Miri Larendaughter Timeline and Summary

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• When the story opens, Miri wants to go work in the quarries but her father doesn't allow her to, so she stays home while he and her older sister Marda go off to work.
• A trumpet sounds and Miri runs down to the village with her friend Peder to see what's going on. They learn that the prince will be choosing his bride from Mount Eskel and all the girls are to go to a special princess academy to learn how to be fine young ladies. Oh wow.
• Miri doesn't want to go, but soldiers come to escort her, so she goes with all the other teen girls up to the academy, where they meet their instructor Tutor Olana.
• They go through their lessons and Miri is initially difficult because she doesn't like the way that Tutor Olana treats them.
• When Miri stands up to Tutor Olana, she gets thrown in the closet and none of the other girls get to go home for the rest day. Uh-oh… doesn't look like Miri's making any friends.
• While in the closet, Miri somehow manages to use quarry-speech to communicate to Gerti about the rat in there. She starts trying to use quarry-speech more often.
• Miri starts to do better and better at school as she spends much of her free time reading by herself. She also slowly befriends Britta, a girl from the lowlands who came to live on Mount Eskel earlier in the year.
• For the spring holiday, Tutor Olana says that only Miri and Katar can go home because they've passed their exams.
• Miri uses quarry-speech to tell all the other girls to run, and they all scamper back down to the village to celebrate with their families. They dance and Miri tells the villagers about what she's learned about Commerce—the villagers could be asking for a lot more from the traders for their blocks of linder.
• Miri sees Peder and even though they're a little awkward at first, they end up flirting a bit.
• When the girls return to the academy, Miri uses her Diplomacy skills to come to an agreement with Tutor Olana that allows the girls to escape punishment and go home on rest days to help their families with the trading.
• When the traders come, Miri goes home and is relieved that they all get more money for their linder.
• She witnesses an accident at the quarry that her sister Marda is in and learns that her father won't let her go into the quarry because her mother died after a quarry accident.
• They go back to the academy and the competition gets fiercer as all the girls compete for the top spot so that they can be named academy princess.
• When the final exams happen, Miri uses quarry-speech to help the other girls but still comes out on top as academy princess.
• The prince and his convoy arrive and all the girls get dressed up for the ball. Miri gets to wear a special gown and meet the prince first, since she's academy princess and all, and the prince comes up and asks her for the first dance.
• Miri dances with the prince and goes for a walk with him, but he seems cold and distant. She finally asks him why he's being difficult and he opens up to her and says he's confused; they end up having a good talk and he tells her that she was the favorite out of all the girls he met.
• The next day though, the prince leaves without warning and Miri is confused. She goes outside to think and encounters Peder, who gets mad after he assumes that she's disappointed that the prince didn't pick her.
• Peder leaves and Miri suddenly hears quarry-speech telling her to run. She starts running but it's too late—a strange man swoops down and grabs her, bringing her back to the academy where all of her classmates and Tutor Olana are being held.
• When she realizes they've been captured by bandits who want to ransom the future princess, Miri tries to organize an escape, but it fails.
• Once the bandits are sleeping, Miri uses quarry-speech to communicate with Peder and tell him that she's in trouble. He comes with all the villagers and they wait outside for the girls to come out the window and run toward them.
• Miri gets all of the other girls out before she starts running, but as she makes it toward the villagers, the main bandit, Dan, grabs her and threatens to kill her.
• She uses quarry-speech to get Peder to help herd Dan toward the cliff's edge, and they manage to make him fall off the cliff while Miri hangs on for dear life.
• Afterward, Miri and all the other girls return to the village for the winter, and Tutor Olana agrees to set up a temporary school there that anyone can attend. Miri also starts teaching her sister Marda how to read.
• When the prince returns, Britta admits to Miri that she knows the prince and came to Mount Eskel in hopes of marrying him. Miri assures her that it's okay and the prince ends up picking Britta as his bride.
• Mount Eskel is named an official province of Danland and Britta asks Miri to be the chief delegate at court—but Miri declines, saying that she'd rather stay at home for a while.
• When she leaves the academy, Miri sees that Peder is waiting to walk her home. He reaches over and takes her hand, and she tells him about how she plans to open a school for the village.