The night passed without incident. If Tobias and Roden knew I’d snuck out during the night, neither of them mentioned it the next morning. After breakfast, Mott entered the room and said Conner had new plans for us that day.
He carried something in his arms, which he unwrapped and set on an easel in front of us. It was a painting of a boy standing beside a tall hedge in a springtime garden. He had light brown hair with darker streaks underneath, a mischievous smile, and a hint of trouble in his bright green eyes. None of us had his innocence, his naïveté.
“Is that Jaron?” Roden asked.
“The last known picture of him,” Mott said. “Painted more than five years ago, when the prince was nine years old.”
I couldn’t help but stare, comparing myself to every detail of the painting. Roden and Tobias were studying it as carefully, no doubt doing the same thing. Each of us had features that looked similar to the prince’s, but Roden groaned in disgust. “Sage looks more like him than Tobias and I. Conner led me to believe just the opposite.”
“Do you see a resemblance?” Mott asked me.
I shrugged. “My face is longer, and my hair is the wrong color. If anyone compares me to that picture, the regents won’t believe I’m him.”
This brought on even louder complaints from Roden, as well as a few objections from Tobias, that none of us was enough like the picture to be convincing.
Mott shushed us, then continued, “Conner’s plan this morning is for each of you to undergo whatever transformation you can to look like the prince. Your hair will be cut to match his — Sage, we have a hair dye that may work for you. You will each be measured and clothes will be prepared for the one Conner chooses. By the time one of you is chosen tomorrow morning, he will look like the prince.”
While Roden and Tobias got their hair cut, Errol led me outside to work the dye through my hair.
“It will look like I’ve used hair dye,” I said. “And what about when my hair grows back into its color again?”
“Master Conner believes you can use less and less dye each time,” Errol said. “Within a year, it will appear as if your hair has naturally changed color.”
“He thinks of everything,” I said without any hint of admiration.
I had no mirror to see myself once the dye was washed out sometime later, but Errol smiled when he looked at me and seemed pleased. “It’s amazing how that one thing has brought your appearance so much closer to the prince’s. I’m certain Conner will choose you. Most of us servants believe that.”
Which would have been comforting if we hadn’t passed Conner in his office with Roden as we walked back in. Roden was kneeling before Conner at his desk. His hair was styled just as Jaron’s had been and he looked very nice. If there were inconsistencies between his look and Jaron’s, they could easily be explained by the changes in a face over time.
“I am exceptionally impressed,” Conner was saying to him. “You have surprised me, Roden, and pleased me. Tobias, any similarities between you and the prince have vanished. Do not consider your chances of being chosen tomorrow to be good.”
“No, sir,” Tobias said. I hadn’t even seen him in the room. He must have been beyond our vantage point.
“Ah, Sage,” Conner said, noticing us at the door. “It seems that once again you’re behind the others. I still find myself looking at an orphan, albeit one with the same hair color as the prince.”
“I am your prince,” I told Conner, then walked on past his office.
Errol caught up to me and whispered, “Perhaps I was wrong to have said that Conner would choose you. You might be too late.”
With my hair cut and styled an hour later, I gasped when Errol handed me a mirror. Errol’s wide eyes hinted at his equal amazement. “The resemblance is so strong, you could almost be Jaron’s twin,” he said.
I couldn’t stop staring. Was this really me? I was too accustomed to hiding my eyes behind my hair and feeling dirty and grimy. Had Conner known this was possible when he first took me? Had he seen through all that?
“Take me to see Conner,” I said.
“You walk differently,” Errol observed as he followed me down the hallway a moment later. “You are different, Sage.”
“Let’s hope Conner sees things the same way.”
Conner’s office door, which was usually open, was closed this time. “I think we should come back,” Errol said.
I rolled my eyes and knocked on the door.
“Enter,” Conner said from his office.
I opened the door. Mott was sitting on the chair in front of Conner at his desk, but turned to see who had come. He stood when I entered, as did Conner.
Conner said nothing for several seconds. His eyes scanned me up and down, and his mouth hung open.
“It can’t be,” he said. “More than I’d hoped for.”
“I told him he could be the prince’s twin,” Errol said.
Conner’s eyes flashed at Errol. “Get out.”
Errol nodded and vanished from the doorway. He’d made a mistake by openly acknowledging that he knew about the plan. It didn’t matter that Conner was the one who’d told them about it in the first place.
“Kneel, please,” Conner said. “I wish to study you better.”
“Come as close to me as you’d like,” I answered. “Study me here, on my feet.”
“You won’t kneel?”
“Would a prince?”
Conner raised his voice. “You’re not a prince until I say so.”
“I don’t need you to say so, sir. As you see me standing here, I am the prince of Carthya.” I turned to walk out of the room, but Cregan flew past me through the doorway.
“Master Conner,” he said in breathless words. “You were right. Veldergrath is coming.”
“How far away did you see him?” Mott asked.
“Several miles off, but he wasn’t alone. He has an entire company of men with him.”
“Soldiers?”
“Not in uniform. But they’re armed.”
Conner nodded. I could almost see plans forming in his mind like storm clouds gathering. “He wants to intimidate us, not fight. So we must welcome him in with all hospitality. Get word to the staff to prepare a meal large enough for him and his company. And remind them not to speak of my plans unless they all want to hang for treason.” Then he turned to Mott. “Find the three boys. Hide them in my secret tunnels.”
“I know about them, sir,” I said. “I can take us there.”
Conner looked surprised only for a moment, then he nodded and said, “Sage, you must find Roden and Tobias and hide in the deepest of my tunnels. I don’t need to tell you what will happen if you are found. Mott, go to their room. Destroy any trace of the boys’ presence here.”
I began to leave, but Conner said, “Wait!” He opened the bottom drawer of his desk and withdrew a small locked box decorated in emeralds. “Take this with you. Do not open it and do not let it get into Veldergrath’s hands.”
Cregan, Mott, and I each ran our separate ways. In the library, I found Tobias and Roden, who stood when I entered. “You look so … different,” Tobias said. “I admit I couldn’t see the resemblance to the prince before, but now —”
“Veldergrath is coming,” I said. “You must come with me at once.”
“What’s the hurry?” Tobias said, putting his book away. “Conner can declare you or Roden as prince and resolve his plan today.”
As they followed me upstairs, I answered them. “Veldergrath is the last person in this kingdom who wants to see Prince Jaron return. If he finds us, we’re all dead.”
