“Let us go exploring the castle.” Avelina grabbed her arm. She couldn’t bear to answer any probing questions or tell her friend a lie right now. “It is so big, and I have not seen nearly all of it. Perhaps there are some hidden passageways and lost rooms somewhere.”
“You make it sound fun.” Magdalen laughed. “I suppose it cannot do any harm.”
They left the solar, which was on the third level, and walked through a corridor Avelina had not been down before. “This must be the way to the west wing.”
“Maybe we should not go there,” Magdalen said, her voice hushed. “I do not think Lord Thornbeck would want us to.”
“Did he say we couldn’t go to the west wing?”
“I don’t remember, but I got that impression. Is it not where his brother died?”
“I had not thought of that.” Would it be completely destroyed after the fire? Or still mostly intact?
The corridor was lit by small windows about ten feet apart along the wall facing east. They stopped to look at the view, as it was different here. Then the corridor took a sharp turn and there were no more windows to let in light.
“Do you know where you’re going?” Magdalen asked.
“No, but if it gets too dark, we’ll turn around and go back.” And get a torch.
They walked until Avelina could no longer see her feet.
“Maybe we should go back,” Magdalen whispered.
Just then—“I see a light ahead.” It was faint but Avelina headed toward it. When they reached it, she could see that the light was the glow around a doorway at the end of the corridor. In fact, there were two doors—one at the end of the corridor and the other along it, to the right.
Avelina reached for the glowing door. She pulled on the iron handle and it creaked open a crack, letting in more light. As she eased open the door, she gasped and stepped back, bumping into Magdalen.
She was looking into open space and sky. On the other side of the door, there was no floor, no walls, only . . . sunlight.
Magdalen clutched Avelina’s shoulder, pulling her back. “Dear heavenly saints!”
They both stared as they looked out the open doorway. That’s when Avelina noticed the smoky black covering the walls. “The fire must have destroyed whatever used to be behind this door.”
“Perhaps it was a balcony.”
The door to their right suddenly opened. A woman stood staring at them, then said, “Annlin?”
It was the woman who had wandered around the ballroom floor the night of the ball. She stared at them with vacant gray eyes.
“Good day. I am Lady Dorothea and this is my friend Lady Magdalen.”
“Have you seen Annlin?”
“No, we have not,” Avelina said.
The woman motioned for them to come inside, and Avelina followed her in.
“Dorothea?” Magdalen whispered rather urgently behind her, questioning whether she should be doing this.
Inside was a room littered with half-burned furniture, including a bed frame that was broken and blackened, its curtains nearly entirely burned away. The window at the opposite wall was thrown open, letting in the cold air.
The walls were all covered in soot, and piles of ash and half-burned cloth lay in the corners and on the floor.
“Are you not cold?” Magdalen approached the woman and took her hand. She looked back at Avelina. “Her hand is as cold as ice.” She turned back to the woman. “Please come with us. We will take you somewhere warm.”
The woman followed them a few steps, then stopped and pulled her hand away from Magdalen. “No, I must stay here. Annlin might come back. She was here. She might come back.”
“Do you not want to go search for her in the kitchen?” Avelina asked. The woman was so thin, she seemed in need of a good meal.
The woman placed her hand against her cheek and stared into the near-empty room. “I don’t know.”
“What are you doing here?”
Avelina startled, spinning around.
Lord Thornbeck stood in the doorway. “It isn’t safe in this part of the castle.” He glanced from Avelina to Magdalen and back again. Then he held his hand out to the woman. “Endlein. Come. You should not be here either. People are looking for you.”
“Where is Annlin? Did the margrave take her away somewhere?”
“No, Endlein,” he said, as she took his hand and followed him out.
Frau Schwitzer was behind him. She took the woman’s hand and led her away, talking softly to her.
Avelina held her breath as Lord Thornbeck turned to Magdalen and her. “You should not be in the west wing. Why did you come here?”