Beyond the Torchlight
I woke the next morning with a complete emotional hangover. I was sore and confused, desperate to both find the dungeons and my mom, and also to see Varyn again. Last night, he’d seen every piece of me. Today, I wasn’t sure which pieces of him had been real.
“Nella, I need to tell you something. Will you skip breakfast to stay here?”
She stretched her arms over her head and agreed through a yawn.
Once the rest of the laundry ladies left the room, I turned on my bed to face Nella sitting on hers.
“After I got into bed last night, I found a note the prince had left me asking me to meet him when everyone was asleep.”
She looked at me incredulously for not telling her sooner.
“He snuck me into the library and—”
“You were sneaking around the castle late at night with the prince? Oh, how romantic and adventurous!”
She was glowing with glee while my gut churned at the thought of what Varyn and I had done.
Of course, I wouldn’t be sharing those details with her.
“Yes, he gave me a tour of the library and told me about the paintings, statues, and the history. There was—”
“Did he kiss you? Please say yes!”
“Please say no.” Noxie.
“He did, but that’s not the important part right now. There was an area on the second floor—”
“Of course, that’s the important part!” She screamed into her pillow. “What could possibly be more important than the prince falling madly in love with you?”
“What could possibly be more dangerous than kissing the son of the male potentially keeping your mother prisoner?”
Noxie and Nella were both driving me nuts.
“Nella, just listen—”
“Oh, just imagine if you get married and become the princess of Ashenholt—”
“Just imagine if the king finds out what you’re up to.”
“—and the most beautiful babies—”
“He’ll probably throw you in the dungeon too. Or worse.”
“—and I could live in the castle with Halden—”
“Will you both just shut up for a minute!” I couldn’t take both Nella and Noxie going on about the least important parts of the night. We needed to find out exactly where the dungeon entrance was, and this back and forth was getting us nowhere.
Nella looked shocked at my outburst. Noxie scoffed through our connection.
“Both…? Are you talking to Noxie?”
“Yes. Or he’s talking to me and being incredibly annoying while I’m trying to get you to listen. Varyn showed me the castle blueprints.”
Her eyes widened.
“That’s the important part I was trying to tell you. I didn’t see any dungeons anywhere.”
Her face fell in disappointment.
“But I saw a footnote on a square drawn near the kitchen that said there had been renovations there that weren’t part of the official blueprint.
That’s got to be the dungeons. We know they exist, and I think Caedryn himself had them built.
So they’d be somewhere underneath the kitchen then.
We have to figure out where and how to get to them. ”
“And what do we do even if we find out where they are? I’m sure they’re guarded. How would we even get in?”
“I…haven’t gotten that far yet. Last night was…unexpected.”
Noxie had been silent since I called him annoying. I’d apologize later. I just needed a plan to find the dungeons now.
Nella looked around seriously, as if the answer could be written somewhere on the wall.
“I can ask Halden if he knows of any secret entrances or has heard anything.”
“That’s great, Nella, thank you. Sorry for snapping. I really want to get moving. We’ve been here so long, and I don’t feel like we’re any closer to finding my mom and getting out of this castle.”
“What about the prince?”
“What about him?”
“If we leave the castle, won’t you miss him?”
Once again, I hadn’t gotten that far yet. My heart dropped at the thought. But I’d have to think about that later.
“I’m sure I will. But you and my mom are my priority. We’ll figure out the rest afterwards.”
She nodded. “I’ll talk to Halden at lunch.”
“Sorry, Noxie.”
Nothing but a caw.
* * *
At lunch, a few hours later, Nella motioned for Halden to join us at the table once he finished serving his food to all the servants.
He sat down next to Nella, the two of them across the table from me, glancing at each other nervously.
Teenage love. If we weren’t on a mission, I would have found it overly adorable.
“Hi, Halden,” I said.
“Hi, Naci,” he replied, his cheeks beginning to redden. I clearly made him uncomfortable.
Good.
Nella chimed in to break the tension. “We were wondering if you’ve ever seen or heard of any secret doors or passageways around the kitchen.”
He looked from Nella to me, then back to Nella, and cleared his throat. “There is a concealed entrance near the kitchen to the underground tunnels that mortals aren’t supposed to know about. Is that what you’re looking for?”
It was more than I could have hoped for. If the fae concealed the entrance to keep mortals out, and it wasn’t on the castle blueprints, this had to be the way down to the dungeons. Maybe.
I did my best not to get my hopes up, but that was difficult with this new information.
Nella and I glanced at each other and the corners of her mouth twitched into the slightest smile.
I gave Halden a nod. “I think it is, thank you. Where is the entrance? How do we get in?”
“You’re not gonna believe me but…a cook accidentally found it a long time ago, before I was here.
There’s a room that when you open the door, you’ll feel…
weird. I think there must be some magic.
But the room just looks like a storage room with damaged paintings, broken furniture, stuff nobody would go looking for.
There’s a fireplace in the back that isn’t really there.
It’s just an illusion. You can walk right through and then you’re in the tunnels.
But it’s a maze down there. People have gone down and never come back. ”
“This is exactly what I was looking for. Thank you.”
He smiled at me. “The door is second on the right side of the hall if you take a right out of here.” He looked at Nella and his smile dropped a fraction. “Be really careful if you go down there. We’re not supposed to know about it. If you go, please don’t get caught.”
“Definitely. Thank you,” Nella said, looking at him with puppy-dog eyes. And then she kissed him on the cheek, turning his face an even deeper shade of red than his hair.
He glanced nervously at me before saying goodbye to Nella and returning to the kitchen.
She was positively beaming.
“Do you love him, Nella?”
Her face was nearly as red as his had been.
“I don’t know…maybe? I think he loves me, though.”
“What makes you think that?”
“Well…he told me he did.”
My little lamb had found her first love. I was so happy for her I could have cried.
“Just make sure and keep him in line so I don’t have to.”
She rolled her eyes at me, but the smile stayed on her face for the entire rest of lunch.
We didn’t dare say more about the tunnels here, but it felt like the first real clue. Like we might actually be on the right track.
On the way back to the laundry area, I thought it might be time to have another chat with the gossipers to see if they knew anything about the tunnels.
We knew how to get in, but what we really needed was to talk to someone who had been down there.
The navigation sounded difficult. And when I told Nella this back at our station, she agreed.
I glanced over to find Ott and Moe with their heads already together at their folding station, undoubtedly swapping rumors.
“Hey, Moe, Ott. Can you come over here for a minute?”
They both looked over at me, curious, before walking our way, each with a small towel in hand.
“Hello, girls, what can we help you with?”
“Well…” I put on my best shy look. “I have a…crush on someone, and I wondered if you knew of any private place we could meet. In secret. Surely you know of somewhere hidden, like a secret passageway or something?” I added a small smile for effect.
Nella raised her eyebrows at me. Clearly not what she had been expecting.
It was a feeble segue in, but I figured it was juicy enough to grab the ladies’ attention at least.
“A crush, huh? And who’s the lucky boy?” Ott waggled her eyebrows at me. “It wouldn’t be a certain prince you’ve been seen around with, would it?”
That was a snag I hadn’t foreseen. Her tone made me uneasy, as if it were tinged with resentment or bitterness.
“Oh, um…”
“Ohhhh, it’s someone else. You’re sneaking around with two people,” Moe interjected.
“No, not…not two.” This wasn’t going well. I was growing more uneasy with each passing second. I would give the lie away if I couldn’t get it together.
Nella huffed out a breath. “It’s me she’s asking for. I was just too embarrassed to ask myself. I’ve been seeing Halden, and we thought we might like some…privacy.”
The embarrassment was apparent on her face, but she had gotten us back on track. Thank the gods for her quick thinking.
“Oh, how sweet, Moe! That little cook boy in the kitchen. Ah, young love.” Ott stared off into the distance with a smile. “I remember those days. I used to sneak down into the tunnels when I was your age with…what’s his name, Moe? You remember the gardener boy we all swooned over?”
“Geoff. You stole him from me.”
Moe crossed her arms and didn’t look too pleased to be discussing this topic. But at least Ott had the decency to look ashamed.
“Come now, we were kids,” said Ott, waving a hand, trying to move the conversation along.
Which I appreciated. We were getting close to some potentially good information if Ott had been down in the tunnels. And I honestly didn’t give a damn about their love triangle from decades ago.
“As I said, we used to sneak out and make use of the secret tunnels to...well, you can imagine.”
Moe rolled her eyes.
“Secret tunnels? That sounds perfect,” I said. “Are they always empty? Are there ever any guards or fae or anyone down there?”