Mirrors ✔️

Chapter 20: Leaving

Hey!

So, I know, Val is my favorite character.

But we haven't gone back to Renee in a while.

So why not do her for a bit?

Next chapter is Val.

ALSO- I need to know. Is there a protagonist here? I'm honestly not sure. Renee, maybe. Marcia? VAL?

Renee

When someone breaks through a wall, your first instinct is to dive out of the way. Even when nothing really HAPPENS to the wall in question, you still want to hide under the table so the plate with bread and jam doesn't splatter all over your already very messed up hair, or onto your irreparably torn dress.

My captor/savior doesn't do that, though, and neither do I, but not because I'm brave or anything; I'm just tied to the chair, so I don't have a choice. I still shriek. Very loudly.

"Honestly, Myra. What's WRONG with her?" A voice complains loudly. I scream again, surprised, and Myra grimaces.

"It's the spy." She replies with a stern look at me. "She thinks her castle is perfectly safe, doesn't expect secret doors in random walls, and is apparently afraid of them."

"I'm not AFRAID of them." I object, glaring. "But you could have WARNED me."

The woman- Myra - ignores this, walking over to the gaping space in the wall and helping through someone else.

A boy, bruised and battered, stares at me. "Huh. Not what I expected."

"Me neither." Myra agrees, and I'm powerless to argue. She frowns again, still looking at the tunnel. "Ralph said that you found her-?"

"I did." He's almost offended. "I, um, lost her."

"She's fourteen. You LOST her?" Myra's eyes flare. "You realize how important she is? We needed her! WE could have put her on the throne, now that the King is weak from whoever tried to assassinate him-"

"Valarie." The boy supplies helpfully, and for a moment both me and Myra freeze.

"WAIT, VALARIE?"

"Seems pretty obvious to me." I shrug, and Myra stares. I flush bright red. Do I have some jam on my forehead after all?

"Never mind. Where is she?" Myra demands, attention back on the boy. 

He shakes his head. "I don't know." He mumbles miserably. "I just woke up."

"You were NAPPING? And where is Lynn's knife?"

"No, no, I wasn't napping, I- well, she- Valarie- she tried to run, see, to go and kill the King and I couldn't LET her, she'd get hurt, so I tried to stop her, but I- she shouldn't be that strong, she used a-a rock, I think, to knock me unconscious and when I woke up my knife was gone and she was gone so I came to find YOU and then here she was-"

He pauses to scowl at me and I blink. He blinks back before continuing. "-So, yeah. Um."

"UM." Myra sneers. "Well, if Valarie did use your knife to kill the King, then it can be traced back to us through Lynn. We have to move. Forget the Princess, she's gone now. We're leaving tonight, to Ananessari. Let Cara know that she's still safe, as is Ryan, and they can continue to work here. But Lynn has to leave, her initials are right in the handle, I told her that was stupid, and Jasper and his whole family are We're prepared for this. We are. "

She pauses, gaze drifting to my face. "And little Sky-Spy is coming with us."