The Secret of the Seven Princesses

Suspense Chapter 15

Ty held his breath as the youngest princess scanned the passageway behind her, her blue eyes skimming over the place where he stood without registering his presence, without indicating that she could see him at all...as if he was invisible.

Which, of course, he was, thanks to Rosetta.

He lightly twitched the threadbare cloak that he held around his tall frame, ensuring that its surprisingly voluminous folds concealed his booted feet. He little imagined that the washing woman's ragged gift (which he had taken to be an article of clothing someone had lost in the laundry) would turn out to be such a diamond in the rough. Ty had heard of magical objects such as this invisibility clock, but he never expected to even see one, much less use it. He didn't know how Rosetta had acquired it, but he had little doubt that she'd given it to him for this very purpose—to follow the princesses and to make sure that their nighttime secret wasn't endangering them.

Eurielle, seemingly satisfied that the passageway was empty as usual, continued tagging after her sisters. Ty took care to muffle his footsteps this time as he trailed at a distance behind her. The invisibility cloak may have hidden him completely from view, but the princesses would still be able to hear him if he made even the slightest sound or feel him if he accidentally bumped into one.

Ty had to repress feelings of guilt as he followed the princesses toward their secret. He couldn't help but feel as though he were betraying them by going to such means to discover their secret, especially when their desperate bids for secrecy communicated just how important it was to them.

Yet here he was, doing the very thing he'd determined not to. His only consolation was that his motives—unlike the other princes and dukes and lords who'd entered the competition—were purely disinterested and fueled by concern for the princesses themselves.

For several days, Ty had pondered the possible meanings behind Rosetta's visit, her gift, and her mysterious message. It wasn't difficult to discover who she meant by "they," but he was unsure how to regard her warning as a whole, and wondered how she could possibly know that the princesses were in need of help. The rest of her message was less confusing to interpret: "you can't always see everything that is there" obviously referred to her invisibility cloak—which he'd discovered quite painfully after tripping over an unknown object. Once he'd discovered the secret of the cloak (after half a day of looking for his missing footstool), it took little guesswork to figure out that she'd intended for him to use it to discover the secret of the princesses. Even considering her warning, however, he hadn't felt any urgency on the princesses' behalf. He held too much faith in their judgment and sensibility, particularly the eldest daughters'.

He'd been spurred to action by Luka's abrupt announcement. Though Rosetta's warning hadn't seemed immediate, the threat of that rascal's claim on the prince competition took precedent even over Ty's unwillingness to intrude upon the princesses' privacy. Deciding to personally uncover their secret was easy enough, but how to do it while also avoiding discovery was less so. For if there was anything he was sure of, he did not want to enter the contest himself. He didn't agree with the stipulations of the contest, particularly the one that objectified the princesses, making them into trophies for the winner. In the years he'd been working at the castle, he'd come to know them well enough to realize that none of them would appreciate being "sold" in such a way. That being said, not entering the prince competition meant that he would need to find another opportunity to solve the mystery.

He had long ago reasoned that the princesses' escape must take place inside their room itself. How else could they have gotten past the guards so many months ago? But with this realization arose another dilemma: how to get inside the room without being detected?