Christina peaked through her dressing room door, before she
walked out. The last thing she wanted was for Lilliana to see her as the
princess. Chris didn’t like this lying thing, but she felt it was the only way
for her to really get to know Lilliana. A knock at the door startled her.

“Who is it?” Christina called out.

“It is me, Nathaniel,” a young male voice answered.

“Oh, it’s you,” Chris answered, “You can come in.”

The door opened revealing a medium
height boy of 14. He brushed aside a thatch of chestnut brown hair, revealing
to perfectly green eyes. Christina and Nate had been friends since they were
very young. They used to always get into so much trouble together. Like the
time were they rigged a net to fall on any intruders that came through the
door. The two were convinced that there was someone prowling the palace, and
they were right, there was a cat. For the longest time after that, Christina
and Nate always would laugh whenever they saw a cat.

“So, what’s up?” Christina asked.

“Oh, that’s right, I have a message
from your father. He wants you to come see him in fifteen minutes. He said it
is important,” Nate replied.

“Thanks for letting me know. Do you
have to leave right away?” she inquired.

“Yeah, I have another message to
deliver,” he responded, “Maybe I will see you later.”

“OK,” Christina answered with
disappointment, “Later than.”

Christina slipped into one of her
dresses and headed off to see what her father wanted. She hoped she wasn’t in
trouble. Maybe Lilliana told on me Christina
thought. Whistling she walked through the halls to wear her father’s office
was. She looked at her watch and realized he was probably in his room already,
so she turned herself around and headed the other direction.

Chris knocked on the door. No one
answered, so she knocked again. This time she heard the king walking towards
the door and say, “Come in Christina.” Opening the door, she walked in. Her
father was sitting on a chair, reading a book. He glanced up when she sat down
next to him.

“Nathaniel said you wanted to talk
to me. He said it was important.” Christina said to start the conversation.

“No I don’t need to tell you
anything, I want to give you something. It is very important. No one must know.”
The king said in a hushed voice.

A startled Christina leaned
forward. “Give it to me father, I will keep it safe,” Chris whispered back.

King Charles too leaned forward and
handed her a golden key. Its intricate design and decorations, convinced
Christina that it was very expensive. She knew there were many keys to open
different places and things in palace, and she had or seen all of them. Or so
she thought, Christina didn’t recognize this one.

“What is it to?” Christina asked.

“I can’t tell you,” he replied.

“But why?” Christina persisted,
“How can I use it if I don’t even know what it is to?”

“You will know,” he said, “Go to
your room, and read a book maybe.”

Christina jumped into bed and
cuddled into the soft down green and pink quilt after changing into her night
clothes. She looked at the alarm clock next to her bed. It said 8:30, so Chris
decided to indeed grab a book and read since it was not that late yet. Quickly
she jumped out of bed and into her slippers and gown. Christina walked quietly
over to the door leading into her private library.

Although she was only 13, she
already had a large selection of books, neatly stacked for easy access. Her
eyes scanned swiftly over the section of encyclopedias, dictionaries, and
thesauruses.  Her eyes stopped on a book she
saw in the wrong section. It should
probably be… Christina thought, trying
to think of which section the book belonged to, Come to think about it, she didn’t remember seeing it anywhere before.
“The Secret of the Hidden Tunnel” was
blazed in gold lettering on a cherry red book. Maybe her father had slipped it
in when he built her the new library so all her books could fit. Curiosity
overcame Christina, and she reached down to pull out the book. Pulling on the
book, Christina started to stand up, but the book was stuck! Christina pulled a
bit harder, knowing that sometimes books got jammed together. Again she tried
to stand up, but to no avail.

Christina grabbed one of the new
thesaurus books her father had given her along with her new library. This book
slid easily—but then, so did all the other thesaurus books did too! This was
weird, she always had a hard time pulling out just one book, but she never had
pulled out so many, and in a straight line! It was almost as if they were all
connected.

A screech reached Chris’ ears as
the book case came from against the wall, revealing a secret door. Wow! This awesome! There is a secret door in
here. Christina thought to herself.
My father must have installed it when he built it. I can’t believe it. I wonder
where it leads. Maybe that is what he wanted to tell me.

Forgetting all about the mysterious
book, Christina reached for the intricate door handle. She looked around before
twisting it. But it was stuck! The door was locked, and she didn’t know where
the key was! Then she remembered the key her father had given her. You will know… You will know… her
father’s voice echoed in her mind.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I would have had it up sooner, but my computer wasn’t working with me so, here it is, two days later. The next part will hopefully come up soon.

Just so you know, the second part (I think) is missing because I edited it. It should also be up soon.

Till next time. If you have any ideas as to what might happen next, they would be greatly appreciated. I think I might be stuck for a while. uh oh  is that how you spell it?????