The Secret of the Seven Princesses
Suspense Chapter 16

Rosetta's story was as difficult to tell as it was to hear.

Born to an impoverished couple in Uvegia, I had scarcely reached my third birthday when my parents' financial difficulties drove them to sell me as a household slave to a wealthy merchant. I was treated indifferently at best, raised (more or less) among the man's two sons, but I was never allowed to forget my inferiority. Upon the merchant's death when I was fifteen, his business and estate were inherited by the elder brother, whereas I was passed along to the younger. My new master was continually in financial straits; his brother refused to assist his wild actions and eventually disowned his wayward younger brother.

Left to his own devices, the desperate man resorted to criminal means to support himself—dragging me down with him into the quagmire of questionable morality. He gathered together a ragtag group of ruffians, whose cruel deeds and criminal actions quickly earned them reputations as the most wanted criminals in the country. They were forced to flee from the prices on their heads, and it wouldn't be the last time.

For many years, I was forced into servitude for the band of marauders. They knew that I wouldn't agree to commit any criminal deeds myself, regardless of how they tried to force or threaten me. So instead, I became their unwilling accomplice and "kitchen" servant, in charge of the meals and marketplace reconnaissance excursions. I tried escaping several times, but they always found a way to retrieve me—and their punishments matched their fearsome reputation.

Eventually, the marauders made their way into the country of Kyoria, plundering towns and villages along the way. With a reputation as deplorable as theirs, they couldn't afford to stay in one place very long…until they found the perfect hideout.

My master stumbled upon it when we were encamped in the forest outside the palace (a place that offered dense protection from even the numerous authorities around the royal residence). The entrance was cleverly concealed in the base of a spruce tree, and he had hoped that it would provide a safe place in which to hide.

It turned out to offer much more and much less than he had expected.

The passageway led to the familiar, beautiful chamber that the current princesses had turned into their sanctum. Little could Their Majesties guess that, not so very long ago, their place of freedom had housed a band of ne'er-do-wells and one unfortunate slave woman. With its splendor and secrecy, it was the perfect place for their purpose. They set up base camp within the chamber itself, leaving two sentries to guard the only entrance.

"But what about the tunnel that leads to the manor?" Ty interrupted her tale to ask.

"The staircase led to a dead end," Rosetta said simply. "It wasn't time for the trapdoor to appear, so the only way in or out was through the forest passage." She waited for further questions that did not appear before continuing her tale.

The complete seclusion of their new hideaway allowed the band to stay longer in Kyoria than they'd ever stayed anywhere else. They resumed their former activities of plundering, marauding, and thieving, but made sure to target those homes and markets that were far enough away from the chamber to maintain its secrecy.

About ten months after the band moved into their new headquarters, I decided to attempt another escape from my deplorable servitude. Tasked with making almost daily trips to the marketplace for food, supplies, and news, it wasn't difficult to separate from my "chaperone" during one of those excursions and disappear into the crowd. Though my master sent his most ruthless trackers to seek me out, I managed to elude them. For the first time, I believed that I'd managed to escape their clutches forever.

But it wasn't so. They didn't want to draw attention to themselves by removing me forcefully from the town, so they lay in wait. I attempted to escape their surveillance by passing through the forest path to Elensar, and it was on this road that my former master's band caught up with me at last.

Rosetta paused, seeming to be overcome with emotion for some reason or another. Ty sat back, allowing her a moment to compose herself.

They overpowered me quickly and forcefully. I had had a taste of freedom for a day at most, but now I had been subdued and browbeaten once more. One the way back to the camp, however, something far worse happened—something that I would give anything to be able to forget. For though I had lived with thieves and murderers for the majority of my life, I had never before witnessed the true extent of their depravity until now.

The leader called his men into action upon hearing an approaching carriage. They took their places, hiding in the bushes until the vehicle had come into view. It was bejeweled and ornate, causing the thieves' hearts to beat with greed. They seemed neither to notice nor care that the royal crest was blazoned upon the door.

The murderous marauders made quick work of the plunder. Trussed up on the forest floor, I could only watch in horror as my master and his men slew every attendant, every guard, and even the tragically beautiful queen herself.

"The memory will haunt me forever," she murmured, gazing at her hands where they lay clenched in her lap. "If I had not tried to escape…if they had not found me on that path at that time, then they wouldn't…she wouldn't…" she trailed off, seemingly unable to go on.

She glanced up at Ty. "Nothing they found in that carriage even came close in value to what they killed." Rosetta turned her attention back to her hands, holding up the object that she'd had tightly clenched in them: the ornate, engraved locket that Ty had been puzzling over merely an hour ago. He glanced back towards the surface of his desk where he'd left the trinket, but it was, obviously, gone. How had she—? But never mind. It wasn't important.

He examined the locket hanging from her fingers. He would never underestimate the power of a laundress again. It was surprisingly clean and pristine, considering its former dirt-caked state, and he was now able to see the familiar etching on the front: a blooming rose atop a spinning wheel. The royal crest of the Sleeping Beauty. He couldn't count the number of times he'd seen this very symbol—even this very locket—in Queen Meleprene's painting hanging in Gustave's chamber.

"I escaped eventually," Rosetta softly continued, drawing Ty's attention back to the washer woman and her story.

My fervor for freedom increased tenfold after I'd witnessed this senseless tragedy. I spent every spare moment planning opportunities and methods to escape…but it didn't happen when I planned. It was the work of a desperate impulse. Not even a week after Meleprene's death, I received a severe beating that—though not unusual or new in itself—was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. In the dead of the night, I stole from the chamber. I knew that I wouldn't be able to slip past the sentries at the front entrance, so I decided to tempt fate by escaping through the back tunnel—notoriously a "dead end."

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"Fourteen years ago, the trapdoor opened for me," Rosetta said humbly. "It gave me my freedom, as it gave the princesses theirs. But you and I have both seen the price it asks. Though I read it nearly a decade ago, I still remember the warning, mercifully written in a language I understood. You cannot imagine my feelings when I realized the danger I had been facing while in and out that chamber for so long."

"But how real is the danger?" Ty asked. "I understand the warning, but is it true?"

"As true as you and me."

My drive for freedom took me far away. I slipped unseen through the trapdoor, snuck out of the castle, and never looked back…until a year ago. For reasons I couldn't fathom at the time, I felt a desire…no, a need to return to the place where I'd witnessed such horrors and reclaimed my independence. It took some searching in the forest to find the chamber entrance again, but I eventually found the right spruce tree. It was doubtful that the marauders were still there after all those years, but I still entered cautiously. Less than fifty yards down the line, though, my progress down the passage was impeded by a wall of rubble and wooden ceiling beams…and bones. It didn't take much guesswork to figure out that the plaque's warning had taken effect. At least some of my former master's mob had been crushed under the cave-in, preventing their three-hundredth exit.

"And now you can see why I could not follow the princesses myself as soon as I suspected where they were going. I have little idea how many exits I have left, so I could not risk entering that cursed place even once more. I didn't see any other way, so—"

"And so you recruited me," Ty finished, feeling a twinge of sympathetic understanding in the face of Rosetta's obvious distress.

"I had been watching you for some time, as soon as my suspicions began. I could tell you were trustworthy, and that you would do anything to ensure the princesses' safety—one in particular." Ty started at her knowing tone, feeling his face flush suspiciously. With startling speed, Rosetta stood and made her way to the door. Ty scrambled to follow her; he couldn't seem to keep up with her rapid movements, even though he was half her age.

Before exiting, she turned back to face him as she pressed Queen Meleprene's locket into his hands. "Listen: I know what it is to live with regret. My hope is that you won't have to say the same. Do what you have to do."

Even before Rosetta's charge, Ty had already determined to speak with Eralie. The laundress's warning had merely fueled his urgency tenfold. He frantically searched her usual haunts for a sign of the black-haired princess. She wasn't in the library, and under the circumstances he thought it better not to ask Callia (who was holed up in her window nook) for her whereabouts. She had long ago left her bedchamber, and wouldn't be in the dining room for a couple hours yet. Having concretely ascertained that Eralie was absent from the palace itself, Ty retreated to the gardens and the only other place he could think to find her.

King Gustave's royal gardens were among the most beautiful and well-kept in the country of Kyoria. The focal point of the courtyard featured rose bushes surrounding a center pavilion in lines that resembled the spokes of a wheel. In the bright bloom of spring and summer, the sight was incomparable, and even now in the autumn the view had a breathtaking beauty all its own. The pavilion itself was picturesque and quaint, exactly where one would imagine a romantic princess such as Eralie to sit.

But this wasn't her favorite spot.

Ty walked past the rows of late autumn foliage, past the white-washed pavilion, beyond the edges of the picturesque garden into a small nook in the corner of the courtyard. While one could not say that this part of the garden was neglected, it certainly wasn't kept in quite the same pristine condition as the rest of the courtyard. And it was here, among the autumn colors, that Ty found Eralie. She was seated on her usual bench, a book lying forgotten on the seat beside her as she gazed at something unseen, apparently deep in thought. She formed quite a fetching picture, lit by the mid-afternoon sun and surrounded by leaves of burnt sienna, mahogany, and amber.

Reluctant to break her reverie, Ty nonetheless cleared his throat to alert her to his presence. She jumped slightly, but could not hide her look of pleasure upon seeing who it was who had distracted her from her daydream.

"Princess, forgive my intrusion, but I have something very important to discuss with you." He winced at how stilted and formal he sounded, but Eralie didn't seem to notice or mind. She moved her book, motioning for him to take the seat next to her. He did so, taking care to keep a careful distance but still angling his body to face her. He debated how best to begin.

"What is it, Ty?"

Her informal use of his name broke through his uncertainty, convincing him that speaking candidly was his best option.

"I know where you and your sisters go at night," he admitted softly yet surely. He heard her gasp—in shock? Anger?—but paid little heed to the small interruption. "And I know what you have been doing, and how you have prevented Sir Luka or any of the other prince contestants from discovering your secret."

"Apparently, we should have put less effort into tricking them, and more into deceiving you," Eralie commented wryly. She turned to face him more fully, and Ty was slightly surprised by the defiance in her eyes. "So what do you think you know?"

"I know that you have been drugging the princes and your chamber maid with some form of sleeping sedative. I know that you have been picking the lock on your bedchamber door to teach each of your suitors the futility of their attempts. I know that Petra stole my spare set of keys…"—Eralie smiled slightly at his attempted humor— "And I know that every night, you pull back your rug and descend into a passageway that brings you to the most fantastic, most magical chamber anyone has ever seen, in which the princesses of Kyoria perform a play of their own invention that is just as mystical as the room in which it was born."

Eralie gazed straight ahead, not meeting Ty's gaze. "It is pointless to deny any of what you've said. I suppose you're going to tell Father?" He wasn't sure what it was that he heard in her voice. It could have been either a note of resentment or anticipation—but he didn't allow himself to dwell on that.

"No."

Her eyes darted towards him, surprise shining from their blue depths. "You aren't?"

"It isn't my secret to tell, Princess. I will leave that up to you." His response reaped a grateful smile that warmed him from the inside out.

She glanced down, paying undue attention to the book that she held. "I suppose you won't tell me how you found out?"

"I would never keep my secret from you, Princess, but there are more pressing matters at hand." Seeing Eralie's confusion, he hastened to answer. "You asked me to tell you what I know. Well, I know one thing more about your activities that you do not, and that is that your midnight trips have put you all in danger."

Eralie jerked away from him. "How can you say that? We are doing nothing wrong, nothing that would endanger us! Our play is purely innocent!"

"That is true enough, except that your play takes place in a room whose magic has killed before." As quickly as he could, he outlined what he'd just learned of Rosetta's story, interspersing her tale with his own discoveries of the plaque's riddle and warning. He chose to leave out her role in the queen's death, however; it had little bearing on the chamber issue, and would only upset Eralie more than she already was. By the end of his account, Eralie's face was as white as the dress she wore, and her hands were shaking slightly.

"You're sure about this?" she clarified.

"As sure as I can be. But I could only venture a guess as to when you discovered the trapdoor."

"It was around the end of January, I believe."

"And you have returned to the chamber every night since?"

"Yes." It took some figuring, but they finally used this information to estimate the number of the princesses' remaining exits from the room. At their closest calculation, they had no more than a few days before they, too, would have been trapped within the passage like the unfortunate marauders.

Naturally, Eralie had to fight panic over this close call, but she maintained her composure in spite of her feelings. Now that she had been apprised of the danger, her first intention was to inform her sisters at once. However, Ty also succeeded in convincing her that her father should also be told; indeed, he argued that had they attempted to speak honestly with their father from the beginning, they could have avoided much of the drama and intrigue.

Eralie wasn't entirely sure she agreed with this, but was willing to concede the point to the man she…to the man who had saved her life as well as the lives of her sisters. However, she wasn't quite so willing to submit to Ty's modesty in refusing to talk to King Gustave himself. Despite her persuasions that he should be able to claim the credit for solving the mystery, he continued to argue that it was the princesses' duty to confess the truth to their father. It would promote honesty and reestablish trust between the royal family—something that was increasingly important after the events of the past year.

"Besides," he added. "I would hate to class myself with those who joined the prince competition to win a bride." He chuckled feebly at his weak attempt at humor. Eralie didn't join in with his amusement, instead focusing her blue eyes on his hazel ones intently. His pretense at mirth fading, Ty caught a glimpse of…something…within the depths of her eyes before she looked away again, her cheeks slightly pinker than before.

Feeling that their conversation had entered dangerous ground, he took his leave of the princess to allow her time to consider how best to approach her sisters and father with this delicate issue. As he strolled away from her bench, Ty couldn't help but reflect on Eralie's reaction to his surprising story and his poorly-managed admiration.

He didn't know how to classify it. He didn't know what to call it. All he knew was that Eralie's expression gave him a vague sense of hope that he'd never truly expected to feel from her. Though he wasn't sure whether the look in her eyes was really what he wished it to be, he did recognize that her depth of emotion was a far cry from Eurielle's puppy love.

A/N: And so the truth comes out...almost. Just two more chapters and a prologue to wrap up the loose ends, and this journey is nearly over. Make sure to tell us your reactions to the revelations revealed in this chapter by clicking that wonderful "Review" button. All responses are much appreciated.

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