Chapter fifteen
Screwing up

We arrived at the foot of the hill when dusk fell. It was a long way up to the entrance of the castle and I was glad of the well-paved road that led all the way up to an impressive gate. We would not be using the gate however; not if we could help it.
We had left our entire luggage behind, something I almost regretted. What if something unexpected happened (as I was sure there would) and we just happened to need something you would not normally think of bringing when secretly entering a castle? Though I was usually sceptic about this, I couldn’t deny that the tournament had shown me a way of using a pebble and a cotton bag to their full potentials. Just before leaving, therefore, I had donned the bone whistle, even though I’d never figured out what use it was. I had pocketed the pebble and hung the bag over my shoulders. Millie had done something similar; tying the posy of very miserable looking primroses to a cord around her neck and using a leather belt to strap the sword to her back. The Rough Rebels had brought nothing but their arms and I realised that if we failed to stop them, one of those sharpened blades would pretty soon slice the skin of the as of yet unaware princess Merope.
It wasn’t that she did not deserve to be brought down. She was a tyrantess - sorry: tyrant, after all. But she could just be locked up in an isolated cell for all I cared.

We had to wait and catch our breath when we finally had made our way to the top. The gates were already closed; I didn’t think anyone was allowed in anymore.
We looked at each other. I registered how Millie looked extremely pale and I thought that I must look nothing better. Luckily it was darkening fast and the men were too locked up in their mission to notice anything odd.
‘Right,’ Cuckoo mumbled, having the lead in this operation. ‘Rose, Daisy: on front. Daffodil between them; we need your network. Millie, go behind Daffodil. Bluebell and Ladybug will flank you. I close the line.’
We obeyed, forming a close formation and pressing ourselves against the rough stones of the outer castle walls as close as possible. This way, it would be harder to spot us when someone would look up the hill - or down, for that matter.
We shuffled our way along a narrow path. I suppose that it was a servants’ road; there were cart tracks dug in the sand, suggesting that storage was transported inside this way. It did not take us long to find a door.
I halted alarmed: the door stood halfway open, throwing light from the inside on the grass and soil. Cuckoo made a hand gesture that meant draw back!
We did so, trying to hide in the shadows as voices came our way.
Next moment, a few people stepped outside, carrying a staple of closed boxes.
I held in my breath as they walked past us, near enough to touch them if one of them only reached out an elbow a little. When they had passed, I felt how my blood was racing and my heart hammering somewhere high up in my throat.
Forwards, Cuckoo motioned and we did so. Rose checked for the coast to be clear, then moved us all inside discretely.

We had entered a small, semi dark storage room. More of the closed boxes stood stapled up against the walls. The people would come back to fetch them.
We moved across quickly, entering a narrow hallway with walls of plastered white. It smelled droughty in here, as if rain and wind occasionally had their chance to blow all the way inside.
The narrow hallway led to a second corridor, more spacious and open. It had small, roundish windows and stone bows growing from stone walls. Our footsteps echoed hollow through the space. There wasn’t much room to hide, should we cross someone. All this time, my heart raced like it had never raced before.
‘Look,’ Millie whispered from behind me. ‘There!’
There was a second doorway, blocking further entrance. I shuffled forwards; very afraid that even the mere sound of my footsteps or a louder heartbeat would draw attention to us.
‘It’s locked,’ I muttered after trying the latch.
‘Then use your network girl,’ Ladybug said, his raw voice hushed.
I threw him a somewhat annoyed glance. ‘I can’t. Network only helps me to understand the underlying patterns and I don’t need to look that up now, I can see it with my bare eyes: this door requires a key. And it’s not like I can alter reality,’ I added, feeling envious.
‘Fine,’ Cuckoo muttered, drawing a knife from his belt. I shivered, wondering how many blades he had on him. ‘I’ll pick the door.’
Suddenly, Millie said softly: ‘I have keys.’
I looked at her, bewildered.
She showed the spray of withered flowers around her neck. ‘Primroses! Key Flowers, remember?’
‘Oh, come on!’ I hissed. ‘Don’t be silly now, that’s never going to - ’
But she pushed passed me and pressed the flowers to the lock. I heard a click. Millie turned the bolt and the door opened to a crack.
‘That -’ I stammered, hopelessly befuddled, ‘there is no way that should have worked!’
She gave me an apologetic smile. I glanced over to see how the Rough Rebels would respond to this. Cuckoo had pulled up his eyebrows to the max; Ladybugs mouth hung slightly open. Rose and Daisy just looked as if they could not quite comprehend what they had seen and were still arguing with their brain about whether or not it had been a trick of the light.
‘Well, come on!’ Millie urged. ‘I don’t like standing still for too long, it gives me the creeps to be exposed.’
We walked on. Once or twice we were forced to split up suddenly, each hiding in whatever fissure or shadow was there as voices drifted our way. No one ever came our way however, a fact that should have worried me more than it did at the time.
We passed many doors, most of them locked. Millie opened them all with her strange flowers. This was, I thought, a kind of magic that befell the Fairy Folk. I really did not want to believe in this, but doors did spring open like soldiers to attention. I banished the thoughts, concentrating harder on the here and now.