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18, Lucky Escape

Mable listened to her father's lecture. He was going on about what was best for the kingdom and why she should understand that. She had tried to explain that the two girl-boys were good, needless to say he hadn't listened.

He had stormed out after her lack of response, and she heard the click of the door locking. Sighing Mable sat on her bed and wondered how the twins were. She hoped her father had been nice, but he hadn't been very nice at all before. Humming he counted the seconds until a maid came in to clean her up.

She was a quiet woman, much older than Mable, who had always worked with her. Soon, her slightly wavy hair had been pinned up on top of her head, still damp from her bath.

"Thank you." She said, nodding her head. "You can go now."

The woman curtsied, "Yes Mistress." She said, leaving quickly. Mable heard the door lock again.

Pulling on slippers, she reached for the lamp beside her bed. It was elaborate, and the mirrors inside made the candle seem a lot brighter than it really was. It had been a gift from her mother and she winced as the fang on her necklace hit the metal at the top. Unlocking the base with a small key attached to a chain on her neck alongside it, she pulled out a roll of parchment.

First, she decided, the twins would probably be kept in one of the prison cells, especially if her father had been mean to them, so she would go there. Second, she would have to navigate some of the older, better hidden passageways to get there. Finally, this would only work if no one came into her room for the next ten minutes.

Unfurling the scroll, she traced out a route to the cells with her finger. Satisfied, she pulled a shawl over her shoulders and grabbed a smaller lamp from a shelf, lighting it and setting it on the window sill. Mable then prodded at the base of the seat there. Hearing the catches loosen, she lifted up the top of the seat and peered inside. There were stairs, cut out of the stone which led to the base of the castle. She knew that at one side coming of the stairs, there was a door leading into the court yard. She had barely explored the other way, but because of the map, she knew where it went.

Picking up the candle, she pulled the top of the seat back over as she climbed down. Mable's slippers barely made a noise against the ground, but she kept glancing behind her just in case. It almost felt like a game she used to play with her mother, when they would sneak around the castle looking for secret passageways. Since the sickness, and her mother's death, Mable never could find anyone else to play the game with her, so she played it by herself.

Mable had always looked up to her mother, who was so graceful in everything she did. She accepted the marriage arranged for the sake of alliance, and was a good mother when Mable was born. Young as she was when her mother died, Mable knew that she was at peace with her father, they were good friends and she was not replacing his previous wife.

Even so, she could remember back to when her mother and father would argue. It was always about her, she knew, but she was never sure why. So she'd become a good daughter, and hope that she would never see her mother cry after an argument again. Now she was being a bad daughter, in all her sixteen years, she had never done something so rebellious. Her father would understand again one day, she hoped.

The flickering candle showed only a small part of the space in front of her, but Mable knew when she had to turn to get into the catacombs. The map was harder to read now, with less light and her always moving, but she could easily tell once she lost her way. Despite keeping to the left wall, as had been directed, she was now in a small room, which she imagined to be far underground. It felt like the maze was trying to bury her and her good intentions.