We reached the upper floor using a tunnel that put us near the nursemaid’s bedroom. I wondered if any children who once lived here had used the tunnels to play tricks on their caregivers. It’s what I would’ve done.
Temporarily safe from Veldergrath’s men, Roden nodded at the emerald box in my hands. “Is that the box Veldergrath was talking about?”
“Probably.”
“What’s in it?”
“It’s locked.”
“You don’t seem curious,” Tobias said.
“I’d have to break the box to get into it here, and I won’t do that. Whatever its contents, we’ll find out soon enough.”
There was a moment of silence, and then Roden asked, “Sage, did you know you looked so much like the prince?”
“I always felt I looked more like myself than anyone else.” I grinned, then shrugged. “I’m too scarred for a prince. Too many calluses and rough edges. A similar face may not be enough. Besides, what we saw is only a painting, an artist’s interpretation of what Jaron looked like. Have either of you ever seen the royal family in person?”
Neither of them had. Roden observed, quite accurately, that royalty rarely visited orphanages, or invited poor orphans to state dinners.
“The king came through Carchar about a year ago,” I said. “So I stood on the street to see him. He looked right at me as he passed — I could’ve sworn he did. Everyone was supposed to bow to him, but I didn’t.”
“Why not?” Tobias asked. “Honestly, Sage, have you no respect?”
“An Avenian bow to a Carthyan king? Wouldn’t that dishonor the king of Avenia?”
Tobias’s groan was muffled by Roden, who asked, “So what happened?”
“A soldier clubbed me across my calves. That sent me to my knees, and I was in no hurry to get up again. For a moment I thought King Eckbert would stop the entire procession, but he didn’t. He only shook his head and continued on.”
Roden chuckled softly. “It’s a wonder you’ve lived so long. If Conner doesn’t choose you, it will only be because you’re too reckless to trust on the throne.”
“I can’t deny that. My point is that people don’t always look the same in real life as they do in their paintings. My resemblance to a five-year-old painting doesn’t matter. Facing the regents is the real test.”
We immediately fell silent when footsteps clambered up the stairs near us.
“How many?” Tobias mouthed.
I shook my head. Maybe four or five men, but it was impossible to tell for sure. We heard several other men still on the floor below us.
They spread out, each of them taking one area of the upper floor to search. One of Conner’s servants was with them to open any locked door or cupboard.
“There’s a lot of storage up here,” one man said.
“All the better for a hiding place,” another said. “Check every trunk, beneath every bed.”
“He wouldn’t hide a prince in a dusty room like this.”
“We search everywhere,” the first man ordered.
My spirits lifted a little. There was no mention of secret passageways, which there would have been if any entrances had been found downstairs. It didn’t appear they even suspected these tunnels were in the house.
Suddenly, Tobias grabbed my arm. He leaned very close to me and whispered, “I hid papers in our room. If they find them, they’ll know we’re here.”
I threw out my hands in a gesture to ask him where the papers were.
He leaned in again. “I cut a small hole in the side of my mattress. If they move it, feathers will fall out and they’ll see the hole.”
He drew back with an apologetic look on his face, but I could only shake my head. Judging by the thoroughness of the search on this floor, it was too much a risk that they might find those papers.