Queen Liliuokalani: Royal Prisoner by Ann Hood Read Free Book Online

have a tradition of giving a baby away to other parents in order to improve its status and strengthen bonds between royal families.”
    Even though it didn’t quite make sense to her, Maisie managed to nod before Lydia stepped aside and the largest man Maisie had ever seen appeared in her place. Paki stood at least six feet four inchestall and must have weighed over three hundred pounds. His hair was red and his skin was fair.
    Paki smiled gently down at Maisie.
    “We teach our youth that when we
he‘e nalu
together, we are sharing the
nalu
of mother earth,” he said, his voice lyrical and kind.
    “He‘e nalu,”
Lydia interpreted. “Surfing.”
    “You see, youth have the opportunity to wash away their past mistakes and troubles by returning to the water, by
he‘e nalu
.”
    “I don’t think I meant to surf—” Maisie began.
    “When we surf together,” Paki continued, “we become family. Therefore, you are now part of our family, Maisie. You will stay here with us until you are healed.”
    “Thank you,” Maisie said sleepily.
    Paki’s laugh was more of a low rumble. “Sleep,” he said. “Heal, little one.”

    In the two days before Maisie began to wake up, Felix stayed by her side. They were in the royal palace, a place of contradictions. Some rooms were filled with heavy wooden furniture, oil paintings, and even white linen tablecloths, crystal glasses, and heavysilver—not unlike what they had at Elm Medona. But other rooms were spare, with tatami mats on the floors and low tables where meals were eaten not with silverware but with your hands, or with hollowed coconuts for scooping poi, the thick mashed taro root that seemed to accompany every meal.
    All the royal children lived at Haleakala, Felix had learned. Lydia told him that for years they had lived in a boarding school called the Chiefs’ School in Honolulu that had been run by the Cookes. But the school had closed and the children had returned to the palace.
    “The ones who survived,” she’d added sadly.
    She went on to explain that when the westerners came to Hawaii, they brought diseases with them. A measles epidemic had wiped out a fifth of the population, including her brother Moses.
    “The westerners,” she added, “have changed everything.”
    Felix had squirmed uncomfortably beneath her solemn gaze. He had felt this way before, when he and Maisie landed in South Dakota with Crazy Horse and watched the Lakota struggle to keep their land and their traditions. Was the same thinghappening here? he wondered.
    Ever since he and Maisie first went into The Treasure Chest and ended up in 1836 with Clara Barton, Felix had become aware of how little he knew about history, despite the As he always received in social studies. That feeling had returned again and again during his two days with Lydia and the other royal children. All he’d known before landing here was that Hawaii was the fiftieth state. But slowly he was learning that many Hawaiians did not want to be part of the United States. In fact, Lydia had told him that Hawaii had been briefly under British rule.
    “We just want to be left alone,” she’d said with a sigh.
    Without Maisie to run his ideas by, Felix spent too much time alone, wandering the palace rooms or the courtyard outside. He worried about his sister’s injury, even though the king had called in a
kahuna
to check on her. The
kahuna
had mumbled some words over Maisie, splashed her with oil, and ordered bed rest. Still, Felix wouldn’t feel relieved until his sister was back to her old self.
    He worried, too, about the fate of these people who had taken them in. The fate, in fact, of all ofHawaii. For Felix knew that, despite their dissatisfaction with westerners, and the United States in particular, Hawaii was going to become a state. He had no idea when, however, because once again he’d taken history for granted and hadn’t paid attention to details like that.
    And of course, he worried about the crown. He