The Princess Thief {CURRENTLY BEING REWRITTEN}

chapter two | a thief in the night {rewritten}

Here's Chapter 2 of The Princess Thief! Also, fair warning, I will be unpublishing the old chapters over time so don't freak out if you find some chapters missing.

"Are you certain the orb is there, Elidor?" the young woman asked, peeking at the castle from their hiding spot. Spending the last few hours behind the large bush during a chilly night brought out a hint of impatience in her voice.

"Of course, I'm sure," Elidor answered. "Would you have come with me if I wasn't sure, Teena?"

She looked at him with a smirk. Her eyes glittered dangerously from underneath her cowl. "I'm just making sure. The last thing I want is to end up in a dungeon, left to rot because I was looking for something that wasn't there in the first place."

"It's in there, all right. All you have to worry about once we are inside is finding the orb before anyone discovers us."

Teena nodded. "And then our problems are solved."

Elidor glanced at her, trying to hide his amused grin. "When did this become our problem?"

"The moment you asked me to come with you, it officially became our problem."

He shrugged. "Now remember, we are not selling the orb," Elidor reminded her. "We are returning it to where it belongs. It has been away from its home for far too long."

His companion rolled her eyes. "You can be too serious at times."

He grinned. "Not all the time, though. Right?"

She nodded. "True. You've had your moments. Although I don't know what I ever saw in you before."

Elidor studied the outer walls of the castle and nodded in satisfaction. "It looks like everyone has gone home from the feast. Now is our chance. The guards could be changing in just a few minutes. We will use that time to our advantage."

Teena smiled. She always reveled in these moments. "Then what are we waiting for?"

They burst from their hiding spot and ran to the castle gate, which was still open to allow entrance to the arriving hay wagons. They both immediately jumped into the back of one of the wagons and quickly concealed themselves under the hay. Neither of them dared to make a sound or even breath as the wagon rolled into the empty courtyard.

When they were certain no one would see them, Elidor and Teena hopped out of the wagon and hid behind the stone stairway, which led up to the front door of the castle.

Elidor peered over the stairs and saw the two guards leaving their post. In just three minutes, there would be two new guards to take over for the night. As soon as the guards were out of sight, he silently motioned for Teena to follow him. Just as he suspected, no one was to be seen as they entered the castle, however, they took extra precaution to keep to the shadows.

"Here's the plan," he started, "You go below and see if you can find anything. I'll look up here."

Teena nodded. "How will I know to come looking for you? What if one of us finds the orb first?"

"We'll meet back here in an hour. If we haven't found the orb, then we just keep looking."

"And what of the guards?"

"You know how to handle things silently," Elidor replied. "Just no unnecessary killing. We are not here for that reason."

She stuck out her bottom lip. "You always ruin my fun." She puffed out a breath. "I'll try to contain myself."