Page 55 of To Steal the Sun

“Actually,” she said, “I think I should take this chance to confess something—before you and Henry risk yourselves even more for me.”

“What are you talking about?” Charlotte asked. “Of course we’re going to help you. We’re not just going to run away and abandon you.”

“But you don’t know everything,” Gwen said. “You think it was your parents that came up with the idea of using their candle to get a look at Henry’s face, but actually…” She finished on a rush, “Actually, it was me. When they took me out to their stables, I put all sorts of doubts about Henry in their heads and suggested the idea of the candle.”

She turned to Henry. “I’m so sorry! I had no idea who you were. I thought you were working with the queen. I even thought you might have been the one to give her the bear enchantment in the first place.”

Charlotte stared at her, her mind whirring. “It was you?” she cried. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

Gwen winced. “When I tried to express doubts at first, you were so certain about Henry. I was worried about you, thinking you were another person being fooled and trapped by my mother. We’d only just met, so I thought you would be more likely to listen to your parents than to me. So I set up a chance to speak to them, and I poisoned their minds against Henry. It’s all my fault.”

“No,” Charlotte said slowly. “I’m the one who took the candle into that room and lit it. Half of my anger toward my parents was because I was actually angry at myself.” She sighed. “What a mess. You were right that I listened to my parents, and that was another mistake of mine. I let myself be swayed by their concerns even though they don’t have a history of good judgment or decision-making.” She sighed again. “You can love someone and know not to trust their judgment. I should have known better than to let myself be swayed by them. But their proposed solution lined up so exactly with what I wanted to do myself.”

She looked at Henry, apology all over her face. “At the end of the day, I’m the one to blame. Everyone else—even you, Gwen—have the excuse that you were acting out of concern for me. But I was driven by curiosity and impatience.”

Henry gave her a reassuring smile, taking her hand and threading his fingers through hers. She turned to Gwen with a smile.

“Henry has forgiven me my much bigger crime. You don’t even need to ask if I can forgive you. Of course I can. It’s already forgotten.”

Gwen’s expression lightened, her whole body suffused with relief. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner. I should have told you straight away when we met after Henry’s disappearance. But I thought…I thought…” Tears welled, making it difficult for her to speak.

“I’m glad that’s resolved,” Easton said, clearly trying to hide his tension. “But I think we should talk about what we do next. Gwen, do you have any idea where the queen might have taken the rebels? If she wants to keep them locked away until the wedding, where would they be?”

Gwen sat back, clearly considering the question. “The guards have cells of various sizes, of course, but none of them are big enough for so many.”

“Would she think it was dangerous to keep them together?” Henry asked. “If they could work together, they might find a way to escape.”

“Together…” Gwen murmured, seeming struck by a thought. “Actually, there’s one place. The servants all get locked in together every night. It’s a series of connected storage rooms. They’re in the basement level, and there aren’t even any windows. The servants have been in there as a group for nearly ten years, and they haven’t found a way to break out.”

“And she thinks they’re rebels as well,” Henry said, catching up with her idea. “She’s probably got them all locked in there together.”

“Do you know where the door is?” Easton asked. “And how we can get the key?”

Gwen looked down at her paws and then back at him. “We might not need a key.”

Easton grinned. “If you’re suggesting you could break down the door with pure force, I believe you. But if we don’t want to bring people running to investigate the commotion, we might want to find a subtler method.”

“And I think we need to wait for morning anyway,” Henry said. “The guards’ sense of smell and hearing are too great an advantage when they’re bears. We won’t manage to creep around unseen or sneak into the basement rooms if they can smell or hear us from half a palace away.”

Easton looked like he wanted to argue, but just like Charlotte, he’d never been a bear. She was inclined to agree with Henry, and doubly so when Gwen quickly nodded her agreement.

“Does that window open?” she asked, nodding at the largest window in the room. “I think we’re all going to need some rest at some point tonight, but we’ll need to take turns staying up on watch, and we should have an escape route planned. They may decide to search this whole area room by room if they guess we’re the source of that stench.”

Henry strode over and tested the latch on the window, peering outside. “It opens, and the jump isn’t too big.”

“We don’t need to take watches,” Gwen said. “I should do it the whole time. I’m the only one with bear senses, and I actually slept well the last couple of nights.”

Charlotte and Henry exchanged a look.

“You can do most of the night,” he agreed, “but you need to get a few hours’ sleep. We don’t know what tomorrow will be like yet, but the wedding was planned for the late afternoon, I believe, so it will likely be a long day.”

“So what is our plan?” Charlotte asked. “Is the queen really going to try to go through with the wedding in the middle of all this?”

“That has been her plan, but when she realizes Henry is gone, the plan is going to have to change,” Gwen said.

Henry frowned. “Should I go back to my room?”

“No!” Charlotte cried, thankful when the others stayed silent. “That is not happening. We’re together now, and we’re going to work this out together. No more prisoners, no more separation.”

---