“Randolph,” whispered Snow behind me, almost too quiet for me to catch.
The name jolted my memory, and I recognized the Elamese guard who had been lingering outside Snow’s suite. And now he was here, threatening one of the Talinosians. It still made no sense.
“What do you want?” asked Celine, uncowed despite her broken leg.
He looked angry at her defiance but must have realized the necessity to communicate with us. “Wherever it is you all go, I’ll be coming with you. And this little thing with me.” He gave Opal a small shake. “Princess Blanche will be winning this next task, and you all had better make sure of it if you don’t want to see this little girl harmed.”
Ten heads swiveled to stare at Blanche who had gone pale. “What are you thinking, Randolph? Let her go at once! You know it’s not permitted for anyone to interfere with the Tourney. Don’t you care for your life at all?”
“My instructions are clear.” He seemed entirely unmoved by her arguments. “I’m to ensure that you win for the glory of Eliam and my queen.”
“My stepmother. I knew it,” Blanche muttered. “I can’t imagine how she thinks she’s going to get away with this.”
“I’m guessing she expected him to try something a little more subtle,” I said, equally quietly. Perhaps the Elamese queen had failed to notice the crazed look in his eye when she had given him such foolish orders.
“Doesn’t she fear the magic of the Tourney?” Lilac joined our whispered conversation.
I shook my head slightly. “I bet she thinks she’s safe enough since she’s not directly involved. She clearly isn’t too worried about him forfeiting his life. And he seems devoted enough not to care either.”
“Enough!” Randolph spoke with enough menace to bring instant silence. “What are you waiting for? Let the task begin.”
When no one moved, his knife nicked Opal’s skin causing a single drop of blood to trickle down her thin neck. Pearl whimpered again.
Rage filled me. The trapdoor still hadn’t opened, so the task would obviously not begin while someone else remained in the room. Which meant we needed to do something to rescue Opal, and fast.
I debated just opening the door behind me and calling for help, but I didn’t trust that he wouldn’t hurt Opal before anyone could reach him. And I now stood at the front of the huddled princesses, anyway. If I moved for the door, it would be more than obvious.
Sophie! Any ideas?
I’m trying! Sophie sounded frantic.
What if you distract him by pretending to open the trapdoor? If you can get his attention, I might be able to get behind him.
And do what?
I frowned. I hadn’t thought that far. I glanced around the small room, but it was as bare as ever. If only I were armed. Any weapon would be better than none right now. But tradition definitely didn’t support princesses wearing weapons to balls.
My eyes caught on Celine. She leaned, as always, on her crutches. Crutches that I had often heard her complain were far too heavy, carved as they were from a dense, solid oak of a type we hadn’t encountered in the Four Kingdoms. Lilac had told us it had been used as a mark of respect, a status symbol, but Celine had grumbled to me more than once that she would have much preferred the use of light and practical pine.
I’m going to thwack him over the head as hard as I can with one of Celine’s crutches.
A short pause followed, before Sophie sent her agreement. Really, it was the only plan we had so, like it or not, it had to do.
“Very well, then,” Sophie said to him, her voice trembling convincingly. “We need to open the trapdoor.”
“But…” Marigold’s confused interjection, presumably to point out that the trapdoor had always opened on its own before, was quickly cut off by Sophie.
“Don’t you see? We have to do what he says, or he’ll harm Opal.” She gave a significant glare at the other girls, and no one raised any further objections. I only hoped they understood enough not to interfere.
Sophie moved toward the spot where the invisible trapdoor lay, talking loudly about the process we had to use to open it. “It’s a dance. No one else knows the moves but us.” She glanced at Randolph. “A very complicated dance,” she added, firmly.
“Yes, and a long one,” agreed Millie, stepping forward to support her.
Lilac joined them. “Three of us have to do it. And if anyone makes a wrong move, we have to start again.”
Sophie nodded. “Why do you think we’re gone for so long each night?” She raised both of her hands over her head, and the other two girls followed suit.
You look ridiculous, I told Sophie as I sidled past the remaining princesses. Are you trying to mimic the travelling merchants’ dance? Because it really doesn’t look anything like that.
Thank you, Lily. That is extremely helpful. She had now started hopping from foot to foot in a complicated pattern. The other two tried to follow her steps with limited success.
I slid past Celine and tugged at one of her crutches. She released it instantly into my grasp. The briefest exchange of glances told me she understood exactly what was going on. As soon as I had moved past her, she began to call criticisms to the other girls. “That’s not how you do it. You’ve got it all wrong. It will never open like that.”
“Why don’t you do it yourself, then?” asked Lilac.
“I would if I could!” Celine shook her head.
“She’s right you know, that’s not the right move,” said Blanche, joining the argument on Celine’s side. “You should have done five hops with your left foot before switching to your right.”
“Fine!” said Sophie, stopping to put her hands on her hips and glare at Blanche. “You come and do it, then.”
“Very well,” said Blanche, moving to join Millie and Lilac. “It’s like this.” When she put her hands above her head and began to hop she looked almost elegant, her beautiful features intensified in concentration. When she spun around and swung her arms low, Celine snorted.
“You were supposed to spin the other way.”
“No, she wasn’t,” said Hazel, finding the courage to join in. “You always get it confused.”
“No, she doesn’t!” said Marigold, glaring at her middle sister. “You’re the one who always gets it wrong.”
Millie sighed. “Marigold and Celine are right. Now we’ll have to start again. Everyone back in position.”
“Let me try again,” said Sophie. “I was doing it right all along.”
Several voices called protests about this over the top of each other.
Randolph’s eyes jumped between them all with increasing confusion. The room now seemed overly full of complaining voices and bouncing princesses. In the confusion, I managed to circle around him and approach from behind.
I planted my feet firmly, adjusting my grip on the awkward shape of the crutch. I was only going to have one chance at this. As I carefully raised the implement above my head, my eyes met Pearl’s across the room.
She hadn’t moved at all despite the chaos that had broken out. Instead she stood rooted in spot, her terrified eyes never leaving her sister. Seeing me move to strike, she gasped loudly.
Somehow the sound penetrated the noise from the argument and the dance Sophie and Millie had begun. Randolph’s eyes flew to Pearl, and then he twisted, following the trajectory of her gaze to look over his shoulder.
I had only the briefest second to act. Forgetting all about a good grip, I swung the long piece of wood down onto his head with all the force I could.
For a moment, our eyes met, his starting out with surprise, and then he dropped. His knife cut a long, shallow slice down Opal’s arm as he fell, but she stumbled away from him, otherwise unharmed.
Emmeline, who had remained apart from the uproar and had made no move to help, flung open the door.
“Help,” she called. “Intruder.” She sounded calm despite the intensity of the words themselves. It was hard to believe it could have been fear in her
case that had prevented her from assisting us.
Her cry brought an instant response. Soon the room became even more crowded and chaotic than it had been a moment earlier and, before I knew it, we were all back in the ballroom. Unlike the usual quiet crowd waiting for us, the ballroom remained packed with the entire court. The music had stopped, but the confused couples on the dance floor suggested the ball had still been in progress before our interruption.
Jon and Gabe, who had responded so quickly they must have been lingering near the door, had dragged Randolph out and stood over him. And the duke himself had carried out a half-fainting Opal, Pearl clinging to her sister’s hand.
Within minutes, doctors had arrived and were tending to the cut on Opal’s arm, and Randolph had awoken to angry questioning from the duke. The guards who usually ringed the walls rushed forward to form a protective bubble around us, keeping back the shocked and curious guests. Only the delegation heads, along with Duke Philip and Duchess Aurelia of Marin, and Millie’s parents, King Edward and Queen Juliette of Trione, had been permitted to stay within the circle. But with Jon, Gabe, Randolph and all twelve contestants in there too, it still felt like a crowd.
“Let me through, let me through. I want to see,” called a small voice that I recognized. Daisy appeared to be trying to push her way through the resisting guards.
Despite everything, a small smile made its way onto my face. I would have felt just the same at her age. Teddy appeared and demanded the guards let him through, allowing Daisy to slip in behind him. Her triumphant grin made my own grow, fueled by my still-pumping nerves.
Emmeline explained what had happened in a most composed manner, and I wanted to shake her for caring so little about yet another danger that had confronted us all. At least if she seemed uncaring about the rest of us, she seemed equally uncaring about her own safety.
Outrage gripped everyone present at her story. Sullenly, Randolph denied any involvement of King George and Queen Alida of Eliam. He had acted alone, he said, on his own initiative. Motivated solely by his pride in his kingdom.
I could see by the outraged faces of everyone inside the circle, that no one believed such an unlikely tale. But I could see also the immediate resignation. With no possible proof to the contrary, the duke would be forced to accept his story.
“You have risked your life by defying the sanctity of the Tourney,” said the duke, raising his voice to be heard throughout the ballroom. “Who knows what taint may now strike you down. I will not risk anyone else by allowing you to roam free, carrying unknown darkness within you.”
I could see the weight of the pronouncement in his eyes. A reminder that the people of this land were as much bound by this Tourney as Sophie and I. None of us had a choice in allowing this to play out.
A small squad of guards hauled Randolph to his feet and escorted him from the ballroom. The doctors, having finished bandaging Opal’s arm, also left. Gabe helped his young sister to her feet and then started as Duke Philip ordered us to reform our line.
“But, surely…Opal…” He stared at the duke.
“I’m sorry, Your Highness.” Duke Philip included us all in his gaze. “All of Your Highnesses, for the unacceptable interruption to the Tourney. The Elamese guard Randolph must have been hiding in there since yesterday given that ball preparations have been going on in here all day. I can assure you that the law will be upheld. Unfortunately, however, the event must go on.”
Gabe looked like he wanted to argue, but Jon met his eyes across the small space, and he subsided. Slowly, we formed back into our allotted order and began to reenter the room.
As I inched forward, Jon approached me where I stood at the back.
“Are you all right?” he asked, concern filling his voice and face.
I could easily read how much the situation infuriated him, so I infused more cheer into my voice than I felt when I whispered back. “Of course. We are all of us unharmed except for poor Opal. And the doctors didn’t seem to consider her injury serious.”
“And once again, you’re the hero.” His eyes glowed. “Be careful in there, Lily.”
The forward movement of the line carried me through the door before I could answer, but the approval in his gaze lingered in my mind all the way through the groves and across the lake.
When we each received our own parchment with instructions for another treasure hunt, I breathed a sigh of relief. If only everyone could avoid falling in the lake or tumbling down the stairs, we should be safe enough. We had certainly all had our fill of excitement for the night.
My body, at least, seemed confused as to whether it needed to remain in a state of heightened tension, or whether it could collapse in the aftermath of the previous burst of energy.
Somehow I forced myself to put aside thoughts of Randolph’s attack and focus my attention on the challenge. A list of coded instructions directed us to a series of locations within, and possibly outside, the castle. Each location would yield a clue to the next instruction. My main concern was how it would be possible to pull ahead in such a competition. Surely we would all end up travelling from place to place in a group?
But, to my surprise, when the bell sounded, everyone scattered in different directions. A quick consult with Sophie soon revealed why. Our instructions were completely different. Did they all lead eventually to the same treasure? Or were there twelve buried prizes to be found?
Sophie and I split up, racing through our instructions with constant help from the other in deciphering our clues.
I just saw Celine hobbling past, projected Sophie.
Do you think we’re ahead of everyone else?
I got no response, so I tried again. Sophie? And then again. Sophie!
Oh! Sorry! I had to count the panes in the top left corner window in one of the rooms on the second floor. And I can’t count and talk at the same time. There were six panes, so now I need to go to the sixth room on the right up on the third floor.
My clues had already led me out to the lake, and I only hoped I hadn’t missed some crucial piece of information and gone off in the wrong direction. Floating across the water gave me plenty of opportunity to help Sophie with the clue for the sixth room on the third floor. It was the hardest one yet, but eventually we worked out that the paneling was walnut wood, and that her next clue would be in the kitchen.
Two of the other coracles were already gone, I told her. That gives me hope I didn’t get something too horribly wrong.
Of course you didn’t. Stop fretting. Sophie sounded distracted again, so I assumed she had reached the kitchen.
Working together, I felt reasonably certain we were ahead, or at least keeping pace with the others. But unbeknownst to Sophie, I had a secondary concern. I needed to find my treasure before she found hers. Pulling ahead in the points without her realizing what I was doing was going to be a delicate process.
I grew more insistent asking for help on my next few clues, and slower to come up with assistance for her, but she still announced she had reached her final destination just as I began to dig beneath the largest knothole on one of the trees in the grove of golden leaves. Sophie was still back at the castle, so I couldn’t imagine she would have to do any digging.
I threw myself into the task with increased fervor, but I had still only just uncovered the tip of a small leather bag when the bell rang out. For a moment, I hoped I had done enough to trigger it, but Sophie’s triumphant projection told me she had found her treasure. I dug the bag up anyway, and when the rest of the princesses joined those of us already in the groves, I discovered Sophie and I weren’t the only ones carrying bags.
Hazel looked even more dejected at her second prize than she had at her first, and Lilac and Marigold both remained unusually silent.
“I saw my bag,” commented Emmeline, “but I hadn’t quite reached it when the bell sounded. It dissolved away before I could retrieve it.”
Did that mean the three of us who still had our bags had tied? I didn’t ha
ve to wonder long. The scores soon proved exactly that. Hazel, Sophie and I had each received leading scores, with Emmeline close behind.
We all climbed the ladder to the trapdoor in silence. Sophie and I even refrained from projecting. We had succeeded in protecting Opal earlier but had now failed to protect Hazel. I could only hope the next challenge was less tailored to her strengths.
This second treasure hunt had taken much longer than the first and, as we filed out of the room, I noticed that dirt caked my dancing slippers from my efforts at digging. They looked incongruous against my pristine gown. What would Jon and the others make of them?
But Jon’s eyes didn’t stray down to my shoes. A larger group than usual awaited us, and we were each swept away quickly by guards from our own kingdoms. After the immersion of the challenge, the attack from Randolph seemed distant to me. But those who had stayed behind in the palace remained on edge, despite his arrest.
Jon met my eyes for only the briefest moment, before his focus centered on his sister. As was right and proper. But the fire that had leaped from his eyes to take up residence somewhere around my heart made me question if his sister held his full attention, after all.
Chapter 21
The next morning Sophie talked some sense into me. You were a hero last night, Lil. And clearly Jon saw that. You’re the one who was disappointed we didn’t manage to overtake Hazel, not him.
I smiled at her, grateful for her calm good sense. You were pretty good too, you know. I particularly liked that dance you and Millie were doing to ‘open’ the trapdoor.
Sophie laughed. I can’t believe it worked. She sobered. I just wish we’d done a little better at that treasure hunt. Maybe we need to brush up on our riddling skills.
I’ve been hoping that the next challenge is entirely different. But you’re probably right.
In consequence, we spent a significant portion of the next three days in the palace library. The large, airy room was beautiful, lined with floor to ceiling bookshelves, interspersed with equally tall windows, many of them opening out into the garden. But the pleasant environment only served to remind me I would rather be in the garden, and I often caught myself gazing out the windows, my book forgotten.
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