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Skye and I continue shuffling through papers, and two hours later, I find something possibly helpful. I say, “Oh, look! It says it’s believed that the princess showed her lover—a turncoat knight—where the castle’s hidden tunnels were. Thus, her entire family was captured there by rebellion forces.”
“Well, I’ll be damned.” Skye nods. “Ah, the beautiful spoils of young love.” Skye keeps shuffling through her papers, then says, “Bingo! I found blueprints of this place.”
“Great!”
We both study them, which we realize won’t show any hidden tunnels in which the royal family can escape upon attack for obvious reasons, but we’re hoping they’ll provide some clue.
After looking at them so long our eyes blur, Skye says, “Enough of this. We just have to go on a hunt for these tunnels.”
“Just.” I blow out a hopeless breath. “That’s what Grams had been trying to do for years. She believed the lost records could be there because there’s rumored to be a hidden library.”
“Hidden library. This is so exciting!” Skye squeals.
I shiver, thinking about a tiny, dark medieval tunnel. “Sort of.”
Instead of getting up, we’re both still studying the blueprints. Skye says, “So, logically, where would the entrances to this tunnel system be?”
“Well…” I trail off, thinking. “There’d have to be entrances from the bedrooms, right?” I study the map. “Given that attacks would happen at night when the royals were asleep?”
“That’s not bad. That’s actually good. Really good, Riley.” She gives me a hearty slap on the back.
“Thank you.”
“So let’s scout out the places where the bedrooms used to be.” She stands, grabbing her purse that’s the size of a beach bag.
“Let’s do that.”
We start with the lady’s bedroom, which is now one of the small conference rooms. After studying the wall and closets using the blueprints to see if there’s any place a hidden room could be, we hit a dead end. We comb the floors for any ridges or hinges for a trapdoor. Nothing.
“Lord’s bedroom next.” Skye walks out of the room.
“Yup. It’s Laire’s conference room now.”
Once we’re there, again, we try to figure out where a spot for a hidden room would be. A storage area is there, so we go to it. “Look, Skye. On the blueprint, this closet seems like it might be a little bigger than it is.”
“Okay. Let’s search for a hidden space.” We study the wall, and it’s all stone. Skye knocks on it, but there’s no echo. We sweep the floors and find nothing. As far as we can tell, this is another dead end.
We exit the storage closet and wander the halls of the castle, thinking. “No one has found these tunnels. So, their entrances can’t be in any place obvious.”
Skye stops walking. “Right. They have to be hidden.”
“Right.” When a Hail Mary idea pops into my head, I say, “You know, the priest hole is a hidden space.”
Skye stops walking. “So, why not put the trapdoor there?”
I shrug. “Worth a shot.”
In short order, we’re back in the hidden priest compartment and running our hands along the floor. There are no hinges, so we’re ready to give up when I find a lip.
“Skye.” I point to it.
Together, we grab hold of it, and it lifts. “Holy shit! This is it!”
The smell of earth, dust, and rot hits like a blow.
“We are so friggin’ awesome!” Skye says through a cough.
We place the square piece of the floor up against the wall, then Skye grabs her beach bag before we step onto the stairs in the hole. Then she swings down the wall panel and encloses us. “We need to make sure no one finds us.”
