Chapter Three:
"Antonio!" Claudia whispered as the boy in question brought her her dinner. "Did you find the northern girl?"
"Found her, yes," Antonio sighed as he slid Claudia's bowl and cup into her cell. "But she can't speak Latin so a load of food that did."
"Was she scared?" Liling asked as Antonio approached her.
"Didn't look it if she was," Antonio answered passing her the food. "She just fiddle with her hair and napped against the hydra."
"Probably doesn't know what's happening," Rima decided.
"Do any of us?" Claudia questioned.
Iris just frowned and stroked her chin. "How old is she?"
Antonio shrugged. "I don't know. Fifteen or sixteen-ish?"
"And she's not scared?" Iris arched an eyebrow.
"Of course not! She's a witch!" Rima said. "She could probably kill this whole house with some voodoo disease in a split second."
"If so then why hasn't she done it?" Iris questioned.
Rima opened her mouth to answer, then closed it back, a puzzled look on her face.
"How is she keeping the hydra from killing her then?" Claudia asked.
"Dragons can be tamed," Liling whispered.
"WHAT!?" Antonio and Claudia looked at the little girl stunned.
"Tame a dragon?" Antonio arched an eyebrow.
"Yes, did you not know that?" Iris cocked her head to one side.
"Uh...no," Antonio answered. "Seeing as all dragons seem to want to do around here is kill us we hadn't really thought taming was an option!"
"Heh. That's why we don't bother 'me where I come from," Rima chuckled. "Sort of an unspoken agreement. We leave them alone, they leave us alone."
"So your saying this northern savage girl just waltzed into the cage and tamed the beast within a span of seconds?" Antonio asked.
Iris nodded. "Which is not easy to do…"
"How does this help us, though," Claudia asked.
"All I'm saying that it sounds like this northern girl knows something we don't," she turned to Antonio. "And you should probably keep an eye on her."
Antonio sighed. "Yes, Of course! Shouldn't be hard with a dragon and half a dozen guards on her at all times!"
"Well, Seeing as we have no other options what choice do we have," Iris crossed her arms.
Antonio sighed again. "I'll do what I can," he huffed as he left and went out to the arena to give the northern girl her dinner. The sun had already set when he got to the arena. The guards, once again, paid him no mind as he approached the cage. The hydra was asleep but the girl was nowhere to be seen.
Antonio blinked as he set the tray down. Had she escaped already!?
At the sound of the tray clicking against the stone floor the girl's head popped out from behind the hydra. She leapt over the beast with surprising agility for a princess and made her way to Antonio. As she took the tray from where he'd slid it in Antonio noticed some strange black stains on her finger tips. Antonio's eyebrows furrowed. Had those been there before?
The girl took the tray and climbed back behind the hydra, hiding her from view. Antonio stood on his toes to try and see over the massive beast, but to no avail. Well, how was he supposed to keep an eye on her if he couldn't see her?
"You, boy!" One of the guards called to him. Antonio quickly ran to him. The guard passed him a report and Antonio headed to the study, glancing at the closed window to make sure he remembered where it was before going out of the arena and around the courtyard to get to the staircase. He carefully pushed the door open and set the report on the desk on top of the other reports before turning to leave.
A cool breeze hit the back of his head and made him stop. He turned back around to see the window wide open.
Hadn't...hadn't that been closed not a minute earlier? Antonio looked about the study again. Now he noticed there were several odd little things out of place here and there. A cabinet was opened. As was a desk drawer. A new, blank, journal sat opened on the desk.
Antonio picked the journal up and thumbed through it. There was nothing in it at all! Why was it sitting open on a-
-there were pages missing! In the very back of the journal several pages had been ripped out, only leaving a thin frayed edge of paper left against the journal's binding. Antonio ran his hand over the frayed paper edges as he set the journal down and looked about the study some more.
Clearly someone had been messing around in here. But who? And for what?
Antonio looked in the open drawer. There was a box, once more, left open, with several charcoal pencils inside. Antonio picked one up, looking for clues. He ran his hand over to tip and the charcoal left a stain. Antonio gasped as he rubbed his fingers together.
These were the same kind of stains the Northern girl had on her hands!
Antonio put the pencil back and closed the drawer before dashing to the window and looking out. Just across from it was the hydra cage.
"There's no way…" Antonio murmured. He tapped his fingers on the window sill as he thought. Carefully, he closed the shutters back and slipped out of the study. The guard change wouldn't happen for another three hours, so he couldn't know for certain until then.
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
Three hours passed. Antonio carefully crept back up the steps, checking over his shoulder to make sure no one saw him as he slipped back into the study. He found a trunk under the window to hide in. He opened the door, pushed the papers aside, and climbed in, leaving the door just a crack open so he could see without being spotted. Then he waited. And waited. And waited.
After several minutes Antonio heaved a sigh. "This is stupid he decided as he placed against the door to open it.
"Clunk!"
The sound of the window opening came from above him. A weight fell on the trunk, forcing the lid closed. Antonio gasped, waiting for the weight to disappear before he peaked out the crack in the trunk door to watch. A silhouette sprinted off toward a cabinet against the wall left to the desk.
Antonio's jaw dropped open. Sure enough it was the northern girl! She opened the cabinet, slipped a rolled up scroll inside, took another out, then closed it back. She then began shifting through the papers, notes, and letters on the desk. As she thumbed through them she whispered something to herself, slightly nodding her head with each word, probably counting. She found a letter that seemed to catch her interest for she took it, set it under her a with the scroll she'd taken, and then sprinted back to the window.
Antonio waited until he heard her climb back out to make his exit from the trunk. He ever so carefully slipped to the floor and peaked just the top of his head over the window sill. The girl slid back into the hydra cage with her loot and then hopped over and behind the beast.
Twenty seconds or so later the next batch of guards appeared at their stations. Knowing the report would be dropped off soon Antonio climbed back in the trunk to hide. He waited until he heard the door open, footsteps to the desk, back and the door closed to climb back out. He immediately farted to the cabinet to investigate. What had she taken?
He took the scroll she'd returned and unrolled it. It was a map of the manor.
Could she be?
Antonio noticed black fingerprints on the edges of the map, most likely from the girl. He put it back and looked at the other scrolls to see which ones had fingerprints on them. He quickly found one and unfurled it. It was a map of Rome. No others had prints. So far she'd only taken three.
Antonio put everything back on the cabinet and wandered to the desk. He looked at the stack she'd been thumbing through. They were all letters of reports to Phineas from all over the world, military, trade, and political operations and such. But what was in the one she took? Of course there was no way for him-
"Wait…" Antonio looked through the letters again. They were all in Latin! Why would they be of any good to her if she couldn't speak Latin!
Or could she…
Now that he thought about it she hadn't actually given any sign she couldn't understand what everyone was saying. She just hadn't shown that she could either.
Antonio glances at the window again, a small smirk on his face. "Well, well, well, northern girl. Aren't you a clever little minx."