Robin

She wanted to absolutely scream as her father abruptly ended the lunch. She was way too interested in Runea and everything she had to say about Diamandis. She stood in silence as she watched her father leave the great hall and when it came to be her time to leave she quietly bowed to the audience and exited through the same back door. Kova was silent as they walked behind Robin.

They walked quietly through the dark passages that lead between the private quarters of the royal family. Kova snickered under their breath. “What interesting conversations you were having…”

Robin rolled her eyes at her friend. “I’m just trying to be casual.”

Kova scoffed. “Sure, sure.”

Shrugging, she continued through the long corridor. Sconces hung against the walls, casting an eerie glow of orange from the gas-made-flames. She wanted to know more about Runea. There was something about her that Robin couldn’t quite place, and she wanted to get to the bottom of it. She knew everyone was hiding something, but Runea didn’t seem as genuine.

Maybe she was overthinking things. The sooner the Decennial Festival ended, the better.

She sucked in a breath as she reached the back entrance to her quarters. She pressed against the ornate door, which appeared to be a wall on the other side. As much as she didn’t want to participate in her father’s political parade, she knew she needed to. Kova’s words still haunted her — maybe she could be the change. Maybe. Perhaps it was a ridiculous of a thought.

Kova followed in behind the princess quietly, and they sank down onto one of the ornate chaises. They kicked their feet up and crossed their arms behind their head. “Do we really need to go to your father’s show tomorrow?”

Robin snorted. “I’m sure you could sneak into the shadows, but unfortunately I’m sure he will have eyes on me. Wouldn’t want his precious daughter to embarrass him.”

“How unfortunate,” Kova muttered. “I couldn’t convince you to skip so we could sneak around the guests quarters?”

Robin smiled at them before she averted her gaze as she started digging through one of her dressers. “Very tempting.”

Kova giggled. “Cmon, Robin. Your father’s ego is so big that he’ll be paying more attention to himself than you. Think of the things we’ll find!”

She could remember how she and Kova used to sneak around the guest quarters when the two of them were much younger. There were always trinkets to be found and secrets to be kept. Both of them would act like spies, which was totally unfit for a princess and her advisor, but they did it nonetheless.

“Only for a few moments,” Robin conceded. She pulled two cloaks from the standing closet and dropped them onto of the dresser. “We’ll wait until the tenth hour. Everyone should be in the grand hall by then.”

Kova sat up, and the grinned from ear to ear. “Fantastic!”

Robin chucked as she took a seat next to her friend on the chaise. “In and out, got it?”

Kova nodded quickly. “Of course.” They tilted their head downward as they fiddled with a loose string on their pants. “What do you think we’ll find?”

The princess thought for a moment. She wanted to investigate Runea’s quarters. Why had she never heard much of Diamandis before? It could be a smaller country, sure, but she was sure she would have received warning that another princess was going to be in the castle for the week of the festival. “I want to know more about that Runea woman.”

“Rifling through a pretty woman’s belongings, I thought you better than that,” Kova said, clearly holding back a laugh.

Robin nudged them in the side. “I just don’t trust her.”

“You don’t trust anyone.”

She shook her head. “There’s something weird. Have you ever heard of Diamandis?”

Kova was quiet. “Not really, no.” They sighed and leaned back. “But there’s a lot of places popping up and renaming themselves.”

“Runea is human,” Robin said. “An unblessed princess from the gem kingdom.”

“Your father won’t like it.” Kova fiddled more with the loose string.

Robin knew Kova was right. Her father had terrible thoughts when it came to the unblessed. Runea wouldn’t be safe in this castle, not around so many blessed bent on giving themselves the upper hands. “She won’t be safe here.” She didn’t know why she was suddenly so concerned, but it wasn’t fair for Runea to be put into so much danger.

“And what are you going to do about it?” Kova rose a brow. “You are going to do something, right? I know that look.”

She cleared her throat. “I’m not sure yet.” It wasn’t her job to protect the guests, but maybe this was the start of doing something against her father’s ways. The king couldn’t always have his way, not when he was committing so many atrocities. “I just can’t sit idly by, if something happens.”

Kova nodded. They open their mouth to begin to say something when there were three rasps against the wall with the hidden door. They both quickly looked over toward the wall. It began to open and a servant covered in blood stumbled through. Kova jumped to their feet and ran over toward the servant. “Matthew, what's wrong?”

Matthew was breathless as he held his hands against his knees and stopped himself from puking on the floor. "They're dead.” He looked Robin and pleaded with his eyes. "One of the escorts for the visitors is dead. One of the unblessed.”

Robin jumped to her feet and ran to where they stood. "Who killed them?” Panic slowly settled against her chest. “The killed — do you know where they came from?” She hoped it wasn’t Runea. Even though she was suspicious of the woman, she didn’t want her to be brutally murdered.

“I— I don’t know. They were in and out. I tried to stop the bleeding… I tried.” Matthew couldn’t meet Robin’s eyes.

Robin placed her palm against Matthew’s cheek. “Thank you for coming to tell me,” she murmured. “Where is the body?”

“There was so much commotion that the guards already came and retrieved it.” He sniffed. “I tried everything I could.”

She shook her head. “You did your best, okay? We’ll figure this out.”

Kova coughed. “We will?”

Robin met her friends gaze and gave a small nod. “Someone was murdered in my castle. I will figure this out.”

Kova smirked. “There’s the princess I know.”

Robin dropped her hand from Matthew. “Go get cleaned up, do not make more of a commotion. We don’t know who did this, and we don’t want to give them the satisfaction. I’ll find them.” Matthew nodded and began to walk away. “Matthew, take care of yourself.”

“I’ll try, princess,” he said as the hidden door in the wall closed silently and he disappeared back into the corridor.

Robin had a feeling this was going to be a very long festival.