Dragonfly Maid

answered, it was lost among a sudden thunder of footsteps and men’s voices in the hallway.
“They came this way? Are you sure?”
“That’s what he said.”
I didn’t recognize the voices, but I knew that distinctive clamor of swords knocking against buckled boots. It was the castle guards.
Someone pounded on a door near enough to make the office walls shake.
“Anyone in there?”
I heard a door open and more footsteps.
“What’s that noise?” Marlie called up.
“The guards are in the next room.” I stared at Mr. MacDougall’s door. Had Marlie locked it? “What should I do?”
A distant door slammed, and the footsteps grew closer.
If they found us, how could I explain any of this? My heart thundered in my chest.
“Get in and close the mantel,” Marlie demanded. “Just push it back until it’s back in place. Hurry.”
When the office door rattled from a guard’s pounding, there was no more time to hesitate. I ducked into the dark space and pressed my weight against the wood. To my surprise, it glided easily and came to a soft stop against the wall.
I heard more pounding, but it was muted now. “Anyone in there?” came the question before the door burst open.
“No one here, either, Captain.” A guard’s voice was muffled but clear.
After a moment, I felt the shudder of the door when they slammed it shut.
We were safe. For now. It was my only thought as I leaned against the wall and tried to steady my breath. I didn’t notice Marlie coming back up the stairs until she was beside me, her candle casting its soft light on what appeared to be a stone-block room barely large enough for us to stand side by side.
“Are you all right?” Uncertainty laced her voice.
I honestly didn’t know, but I nodded anyway.
“Good,” she said. “Because there’s a lot to do, and we’re already late.”

CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Firmly gripping my skirt, I followed Marlie down the corkscrew staircase. My wariness grew with each descending step. Where was she taking me? A cellar? A dungeon? My mind raced with possibilities, each more unsettling than the last. When I tried to ask, she cut me off with an emphatic shhhh!
So, I swallowed my words, followed her lead, and counted each step as though my life depended on it. Ten, eleven, twelve…
Down we went, and nothing changed. Not the bare stone walls or the ragged slate steps. Not the blackness that swallowed where we had been or the void that hid what still lay beyond. Not the back of Marlie’s head, with her neat knot of hair beneath her bonnet, or the scuff of her boots and mine. Seventeen, eighteen, nineteen…
The only thing that was changing as we made our way down to wherever we were going was the temperature. It continued to drop and raise goosebumps across my arms and along my spine. By the twenty-fourth step, I could see my breath like a hazy cloud before me.
At the thirty-second step, Marlie paused and looked back. Not at me, but past me, to the darkness above. Her eyes flashed with concern. She whispered, “I would appreciate it if you didn’t mention the guards to Mrs. Crossey. I promised her I could manage this, and, if it’s all the same to you—”
“I won’t say anything,” I whispered back, surprised by her timidity. “You have my word.”
Her brightness returned. “Thank you. You know, I’m glad she’s finally told you, about you know. It’s been dreadfully hard not being able to say anything about it. Sometimes I thought I might burst. But Mrs. Crossey said it was important not to say anything too soon. So, I didn’t, but now that you know I hope we can be proper friends.” She flashed a toothy grin and waited.
I forced a smile in return. “Yes. Of course.” She wanted to be friends now? After all this time? But she wasn’t moving. She was still staring, so I added, “I’d like that.”
At that, she grinned wider and made a happy shrug with her shoulders. “I’m glad.”
I had no idea what to say or to think so I just counted. Eight more steps brought us to the last stair.
Marlie lifted her flame and cast its scant light across what appeared to be a stone cellar. I couldn’t judge its size because the far wall was set too far back in the shadows. Each step revealed a few more paces of the same side walls, the same floor, but no end. Only darkness. “Where are we?” I whispered, gazing into the void.
She walked past me with a mischievous grin. “We’re almost there.”
Before I could argue, Marlie ventured deeper into the tunnel, her candle casting its sphere of light against the crude stone walls.
I paused. The smart thing to do would be to climb back up the stairs to a world without hidden passageways, underground tunnels, or secret agendas.
Back to a world I recognized.
Marlie turned back, her candle held high. “Are you coming?”
I stared up at the dark space above me. Mr. MacDougall’s mantel was up there, lost in the shadows. In front of me, Marlie’s flickering light illuminated the spattering of freckles on her nose.
To think I’d thought I understood this girl, a girl no older than myself who I had worked beside and slept beside all these months. The roommate who kept to herself, as I did, and seemed no more remarkable than a loaf of bread.
But just as Mrs. Crossey and Mr. MacDougall had shown themselves to be something more than what I knew, Marlie Carlisle was proving there was more to her as well. Was she also a Fayte Guardian?
Ahead, Marlie lifted her candle again. “Well?”
I stared into the subterranean void that stretched behind her. It would be foolish to forge ahead without knowing where the tunnel led, but I had come too far to go back without answers. I steeled myself and lifted my chin. “I’m coming.”
If she noticed the fear in my voice, she didn’t show it. She only said, “Good,” with a distinct note of