The Non British Princess

Part 12

Time slowed as the arrow flew through the air and hit the target.

Smack bang in the centre.

I didn't even register I got a bullseye until the crowd behind me cheered and everything started up again. I was surprised I'd hit the target, laughing in shock.

I had done it, and by some miracle had done it perfectly.

Harriet, Remy, Indiana and Yasmin all ran up to me and gave me massive hugs. I felt so excited for myself and my team. The screaming of joy overwhelmed everything else for a moment.

Some of the girls looked frustrated or jealous I wasn't on their team, but Genevieve looked furious I had outshined her and stolen her moment.

After the group hug around me ended, Prince Thomas came over and handed me back my camera, showing me two photos he'd snapped.

The first was me shooting my arrow, my bow drawn back and the light shining on my face but I was turned away, having the arrow midway through the air and timed perfectly.

The second picture was the moment after I shot, when I was laughing with joy and my friends were all crowded around me with smiles on their faces. It was a nice photo and it surprised me to think about how close I felt with these girls after 24 hours. 

"Thank you, your highness." I say with a curtsey and Prince Thomas tries to hide his grin as he shakes his head.

"I thought it would be nice to add to your collection." He adds with a smile and I smiled back. There was a moment where we both paused and it felt nice to know he did that just for me.

Then Prince Thomas broke the moment as he had to go back to running the show as he raised his voice to address everyone.

"That's 5 points for Lady Alex and Lady Amelia, 15 for Lady Genevieve and 20 for Lady Isabelle." The Prince said and the girls cheered.

"Now we have a team challenge, a scavenger hunt across the gardens and palace. Each team to complete it will earn points, and if you finished first it's an extra 15 points to your team. Bonus golden roses can be found along the course to earn extra points, but will slow your team down." Prince Thomas explained, smiling at all us girls.

The Prince spoke up again, "Also, the winning team with the most points after all of today's events gets to spend lunch with my sister and I."

The girls cheered and the prince had a hard time trying to get everyone to be calm as he handed out the first clues.

Yasmin went up for our team to collect our clue card.
"I have a face that doesn't frown and I have hands that don't wave. I have no mouth and I don't walk, but I move around." Yasmin said, reading the clue out to our team.

"A face and hands and moves." Remy said, lost in thought of what it could be.

"Oh, a clock." Indiana said and Harriet nodded. Indi smiled proudly as we wondered where to go.

"But there's hundreds of clocks in the palace!" Remy complained dramatically, over exaggerating every word.

"It's probably near the grandfather clock, by the main entrance. That's the biggest clock I've seen." Harriet said knowingly, pointing to an entrance I hadn't been through.

As a team we ran across the oval, and looking back I saw the Emerald team were way ahead, already disappeared and looking around for the next clue.
The Ruby team didn't seem to be going so well, and Genevieve didn't seem so open to cooperation.

She was yelling at Lola for something she had suggested, but I didn't see much of what was happening since we had to rush to try and win this thing.

We rushed as fast as we could into the palace as we held our dresses and followed Harriet through to where she assumed the next clue would be.

"Here's the clock."

And she was right. In the grand lobby there was a massive, wooden grandfather clock.

"See if you can find any clue." I say and we all start moving around, looking if we can find the clue somewhere near the clock.

I search around the base of the clock and on the table beside it but don't find anything. Neither does Harriet.

"It this is?" I see Indiana's red hair peaking out from under a table on the other side of the massive clock.
She reaches her hand up that holds a piece of golden paper that is folded over twice. Remy takes it while she gets up and she unfolds our next clue.

"You have to be quick to not get beat, go to the place where you sit to eat." Remy read out to the members in our team.

It took a moment for one of us to figure it out.

"The dining room." Yasmin says and we all suddenly agree, thinking we are all a bit silly for not getting it sooner.

"Let's keep moving." I say and we all pick up the pace to get to the dining room quickly.

We arrive in the dining room that has the long table set up for lunch. "Spread out." Yasmin called, taking charge and beginning to search on the tables.

I looked under the long table but saw nothing. Looking on top of the tables decorated with vases and plates I see a hint of something gold.

"Over there, down the other end." I say, pointing to the gold paper peaking out from the plate down the very end.

Harriet is the first to reach it and pulls it from under the plate quickly but carefully. She unfolds the paper and reads it out loud to the group.

"The next place you will have to look is the place where you can find a book." She reads and looks back up at us all.

"A book? Like one?" Remy asks, confusion clear on her face.

"Probably multiple, like a library." I say.

"Do they have a library in the palace?" Yasmin asks, sounding surprised and unsure.

"They probably do." Harriet says with a nod.

"So do we just have to go look for it? The place has so many rooms." Indiana asks.

"Or we could ask someone where it is." Harriet suggests, already walking over to the closest guard who stands by the door.
"Excuse me, where is the library?" She asks in a sweet voice, sounding very innocent.

"It's on the fourth floor miss." The guard replied stiffly, before going back to his post and staring straight ahead.

"Let's go."

The five of us quickly rush to the elevator and hit the button for the fourth floor. I hadn't been up there before and I didn't think any of the other girls had either.
After a few moments we came to the fourth floor and the doors of the elevator opened.

We were in another hallway, much like that on all the other floors. After a bit of looking around we found the door to the library.

The library was massive, clearly expanded with one side more historical and filled with leather bound novels, while the other was modernised with study spaces and reading tables.

Since there was a lot of ground to cover it took us a while to find any sight of the clue.

But once we spotted it, we still didn't know how on earth we were going to get it.