“Zander?”
He blushed. “Sorry, it’s what I’ve always called him. We were friends a very long time ago.”
“Oh?” My stomach rumbled and I rubbed it. I wasn’t a fan of missing meals, but didn’t feel comfortable continuing my exploration of the house since Roan had turned up.
He eyed my hand on my midriff. “Hungry?”
I nodded.
“Me, too. I got in late last night and found you in Zander’s room. I didn’t want to wake you so I slept in my old room.”
“You lived here?” I asked as I hopped on the bed to put on the socks. I’d seen sneakers in the closet too, and Roan turned without me having to ask and grabbed them, setting them beside me on the bed.
“Yeah, we both grew up here. We’re cousins.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“We used to be close, but life sort of happens sometimes. We grew apart and live different lives now.”
“I know how that is. Are you involved with the government like he is?”
“Indirectly. Come on, let’s go make some lunch, and I’ll tell you more.”
I followed him into the hall and down the first flight of stairs. “Alexander had said I could ring a certain button and someone would come help me.”
“There are servants everywhere.”
“Where? I haven’t seen the first one.”
“They’re Dannan. They won’t be seen unless they’re needed.”
I peered around me as we descended another flight of stairs. “That’s not creepy at all,” I said sarcastically.
“You get used to it.” He held up a tapestry halfway down the stairs, and I ducked behind the woven image of a man riding what I was pretty sure was a unicorn before he moved it and it wrinkled the head of the beast so I couldn’t see for sure.
I found myself in a passageway, stone, and not remodeled the way the rest of the castle had been. The walls were lit with torches, but the flames were blue.
Roan pointed to one when I didn’t move forward. “It’s a spell. It’ll only burn what it’s spelled to burn.”
I grinned and moved my hand toward the flame.
Roan grabbed my arm to stop me. “It’ll still give you a wicked burn. The spell only stops it from igniting you or anything else.” He turned and led the way down the passage. “Learned that the hard way, I did.”
I burst out laughing. “I bet you did. So is this some sort of secret passage?” I followed right on his heels.
“What good is a castle without a secret passage? This one was always my favorite. It leads straight to the kitchens.” He grinned back at me. “A growing boy likes to eat, doesn’t he?”
I followed him around several bends and turns as the passage obviously went around and between rooms in the castle. A couple of flights of stairs later, he pushed out the stone door and we came out in the kitchen.
It was obvious care had been taken to keep the kitchen as authentic as possible. The room was massive, with large tables set up everywhere, presumably where the kitchen staff had once prepared food. In the center of the kitchen was a stone island, an ancient stove with a grill on top. The fire still burned in it, also blue. “Magic feeds it to burn continuously,” Roan murmured.
He let me explore. The smile on his face indicated his pleasure at my curiosity. Primitive kitchen utensils, probably used hundreds of years before, hung from the walls as decoration. A refrigerator was cleverly hidden as a pantry, with the door made out of crudely sanded wood. All in all, the kitchen felt like I’d stepped back in time, but with hidden modern conveniences.
I made a huge ham sandwich for each of us in no time. We sat around one of the wooden tables and enjoyed our lunch.
“So, what’s the plan? Is Alexander coming back to join us?” I asked.
“He’s preoccupied with your cousin, so probably not for a while.” He walked over to another rustic door, but this time it opened to show a pantry full of goodies. He returned to our table with a bag of chips.
