Princess in Secret Passage

[IsabellaRose]

You make your choice in an instant and dart into the second room, making immediately for the hidden passage. Your feet barely skim the stone as you pivot sharply, lunging through the open doorway to your left. The room is a wreck, its once-grand furniture smashed to splinters, books and papers scattered across the floor. Dust swirls in the air, disturbed by your frantic movements.

Behind you, the knight’s boots thunder down the stairs. "Now, now, Princess. I see you!"

Your hands fly to the bookshelf, trailing along the carved wood until... there. Your fingers find the notch, pressing inward with all your strength.

Click.

The shelf groans open, revealing the narrow, pitch-dark passage beyond. Without hesitation, you dive inside, pulling the edge of the bookshelf shut behind you. Darkness engulfs you. You press yourself against the stone wall, heart hammering, listening.

"Where did you go?" The knight’s voice is inside the room you just left, dripping with amusement, but you hear the frustration beneath it. He’s close. You hold your breath. You hear nothing for a beat, but then... a crash.

He overturns furniture, kicks something aside, muttering curses under his breath. He doesn’t know about the passage. Not yet. You hear his boots move away, his voice fading as he searches elsewhere. He doesn’t know where you are. You are safe, for now.

The air in the passage is musty and cold, the scent of damp stone and dust wrapping around you. The walls are narrow, pressing in on either side as you take a tentative step forward, then another. Somewhere in the distance, water drips. The sound echoes too loud in the confined space. You know these passages, you used to play in them a a child. Once you found one, the maze of hidden corridors became your playground, to the consternation of your nanny and your fathers' staff. But in the dark, memory and reality are two different things.

The passages run through and beneath the castle, a maze of concealed corridors and twisting stairwells behind hidden doors. You should remember, but it's been a long time since you've been inside the passages in this wing of the castle. You come to a fork. Stairs lead down to the left, toward the lower levels, deeper into the bowels of the castle, and to the right another passage leads toward the library, near the outer halls and a chance at escape. If you go down you might find supplies, a weapon, a way to survive longer in hiding. If you go out you might find a way to escape entirely.

• If you take the stairs down into the lower levels, click here <link forthcoming>
• If you take the passage toward the library and possible escape, click here <link forthcoming>