Chapter 27

Naomi peeked out of her room cautiously. She’d told Mr. Squibbles that there were no guards, but she didn’t want to take any chances. No one was in the hallway. She crept out, carrying a bag with some clothes and a few pieces of fruit that had been left in her room.

“Come on, let’s go,” Mr. Squibbles said as he ran down the passage. Naomi closed the door to her room and stepped quickly to catch up with the mouse. The fact that she was following a small rodent no longer seemed surreal.

Her heart was pounding when she arrived outside Tavik’s room. They had not heard or seen anyone in their sneaking, but she still feared being discovered. She tried Tavik’s door, praying that Mr. Squibbles was right about Tavik not locking it when he wasn’t there. The doorknob turned under her hand. She slipped into the dark chamber and closed the door quietly behind her. She raised her candle with a shaking hand. Her eyes went immediately to the bed. For a second, her eyes saw a form on the bed and she has a small heart attack but the candle flickered and revealed her imagination had made shadows into war lords.

“Where’s the passage?” Naomi whispered.

“This way,” Mr. Squibbles said and darted off into the darkness.

Naomi squinted and crept further into the room. She finally picked out the mouse beside the fireplace on his hind legs. She moved closer, her eyes darting over the mantle. “What do I press to open it?”

“Do you see that discolored stone?”

Naomi placed her hand upon it and pressed. It didn’t budge. “Now count four stones down and three to the right.”

Naomi was glad it was so dim in the room that Mr. Squibbles hadn’t seen her attempt or her light blush. She followed his directions to the stone and pressed. It did not budge either. “Nothing’s happening.”

“It’s old. Push harder.”

Naomi leaned into the stone and pushed with all of her weight. It shifted a little but still didn’t budge. “Am I doing something wrong?”

“Obviously, you’re not pushing hard enough.”

Naomi tried harder to push the stone. It just stayed where it was.

“Maybe it needs to be oiled or greased or something,” Naomi huffed as she took a step back.

“Let me see what I can do.” The mouse disappeared through a chink in the wall.

Naomi waited nervously. She had known this was a bad idea. They were going to get caught and then she would be thrown into a dungeon. She had not been shown one in her tour by Mrs. Boon, but Tavik was sure to have one somewhere in the castle. It probably had chains dangling everywhere, a rack, whips, large beady eyed rats who loved fingers and toes, an iron maiden, thumb screws, a rusty guillotine, and every restraint imaginable. Tavik had already shown a peccadillo for tying her up.

“Mr. Squibbles, hurry up,” Naomi called. She thought she heard muffled swearing through the wall.

Finally, something began to happen. Naomi heard creaking and grinding of stone. As Naomi began to worry that someone come to investigate the sounds, the wall began to open. As soon as the gap was wide enough, Naomi slipped through. She found Mr. Squibbles waiting for her. He had gotten dust and cobwebs all over himself while getting the door to work.

“We will not be able to close it. The rope snapped for the main pulley.”

“But they’ll know how we escaped.”

Mr. Squibbles twitched his whiskers. “If you stop worrying and start going, we will be long gone by the time they discover the secret passage. Now move it!” The small mouse took off down the dark passage leaving Naomi in his dust. Naomi lingered a moment. She was still indecisive over the whole thing. She spared a thought for Yula and worried that the old woman would come to harm due to Naomi’s escape. Maybe she should bring the old woman with her?

“Mr. Squibbles, wait!” Naomi called, but the mouse appeared to be long gone. Naomi thought frantically about what she should do. If she left Yula, the old woman might be punished for letting Naomi escape, but if the old woman was found with Naomi, she would surely be punished for aiding her. Tavik had not placed a guard on Naomi nor had he seemed to have instructed Yula to guard her. He could not punish the old woman for something she had not known to do, at least that was how Naomi hoped it would be. She would leave Yula and hope for the best. The decision made, Naomi felt awful, but that was the way it would have to be.

As if karma agreed wholeheartedly that Naomi was doing a bad thing, her candle was snuffed out by a draft with the first step Naomi took down the tunnel. Naomi thought about attempting to get it relit but feared she would not catch up with the mouse as it were. She tossed the candle aside, stepped further into the tunnel, found the far wall and began to follow it. With each step she took, her pace increased until she was running full tilt down the tunnel. She knew she should stop. Her mad dash was foolhardy, but what about any of this was sane, she asked herself. She was following a talking mouse to go see a witch about finding a unicorn. Naomi continued running down the passage to catch up with Mr. Squibbles, but she received no encouraging word that she was anywhere near him.

The passage was pitch black and littered with debris. Stones had crumbled from the wall, and spiders, mice, and other insects had left their trash there as well. Naomi kept her hand on the wall to guide her, but she slipped and scraped her hands and knees. She got back up but slowed her pace to a walk, though it didn’t matter because her heart still pounded like she was running.

The darkness was claustrophobic. She had no sense of distance. She could stumble face first into a wall at any second. Cobwebs latched onto her face. She had to blow her nose and spit them out. And she could see no end. She began to panic. It was like she was in one of those sensory deprivation tanks. She couldn’t see or hear anything. She hugged the wall. It was all she had.

She called out to Mr. Squibbles a few times but received no response. She began to wonder if the little rodent had abandoned her. Maybe it was all a trick. Maybe he had brought her here as a ploy to get her in trouble. Maybe he was now watching with his beady rodent eyes snickering at her as she stumbled around in circles. Naomi started thinking of ways to kill mice. She could step on him and crush him under her shoe. The sound of his bones crunching would be very satisfying. She could kill him with a trap. She would bait it with cheese. She could poison him, maybe slip some rat poison in his wine that would do him good. She could lock him in a room full of hungry cats. She could clench him in her fist and squeeze till his ribs collapsed, and his beady little eyes bulged. She could dice him up and make stew. She could drown him in a bucket of water. There were so many ways to kill a mouse. Naomi was sorry she would only be able to use one of them when she got a hold of the little traitor. Where was he? Where was she?

“Mr. Squibbles!”

It probably wasn’t even his real name. Mister, indeed. And what the heck was a squibble?

Continue to Chapter 28.