“Have you seen Prin— er, Queen Aerity?” he asked her. The girl’s eyebrows furrowed.
“Nay, Mister Seabolt. Have you checked the office?”
“Aye.” He left her and jogged down to the far halls. Helooked in the library, then in the archery room. Wyneth, Harrison, and Lief were all there with a handful of staff members, feverishly practicing. Furball sat on a mat in the corner. They all turned to Paxton.
“Have any of you seen Aerity?”
They looked around at one another and shook their heads.
“I’ve looked nearly everywhere,” he said.
“I know that Vixie was going to the kitchens,” Wyneth said. “Perhaps there? I’ll look too.”
They joined him, with the beast on their heels. They jogged through the castle, calling her name, asking every guard and soldier they passed, telling everyone they saw to search. He went to the tower where Mrs. Rathbrook had returned, but Aerity wasn’t there.
Paxton was unnerved by the time they reached the kitchens. Only one man was in there, a robust baker with a red face, pulling trays of bread from the oven as if winning the war depended on feeding the masses.
“There’s Vix!” Wyneth pointed to the far corner, where Vixie sat at a table, absently dabbing at half a coconut cake with the tines of a fork.
“Have you seen Aer?” Wyneth called.
Vixie shook her head and slid off the stool, coming to them. “You can’t find her?”
“We’ve searched the castle,” Paxton said.
Vixie pushed past them all and ran into the hall. They sprinted to the doors at the back of the castle where the gardenswere. Paxton’s stomach turned. These were the doors he was to keep unguarded and unlocked for Prince Vito. As Wyneth, Harrison, and Vixie ran, Paxton saw an old man sitting alone on the corner bench in the hall.
“Duke Gulfton,” Vixie called. The man slowly lifted his head. Paxton and Lord Alvi went to him as the girls jogged to the doors.
“Have you seen Queen Aerity?” Lief asked.
The duke’s eyes wandered aimlessly to the doors where Vixie and Wyneth screamed for Aerity outside. “They are coming. . . .”
“Yes, we know,” Lief said impatiently. “We need to know if you have seen the eldest Lochson girl, the Queen.” Vixie and the others came back inside, shaking their heads. They all looked at the duke.
“I daresay we have all seen the last of Aerity. Seas forgive—”
Paxton grasped the man by his velvet robes and heaved him up until they were face-to-face, and shook him. “What do you mean by that?”
The man moaned helplessly, his eyes fluttering shut.
“Pax!” Wyneth grabbed his shoulder. “He’s mad. He doesn’t know what he says.”
Paxton dropped the man back to the bench, flexing his trembling hands into fists.
“Great oceans deep and wide,” the old man murmured. And then he dropped his head and began to heave great sobs.
Vixie looked at the nearest guard. “He should probably be brought into the tunnels to be kept safe. He needs to lie down.” The guard nodded and bent to put a hand under the man’s arm, but Duke Gulfton suddenly seemed to come to his senses and pushed the man away.
“Leave me be! I’m staying right here until it’s time.”
Vixie gave the guard an exasperated look. “Leave him, then.”
Paxton began to pace an angry line back and forth across the hall. “Something has happened. She wouldn’t run off without telling any of us. How is it that not a single person in the castle has seen or heard anything?” He raised his hands and shouted, “Where is she?”
Harrison and Lief both nodded. “I’m going to alert the military in case she left the castle so they can keep an eye out on the grounds.”
Paxton eyed Wyneth and Vixie, who clutched each other’s hands. “I think it’s time for both of you to go into the tunnels until we find Aerity. If there is a threat in these walls, you’ll be safer there.”
