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Chapter VI

Banging on the door was obviously not going to help her get out so she immediately stopped trying. The room was enveloped in darkness so she had to light up a candle in order to see anything.

First, Jade tried to look through the keyhole, but the candle wasn't enough to light up the mechanism. It reminded her of one of the treasure chests her adoptive father let her pick-lock.

Of course! She could try to pick-lock the door, but she needed a hair pin or something similar that would fit through the hole. Unfortunately she didn't have one with her. In frustration she hit her forehead with her palm and sat on the bed, thinking what she could do.

I better take a look around before anything else, she thought. It was true that she hadn't really searched the room for anything, expecting the furniture to be empty. The first thing that caught her attention was the chest at the end, made of wood and without a lock. Carefully she opened the lid and brought the candle closer in order to see inside.

It appeared empty, but not all corners were well lit up, so with her hands the girl checked if there was anything there. At some point she felt something small, like a wooden block that was fixed into the wooden chest. Pulling it did no good, but as her hand moved to another direction that block suddenly moved. It worked like a lever, but nothing seemed to happen, and no noise was to be heard other than her own breathing. There was nothing else in the chest.

Next she tried the wardrobe. Locked. In the dim light she noticed a small keyhole. The key had to be somewhere around as well, but it was bound to be just as small, therefore hard to find. She tried underneath since there was just enough space for her hand to fit though, but all she found were spider webs. Jade hated them, but could tolerate getting her hands dirty in such a situation.

The last piece of furniture was the writing desk, with one drawer on each side. The one closer to her was almost stuck so she had a hard time opening it and to her disappointment it only had a block of blank papers. Even in the candlelight there was nothing to be seen on them, no hidden script. In the other drawer she expected to find some ink and a writing feather but she found something better. At the far end of the drawer she managed to get hold of something small, seemingly a box. When she pulled it out of there she noticed it could be opened, and inside there was a key, a very small key, as if a child's toy.

Trying the newfound key on the wardrobe it fit perfectly so she turned it and opened the wardrobe. Just as the girl expected, the wardrobe didn't hold any clothes, but on the other hand there was a ladder. Nothing else. Slowly she took it out and wondered what she was supposed to do with a ladder so she started looking towards the ceiling. Although she was certain there was nothing to see there, she still looked with great attention. Unexpectedly she noticed a dark square so she moved the candle closer in order to see what it was. It surely wasn't there earlier, else she would have noticed it.

It appeared to be some sort of ventilation system, quite hard to reach since it was nowhere close to either wall. At first she considered jumping from the bed, but it was too high to reach. The writing desk was too far so she clearly had to use the ladder somehow, but not even that was very easy. For one, no wall was close enough to the hole in the ceiling so she would have to jump from the ladder to reach it, and second, the ladder would certainly keep moving since there was nobody to hold it still for her. She saw no other way of getting out and she couldn't depend on anyone to clear the way for her. She had to at least try.

I can do this, she kept telling herself. So she tried.

Carefully she leaned the ladder to the wardrobe since it was the closest she could get to the hole in the ceiling and with slow movements she started climbing, feeling every shake of the unstable ladder. Before long she was as high as she could get. She could now touch the ceiling with the tips of her fingers but that wasn't enough. She was going to jump, but first she took a deep breath.