Page 32 of Once Upon a Crown
“It doesn’t feel that long ago that you were just a thieving girl whom I chased across a rooftop, and yet, so much has changed. You went from a prisoner to a queen and now we’re searching for the journal of the first king of Everness in the hopes that it could give us the information we need to go up against the King of Argon.” Just hearing him say it out loud felt somewhat surreal.
“Probably because it wasn’t that long ago,” I reminded him.
“You might not believe me,” he said, crossing his arms. “But I think the palace life suits you in some ways.” It was undoubtable that the bandit in me would never truly leave. But I’d tried to take on this new role with all its responsibilities asbest I could. I wanted to be the queen the kingdom actually needed.
“Well, the food is certainly a lot better.”
Rhen ran his hands along one of the shelves, inspecting the books.
“You know, I’ve already tried looking there,” I commented, but Rhen continued his search.
“Probably won’t hurt to look a second time.”
“I suppose not. Though it would be a very obvious place to hide it.” I moved on to the next shelf.
“You might be surprised to find that not all kings are very creative,” Rhen said, placing the candle on a nearby table.
“You’re right. But do you really think it would just be lying around these books so randomly?”
“I don’t know. It’s very old. It would need to be more protected, if you ask me.”
“More protected?” I mumbled to myself, scanning the library. “Where are the oldest books and the archives kept?”
“There.” He pointed to the far back. “But Cai and I have already looked there.”
I started making my way to the back shelves and Rhen followed behind, bringing the candle with him. We stopped in front of the shelves that lined the wall, and I eyed them with suspicion, not looking at any of the books specifically.
“What?” Rhen asked.
“Cai and I were looking through Magnus’s rooms and he told me something interesting.” I reached for one of the shelves and started pulling at it. “He mentioned the secret passageways in Mistwood Palace, and it’s got me thinking.” I yanked again and Rhen put the candle down.
“It’s too heavy. Let me help.” We both pulled at the wood, but it would not move.
“Not this one, then.” I huffed and moved on to the next one. Rhen and I tried each of the shelves but none of them had a secret door hidden behind them.
“I really thought I was onto something for a moment there.” I stepped back with a disappointed sigh.
“It was a clever idea,” Rhen tried to reassure me. “With a palace as old as this one, it really isn’t that far-fetched to think the library might have a secret room.”
I scanned the walls again while biting the inside of my cheek. Most of the shelves went up quite high but there were some places where the walls were bare of books and had a painting or a piece of weaponry or armour displayed. My footsteps creaked over the wooden floor as I made my way back to the shelf in the corner. Next to it, steel armour had been erected to look like a knight standing there holding his sword. The wall behind it had some decorative panels and I let my fingers trace the edges. There was a small gap between the wall and the bookshelf, almost unnoticeable, but it was there.
I sucked in a breath and pressed both my hands to the wooden panel, and suddenly a door popped open. I looked over my shoulder at Rhen, whose eyebrows were a little raised.
“Well, I’ll be damned.” He helped me to pull open the secret door, and after some effort, we stepped into the secret little room. It was dark and dusty, with books and scrolls lying on shelves in disarray.
“All the kingdom’s secrets must be locked away here,” I said, more to myself than him.
“Too bad we don’t have time for that.” Rhen and I looked through all the written material, but nothing resembled a diary. I didn’t want to believe that after all our effort this was just a dead end.
“I might have found something,” Rhen said, just as I was beginning to feel all the hope inside me slip away.
“You found the diary?” I turned to face the shelf that he was looking through.
Not the diary, but a small cupboard in the wall behind the bookshelf. I was quick to yank on the handle, but it wouldn’t budge.
“I suspect you need a key,” Rhen replied with some sarcasm. “Unless, of course, your lock-picking skills haven’t gone out of the window.”
“I can still pick a lock.” I gave him a flat expression over my shoulder after inspecting the lock. “But not one like this. These mechanisms are different, older.”
