The Spy Princess Read Online Free PDF

Riveredge?”
    â€œWe saved somebody from hanging! And we saw Derek, and he said I’m to be spying here.”
    â€œThat’s to get you in and out, in case Bren or one of the others spots you.”
    â€œSo you
did
know! Are you Selenna Leader?” I asked.
    Peitar made a curious grimace. “No. He calls me Number One. Selenna Leader is someone else, someone in Riveredge.”
    I tried so hard not to yell my voice squeaked. “
You
are Number One?”
    His cheeks reddened. “Does that seem so impossible?”
    â€œNo! It’s just that I thought—well, isn’t part of revolution a lot of sneaking around? Like in Derek’s stories.”
    â€œI cannot sneak, it’s true,” he said almost apologetically. “So I have to get my information in other ways, and I must use it to outthink the—the enemy.”
    â€œEnemy,” I whispered. “It’s so strange. Being Number One means you’re even more important than these leader people.”
    Peitar moved to my window seat. “In a way. We’ll see. What do you think of Derek?”
    â€œHe tells good stories,” I said, suspicious that he was trying to distract me. “I want to know more about what it means to be Number One.”
    After too long a pause, he said, “I don’t want to tell you that. I am uneasy enough telling you this much, but I confess I’m glad to have an ally.”
    â€œI’m not a baby! Do you think I’d blab it to Father? Or anyone else?”
    â€œYou would under torture.” His face was grim. “And don’t think our uncle would hesitate.”
    â€œOh, I believe
that
. So why do the village boys and girls get to know more than I do?”
    â€œThat’s just it—they don’t. They only know their portion of the plan.” Peitar paused. “It was a promise I extracted from Derek. He’s been fomenting revolution ever since I first met him, when we were boys. He’s used to risk—he and his brother, Bernal, both. He wants to give the young a chance to participate as much as the adults. But I don’t think they really understand the risks, or the cost. So I made Derek promise to tell them only as much as they need to know. That way, should things go wrong, it might buy their lives.”
    â€œYou say you’ve known him since you were boys, so that means that
you
were a boy when you started being Number One, right?”
    Peitar glanced at my time-candle, then struggled to his feet. “Lilah. The point is, I am just trying to keep you safe.”
    â€œWhich is why you’re suddenly too busy to answer questions?”
    â€œAs long as you act like that, I’m reluctant to tell you anything,” he retorted, and swung out the door, crutch
thock
ing on the polished wooden floor.
    I fumed.
Something
was going on. Then a thought struck me. Why would he glance at the candle? Because he had an appointment?
    I returned the fashion book to the shelf, capped the ink bottle, then raced out, silent on bare feet. No one in sight. I ran downstairs and crossed the great hall, just in time to see Peitar walk out into the garden.
    He skirted a neatly clipped hedge and made his way to the front of the house, where he stopped at the fountain and glanced around, though the lower windows were curtained.
    I’d never seen Peitar act sneaky before. He leaned against the rim of the fountain and reached toward one of the cherubs, the one with the harp. His hand turned. He bent farther—shifted—and disappeared.

five
    A secret passage!
    I dashed outside to the fountain. Now it was my turn to check over my shoulder. But if I wanted to find out what was going on, I’d have to take the risk.
    Peitar had fiddled with the little cherub with the harp. I patted the cold marble face, then pressed, poked, and tweaked its little round nose. Something gave slightly.
    When I tweaked more firmly, one of the shallow