Chapter Eleven

Violet woke abruptly, to the sound of a scream coming from her receiving room. She could see the weak morning sunlight streaming through the open curtains, but it still took her a moment to get her bearings. Why did her instincts tell her to race to the rescue without a moment's delay?

"Get away, you nasty frog!"

Violet shot upright at the sound of the voice, her mind catching up fully. Her frog! The maid would squish it if she didn't intervene.

"Stop!" she cried, throwing herself toward the door into her receiving room. "Stop, the frog is with me."

"The frog is…what, Your Highness?" It was Naomi who was in the other room, and she sounded understandably confused.

Violet opened her mouth to explain even as her eyes searched the space frantically for the frog. There he was, retreating hastily across an armchair and clearly unharmed. Relieved, she let her gaze fly back to Naomi, and her explanation died on her lips. She'd expected to see the maid stoking the fire, or pulling back the curtains. But Naomi was behind Violet's desk, looking almost like the frog had caught her in the act of, well, snooping.

For a moment, Violet considered saying something, then decided against it. Most likely Naomi had retreated back there to get away from the frog. She didn't want to be the type of harsh mistress who was always accusing the servants of wrongdoing without any evidence.

"It's all right, Naomi," she said soothingly. "The frog is a sort of pet of mine. Just leave him be, he's quite tame."

As she moved back into her bedroom, she caught sight of two large shapes drifting over the ocean through the open window. Hmph. Rekavidur and Dannsair were back, were they? Hopefully they'd keep their opinions to themselves this time.

Once Naomi had helped her prepare herself for the day, Violet wandered back into her receiving room, looking for her frog. It was sitting on a small side table, waiting patiently for her. With a smile, she picked it up, placing it on her shoulder as she walked out into the corridor.

She'd slept later than intended, and she knew she would be expected at breakfast by now. Yannick had been invited to eat luncheon with the family, and she wanted the chance to lecture the younger girls on not letting their tongues run away with them when someone outside the family was present. Although there probably wasn't much point, she reflected glumly. He would be family soon enough, at which point there would be no real reason to keep personal matters from him.

Somehow the thought of bringing Yannick into the intimate family circle was even more depressing than the thought of marrying him. Violet couldn't help thinking wistfully of how comfortably Ari had fit right in. Everyone had liked him, and he'd seemed pleased to be among them. Of course he was Wren's brother, so that gave him an advantage. But Wren had been the same, and Obsidian. The family had been very fortunate with their members by marriage so far. Was she about to break that streak by forming a marriage with no foundation in affection?

She was so lost in her thoughts, she was paying little attention to where she was going. Rounding a corner abruptly, she almost walked right into someone.

"Yannick," she said blankly, rattled to be confronted with the very person she'd been thinking about. "Good morning."

"Good morning, Princess." Yannick bowed respectfully. "I beg your pardon; I didn't see you there."

"No, I'm the one who should apologize," said Violet, waving her hand vaguely. "Do you need something? Was breakfast provided to you?"

"It was," said Yannick comfortably. "I'm not in search of assistance. Just going for a stroll to enjoy the morning air."

"Oh," said Violet, glad not to feel obliged to invite him to join her for the meal. "That's…good."

Fully aware that she wasn't presenting at her most intelligent, she dipped her head in farewell. "I'll see you at noon as planned."

Yannick nodded, giving no sign of wanting her to linger. Violet saw the moment his eyes landed on the frog on her shoulder, causing his mouth to fall slightly open. Violet didn't know whether to grimace or laugh. He would think she'd lost her mind, but it shouldn't make a difference. Not when he was marrying her purely for her crown. She had no intention of giving up her pet for him.

To her dismay, however, her frog was apparently not as committed to this philosophy as she was. As soon as she started walking away from Yannick, the frog swiveled in position, its protruding eyes fixed on the young merchant. Violet looked as well, to see that Yannick was already striding down the corridor. The next thing she knew, the frog had leaped off her shoulder, hitting the stone floor with a quiet splat. Before she could catch it, it hopped toward Yannick, moving with unmistakable purpose.

Violet hesitated, staring after the frog in confusion. The creature had run—or rather hopped—away from her the day before as well. She hadn't connected it with Yannick's arrival at the time, but it seemed a strange coincidence that twice in a row now, the frog had been eager to leave her immediately after she'd met with the young merchant.

Was it…was it following Yannick?

That couldn't be the case. It made no sense. It was the second day in a row, but after all, the frog hadn't been around for long. Maybe it was simply reaching the end of its patience with being domesticated. A bit sad if so, but perfectly understandable. It was a frog, after all.

Telling herself that the frog would come back if it wanted to—and trying to tell herself that she didn't care much either way—Violet continued on to breakfast. She arrived to find half the family already gone. Wren and Basil were both present, probably having been delayed from commencing the meal due to some state matter.

Or perhaps some family matter, Violet reflected, noting that neither of the children were with them.

"Good morning," she greeted her sister-in-law as she helped herself to some boiled eggs.

"What? Oh, good morning, Violet." Wren's distraction made Violet pause, eyeing the other woman with concern.

"Is everything all right?"

"Yes, I'm sure it is," said Wren. "I'm just worried about being late. We're expected for the ceremonial opening of that new market."

"I forgot that was this morning," Violet commented, buttering her toast. "Don't let me keep you."

"You're not," Wren assured her, sinking into the closest chair. "It's the children. We're all supposed to take part in the grand opening—it's their first public appearance in months. They had their breakfast an hour ago, and then some of the nursemaids took them for a walk. They're supposed to be here by now, and I'm not sure which direction they went in order to chase them down."

"How frustrating," said Violet sympathetically, although most of her attention was on her food. She'd just polished off a boiled egg and moved on to a second one when the door opened and Wren relaxed beside her.

"Ah, here they are."

Violet looked up to see one of the children's familiar nursemaids hurrying into the room, Azure clutched in her arms. But no second child appeared behind them, and it only took a glance back at the nursemaid's face to see that something was wrong.

"Where's Teddy?" Wren asked, rising at once and moving forward to meet the nursemaid.

"I…I don't know, Your Majesty," said the girl, looking like it took all her willpower not to burst into tears. "He…he got away from us."

"Got away from you?" Basil entered the conversation, leaving his steward on the other side of the room and crossing the space in a few swift strides. "What does that mean?"

"We were in the garden," the nursemaid said miserably. "And he was playing right there, I swear. But then I turned around, and he was gone. We called and called, and the guards are still searching everywhere, but there's no sign of him."

"Basil, the pond." Wren's face was ashen as she turned horrified eyes to her husband.

"No, Your Majesty, he didn't fall in the water," said the nursemaid vehemently. "I'm sure of it. I was between the pond and the children all the time, and the other girl has stayed there to guard the water's edge just in case. It beats me what happened. He just…disappeared. But he can't have gone far. He's such a little fellow…he must be close."

"Send another squadron of guards," said Basil curtly, addressing one of his personal guards who was standing to attention by the door. Wren hastened to take Azure from the nursemaid as Basil turned to his steward. "We'll have to postpone the market opening. We're not going anywhere until Prince Teddy has been found."

"Of course, Your Majesty," said the steward, looking as worried as Violet felt. "I'll discover which servants were near the area, in case your guards wish to question them."

"Good thought," said Basil, nodding as he strode toward the door.

"Where are you going, Basil?" the dowager queen asked in a strained voice.

"To search the gardens," said Basil. He disappeared through the door on the words, Wren right behind him. Their departure was like a signal for the rest of the family currently in the room, all of whom surged out of their seats and started to follow.

"Hold on!" Lilac called, grabbing two of her youngest sisters by the arms. "Not all of us. You'll just confuse the scene."

"But if there are more of us looking, there's more chance of finding him!" said twelve-year-old Cassia appealingly.

Lilac's expression was grim. "That's true if he's just wandered off. But if he was taken by someone, the guards' job will be harder with so many of us underfoot."

"Do you really think he was taken by someone?" asked nine-year-old Holly in a faint voice.

"I don't know," said Lilac simply. "But we should act like he was, just in case. Here, I'll stay with you."

She looked up and met Violet's eye, the two sisters exchanging a nod. They were the only adults among the princesses—with the exception of the absent Zinnia—and she was grateful to Lilac for thinking of the practical details. For her part, she fully intended to join the search.

By the time she reached the gardens, the whole place was alive with movement. Violet's heart sank as she took in the bustle of servants and guards combing the area. If Teddy had just wandered off, there was no way he would still be undiscovered by now. The gardens weren't that large. At least one of the original nursemaids was still zealously guarding the pond, as the other one had said. It seemed unlikely that the three-year-old prince had drowned, and that was a huge relief.

Wren and Basil were together, deep in conversation with Basil's head guard, Wren still clutching Azure to her like she'd never let her daughter go. Violet's heart wrenched at the sight of her brother's colorless face. He must have reached the same conclusion as she had about the impossibility of Teddy remaining lost with all these searchers. He wasn't lost. He'd been stolen.

Who would do something like that?Violet raged silently. But it was a foolish question. She'd grown up a princess. She knew that royal children were a target for all kinds of mischief. And Teddy was the king's direct heir. He was in much more danger than Violet had ever been as the fourth-born. That was why he and his sister were usually so well guarded. How had someone managed to gain access to them in such a protected place? And where could they have taken him so quickly? The garden led back into the castle, which teemed with guards and servants. There was one outer door, but she knew it was permanently locked, and had been for many years.

Violet's eyes passed across the garden, taking in the pond where she'd tried without success to deposit her frog the first day she found it. She rarely spent time in the garden now, but she used to play there when she was a child. She and Zinnia had been very taken with the idea of the secret tunnel, in spite of it being boarded up and unusable for its original purpose.

The secret tunnel! Violet straightened, hurrying over to Basil. It was a long shot, given how few people even knew about it, but it was definitely worth checking. It was even possible that Teddy had stumbled into it by accident—it was the one place the searchers might not have found him.

"Basil, has anyone checked the tunnel?" she demanded, cutting across whatever the king was saying to his guard.

"What tunnel?" Basil demanded, his wife looking equally confused.

"You know, the one our great-uncle used to use to…" Violet glanced at Azure and cleared her throat. "The one we played in as children."

"I don't remember playing in any tunnel," said Basil blankly.

Violet frowned. "Did you never join us? I suppose you were too busy being the heir. But Zinnia and I did, many times. It started in this garden and led out under the wall."

"What?" Basil's hand clenched into a fist. "You're saying there's a tunnel leading out of the castle grounds that I'm not aware of?"

"No, no, it's fully boarded up," said Violet quickly. "It originally led out of castle grounds, but it hasn't been functional for years. Since before we were born."

"But if someone knew about it, could they just remove the boards?" Wren asked anxiously.

Violet shook her head. "Boarded up is the wrong expression. It's properly sealed with stone and everything. Trust me, Zinnia and I tried to get through. It's a dead end. And no one knows about it, anyway. It's a shameful royal secret given its original purpose. But I wondered if Teddy might have found the entrance and wandered in."

"It's worth checking," said Basil tightly, his tone suggesting he wasn't going to allow himself to hope. He gestured for Violet to lead, and she hurried across the garden, trying to remember the way after so many years.

"It comes off this rocky area," she said over her shoulder. She ducked down and crawled inside the entrance to a weeping willow, Basil following on his hands and knees right behind her. "Zinnia and I thought it was brilliant, because we didn't leave obvious tracks for our minders to follow. Once we pulled these branches back down, no one would guess we were there."

As she spoke, she lifted the branches on the far side of the willow. The tree had looked like it was growing right up against an outcropping of stone, but when she pulled the branches away, a small opening was revealed.

Basil practically shoved Violet aside to stick his head into the opening. "Teddy?" he called, his voice somewhere between fear and hope. "Teddy, are you in there?"

Violet frowned, meeting Basil's eye as he swung his head around to face her.

"Did you hear something?" he asked, and she nodded.

"I think so. But it's hard to tell. It didn't sound like a voice so much as shuffling."

"I'm going in," said Basil curtly.

He shouted a command to the guards outside the willow, and he'd barely disappeared into the fissure when someone produced a lantern. Violet snatched it up, following her brother into the tunnel while Wren waited just outside with Azure.

Memories flooded back as Violet crawled forward, of the hours she and Zinnia had hidden in here. The tunnel went for a considerable distance before it was blocked up. She wanted to hope Teddy was in here, but she couldn't escape the obvious question—if he was, why wouldn't he have answered his father's call?

By the time they drew near to the end of the tunnel, Violet was so choked with her fears that she hardly knew what to feel when Basil suddenly cried out ahead of her. Leaning around him, she tried to peer past his shoulder. She let out a strangled gasp at the sight of Teddy, his big brown eyes wide with fear and relief, and his mouth silenced by a strong hand.

"Let him go!" Basil roared, and somewhat to Violet's surprise, the man holding Teddy released him at once.

He was vaguely familiar, but she couldn't immediately place him. Basil reached out as best he could in the enclosed space, grabbing his son and negotiating the boy behind him. Violet seized her nephew at once, murmuring comforting words to him as she shuffled awkwardly backwards, beginning the slow process of getting out of the tunnel and leaving Basil to deal with the unknown man.

When the pair emerged back into the garden, Wren fell on her son with a cry, and Violet hastened to take Azure. For a moment there was chaos as the word rapidly spread that the prince had been found, and Violet had to struggle to make herself heard.

"He wasn't lost," she said, directing her words to both Wren and the head guard hovering nearby. "There was a man with him."

The guard's eyes lit with alarm at the realization that his sovereign was still in the tunnel with a hostile stranger, but a moment later, Basil's feet appeared from the opening, the rest of him following swiftly. Violet expected the other man to be skulking back in the tunnel, but he emerged the next moment, ashen-faced and shaking. He must have thought he could avoid detection in the admittedly excellent hiding place, and had retained enough sense to realize that once he was found, he was backed into a corner.

"Lex?" Wren's cry was half shock, half betrayal. "You took Teddy? You kidnapped my son?"

Lex.Violet drew in a sharp breath. That was why the man looked familiar. He was the servant who'd come with Ari. The one the Mistran prince had described as one of his family's oldest and most faithful servants.

No wonder Wren felt betrayed.

"I would never hurt him, Your Highness," the older man pleaded brokenly, reverting to the title Wren had carried before she married Basil. "It was never the plan to hurt him. It was all that merchant's son's idea, and I made sure I was the one to take responsibility for the young prince, so I could make sure no harm came to him. Truly, I would never hurt him!"

"Merchant's son?" Violet repeated, the color draining from her face. "Do you mean…do you mean Yannick?"

The old servant said nothing, having apparently regained control of his tongue. But his wary expression seemed to Violet all the answer she needed. She met Basil's eyes, horrified apology in her own. She'd orchestrated Yannick being welcomed into the castle, treated like an honored guest!

"Do you know where he is now?" Basil asked her.

Violet shook her head, her stomach churning. "Not exactly. But I passed him on the way to breakfast. He was on the second floor, heading east in the general direction of the library."

With a curt order, Basil sent guards in search of Yannick, then turned back to Lex.

"If the plan wasn't to harm my son, then what was it?" the king growled, his lithe form bristling with menace. "What were you going to do to him?"

Lex's face hardened now that he was facing Basil instead of Wren. "The child was safe with me. I would never harm a Mistran royal."

"I don't have the patience for this," Basil snapped. He waved an arm. "Take him to the dungeons." The guards dragged Lex away, impervious to his struggles.

"You've no one to blame but yourself!" the Mistran servant cried, the words clearly directed at Basil. "It's your lax security that allows spies to roam your castle at will."

Basil gave no response. As soon as the accused man was out of sight, he drooped, wrapping his arms around his wife and son. Azure tried to wriggle free, but Violet kept a firm hold on her. The last thing anyone needed right now was for the irrepressible toddler to wander off.

The general mood of the crowd was shocked relief, but Violet's unease was still raging. And it wasn't just because of her guilt over failing so terribly to read Yannick's true intentions.

"Basil, Wren," she said, trying a few times before she caught their attention. "What do you think he meant about spies in the castle? Who are the spies?"

"Himself, I assume," said Wren wearily. "And this Yannick." She shook her head. "Basil, I'm so sorry. I never dreamed Lex was a threat. He's been working for my family since before I was born."

"You're not to blame," said Basil firmly. He stood, holding out his arms to take Azure from Violet. "Let's get the children to our own rooms. There's not much more to be done until the guards apprehend Yannick, and I think we all need a minute out of the public eye."

"What if Yannick is waiting there?" Wren demanded. "Lex got past the guards—what if this other man did, too?"

"All right, we'll go back to the dining hall," Basil said. "We'll wait there until the guards confirm Yannick has been apprehended."

Wren agreed readily, and the little family made their way into the castle, flanked by a dozen guards. Violet bit her lip as she watched them go, still not satisfied. How had Lex known about that tunnel? Even Basil hadn't remembered it. Was it possible that Lex's perfidy related to Ari's disappearance as well? The old servant had claimed he'd never hurt a Mistran royal, but how much weight could be given to the word of a man who would abduct and terrify a three-year-old child? She didn't have any answers for anything to do with Ari, but the timing was suspicious, to say the least. Where was the Mistran prince? It was impossible that he could have had a hand in the scheme, but had he perhaps discovered it, tried to intervene?

She didn't like to follow that train of thought.

Pushing aside her fears for Ari, Violet's mind circled back to Lex's words about spies roaming the castle at will. That claim troubled her. She couldn't shake a suspicion that the servant had meant more than himself and the apparent mastermind, Yannick.

Violet's eyes passed to the pond which dominated the garden, and she drew in a breath. It was absurd to even think it, but…she distinctly remembered kneeling by that pond, trying to convince a lost frog that it wanted to live in this garden. She was sure she'd specifically mentioned the secret tunnel as one of the garden's attractions. But surely the frog couldn't have understood her, let alone passed it on.

Uncertainty trickled over her as she thought about her bizarre pet. It had often seemed to be more than just an average pond frog. And the timing of its appearance in her life was suspicious in light of subsequent events. She'd assumed the frog came from this garden, but in fact, she'd found it in the castle. And she'd carried it into the royal dining hall time and time again. The frog had always seemed too intelligent, even giving signs of understanding her at times, like with the salt cellar. It had even left her to follow Yannick around more than once.

Suddenly she remembered what the dragons had said the day before—they'd called the frog offensive. She'd thought they were commenting on the unladylike nature of having an amphibian pet, like her mother had done. But since when had dragons cared about human concepts of propriety? Had she misread their meaning completely?

Violet was already running, her mind full of the image from earlier of the dragons flying low over the ocean. Were they still at the shore? She raced through the castle, her lungs burning by the time she threw herself down the cliff path.

There they were!

"Reka, Dannsair," she gasped, forgetting to be sufficiently polite in her haste. "Why did my frog offend you?"

Dannsair blinked slowly at her, and Rekavidur lifted his head from the water, where he was bobbing like an oversized duck.

"Good morning, Princess Violet," Dannsair said in the unhurried way of her kind. "You appear to be distressed."

"Good morning," Violet said impatiently, bobbing her head. "I am distressed. Please, it's important. Why did you say my frog offended you?"

"Because it was true," Rekavidur said, as though the answer was absurdly obvious. "We are not in the habit of speaking untruths. The information being true, and me seeing no reason not to communicate it, I spoke it aloud, aware that it was a matter of some relevance to you."

The dragon actually sounded proud of himself. It was as though he expected Violet to compliment him on his consideration and grasp of human ways because he'd decided to communicate instead of being mysterious and aloof.

"No," said Violet, bursting with impatience. "I didn't mean why did you say it, I meant why was it true? Why did the frog offend you?"

"If that's what you meant, why is that not what you said?" complained Dannsair. "Is accurate communication really so complex?"

Violet could have screamed aloud, but fortunately Rekavidur took pity on her. "I found the creature's presence offensive because of the painful clash of magic that surrounded it. It felt both unnatural and ungainly. It seared my senses."

Dannsair nodded sagely. "In crude terms, it was clumsy and ugly."

Violet stared at them in horror. "If my frog was leaking some kind of twisted magic, why didn't you tell me?"

Rekavidur's expression was haughty as he looked her over. "We told you the creature was offensive. You were not receptive to our communication, and yet you expected us to grace you with more?"

Violet groaned. He wasn't completely wrong, and it was immaterial anyway. She couldn't change the past. Horrible as it was to acknowledge it, the most likely answer to it all seemed to be that her so-called pet carried magic that turned it into a walking, talking—no, hopping, ribbiting—source of surveillance. And she, like a pathetic and lonely fool, had needlessly befriended a frog, handing who knew how much information straight to her family's enemies.

Worst of all, the frog was still roaming free at that moment, somewhere in the castle. And no one would hinder its progress, because it was known to be under her protection. Violet turned to the cliff path, hiking her skirts so she could run. There was no time to lose.