to a narrow side staircase. “My little shortcut to the secret room,” she said. “This castle is full of them. We used to have such fun playing hide-and-seek when we were children. Except for Siegfried. He was stuffy even then. Watch your step, they are very narrow and it’s dark in here.”
She started up the steps ahead of me. I went to follow. One second I was standing on the stone floor; the next, the slab I was standing on tilted downward and I was plunging into darkness.
Chapter 30
In a dungeon. Not very nice.
Saturday, November 19
I was half sliding, half tumbling down a rough stone chute, unable to stop or slow my fall, waiting for the inevitable moment when I would crash onto a hard surface below. The ridiculous image of Alice in Wonderland, falling down the rabbit hole, flashed through my mind as I struck another stone panel that swung open. Then I tumbled into nothing-ness, had an odd sensation of arms reaching out to me, then landing on something softer than I’d expected, before I hit the stone floor and everything went black.
I came back to consciousness to some kind of awful noise—an unearthly wailing sound. I opened my eyes. I was lying on a cold stone floor in almost total darkness. A round white thing was hovering over me—a pale moon face, staring at me with its mouth open in some kind of horrible chant. Then I made out words in the wail.
“Oh, lawks, oh, blimey, oh, miss.”
“Queenie?” I murmured. I tried to sit up and the world swung around alarmingly while a pain shot through my head.
“Sorry, miss. I tried to catch you but you was coming too fast. At least I broke your fall a little.”
“That was you I landed on?” I asked.
“That’s right.”
“Goodness. That was brave of you. Did I hurt you?”
“Not too bad. I’m well padded. But you come flying down at such a rate—”
“Well, you would too if the floor suddenly opened up beneath you,” I said.
“I know. I did. Luckily I landed on me bum—pardon the expression, miss—and like I said, I’m well padded. But it weren’t no worse than when my old dad used to take his belt to me when I was a kid.” She helped me into a sitting position. “I ain’t half glad I am to see you. You’re a proper toff to come and rescue me. I knew you would, of course.”
“I hate to disillusion you, Queenie,” I said, “but I’m now a captive with you, not your rescuer.”
“Where are we, miss? This ain’t half a creepy old place.”
I looked around. We were in a circular chamber. A glimmer of gray light came in through a small grille near the bottom of one wall. Apart from that, every surface was stone. There was no door of any kind.
“I rather fear we’re in the oubliette we were joking about earlier.”
“The oobly-what?”
“It’s a place where you put unwanted guests,” I said. “I’ve heard of them in old castles but I’ve never actually seen one before. You step on the wrong slab, it opens and you fall into a dungeon where nobody will ever find you again.”
“Ooh, don’t say that, miss.” She grabbed at my sleeve. “Someone’s going to find us, aren’t they?”
“I hope so,” I said. But even as the words came out I wondered who actually knew of the presence of this place. Matty had obviously been told about it because Vlad had grown up here and knew every nook and cranny. But did others know? Servants? Dragomir? I had a horrible vision of everyone hunting for me throughout the castle and not finding me, while Queenie and I starved to death. Not the ending I would have chosen; in fact, I think I’d actually have preferred to marry Prince Siegfried if I’d had an option—which shows you how desperate I was feeling. “Don’t worry,” I said. “We’re going to get out somehow, I promise. How did you come to be in here, by the way?”
“I don’t rightly know,” she said. “I saw a man taking what looked as if it would be a shortcut to the kitchen. He opened a door in the paneling and he went through, and I saw he was going down a staircase so I thought I’d follow him. Next thing I knew, I was falling down a shaft and I landed up in here.”
“This man—what did he look like?”
“I can’t really tell you. He was dressed in black. One of the