So off we went, around the corner and down the hallway together, feeling stranger and stranger, but also more at ease. Such a strange state to be in—part of me was expecting to be found any second, to hear those footsteps, hear the voices—don’t move!—and the other part was just perfectly calm, certain that we were safe, that nobody was coming.
It had been so silly of us, now that I thought about it, to just go to those rooms and sleep the whole night. It was after ten in the morning, and the Timekeeper woman would have had plenty of time to apprehend all of us individually if she’d found us.
Shehadn’t,though. Even if we’d been careless, nobody had found us. Nobody would—whether because of the palace or some other reason.
Yes, a part of me genuinely believed that, even if it didn’t make sense.
We came upon a glass wall that made up most of a wide hallway as we went, and through it we could see the tower of the Great Clock if we leaned down a bit. It wasmassive,especially in daylight, so much bigger than I remembered. Just the idea that it existed, thatitwas the reason why our realm existed, too, brought goose bumps all over my forearms.
Cook was leading the way without word. He took us to the other side of the hallway, turned left at a small junction, then went through a set of double doors so polished the wood glistened. In the next hallway, he stopped in front of another set—wider, made of white wood with silver handles and silver streaks on the smooth surface.
Not sure why I held my breath while he pushed them both open at the same time, and…
The room beyond was wide and bright, with tall windows on one side letting in the morning sun. A single long table in the middle, set for thirteen. Thirteen chairs, thirteen placesettings—plates, cups, silverware—all of it covered in a fine layer of dust. As if someone had set this table months ago and simply never came back to clear it.
“The eating hall,” Cook whispered, like he himself was surprised to find it there.
“Thirteen places,” March said.
“Why thirteen?” Levana wondered. “Who was the other Heart?” She turned and looked at him, the question darkening her eyes.
“Who was the other Club?” Mimi wondered next.
“And who was the other Spade?” said Cook, his eyes on me.
Nobody had an answer.
Eventually, we walked into the room, half hoping to find something useful. Something that would look like theproofKohen was so sure we’d find here. Russ was hoping we’d find food, too, but there wasn’t any. Just china and dust and a longing for something neither of us knew how to put in words.
So, we didn’t say it.
Instead, Mimi said, “I think I’m going to find the kitchen.”
She slipped out the doors and left us to follow, and we eagerly did. The ghost of whatever it was that remained in that room made me more uncomfortable than anything we’d seen so far.
Then we were walking around the palace, half lost, half perfectly aware of each turn and each room and each doorway, each set of stairs.
Perfectly aware that we just might be all alone in here, even though people had seen us last night.
Then we found the grandfather clock, the same one at the junction, but…
“You guys, that wall wasn’t there before…was it?” Mimi said.
“Neither wasthat.” The junction had led to five different hallways, except now there were only three because two had been shut off by walls. Actual walls that looked identical to the others by their sides, ivory colored and solid. We went and checked.
“The palace,” said Russ with a triumphant grin. “I told you, didn’t I? C’mon, let’s find that kitchen.”
We did.
As strange as it sounded to my own self, we actually found the kitchen while following Seth again, behind what could be the main stairway of the palace, even though there were no actual entrance doors anywhere around it. Just walls and windows—and double doors that led us to dark corridors, and then a giant white kitchen with five islands and three fridges, and cabinets full of crackers and chocolate, fruit and drinks.
We didn’t stay long, even though the whole room was empty. We ate standing around the first island, and as we chewed, we asked each other if we remembered anything (nobody did). As familiar as this whole place was to me, it was also brand new. Every tile and every cabinet, every taste of the food I put in my mouth. Brand new.
Then we were off again, down the corridor that led us to a different place when we walked out, not the main stairway. At this point none of us was surprised. So long as we didn’t run into people, we were okay with new walls popping up and corridors leading us to different places.
We tried to come up with ideas about where to look for proof. Some thought it would be some kind of a book or a notebook, records someone wrote down, and others thought it would be pictures or drawings. A few thought it would beour very memories hidden somewhere. I personally hoped for the last but was pretty certain it was the first. They saidproof,and proof would be written down. I had no idea in which form, but I thought we might actually find it if we searched every inch of this palace.
If we didn’t, the Labyrinth was a big place, wasn’t it? We could search outside, too.
