Page 70 of A Valiant Prince

“Good, it’s settled,” King Michael proclaims as he turns to Victor. “Please get the cars ready for us.”

Victor nods and a few minutes later we are all led down to them and whisked back to the castle. As soon as we are back in Anna’s apartment, we both collapse on her bed.

“I’m so tired,” she moans.

“Let’s take a nap,” I say to her, rolling on my side to look down at her.

She shakes her head. “I need to check on my search. I got it up and running again before we left,” she says.

I frown not remembering that. In fact, the only time she left my sight was when she went to change quickly while I was looking around her apartment when we arrived. Then it dawns on me

“Does your closet have a secret passage?” I ask her with a raised eyebrow.

Her guilty face tells me everything.

“Where’s your computer, Anna?” I ask.

“Oh, no. Sorry, I am sworn to secrecy forever. I can’t tell you that,” she says.

“Seriously?” I say to her.

She shrugs. “I’m sorry,” she whispers and looks away. “I promised my mother.”

The gravity of that statement takes a moment to hit me.

“Your mother?” I reiterate.

“Yes, there are many secret places in the palace. This one is special,” she tries to explain. She looks up at me. “I’ve never even talked about it with another soul until now.”

“Fine, go find your computer,” I say to her. “But hurry back.”

I lie back on the bed as Anna bolts to her closet and disappears, leaving me contemplating life in a castle. I wonder where all the other secret passages go, and how many there are. I also wonder how she manages to avoid the enormous amount of security guards in the palace.

The room is suddenly very silent except for the ticking of an antique clock that sits on a mantle over the fireplace in Anna’s bedroom. Even though the palace is in the heart of the city, there’s enough trees and gardens around it that the city noise can’t be heard inside its walls.

I push off the bed and begin looking around the room. On Anna’s nightstand, there’s a family photo. She can’t be more than five or six in it, and she sits on her mother’s lap. She looks so much like her mother that it’s almost eerie seeing them together.

Her room looks like a room in a palace with antique furniture, silk fabrics, and tastefully decorated walls. But here and there, there’s a splash of Anna. In her office, there’s a bulletin board with concert ticket stubs on it. A bobblehead of Thor sits on her desk. There’s a shelf in her office where there’s a cluster of family photos, mostly of her, Auggie, and Chris as kids. There’s another of her and a very pretty young woman. And then I see a small carving that I recognize because I have one too. We made them at camp. I pick up hers and run my finger over the initials carved under it. We had carved each other’s initials in the base of each bear. I smile at the memory.

Princess Susanna seems like one person to me now, and then there’s Anna, a completely different person.

My thoughts are torn from me as I hear movement in her bedroom. I turn and peer around the corner.

Anna is laying the laptop on the bed, she hardly glances up at me as she begins furiously typing.

“Anything?” I ask as I meander back out into her bedroom.

“I’m confused,” she says frowning.

“About?” I prod as I walk over to her.

“The IPs that are used…it doesn’t make sense,” she says as her brows furrow and her typing speeds up.

“I don’t understand. What do you mean?” I ask her.

“Just give me a minute,” she says as she bites her lip in concentration. All I see are numbers and symbols scrolling across the screen. I sit down next to her and rub her shoulders. She’s tense, too tense.

“Hey, calm down. It’s OK,” I whisper in her ear.

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