Page 41 of The Abandoned Princess

I sighed. She was putting mothering me ahead of our quest.

But Xander jumped in to agree, surprisingly eager. “She must have rented a room for the night—she’s not invisible like us, just anonymous—and we need to get some sleep.”

I looked between them suspiciously, but Lori seemed surprised and pleased at his easy acquiescence, so I couldn’t suspect them of a plot against me.

“We should take watches,” I said. “That way we can take it in turns to keep an eye on the main street at least while the other two sleep.”

Xander again agreed readily, Lori following more reluctantly behind. I ended up assigned the first watch, which suited me perfectly. I didn’t trust either of them to wake me up when my turn came otherwise.

I, on the other hand, had no problem waking Xander up after a third of the night had passed. He looked peaceful sleeping next to Lori behind the inn—a position chosen to keep the bedrolls out of casual sight and to offer at least a little coverage of the back exit. I still shook him heartlessly awake, however, and he leaped to his feet with surprising alacrity.

I lay down in his place, but sleep didn’t come as quickly as I had expected. I kept thinking of his insistence that he needed to check something before sharing his theory, and his statement that he would share the information in the morning.

I eventually grew suspicious enough to abandon sleep altogether and creep back out of the bedroll. Rounding the inn, I almost collided with him.

Not only was he far from his assigned watch, but he had his hand on the inn’s side door.

“Don’t even bother trying to deny whatever is going on here,” I said dryly.

He glanced back in the direction of the sleeping Lori before smiling slowly.

“I don’t mind having company.”

I raised an eyebrow. “While doing what, exactly?”

“How would you feel about using our fancy powers to sneak into the king’s bedchamber?”

CHAPTER 14

My other eyebrow shot up to join the first. “If you have secret plans to assassinate the Northhelmian king, then I’m going to have to object.”

“What if I promise there’s no killing involved?”

“What about abducting? General bodily harm? Pulling out hairs for use in some sort of forbidden enchantment?” I examined the shape of his pockets with narrowed eyes. “Be honest—do you have some of that nayera gas concealed on your person right now?”

He snorted. “I already told you—only doctors are allowed to have it. Being a prince doesn’t exempt me from that particular rule.”

I crossed my arms. “You haven’t fallen in love with Queen Louise and devised a dastardly plot to dispose of her husband?”

He laughed. “She seems a lovely lady, but given she has grandchildren nearly my age, I can assure you that is not the case.”

I sighed. “I give up. Why are we sneaking into his bedchamber?”

“We? You’ll come?” He sounded pleased, and my heart swelled in response. No one had ever wanted to include me in their adventures before. I had always needed to force my way in.

I glanced around to check there was still no one in sight and pulled open the door. I gestured for Xander to precede me inside.

“Please tell me we’re not looking for top secret trade documents,” I said as we moved into the building, “because that would be most disappointing. If secrets are involved, I at least want a baby stolen at birth or something equally thrilling.”

“I think the Northhelmians have had enough of that sort of thing,” Xander said in a choked voice. “But there is magic involved, if that helps.”

I brightened. “A godmother object? What does it do?” I stopped in the middle of the stairs. “Wait. We’re not going to steal the jewel of the true ruler, are we?”

“Just briefly?”

I stared at him. “The jewel of the—that name is ridiculous and way too long. But we’re not actually stealing the king’s jewel, right? That’s not the sort of royal artifact you can mess around with, even temporarily.”

“If I still had the ability to ask the king for information directly, I wouldn’t need to resort to temporary theft,” Xander said, his manner serious for the first time since the start of our conversation. “But I can’t do that anymore, and this is the only way I can think of to confirm if my idea is just far-fetched or totally impossible. I’m hoping totally impossible, but if not…Well, I’m worried I might not be the first person to have put it to the test.”

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