The Two Princesses of Bamarre

The Two Princesses of Bamarre, by Gail Carson Levine, is my favorite book by her.

The main character, Princess Adelina, is the cowardly younger sister of the brave and adventurous Princess Meryl. Their father, King Lionel, is an even bigger coward than Addie. Not much information was given about Queen Daria, as the girls' mother died of the Gray Death when they were very young.

The Gray Death. The disease that claims far too many lives in the kingdom of Bamarre. The first stage of the Gray Death is weakness; the victim slowly (or swiftly, sometimes) loses their strength until they finally succumb to the second stage.

The second stage is slumber - always nine days. The victim sleeps, and sleeps, and sleeps, until the third and final stage strikes.

Fever. Three days of fever, and then the victim dies.

No cure is known - no way to even fight it for more time. Addie has a plan, in case she is chosen by the Gray Death before Meryl's plans to find the cure come to pass. However, no one has any way of knowing if it would actually work.

If only the kingdom had a true hero still, a hero such as their legendary Drualt. He helped found the kingdom of Bamarre, and he led armies until they grew too fearful of monsters to fight with him longer. In the end, he fought his battles alone beside his sweetheart Freya, until she died in battle because the nearby village was too cowardly to help.

Then Drualt finally abandoned the kingdom that had abandoned him.

Had the kingdom not driven him away, would Drualt have found the cure for the Gray Death? Would the kingdom not be forced to suffer like this?

This is a lot of background plot, but I want to talk about the characters some more. I guess I'll do that tomorrow.