of view. She has always been fascinated by quarry speech, a thing that the workers used as a way of talking without speaking aloud because they had clay in their ears so they wouldn’t go deaf from the mallet blows. She though quarry speech only work in the quarry, for telling each other to “lighten the blow” or such. She longed to work in the quarry or use quarry speech. Miri and all of the villagers believes all lowlanders to be rude and arrogant because she has only met the traders, who treat them like their barely worthy of their time, the kings men who mock the way they live and Olana (the academy tutor) who acts like they need to be fixed. The priest in the kingdom capital devised that the prince’s future bride with be on Mount Eskel. She along with all the village girls between the ages of 12 and 17.5 are sent to the academy to be prepared for the prince..

On the first day Gerti got sent to the closet for asking a question out of turn. During the next lesson Gerti was struggling and Miri went over to help her. Olana got mad because Miri was speaking out of turn. She gave them both lashes and when Miri spoke out about how unfair this was, she got more lashes on her other hand. She cost the academy girls the last trip home before the snow because she spoke out again and Olana caught her. Because she cost the girls the last trip home before spring all the girls were angry at her and stopped speaking to her. Because all the girls were mad at her, she spent all her breaks inside learning to read. She took a book of fairy tales from Olana’s shelf and starts trying to read it. She spends all her breaks and stays up late learning to read that book. One day during break, she is caught returning Olana’s book and is sent to the closet. She used quarry speech while in the closet and got Gerti to get Olana, to get her out. She spends all her free time trying to figure out how quarry speech works. At first she thought in only works in the quarry, and then she thought it worked if you sang into Linder. But the she figured it out that it works through memories to convey messages. She finds a book on commerce and realized the trader have been cheating them out of money and supplies.

All the girls are given a test to see whether or not they can go home for spring holiday and the only one who passed were Miri and Katar. Katar was ready to leave all the other girls but Miri wouldn’t leave. She used quarry speech to say ‘’Run Rabbits Run” and all the girls ran back to the village. Olana told them if they ran they’re not allowed to come back. They celebrated spring holiday all day, and that night she told her village about the commerce book and how much a block of Linder is really worth. She convinced the villagers to barter with the trader to get what the Linder is worth. The traders finally gave in after the villager threatened to bring the Linder down the mountain and trade it themselves. The villagers had enough food not to go hungry this season. The girls walked back to the academy most of the girls didn’t want to leave Mount Eskel but still wanted to learn. They used the Principles of Diplomacy to set the terms of their return. Olana accepted their terms with one of her own, the girls must study hard. They all agreed and the girls returned to the academy.

The month before the prince is set to come the girls work extra hard because they all want to be the academy princess. The majority vote for Miri, she becomes the Academy Princess and gets to wear the grey/sliver dress to the ball where they meet the prince. The prince dances with Miri first and they barely talk the entire time. She doesn’t really care though, and sends the night trying the food and dancing. Later that night the prince asks her on a walk and they talk. Miri ends up confronting him on why he’s been acting like a “stone column” all night. He tells her how confused he’s feeling and she gives him some advice. The prince leave the day after the ball saying he will return when he’s decided. Olana is furious with the girls.

Bandits come to take the princess and hold her for ransom, but they don’t know the prince hasn’t chosen his bride yet. Miri was outside when the bandits came, arguing with Peder. She tried to run after his but one of the bandits caught her first. He took her back to the academy with all the other girls.