Page 67 of The Abandoned Princess

“Why would they open the vault tomorrow?” I asked, horrified at the timing.

“They have to retrieve the official crown and scepter for the coronation,” Ben said. “A whole group of honor guards do it, but if this Eulalie person has some sort of enchantment she could use, it won’t matter how many guards they have.”

I remembered the way she had slipped unnoticed through the palace gates, and my stomach sank.

Xander, however, still sounded cheery when he responded.

“In that case, we need to get inside and take the object in question ourselves before Eulalie can get it. And I suspect we have exactly the right group of people to help us steal something from the royal vault.”

CHAPTER 21

“Aren’t you invisible to adults?” Arabella asked. “Why would you need our help?”

“Unfortunately we’re not invisible to Eulalie,” I said. “And while we should be able to get into the vault fairly easily, we also need to make sure we can get back out, preferably with the object in question.”

“And preferably without jumping out any windows,” Lori muttered.

“That, at least, will be easy,” Danielle said dryly, “since the vault doesn’t have any windows.”

“There’s also the complication that we don’t even know what we’re looking for,” Xander said. “We believe she’s looking for something that will allow her to control your grandfather and father, but I’m not familiar with any such artifact. Have you heard of anything like it?”

“The jewelry set!” the twins said in unison.

“It’s the reason the guards at the vault know us,” Ben confided. “We went through a phase of trying to sneak in there so we could get our hands on it. The circlet lets you tell people what to think, and the necklace lets you tell them how to act.”

I looked at Danielle, and she shrugged. “That’s what the rumors say. Supposedly the set was a wedding gift to my mother from her godmother. I’ve never seen any of the pieces myself, but I’ve heard they’re made with an elaborate design of gold and rubies, and there are three matching pieces—circlet, necklace, and bracelet.”

“That sounds very promising,” Xander said. “But given our limitations, we’ll still need a clear doorway to get in and out, and we’ll also need a chance to find and take the jewelry without being seen.”

“But you’re invisible!” Andrew said. “Surely being seen is the one thing you don’t have to worry about?”

“It’s not that they’ll actually see us,” I explained. “It’s that the enchantment won’t let us pick up anything in the room if a guard is looking in our direction. It will prevent us from doing anything that would result in someone seeing jewelry either disappear or go floating through the air. We’ll only be able to pick them up if no one is looking our way. Given you said there will be a lot of guards, Xander is worried they may be watching every corner of the vault.”

“Plus, of course, there’s Eulalie.” Xander rubbed the back of his neck. “I don’t think we could manage the theft at all without the enchantment, but it will still be difficult, even with it.”

“Thank you,” Danielle said. “I’ll pass on your compliments to our captain of the guard—along with a report on any weaknesses we do manage to exploit tomorrow.”

“You’ll help us?” I asked.

“Let’s say instead that I’m going to help Northhelm,” she said. “And that I have a burning desire to see this Eulalie for myself.”

“You’re going to come with us?” I asked doubtfully. “Won’t the guards object? They seemed to have forceful opinions about the presence of the others.”

Danielle gave a small, prim smile. “Naturally, the guards know to chase Ben and the twins away from anywhere even mildly sensitive. It’s a different matter for me, however.”

“Like I said, Dani never gets caught,” Arabella said.

“Could you just collect the jewelry yourself, then?” Lori asked with her usual disappointingly practical approach.

“Unfortunately not,” Dani said. “No one will cause a problem if I say I want to supervise the collection of the coronation jewels. But only my grandparents and parents are authorized to remove anything. I’ll only be permitted to stand by the open door with one of the guards.”

“That’s unfortunate,” Lori said heavily, but I couldn’t help smiling.

“In that case,” I said, “you can indicate which of the pieces we need to steal, while the other three distract the guards. We need something dramatic enough that they all look away from the vault’s displays. We don’t need them all to run off and leave it empty, or anything, we just need them to look the other way.”

Ben cracked his knuckles and grinned disconcertingly widely. “That we can do.” He glanced at Andrew, who was grinning back at him. “Our parents will have to understand a little destruction for such a worthy cause.”

“Keep the actual destruction to a minimum,” Danielle said with a hard look. “Tomorrow is the coronation, remember, and the palace will be filling with visitors. Don’t embarrass our kingdom.”

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