Page 20 of The Stolen Princess
Myka’s eyes followed her slow-moving hand as it picked up one notebook and gently brought it to her bag.
Two seconds.
That’s all the time Myka would need to pack her up.
One.
Two.
Done.
“Your Highness?” Ms. Happ snapped at her.
Myka’s eyes jerked away from her hypnotizing hands. “Sorry. What did you ask?”
Ms. Happ spoke in her cutting way. “I said, I haven’t seen the king in so long. How is his recovery going from his surgery?”
“Excellent!” Myka lied. “He should be out and about soon.”
She pursed her lips. “Well, that’s good to hear. The king’s recovery is all the newswriters have been talking about.”
That’s what Myka was afraid of.
“How kind of everyone to be concerned,” she said, forcing a smile.
After she got Ms. Happ packed up and gone, Myka walked to her father’s suite. She wanted to check in on him before she snuck out.
As she was about to round the corner, Stoddard’s hushed whispers stopped her.
“Don’t worry. Everything can still move forward as planned,” Stoddard said. “Right now, your top concern is making sure the secret weapon is stable. It’s the most important thing right now.”
The secret weapon?
Growing up at Tolsten House, Myka had heard the whisperings about weapons before. When she was sixteen, she had even seen a newswriter that had an article about weapons of mass destruction with the headline,What is King Adler Hiding?Myka had taken the paper to her father and asked him about it, but her father had always told her that weapons like that were a rumor—something that his enemies had come up with to make him look bad. He admitted to having a few prototypes of smaller bombs, but nothing that would cause the kind of damage referred to in the article. Myka had no reason not to believe him.
But this was different.
She didn’t trust Stoddard.
Maybe her father was making another prototype. Last week Myka had shown up late to a meeting between her father and the High Rulers. High Ruler McCarren’s voice had been raised, making it easy for Myka to hear as she came down the hall.
“If you don’t do something about these weapons,” High Ruler McCarren had said, “then we’ll be in a war with the other six kingdoms in a matter of months.”
“Don’t worry about the weapons,” her father had reassured him. “They haven’t hurt us yet.” Myka had walked into the meeting, and everyone had stiffened except for her father. He had beamed at her and immediately changed the subject. Myka had wanted to ask him about what High Ruler McCarren had said, but she hadn’t remembered until now…now that she was overhearinganotherconversation about weapons.
She quieted her breath and looked behind her to make sure nobody was coming down the hall. She pressed her back against the wall and tilted her head toward the direction of the whispers, hoping to find out more answers.
“Yes, the secret weapon is stable,” another voice that Myka recognized as Doctor Von’s chimed in. “I told you I could work miracles, and I can, but I’m worried about how long everything is taking. I can’t keep things hidden forever.”
She pulled her eyebrows together, trying to make sense of their conversation. Why would Doctor Von work miracles on a weapon? He wasn’t an engineer. And whatthingswas he trying to keep hidden?
“I know. The king’s health has slowed our project down,” Stoddard said. “Perhaps we need to move forward without him.”
Her breath hitched. What did Stoddard mean by that?
Doctor Von huffed. “This is King Adler’s project. We can’t move forward without him.”
“We can if he’s dead.”
