The Interrogation

The door opened again. Ariana stiffened, heart beating faster. The captain stepped in.

'Get up.'

She eyed him warily. 'Why?'

'We are going somewhere.'

'Where?'

The look he gave her instantly shut her up.

She stood up. She passed him, making sure to shrink herself not to touch him, as two guards were waiting outside. Kaleb walked ahead as the guards followed close enough that Ariana could feel the weight of their presence at her back.

They arrived at a room above ground but nowhere near the royal wing. It was a simple room with a table where a book lay on top, two chairs and a tall window letting in the light.

Ariana stared at the window for half a second before Kaleb shut the door with a thud.

'Sit.'

She did, her hands trembling as she hid them in the folds of her dress. He stood, deliberately close so that she had to tilt her head back to look at his eyes.

'Your name?'

'Ariana.'

His expression darkened instantly, lip curling slightly.

“I—I mean Elena,” Ariana sputtered, recalling the mishap in the dungeon.

He grilled her on Elena, how long she had served, what her duties were and who she had worked with. Unfortunately, Ariana had nothing. Every answer was the same.

'I don't know.'

Kaleb stared down at her, silently. The silence stretched and stretched until it became unbearable.

Ariana fought to shift in her seat. 'What?'

'You must think me a fool. As a palace maid, how do you expect me to believe that you have absolutely no idea what it is you are employed to do?'

'Correction-I never said I was a palace maid,' Ariana couldn't help sassing.

Kaleb looked dryly amused. 'You don't say. Then why are you, Elena Moss, part of the registered maids of the palace?'

She couldn't think of a smart answer.

'Elena Moss. That's who you are,' Kaleb leaned down, his expression filled with distaste. 'So why don't you stop pretending, huh? It's getting rather stupid, don't you think?'

It was like a dam had burst inside Ariana. The emotions she'd been feeling for the past day seemed to burst out of her.

'Do you think I am also not confused regarding all that is happening?' She glared, eyes wild. 'It's not merely my throne I've lost in a day-it's virtually my identity! For reasons I don't even want to consider, I seem to be in the body of my former maid while something, I don't know, appears to be in mine. No one recognizes me at all, and now I'm being suspected of stealing the seal of the kingdom I vividly remember being its monarch. So excuse me, Captain, for not giving you the answers you want.'

Her chest heaved as the silence resounded. Kaleb's expression was blank. Frighteningly so. For a moment, Ariana even wondered if he had even heard her.

Then his lips twitched. 'Finished?'

'The question was so calm that it only made her angrier.

'No,' she snapped.

His brows lifted. 'Okay, then continue.'

Ariana did. 'As if that's not bad enough, I have been dragged into a dungeon, nearly strangled by you, accused of stealing a seal I have never seen, and told that my dead father is somehow alive. So no, Captain. I am not finished.'

'Didn't you say that the seal belongs to you down in the dungeons?' he pointed out, almost innocently.

Ariana could have kicked herself for her impulsive words. 'W-Well, that was a slip of the tongue."

'Is that so?'

'Yes.'

Kaleb smirked. 'Okay. Have it your way." He pulled out the chair opposite her and sat. "Now let's start again."

Ariana tensed, blinking, surprised at his easy relent. 'What?' she asked, unsure.

'Start all your words again," he repeated. "This time, without the shouting."

She stared at him. Opening the leather notebook resting on the table, he began, 'In the dungeon, you claimed you were Princess Ariana.'

Ariana hesitated. Kaleb offered her a disarming smile that made her hackles rise. 'You can go ahead and say what you want. I promise not to hurt you.'

She didn't believe him.

"So just relax."

"I am relaxed."

"Of course you are." He chuckled, "Let's begin with something simple."

"Such as?"

"Your name."

She almost laughed. "You already know it."

"I know what you claim it is."

'Ariana.'

His quill scratched against the paper. 'Full name?'

'Queen Ariana Ophelia.'

The quill stopped. 'Queen?' Kaleb's gaze lifted.

Ariana ruefully. 'Yes. I was a queen before I woke up in all...this."

A pause. 'What's your mother's name?'

'Queen Veronica Ophelia.'

“When did she die?”

Ariana's expression became closed-off. 'Two weeks before I turned twelve.'

Kaleb wrote something down. 'Did your father remarry?'

'No.'

'Any siblings?'

'No.'

'Closest childhood companion?'

Ariana chewed her lower lip, looking a tad shy. 'Um, Prince Lucien.'

Kaleb scoffed. 'Interesting.'

'What?'

'Nothing.' He continued writing.

Ariana watched him. Grew irritated. 'Why are you asking me things you already know?'

'I want to see which answers you get wrong.'

'And if I don't?'

'Then we'll have a different problem.'

'What problem?'

He looked up. 'I'll have to consider the possibility that you're telling the truth.'

Ariana heart gave an unexpected leap. 'You will?'

'Don't look so pleased.'

'I'm not pleased.'

'Yes, you are.'

'I am not.'

The corner of his mouth twitched. For a moment, the tension in the room eased. Then Kaleb's expression became serious again.

'Tell me about the princess.'

Ariana blinked. 'What?'

'You claim to be her. Tell me something no one else would know.'

Ariana leaned back. She understood now. He was testing her. 'Her private letters are kept in the false compartment beneath her writing desk.'

Kaleb's quill moved.

'She has a blue ribbon hidden in the bottom drawer.'

He glanced at her.

'She keeps it because her mother gave it to her when she was little.'

His writing slowed.

'She hates the royal physician's tonic.'

Kaleb raised a brow.

'She pretends to drink it whenever she's sick, but pours most of it into the flowerpots when no one's looking.'

Silence.

Ariana continued. 'When she can't sleep, she goes to the stables.'

'Why?'

'To count the horses.'

'Starting with?'

'The black mare.'

Kaleb's quill stopped completely. 'The one that threw her when she was twelve.'

His eyes remained on her.

Ariana nervously licked her lips. 'She still has a scar beneath her left shoulder. It's small, but jagged. She got it when she fell from the mare.'

Kaleb said nothing.

'No servant was allowed to mention it.'

'How do you know all of this?'

Ariana stared at him.

'Because I told you.'

'That isn't an answer.'

'It is the only answer I have.'

Kaleb leaned back in his chair and studied her for a long moment.

'What did the princess fear most?'

Ariana's breath caught. That was not a question she expected. She looked away.

'Being forgotten,' Ariana continued. 'There are times she used to joke about it. She'd say that if ever she did disappear, the palace would replace her before the roses had finished blooming." Her voice weakened. 'But she wasn't joking.'

Kaleb slowly blinked. 'She was afraid that one day no one would remember her.'

The room fell silent. Ariana looked back at him. 'Ironic, isn't it?'

'What?'

'That everyone forgot me.'

'Assuming you are the princess.'

'I already told you,' Ariana hissed. 'I am her."

He lazily shrugged. 'Until proven.'

Ariana longed to wrap her hands around his shoulders and give him a vicious shake. Maybe then he'd believe her.

'Do you know where the royal seal was kept?'

Ariana nodded. 'Yes.'

'Where?"

'My father's office."

'Be specific.'

“A locked cabinet behind King Myde’s desk.”

'Who had access there?'

'My father. The chancellor. The royal steward.' She paused. 'And me.'

Kaleb's eyes lifted. 'You?"

'It belonged the crown, which means I also have access to it.'

'If your claim to be the princess is true. So how did you, Elena, know where the seal was kept?'

Ariana gripped her hair. 'I don't know.'

'Think about it very carefully, "

She scowled. 'Well, I have no idea. Maybe if she were serving in the royal wing, perhaps.'

'Are you?'

'I don't know.'

'You really don't remember anything about her."

'That is all that I've been trying to tell you ever since you came to the dungeons!"

'And yet you remember everything about the princess.'

'Yes."

'How...convenient.'

Ariana's temper flared. 'You think I enjoy this?"

'I think you want me to believe you."

'Yes. I mean, I need your help to figure out whatever is happening!'

'Those aren't the same thing."

Ariana pushed herself to her feet. 'Then what am I supposed to do?'

'Sit. Down."

She stared at him. A part of her wanted to defile but, remembering the feeling of his hand around her neck, she reluctantly sat back down.

Kaleb stood. 'You, Elena, are a palace servant who woke up one day, going around claiming to be a princess, and the day you caused a ruckus in front of the royal wing, the seal disappeared that very night." He picked the book. 'If that doesn't implicate you, then I don't know what. So now you understand why I can't simply let you go."

Ariana's anger slowly faded. He reached for the door. 'Wait."

He paused.

'C-Can I see the king?"

His expression became austere. 'Why?"

'Because he's my father.'

Kaleb barked a sharp laugh. 'No.’

Ariana's voice broke. ' P-Please, I just want to see him. You said he's alive and--'

'The princess will be the one to decide that.'

'But I can't see her where I am. Can you take me to be--'

'No,' Kaleb repeated, this time harsher. 'You are not allowed to be anywhere near Her Imperial Princess and The King. And with the matter of the seal. I'd start to pray you still have your head on your head by the time the investigation is over and you're found guilty."

He headed to the door, opening it, Ariana called him.

'Wait, Captain.'

'Yes?'

'If someone stole the seal, why would they choose the same moment I start causing ruckus?"

Kaleb glanced over his shoulder.

Ariana held his gaze. 'Maybe I'm not connected to the theft," she said quietly. 'Maybe whoever stole it wants me to be blamed."

'Tsk, that is just a useless theory.'

'Investigate them to know.'

A flicker of uncertainty crossed his features. 'That is what I'mdoing." Kaleb stepped into the corridor. 'Someone will come to take you back to your cell." The door closed.

Her shoulders sagged. She hadn't gotten what she wanted-freedom. But she had gotten him to listen.

She walked toward the window. It was heavily barred. She stared through the glass at the palace grounds below.

Somewhere beyond those walls was her father. Alive. The thought hurt more than she expected.

A sound came from behind her.

A faint scrape. Ariana turned sharply. Nothing.

She stared at the door. Had she imagined it?

Another scrape. This time, she heard it clearly. Not from the door. From the wall.

Her eyes slowly moved toward the side of the door. She stepped closer.

There it was again.

Scrape.

Ariana held her breath.

Something was behind the wall.