Someone roughly grabbed my left shoulder - Melody, most likely. Bony hands carefully took my elbow - Harmony.

They led me slowly through the store's back room. We stopped and Harmony's hand left my elbow. There was some shuffling of crates and feet before she rejoined us. I hated not being able to see what was happening.

"How will we get her down the ladder?" Melody murmured to her mother. I frowned - I was standing right between them, after all! And what was this about a ladder?

Harmony, thankfully, spoke directly to me in her response. "Princess, you'll have to get down on your stomach and kind of...wriggle backward."

"Or you could take my blindfold off," I suggested hopefully.

"Not a chance," Melody fired back as Harmony stuttered guiltily, "I - I think we'll keep it on for now."

I sighed, easing myself gently to the floor once the two women had released me. "Am I pointed in the right direction?" I asked, feeling ridiculous.

Someone grabbed my ankles and moved me a few feet to the right. Once they had released me, I wriggled backward until the floor gave out beneath my feet. I carefully moved a little farther back until both feet were firmly placed on the top rung of the ladder. Then I walked my torso back until I was standing once more, finally making my way slowly down the ladder.

This, in my opinion, was the worst part of not being able to see anything. I kept waiting for something to crawl up my skirt or grab my ankle.

Finally, I reached my foot down for the next rung and hit solid ground. I stayed still until the hem of someone's dress hit my face. I shrieked, initially thinking it was an insect or other earth-dwelling creature, and stumbled backward.

"Relax. It's just me," Melody muttered irritably, grabbing my shoulder in her vice-like grip again.

Not a valid reason to relax, I thought sourly, and tried to stand up straight - regally. I felt too exposed that way, however, as I still couldn't see my surroundings, and hugged myself, bending inward slightly.

Harmony soon rejoined us and we started down the tunnel. The air smelled earthy and felt humid. The dirt under my feet was soft and pliable.

We took many twists and turns in our walk. I didn't even attempt to keep track of them after the first few. I was beginning to admire how much work the Phoenix People had put into concealing their base.

My stomach was a ball of nerves. What was going to happen to me, the Highborn princess? I sent a quick prayer to the gods: please, protect me.

We walked for what felt like hours but was likely mere minutes. Finally, we halted. Melody released me. I heard the sound of stone grinding on stone and Harmony steered me forward.

The sound of grinding stone came again and my blindfold was finally removed. I blinked as my eyes adjusted to the dim light and took in the small room we had arrived in.

It was a tiny room carved completely out of stone rather than the dirt used in the hallways that had led us here. There seemed to be no entrance or exit. I glanced behind me - no door there. Where had we entered?

The wall across from us began to move. I watched in awe as a formerly invisible, tiny patch in the wall slid aside to reveal thick glass, behind which sat...

A little girl?

This Lowborn child couldn't have been older than seven years of age. Her hair was frizzy and black, falling just past her shoulders, and she had a light blue cloak drawn about her as if she had just been out in frigid air despite it being summertime aboveground. Her rosy cheeks topped off the effect. Her eyes were firmly closed and a tiny smile played across her lips.

We stood, staring at the child for a moment before I whispered to Harmony, "What now?"

"We wait."

So we waited longer. And then a little longer after that. Suddenly, the girl's eyes flew open to reveal a dazzling emerald color. Her smile widened, revealing dimples set firmly in her cheeks, and she said pleasantly, "A girl falls into the sun and tumbles out the other side. She stumbles into a throne and henceforth rules over the birds."

"The story of the phoenix is one told again and again," Melody said, as gently as I had ever heard her speak.

"One that we aspire to live up to," Harmony finished.

The girl nodded, smile ever widening. "What brings you here?"

"The princess is here," Melody replied. "The princess is here to stay."

The words sounded so final that they were like a door slamming in my face. I was in far too deep to even think about escape now.

"That's interesting," the little girl said idly, turning her gaze to me. "I suppose everyone will want to meet you." She closed her eyes without another word and returned to the same sleep-like state that she had been in before the odd exchange. The stone slid over the glass and joined again with the wall. Melody, Harmony, and I were once more alone in the small, bare room.

I was about to repeat my earlier question of, "What now?" with the added but just as important query of, "What was that?" when another formerly invisible stone door slid open.

"Dove likes to take her time," Melody told me, her tone fond. She obviously cared for the little girl.

"What was the rest of it about?" I asked curiously as we started down a stone hallway.

"Dove...isn't like other children. She prefers this job, and frankly, she's the most qualified out of all of us," Harmony informed me. "She has a set of riddles, questions, songs, and poems that one must answer correctly, word-for-word, to be admitted entrance to the base via this hallway. She switches them up when she feels like it, so there's no schedule to be revealed to outsiders."

I marveled at the child's genius. "What if you have a poor memory?"

"We review the answers weekly, even filling in those working for us on the outside. It's risky, but it's worked seamlessly so far."

"We're working on new methods," Melody added. She seemed too distracted to remember to dislike me. She was getting increasingly jittery, drumming her fingertips against her thighs.

"How's August, dear?" Harmony asked gently, obviously noticing the change in her daughter.

"August is wonderful. I heard September had a baby?"

"Yes; a big and healthy little boy. They named him October, I believe."

Melody nodded, once again distracted. Harmony sighed, giving up.

I was noticing obvious patterns in the Phoenix People's self-naming. Melody's family members were all music-related. August's were named after months. Idly, I wondered what would happen when they ran out of months. Surely there were already more than twelve people in his family?

I was about to broach this question to Harmony when we reached the end of the hallway. Harmony whistled a complicated tune that I couldn't quite seem to remember once it was finished, and the wall in front of us slid away.

I, Princess Alexia, Highborn royalty, stepped inside the Lowborn resistance headquarters.