Queen of All by Anya Josephs

Author:Anya Josephs [Josephs, Anya Leigh]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: GenZ Publishing

Chapter Thirteen

Within a week, my exploration becomes much bolder. Each day, I wait until Sisi is out and then start to journey further into the secrets the castle holds.

My first stop is the hidden stair I discovered on my very first expedition. It’s pitch dark in the stairway, and my heart pounds, imagining what sorts of horrors could be lurking here, so carefully hidden away.

Step by step, I continue downward, my hand sliding along the smooth, blank surface of the wall. I wish for a handhold, but find none. The only means I can think of to comfort myself is to count each pace, to keep track of how long I’ve been descending, to remind myself that, whatever it feels like, it has not actually been forever. I can always return to the well-lit safety of my rooms.

At the count of fifty, I stop, having run face-first into another door. With a little pressure, I am able to push it open, which is a relief, since the alternative would be to die trapped inside this wall. I take a deep breath, preparing myself for whatever might be on the other side, and step through.

Suddenly, everything is brightness and noise. I have discovered not the horrible dungeon I was imagining, but a servant’s passageway down into what I can clearly recognize as the palace’s kitchen. The frightening dark silence of the secret stair is entirely gone, replaced by a busy hive of activity. There are dozens of cooks and maids and messengers bustling around—a few of the maids in livery, but most of the people dressed in the same sort of simple homespun clothes I wear at home when helping with the chores.

Well, that explains how the servants seem to appear and disappear out of thin air. They’re traveling by these well-hidden stairs, set into the wall so that no one notices their comings and goings.

I remain half-hidden in the doorway, looking around at everything: at the great central table where half a dozen cooks are engaged in chopping various fruits and vegetables I don’t recognize; at the two roaring, wood-burning ovens, each large enough that a full-grown person could easily fit inside. I shake off that disturbing image and turn to head back up the stairs.

Before I can, someone, a short, sharp-faced woman, catches sight of me. “You, girl!”

My heart stops in my chest for a moment. I’ve been caught skulking around here, where I don’t belong, and I’m surely about to be in trouble. What will I say? How will I explain my presence here? Curiosity—the truth—seems a suddenly weak excuse for creeping about the palace like a thief. I hope I don’t get Sisi into trouble, at least. Her own studies with the books, her plan against the Prince himself, as little as I understand all that, is certainly more dangerous, and if I cast suspicion on her…

But my whirlwind of anxious thoughts is interrupted when all the woman says is, “Take this!”

She thrusts a heavy platter toward me, with a roast chicken on it.

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