novelxo Secrets Chapter 14
Eurielle couldn't help but giggle as she watched Petra and Thaleia in action, their eyes lit with devilish glee as they coached poor Callia in the art of deception. Their voices were hurried, trying to fit in as many tips and pointers as they could in the limited time they had; their window of opportunity was diminishing with every passing moment. The danger was heightened because Callia would not only have to face and sedate Luka, but that she would have to do so in the presence of her father without any of the usual distractions of mealtime.
"Don't be waiting for them," said Petra, nodding with all the wisdom of a sage. "You should be the one to enter, so that they don't suspect you of having done something in their absence. If it comes down to it, and you don't have time to do it, make a small distraction—"
"Pretend you've seen a mouse!" Eurielle cut in helpfully.
"Or maybe something more subtle," Thaleia amended. "Then slip it in and leave quietly without drawing any further attention to yourself."
"Whatever you do, make and maintain eye contact at all times," Petra said. "It makes you look honest."
"And don't change how you treat him," added Thaleia.
"But, shouldn't she try to flatter him or something? Wouldn't he be more likely to take it then?" Raia asked interestedly.
"NO!" Petra and Thaleia each said forcefully. They looked at one another, each encouraging the other to explain. Finally, Petra spoke up.
"That would be the most suspicious thing of all. People don't change their opinions in twenty minutes. If she hated him at dinner, she'd hate him now."
"Just play it up," Thaleia addressed Callia once more. "Be the challenge we know you are."
"I think that's why he likes you," Eurielle said saucily. "He's not sure whether or not you're smarter than him."
Callia—who had remained silent during the onslaught of advice—finally spoke up, holding up her hand to stop Petra from adding another point.
"Okay, okay, that's enough. I've already got enough to worry about, I don't need any more. I'll figure it out from here." She took a deep breath, like a martyr going to meet her maker, and slipped from the room without a backward glance.
"They grow up so fast, don't they?" Thaleia quipped half-heartedly, trying to diffuse the anxiety in the room. Eurielle's answering chuckle was just as nervous, and she quickly fell silent.
In going through the motions of preparing for bed, the princesses moved much more slowly than usual, their ears tuned for the sound of Callia's return. All their hope rested on her shoulders and the success of her mission.
Well, not all their hope, Eurielle had to admit.
They did have a plan B—that is, not going to the sanctum—but the very possibility cut them to the core. To be deprived of this sense of joy, which she looked forward to every night, would be insupportable.
Fifteen minutes passed in such tense silence. Eurielle fiddled with her pink bedspread, unwilling to slip under her covers until she had received word of Callia's success. She bounced upon her mattress, feeling an anxious urge to keep moving in an attempt to release some of her nervous energy.
At long last, a step was heard approaching their door. From the sound, it couldn't be their father leading Sir Luka, as there was only one set of footsteps, muffled as if by a woman's slipper instead of a man's boot. Eurielle held her breath in anticipation, half expecting to be disappointed by the sight of Judith instead of Callia.
But Fate was smiling down on her that day.
Callia's familiar face, blanched white as if in shock, appeared around the door's edge. Before anyone could so much as ask about the success of her mission, she darted to the washing basin with a strangled shriek. Eurielle watched in alarm as she scrubbed at her left hand vigorously, as if to rid it of some kind of disease.
"He touched me!" she wailed. "He kissed my hand!"
Eurielle couldn't decide between disgust and amusement, but she arranged her face into the expression least likely to give offense.
It took nearly two minutes for Callia to calm down enough to speak, and her sisters lost little time in questioning her.
"He drank it, it's done." Eurielle felt a wave of relief upon hearing those words.
Callia continued: "But it's a good thing I took a double dose. I put it in the wrong cup at first." She unsuccessfully tried to hide a guilty smile. "Father will be sleeping rather deeply tonight, too."
"You didn't!" Eurielle squealed, covering up a giggle. Callia's answer was cut short by the opening of the door. Judith bustled in with an armful of laundry, apologizing profusely for her delay.
"I'm sorry, m'ladies, but I had to claim extra sheets for Sir Luka's cot. His abrupt announcement has us all in a tizzy. Such late notice!"
As the maid began making up the cot behind the partition, Raia and Thaleia set to work preparing their own valerian-infused nightcap for her consumption. Justine had no sooner reappeared into the main part of the room, when her goblet was thrust into her hands with undue haste.
"You'll have to forgive our hurry tonight, Judith," Cliodne explained diplomatically. "We're expecting our guest at any moment, but we by no means wanted to deprive ourselves or you of this treat." Judith accepted the drink, clinked glasses with Eralie, and drained it to the last drop—always eager to participate in a custom that involved red wine.
Eurielle hid her smile by pretending to take a sip of her own wine. A few drops slipped past her closed lips, and she repressed a shudder at the vile taste. She slipped the still-full glass onto the bottom shelf of her bedside table, intending to empty it, as always, into the flower pot at the earliest convenience. Bereft of her goblet, she watched as her sisters drained their own glasses, then disposed of the evidence. The last goblet disappeared into Petra's trunk just as the sound of approaching footsteps—heavy, booted footsteps—warned of Gustave and Luka's arrival.
For once, there was little flurry and hurry inside the room, as the majority of the occupants were already settled into bed. Eurielle rolled onto her side away from the door, closed her eyes and tried to keep her breathing deep and even. Under the circumstances, she felt safer in feigning sleep than in attempting to face Luka or her father without giving anything away. She suspected that she wasn't the only one, either—if she knew her sisters, she would bet almost anything that Callia and Raia were also pretending to be asleep rather than face the man.
Keeping her eyes tightly shut, Eurielle listened as Gustave escorted Luka to his corner cot, their voices hushed in response to the darkness of the room. She heard the squeak of the cot springs and the rustle of sheets, then followed the sound of her father's boots back to the door. His loud whisper cut through the silence.
"Remember what I told you," he said, but Eurielle wasn't sure if he was addressing the princesses who were still "awake" or Sir Luka himself. "I will be waiting for…" His voice faded into fuzziness in the back of her tired mind.
Eurielle startled awake, feeling slightly disoriented in the continued darkness of her bedchamber. How much time had passed? How long had she slept? Gustave had clearly left, but how long ago? She sat up in bed, seeing the shapes of her sisters moving in their beds, as well. The chimes of the clock tower rang through the room, alleviating her confusion as it confirmed that she'd only dozed off for a couple minutes—long enough to have slept through the aftermath of Gustave's visit, but not so long to have missed anything important. And, with any hope, the valerian root should have taken effect for both Judith and Luka.
Hearing slight scuffling from behind the partitioned cot, Eurielle felt a flash of panic that their foolproof sedative had finally failed at perhaps the most crucial moment yet. As her eyes adjusted to the low light, however, she realized that the sounds were coming from Thaleia, Cliodne, and Eralie, all of whom were struggling to support Luka's weight as they worked together to drag him from his cot.
"We know where he's going," grunted Cliodne. "But do we have a way to unlock it?"
"Yeah, it's one thing to pick our bedroom lock, but the dungeon's another thing altogether," Eurielle spoke up around a yawn. She smirked when Eralie jumped slightly, dropping Luka's left leg—they hadn't realized that she was awake.
"I've got it here somewhere," said Petra from the foot of her bed, where she was rummaging through her trunk. An instant later, she held up her prize: an entire ring of clanging, jangling keys.
"They're Sir Bionne's extra set," she explained. "The ones for the library, the kitchens, the dungeon, and Father's rooms." She handed the ring to Cliodne, pointing out the keys that they would need to complete their mission.
Eurielle snuggled back under her covers as Thaleia, Cliodne, Eralie, and the unconscious Sir Luka disappeared from sight. She estimated that they would return in no less than half an hour, and fully intended to take advantage of the "punishment break"—as she had come to call it. She comfortably settled into the place between waking and sleeping, half-aware of the limited activity in the room. She felt warm and cozy, cocooned as she was in her bedspread, but she tried valiantly to remain conscious of when the dungeon group returned. She already received enough teasing from her sisters about falling asleep so easily—she definitely didn't want to prove them right…
"That's that!"
Eurielle started awake for the second time in less than an hour upon hearing Thaleia's triumphant crow. She opened her bleary eyes to see the three adventuresome sisters enter the room, distinctly Luka-free and looking thoroughly pleased about it. The door hung open for a few seconds, then slowly swung back to close tightly behind them.
A candle flickered to life across the room, bizarrely illuminating Raia's face. "He's in place?" she affirmed.
Cliodne rolled her eyes as she struck a match to light her own candle. "Of course he is! He's locked up in the dungeon—safe, sound, and, with any hope, cold."
"Clio even locked him in the manacles," said Eralie. "So we're safe to go as soon as we get ready." She held out the key ring to Petra, who returned it to the confines of her mysterious trunk.
The remaining princesses scrambled from their beds (except for Petra, who had been sitting in a tired daze on her trunk) and assembled their lanterns and candles in preparation for their descent to the sanctum. Within a matter of moments, they had gathered around the rug in their usual formation. Thaleia kicked the fabric from beneath their feet, and Callia grabbed the materializing ring to pull open the trapdoor.
Eurielle stood back, shivering slightly from the magic breeze and allowing her sisters to precede her down the staircase and into the tunnel. She followed on Petra's heels, careful to keep her candle from dripping on top of the brunette's head (and fighting a slight temptation to let it happen). Boy, would she be mad!
A sudden scuffling noise in the tunnel behind her drew Eurielle's attention from the dirt floor. She whipped around, her eyes searching for the source of the sound.
Petra, distracted from the misdirection of Eurielle's candle flare, impatiently turned around to face the youngest princess.
"What in the world are you doing?"
"Did you hear that?" Eurielle asked, not bothering to answer Petra's query.
"I haven't heard anything besides you freaking out," her sister answered edgily. "Are you coming or not?"
Eurielle nodded, still scanning the passageway uneasily. She still didn't see anything out of the ordinary. She backed up, then turned back to follow the diminishing lantern-light. Her brow was furrowed as she considered the noise that she thought she'd heard. It wasn't an entirely unfamiliar sound; in fact, she'd heard it often enough before, even earlier that night.
If she could had to guess, she'd say that it had sounded like the heavy, booted footsteps of a man.
But that was impossible—well, maybe not impossible, but it was definitely improbable, that a man would be able to follow them down the passageway without being seen. It was ridiculous even to consider.
A/N Do we have you wondering yet? Mwahahaha! Don't forget to leave a lovely review, we so appreciate any type of feedback you can give! Make sure to tell us which princess is your favorite or which one you'd like to see more of in a possible sequel, which we are in the process of planning right now. So stay tuned!