A team operation was something very new to me. All my previous excursions had been solo missions. In order to make this work, I knew I needed to be able to brief Arden on the parameters of the operation.

I was very worried that this was not going to work. Even just asking my parents if I could have Arden over to play was a big red flag. It was so out of character for me that I might as well just announce that I was up to something. But it was this or nothing. It didn’t matter that Arden had no proof; I had done enough in the past for Captain Alea to believe her immediately. Any whisper or suggestion I was doing this would mean that they would block off my nighttime access routes completely.

In the end, Arden and I were sitting on a bench in the palace gardens. Anne was nearby, supposedly giving us room to play as she read a book, but I saw her peeking over the top of it at us approximately every 5.5 seconds. She would be a horrible partner for a mission like this.

Anne’s scrutiny was making it even more awkward between Arden and me. Neither of us seemed to know exactly how to mimic getting along, much less how to pretend to play while plotting at the same time. Besides just getting information and making a modified infiltration plan, I also wanted to test Arden’s climbing abilities to make sure she could safely scale the gate. I had no idea how to go about doing that with my nanny staring at us the whole time.

“So do you like make-believe games?” I asked stiltedly. Arden looked at me like I was out of my mind. I guess she didn’t. I tried to think of other games the children my parents had tried to get me to make friends with had liked.

“Umm. How about dolls? Or hide and seek?”

She made a ‘hmmpf’ sound. “Is that what royalty does all day? Goof off? Some people have to work hard to survive, you know.” Her grey eyes were stormy and disdainful.

I sighed. This constant scorn was getting a bit tiresome. I still did not really care what Arden thought of me. If she thought I was soft, then she thought I was soft. She could very well be right – I was sheltered as a princess and knew as much even back then. I was starting to respect her, though, and I didn’t really want her to hate me. She was a hard worker and was pretty good at swordsmanship. I didn’t have a great frame of reference for what was a ‘good’ skill level for a seven-year-old, but she improved quickly and got a lot of praise from the instructors.

“We need to look like we are having fun so that Anne stops staring at us.”

Arden glanced over at Anne, as though noticing her for the first time. “Oh.”

“How about we play tag a bit? I need to see how well you can climb things, so we should start running around. That way it won’t look as suspicious.”

She nodded seriously. “You’re it!” Then she was gone, speeding away like a horse at a gallop.

It was really hard for me to keep up. My legs were shorter and my lungs were smaller. In the end, me being terrible at tag made Arden really happy, so at least it looked like we were properly playing around. Anne started to relax and I decided after about half an hour that we could try some climbing. Again, Arden proved to be really good at it, although her balance wasn’t as steady as mine and her reflexes were somewhat slower. She didn’t like how I tested them, though.

“Hey!” The apple bounced off her shoulder as she hung from the tree branch.

“You were supposed to catch it.”

“Why, exactly? That hurt, by the way.”

I shrugged. If she couldn’t catch it, then she probably couldn’t safely scale up and down the walls of a building. Hopefully, she wouldn’t need to.

I climbed up the tree, settling on a branch near her.

“Where do you stay on the grounds? You are training to be a knight, right?”

Arden gave me a bit of side-eye for the sudden subject change but answered the question.

“I’m in the building alongside the west wall. That’s where all the squires and younger trainees stay during the spring, especially the ones like me who –” She broke off and then glared at me. Why, exactly, I had no idea.

“Okay,” I said, ignoring the glare. “So you can get to the gate of the training grounds from the side. It’s not far for you.”
“Yeah, sure, but there are guards outside on shift.”

“You need to be able to sneak around them. All the gravel paths have hedges alongside them, so you can crouch and hide behind them. You have to time it so you get to the gate while the two cycles of guards are rotating. Then you’ll have about two minutes to climb it.”

“But it’s solid wood,” she objected.

“Right. You can climb it if you use a bedsheet with weights on the ends.” I described my climbing gear, and she started to look more and more excited.

“So all I have to do is sneak in and climb?” She laughed. “And I thought you did something impressive to get in! It’s so simple.”

I scowled a bit. The wall scaling was pretty hard. But I let it go.

“You have to time it right. I don’t know exactly what the guard orders are on your side since I have to come from the east. Watch carefully for the next two nights and then we can talk at training if you are ready.” I looked at her appraisingly. “If you tell on me for this, I’ll get revenge.” I had no idea how exactly I would do that, but I figured a threat couldn’t hurt. She looked offended.

“I’m not a tattle-tale.”

I nodded. That did fit with what I knew about her.

“Okay. Then let’s go. There’s no point in pretending to play around anymore.”

I caught something like disappointment on her face and immediately felt a bit guilty. I always ended up hurting other kids' feelings like this. It was just that I had thought she would agree with me. We were working on a plan together; this wasn’t about playing.

“Fine. See you at training.”

With that, we went our separate ways. It wasn’t until that evening at dinner when my father asked me how it had gone that I realized we had actually had a fairly good time.

“So? Did you make a new friend then?”

He sounded so hopeful, it almost hurt.

“Maybe,” I answered, eyes on my plate. I felt a bit guilty that all this was really just to trick them.

Maybe.