Chapter 78. Official Welcome

Fiona had no way of knowing for sure; the light in the room was still on and bright, and the windows were still tightly shuttered. But she knew that the time was somewhere between 1:00 a.m. and 2:00 a.m. She got to her feet, careful not to make any sounds that might alert someone watching her that she was up to mischief.

She made her way to the hollow area in the wall where the footprint had disappeared into and began to prod around. She pressed her shoulder into the wall and felt it dip under her. She was not new to secret passages, considering the house she had grown up in, but it still took her a few minutes to figure out the mechanism that got the passage open.

Since the surface was flimsy in its own way, she stuck her tiny fingertips into the hole made when the passage covering bent backwards, away from the wall. With her fingertips in, she was able to pry the passageway open.

It was dark and smelled of disuse. She slipped into it and hurried down the dark c