Mirabel sat on the edge of the bed, still in shock. She had been kidnapped by the Queen of Omsk. Not just some noblewoman, but the queen. If anything, she was only more confused than she had been before.

The queen had left already, but not before gloating some more. At least, that seemed to be all she had been here for. After a few minutes of gloating, she had left, leaving Mirabel alone in the room with a pair of guards outside the door. Whether it was unlocked or not didn’t matter now. There was no way she was getting past the guards.

Her chances were looking bleak, she had to admit. She was trapped in the queen’s castle, two guards outside her locked door, and no other way out. A week ago, she would have given up if put in this situation. But now, the only thing she could think of was how to escape. Well, that and what the queen of Omsk would want with her.

She couldn’t see a reason. Omsk wasn’t adjacent to Lucerne; in fact, it was a whole country away. There was no advantage gained over Lucerne by holding her hostage here. She didn’t think she was being held for ransom, not now that she knew it was the queen holding her here. The queen was, well, the queen. If she wanted more money, she could tax her people. Granted, the people wouldn’t be very fond of her after that, but something told Mirabel they weren’t fond of her as it was. She certainly wasn’t fond of her.

There had been something about the queen that felt off to Mirabel. Almost like she wasn’t real. Maybe it was the gloating, maybe it was the expensive dress. After all, Mirabel’s mother was the queen of an even larger country, and she didn’t dress like that on a day to day basis. It had seemed more the sort of thing a presumptuous noblewoman would wear.

It was enough to cause Mirabel to wonder if she had been lying about her identity. Was she even the queen? After all, anyone in Omsk - or the surrounding countries - could easily name the queen. Mirabel’s instructor had drilled into her the rulers of all the surrounding countries, as well as the royal families themselves. She knew Gisella had no family; she had refused to marry, depriving the kingdom of a king. She had run it herself ever since. There was no heir.

Mirabel’s mouth quirked in annoyance. None of this was helping her. Whether it was Gisella, or someone pretending to be Gisella didn’t matter. The real question was, why was she here? It was a question she couldn’t answer. There was nothing special about her aside from her missing voice. She supposed that did make her easier to kidnap, but other than that she was still confused.

She sighed and rubbed her head. The headache was still there, though it had died down to a dull throb. On the bright side, at least she was no longer in the cart. Fewer bruises to be gained here than in that thing. At least, so she hoped. As long as she was in this room, she figured she was safe. The only problem was, she was planning on getting out of this room. What happened after that, she had no idea yet. But first she had to find a way out.

The window was out, she knew that. And the door wasn’t an option either, not as long as those guards were out there. She ran her fingers through her hair in exasperation. What other options were there? One door, two windows.

A castle. She was in a castle. It was the stupidest realization, but it was enough to jolt her to her feet. After all, any good castle had escape tunnels. Especially in the bedrooms. She knew hers had one, and so did her family members. She was unsure if guest rooms were likely to have them, however. She hadn’t really gone into many of the guest rooms in her own palace, but this was her only chance of getting out of here. This room had to have an escape tunnel.

But where would the tunnel be? Glancing around, her eyes fell on the fireplace. It seemed like a good place to start. She had looked at the fireplace earlier, but that was in hopes of starting a fire. Now, she barely even noticed the chill in the room. This time, she was looking for a trigger of some sort. Anything to open a secret door.

She fiddled with the fire pokers, wondering if one of them might be a lever, but nothing happened. Of course that would have been too obvious. She moved on to pressing the bricks that formed the fireplace, wondering if one of them would press in. Soon, she found herself standing inside the fireplace. Looking up, she discovered that while the maids who worked here had done a good job of cleaning the room, someone had been neglecting the chimney.

The chimney! Maybe she didn’t need a secret tunnel after all. In an unusual moment of impulsiveness, she lifted her arms and began attempting to climb. The soot of the chimney clung to her hands and fell on her dress, but she ignored it. Finding two handholds she thought might work - after all, the last time she had done any climbing was when she was much younger and had been climbing trees with her brother - she tried to lift herself up. Unfortunately, she quickly realized she didn’t have enough strength in her arms to do so. Growling in frustration, she tried again, this time giving a little jump and hoping that would help. It didn’t. Instead, she found herself sitting on the bottom of the fireplace, covered in soot.

Sighing in frustration, she stood and attempted to brush the soot off of her dress. Since it was also all over her hands, however, it did her little good. She could only hope no one came in before she could get herself cleaned up somehow. After all, it was clear she wasn’t getting out by climbing the chimney. She may as well try and clean herself up before trying any other escape plans.

Stepping out of the fireplace, she realized she hadn’t investigated the dressing table yet. Granted, she had rolled out of the other side of the bed, but still. It was worth checking out. Although, after looking at the bedside table drawers, she was doubtful she would find anything useful.

As she got closer, she caught sight of herself in the dressing table’s mirror, and she winced. She was covered in more soot than she’d thought. It was in her hair, on her clothes, even her face. Maybe there were some clean rags laying around somewhere.

She pulled open the few small drawers on the dressing table, checking for anything that could help her. To her disappointment, there were no towels or anything of the sort. In fact, the drawers were almost as empty as she had expected. There was only one item, and it was a small candle. Not exactly helpful in her current situation. She rubbed her head again and sat on the stool in front of the dressing table. Maybe she should just go to sleep. Thinking would be a lot easier without the headache. And it certainly didn’t help that her stomach was begging for food. While Mirabel herself may have become accustomed to irregular meals, her stomach hadn’t. Both food and sleep sounded heavenly right now. The thing was, she doubted she would even be able to get to sleep.

Instead, she chose to continue her search. It wasn’t as if the sun had even completely set yet. She could stay awake a while longer. Looking around, she wondered where else to look. Her eyes stopped as they found the tapestries hanging on the walls. Anything could be hiding behind them, especially a door.

She walked over to the largest tapestry, a hunting scene depicted on it, and pushed it aside. The fabric was heavy, but she was able to slip behind it. To her disappointment, there was nothing there. Stepping out from behind it, she moved to the next one. This one was smaller, but could still have hidden a door behind it. A simple forest scene was shown on it, birds flying through the trees. It was lighter than the last one, and she pushed it aside hopefully. She frowned when she found nothing.

A few minutes later, she had searched every tapestry in the room, but to no avail. There were no hidden doors. Her face was rueful as she collapsed into one of the chairs. She supposed a door hidden behind a tapestry would also have been too easy. After all, a hidden door wasn’t really meant to be found. Hence the word ‘hidden’. But she was sure there had to be one in here somewhere. Even if there wasn’t, she thought laughingly, at least she was keeping herself busy.

Feeling chilly again, she retrieved the blanket from where she had dropped it before climbing inside the fireplace. It was a cozy blanket, huge and warm. It made her miss her own blankets at home. At that thought, she sighed. She really had to get out of here; everything reminded her of home.

Releasing a yawn, she wondered where search next. She had exhausted all the obvious options. What else was there? Clearly if there was a tunnel here, it wasn’t in one of the obvious places. She eyed the wardrobe doubtfully. She had already looked inside, but it hadn’t been a very thorough search.

Striding across the room, the blanket trailing behind her, she opened the wardrobe for the second time that day. It looked no different than it had earlier. Plain wooden walls, plain wooden floor, plain wooden everything. It wasn’t very exciting. But then again, most wardrobes weren’t. Most of the time it was what was inside that was interesting. And that’s what she hoped would be the case this time.

Hitching her skirt up a little, she stepped inside. If she wanted to search it properly, she would have to be inside it. She pushed the door open wider, letting in more of the room’s light. The obvious place to start would be the back wall. She stepped further in, the blanket trailing behind her. She pulled it up around her shoulders more. For some reason, it was even colder in the wardrobe than outside of it.

As she was tugging on the blanket, however, it got caught. Her head whipped around. To her relief it was only stuck on the edge of the door. Shaking her head at her own jumpiness, she reached down and pulled at the long blanket. She frowned when it still didn’t move. Bunching the blanket up in her palms, she gave it one final tug.

The good news, the blanket was no longer stuck. The bad news, it had closed the door and sent her flying backwards. She groaned. What was with her bad luck lately?

Attempting to get up, she placed her hand against the back wall and… fell. Now she was confused. Her head had hit the wall. It should have been there. Frowning, she waved her arm out, searching for the wall. What had happened?

She threw the blanket off her shoulders and stood. Taking small steps, she walked further into the wardrobe. The only thing was, soon she was no longer in the wardrobe. Within a few steps, the floor had gone from being wooden planks to being stone. Her eyes were still trying to adjust, what with the only light being from the crack between the doors. But she could feel the difference beneath her feet.

Frowning in confusion, she backed up, back into the wardrobe. That’s when the thought struck her that she had found it. She had found a secret door! Excited, she ran back to the door of the wardrobe and opened it. She needed light. But when she turned back around, the wardrobe was just that: a wardrobe. No secret door, nothing.

On a hunch, she pulled the door closed again. There was a click when the door shut. The sound left her shaking her head in amusement. Of course. The secret door only opened when the wardrobe doors were shut. Now, the only problem was, how was she going to see? The tunnel wouldn’t open if the doors were open, so she couldn’t use the room’s light. She paused. Or could she?

She pushed the doors open and stepped out, heading for the dressing table. The candle she had found earlier wouldn’t provide a lot of light, but it would be just enough. She pulled it out of the drawer and twirled it between her fingers. It was small, but not so small it would burn down quickly. It was thick enough that it would last her a while. Now just to light it.

Surprisingly, that was the easy part. The wall sconces were lit; all she had to do was light the candle off one of them. The candle lit easily, despite looking like it had been in that drawer for a rather long time.

She held it carefully as she went back to the wardrobe. The flame flickered wildly at times, and she had to look away. It was just a candle. Everything was fine.

Once she was back in the wardrobe, she kicked the blanket out. The last thing she wanted to do was drop the candle and accidentally set the blanket on fire. Just as she started to close the door, however, she had another thought. Setting the candle down, she went and laid the blanket back on the bed. She didn’t want to leave any clues to where she had gone. After all, someone was going to discover her missing sooner or later. As her stomach growled at her again, she worried it might be sooner.

She pushed the thought away and returned to the wardrobe. It was a clever contraption, she had to admit. She certainly wouldn’t have thought of it if the blanket hadn’t caught. Sometimes she had the strangest luck.

This time, she pulled the door closed cautiously. Putting out the candle would not have been in her best interests. When she heard the click, she smiled and turned around. There it was. In the flickering light of the candle, she could see the tunnel leading out the back of the wardrobe and into the wall. Her smile turned into a grin; she was getting out.

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A/N Hello hello! Have an exceptionally long chapter *is pretty proud of myself* x3 Hope you enjoyed it :D Things are starting to get moving again. Exciting stuff is going to be happening in the coming chapters, so I hope you guys stick around :D We're getting into the last half of the story.

Vote, Comment, Fan, if you enjoyed :D Leave me your comments below! Love you guys! xx

(also, dedicated to @BehindTheNiqab because she's totally awesome and everyone reading this should go follow her now)