“You have your secrets, and I have mine!” Avery said, knowing this might be her only chance to check the bird’s tube for a message. But as she scrambled to get to it, she wondered what she would say if the message revealed too much.
A scout swept into the room, no doubt to see what had caused Kate to shriek.
“Take that thing and get rid of it!” Kate cried out.
“No!” Avery called, but Kate and the scout ignored her.
The scout circled the bird, clearly trying to figure out how to move it without touching it, while Avery hastily considered her options. She could confess everything, follow the scout, or offer to get rid of the bird herself.
Too late. The scout gingerly picked it up by its tail, dropped it into the box with a thud, and disappeared.
Avery’s days of communicating with Edward by carrier pigeon were over.
“Honestly,” Kate said, still breathless. “You do the strangest things.”
Avery didn’t respond. For now she had something much more important to do.
Chapter 31
Meeting Edith
Avery waited at the agreed-upon spot, pacing and rehearsing what she would say if anyone discovered her plans.
Several minutes passed with no sign of the scout who was to meet her, until suddenly he appeared, draping some garments over her arm.
“You have no idea how hard these clothes were to fetch,” he said.
“Thanks,” she replied, turning to leave.
“Hey!” he said. “You made a promise!”
Avery stopped, smiled sheepishly, and tossed him a piece of chocolate she’d stashed in her bedchamber. “Don’t eat it all in one bite.”
But the words were barely out of her mouth before the scout had crammed the chocolate into his mouth, chewing much louder than necessary.
Avery needed to act before Kate questioned her absence. She ducked into the shadows and quickly changed into the outfit—a drab brown dress and a cream apron. She straightened her collar and peeked around the corner to be sure no one would notice. Then she headed into the main tunnel—ducking into alcoves whenever she heard a familiar voice—until she was well beyond the kids’ quarters and climbed the stairs that led to the library.
She pressed her ear against the door and, hearing nothing, moved quickly through the empty room and into the kids’ stairwell.
Only because of Kendrick’s model of the castle did she know which room she needed, and she would get there if it was the last thing she did. Her head swam with a thousand thoughts as she cut through the kitchen where cooks prepared the king’s food.
“Stop right there, young lady!” Avery froze. “I don’t know you.” Avery turned to see Kate’s sister wearing the same drab outfit she herself was wearing and holding a butcher knife. She advanced uncomfortably close.
“I’m new to this kitchen,” Avery said. “But I know who you are.”
The young woman laughed, and Avery was struck again at how similar her laugh was to Kate’s. “You do, eh?” She leaned close to Avery until they were nearly nose to nose. “Then who am I?”
“You’re Edith, of course.”
“Well!” she said with a look of surprise. “Fine, then. Get back to work.”
As soon as she had the chance, Avery bolted, returning to a normal pace only once she reached the hall containing living quarters. She knew from Kendrick’s model and room chart that the king’s medic lived here, but now all the doors looked alike, and she couldn’t just start knocking. One of them was bound to belong to the king. And another to the queen!
She slipped into the shadows to buy time. Truth be told, she should have come with a better plan, but she so badly wanted to help Tuck, she hadn’t had time to strategize. And she couldn’t ask any of the thirteen-year-olds to help. None would have agreed to this.
Footsteps made Avery turn, and she saw someone coming her direction. Had Edith sent them? No, this someone carried a stack of linens. And she couldn’t believe who it was.
“Kate?” She wasn’t wearing servants’ clothes, but neither did she bear a star on her wrist. “How did you—?”
Kate put a finger to her lips, joining Avery in the shadows. “When the scouts told me you ran off wearing those clothes, I knew what you were up to. You have no idea where you’re going, do you?”
“Not exactly.”
Kate dropped the linens. “Follow me.”
Avery was grateful for once that Kate knew her way around the castle, but when she marched in the opposite direction, Avery knew they were headed the wrong way. But she couldn’t tell Kate. She had promised she would never tell anyone about Kendrick’s model.
They walked a long way, eventually taking a stairwell down several floors until they came to a wing of significantly less formal chambers.
The medic doesn’t live on this floor.
Kate approached one of the doors and didn’t even bother to knock. She just tried the handle, found it unlocked, and shoved it open.
Chapter 32
The Mysterious Chamber
Avery followed Kate into an airy space lined with shelves of bottles and where dried plants hung from the ceiling. A breeze swept in from windows where curtains had been swept aside. A threadbare mattress lay in one corner.
After weeks of living in the tunnels, Avery felt a rush of pure delight as she closed her eyes and stood in a room with fresh air. “Where are we?”
“The wise-woman’s chamber,” Kate said.
Every village had one who met the needs of those too poor to pay what it cost to see a medic—usually a gold coin. Avery assumed the castle’s wise-woman was assigned a room down here because she tended the staff and not the king or queen.
Kendrick didn’t include this in his room chart. She couldn’t wait to tell him about it.
“How did you know where to find her?” Avery asked.
“I just did.” Kate moved to the shelves and rummaged through jars, handing certain ones to Avery. “Rose, lavender, sage, and bay,” she said. “And”—Kate moved to another wall—“wormwood, mint, and balm.”
“Could the wise-woman come to see Tuck?” Avery asked, trying to manage all the jars.
“No!”
Avery sensed from Kate’s tone not to push it. “Do you know what to do with all these?” Noise in the hall made her nervous, but Kate didn’t seem concerned.
“Can’t be too hard to figure out,” Kate said. But she pulled a book from the shelf and thumbed through it then stacked a few more jars atop it and said, “Let’s go.”
Kate and Avery spent hours into the night in their bedchamber hovered over the jars. Kate furrowed her brow as she scanned the book by candlelight and crushed herbs, mixing the powder into hot tea she’d brought down from the kitchen.
“Don’t get your hopes up,” Kate said as she ground what smelled like mint. “All of this work may be for nothing.”
But of course, it was too late for that. Avery’s hopes were as high as they had ever been. “I wish my grandmother could help,” Kate added.
“I do, too.” Avery cleared her throat. “Speaking of your grandmother …”
Kate stopped but didn’t look up. “What about her?”
“You said she was responsible for burying the children of royals who died at birth or shortly after.”
“Yes.”
“Did she bury Queen Elizabeth’s son?”
Kate busied herself flipping the pages of the wise-woman’s book, but Avery could tell she wasn’t actually reading. Finally she whispered, “No.”
Presently she shut the book and rose to prepare a steaming mug of something fragrant. “Let’s take this to Tuck,” Kate said. “If his fever can be broken, this should do it. If it can’t, we’ll know by morning, and we may need to be prepared to say good-bye.”
Avery took the mug and followed Kate out, but she was resolute. Saying good-bye to Tuck was not an option.
At some point, the hard good-byes need to stop. And that time is now.
“Thank you for doing this,” Avery said from behind Kate as they walked.
But instead of acknowledging the thanks, Kate slowed and sighed. Avery had to angle beside her to keep the drink from sloshing to the tunnel floor. “What is it, Kate?”
“My grandmother was the castle wise-woman.”
“I knew she did more around here than what it seemed.”
Kate nodded. “She’d been the wise-woman since Queen Elizabeth’s reign. Everything she knew about illness and childbirth and all the rest had been passed down to her through generations of women in her family. Her plan was to teach me next. Then Queen Elizabeth died and everything changed. My grandmother still grew herbs and studied plants, but far less after attending Queen Elizabeth’s last childbearing.”
So she was at Kendrick’s birth!
What if she knew too much about Queen Elizabeth’s child? What if someone killed the old woman to keep her silent forever?
The pieces were coming together, but for now Avery hurried on.
For now she needed to concentrate on keeping Tuck alive.
Tuck appeared to have shrunk even more, his brow wet, his eyes closed.
Kate lifted his head, and his eyes fluttered open.
Avery explained that they had brought him something to help him get better. He smiled weakly and nodded. Avery carefully put the mug to his lips. When he finished drinking, he lay back and appeared to fall asleep again.
When Kate insisted Avery get some sleep, Avery trudged back to her bed knowing there was nothing more she could do until morning when they would find out if it worked.
Avery heard a noise, and her eyes popped open. She bolted upright. “What are you doing in here?” she said to a girl who sat at the end of her bed.
“Kendrick and Kate asked me to wait for you to wake and then tell you they needed you in Tuck’s chamber.” The girl cast sad eyes on Avery, and she couldn’t bear to hear the girl say the dreaded words.
No! Why did they let me sleep?
The girl left, and Avery stumbled out of bed, dressed, and ran toward the infirmary. Her lungs felt like they might explode as she sprinted.
Please, God, I can’t lose anyone else!
She found Tuck’s privacy blanket swept aside and a group hovered around his bed. She pushed through them and nearly collapsed at the sight of him.
Chapter 33
Living and Dying
Tuck was sitting up and eating from a bowl of broth.
With a smile in his eyes, he said, “My fever has broken,” and he patted the chair beside him. “Sit before Kendrick gets back. He kicks everyone out when he visits.”
Avery collapsed into the chair, giddy with relief but concerned that Kendrick had risked returning to the infirmary. “He does, does he?”
“Yeah, he thinks I need to be resting all the time.”
“He’s right,” Avery said, noticing that everyone had suddenly left and the blanket had been pulled shut again. Tuck’s eyes looked so sunken and his face so thin, she would have to send for rich desserts and jugs of buttermilk. She would take it upon herself to make him well again.
“I need you to know something,” Tuck said, laboring to breathe.
“You shouldn’t be talking till you get your strength back. Let’s do this later.”
Tuck reached for her hand. “I’m all right. Listen, you would have made an excellent lady-in-waiting.” He paused and she hated knowing it was such an effort just for him to speak, yet he continued. “But I couldn’t put you in that kind of danger, and I’m sorry.”
Avery shook her head. They didn’t have to discuss this—of all things—and certainly not right now. She withdrew her hand and reached for the broth. “Let’s just focus on getting you better.”
“One more thing,” Tuck said, gently pushing the bowl away, and just the way he sounded made dread wash over her. “If I recover …”
“Please don’t say that. You’re already well on the way.”
“If I recover, I’m going to do whatever is necessary—even if it means risking my life—to get us out of this mess.” He waved weakly, as if to indicate everything associated with their captivity.
“But you do that every day, Tuck! You’re our leader. We need y—”
“No!” he said, shaking his head. “Being a leader requires doing more for the people I’m trying to lead. Leadership requires self-sacrifice. Hiding down here is no way to live.”
“It beats dying,” Avery said, forcing a chuckle.
“I agree, but we’ll all die if we stay here. That’s the joke on the criminals who think they’ve escaped here. They end up dying anyway because of the contaminated water or the lack of sunshine and all the disease. I won’t let it happen to us. I can’t let it happen to you.”
Avery wanted so badly to tell him that she and Kendrick were on the verge of putting the final pieces together and that Kendrick could soon be king. But it was too early, and she had given her word.
Anyway, Tuck looked so energized by his own plans that maybe he needed them to help him get better. Hopefully, his recovery would allow him time to reconsider and see that he didn’t need to take any big risks just yet.
“Do we have to have such a serious conversation?” Avery asked.
“Yes, because you need to hear me.”
“But you won’t make any big decisions while you’re still sick, will you?”
“I already have, and I won’t be changing my mind.”
Guard your heart, she told herself.
Tuck finally took a slurp of soup. He smiled. “It might be easier for you if you got mad at me, maybe even hated me a little.”
Avery faked a laugh. “I’ll do my best.”
Something in the way Tuck looked at her, or maybe it was his willingness to risk his life, made clear what she needed to do. Whether or not he intended to, Tuck had freed her to leave the castle once and for all and reunite with her family.
How long had it been since Edward had told her he would help her if she would meet him in the chapel on the other side of the Salt Sea in five days? Once Tuck had fallen ill, she had lost count as the days became one long, perpetual nightmare. Was it already too late?
“You should rest,” Avery said, standing and managing as brave a smile as she could. She helped Tuck set the bowl and spoon aside and settle back down.
When she left, she ran into Kendrick coming the other way.
“How’s our boy doing?” he asked.
“Better, I think, but I still say it’s dangerous for you to be in there.”
“He’s long past being contagious, and I’m fine.”
“It’s your decision,” she said with a shrug, but her mind was elsewhere. It was now or never. She could have only a couple of minutes while Kendrick checked on Tuck.
If she acted on this decision, there would be no coming back.
Chapter 34
The Light at the End of the Tunnel
Avery cared nothing about seeing Edward again; she lived to get back to her family.
With no idea what Edward wanted in exchange for reuniting her with them, she feared she would have no choice but to accommodate him—within reason. She would not—could not—do anything immoral or illegal. She had been raised better than that. But otherwise, she couldn’t imagine anything she would not do.
And once she found her father, she would tell him about all the captive thirteen-year-olds, and he would know what to do.
Not knowing how long she might have before Kendrick returned, Avery slipped into the chamber where he kept his replica of the castle and all his meticulous notes and maps. She riffled through thick stacks of parchment searching, searching….
She knew Kendrick had spent entire nights poring over every passage in the castle’s underbelly, seeking potential routes to the country chapel in the event of an emergency. He had plotted every entrance and exit and had boasted recently that he had finally discovered the path.
Finally she came to one map that traced
a circuitous route, and all she could do was stop and stare at it in the candlelight. This was the one that held all her hopes and dreams, the one she would put to the test. She carefully folded it and tucked it under her arm. Thank you, Kendrick!
Ducking back into the main tunnel, she had no time to lose. For all she knew, she might have already missed Edward. She wouldn’t know until she got there.
Letting hot tears spill, Avery sprinted until her lungs burned. She flew past the kids’ chambers and the infirmary. She passed where she had met with Edward and where she had first discovered the crate with the pigeon.
Memories invaded her mind as she ran, and she hated that she might never see her friends again. She knew even as she slowed to check the map that she could be making the worst decision of her life, but not taking this chance could be fatal, too.
Whenever Avery began to doubt herself—which was only every few seconds—she reached into her pocket and curled her fingers around Henry’s paper boat. That and the ruby necklace beneath her collar were her links to home and constant reminders of her loved ones.
It was time to return to them.
When after at least an hour Avery came to a fork in the tunnel, she skidded to a stop and held Kendrick’s map up to the light from a torch on the wall.
The route on his map picked up beyond it, but the direction at the fork was unclear. She had no idea which way she should go.
“Left,” a voice whispered.
She spun, but no one was there. Nerves, she decided.
But what choice did she have? A disembodied voice, imagined or not, was as good as flipping a coin. Avery hiked up her dress and ran left, the trail of her gown flying behind her.
She ran until she came to sections of the underworld she hadn’t known existed. Parts of the tunnel were so narrow the sides brushed her shoulders. Elsewhere the space opened into lofty, vaulted ceilings that reminded her of the upstairs Great Room. Thick rock formations with pointed tips hung from the ceiling like dripping water frozen in time.
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