"… hahaha! Seriously? Who was in there? Did they notice him?" Contrary to Nick's reaction, queen Hua was hysterically laughing while listening to the report from the blushed Ling.
"Master, I am sorry, I should've stopped her. The boy was in a real danger. I just never thought she would pull a stunt like that."
"It's fine. Nothing big happened." Queen was still giggling, "What did they do afterwards?"
"Well, the boy was in a panic and Zia cursed him being pervert as soon as he told her he was not a girl. Also she kicked him for a few minutes." Ling reported.
"Good girl! I'll have to treat her to something nice tomorrow. And then?" Queen Hua nodded in satisfaction.
"They sat and laughed. Then spoke for about half an hour and the boy left, but Zia went back to her room and read a book. Later she suddenly started running all over the palace, even I barely was able to keep up while staying hidden. After she got tired, she ate, washed up and went to bed early."
"Good. Continue watching." The suddenly queen turned serious, "Any news on Alex?"
"We know his majesty is returning with the royal cavalry, but it still will take some time to get back. Most likely he is making stops in other cities to raise his popularity or is going incognito to investigate the lives of the common people in the country."
The next morning, after Nick's usual visit to the Royal woods, both children had breakfast together. Zia 'reported' her experiences that caused eavesdropping Nigel and Ben to have shock once again. Nick, on the other hand, praised her and gave a few suggestions.
When they finished, Zia looked around like a thief, then pulled Nick away again. Both men were already used to it and almost didn't notice. In fact, the last few days Ben already got an additional duty, that is – to wait for Nick, thus he just hung around the palace's kitchen.
Zia finally led Nick to what she considered a 'safe' place. After carefully looking around she whispered, "I know where to find what we both need!"
She looked at Nick with a smile of a victor.
"What do you mean?" Nick was confused. The thoughts and mood swings of this girl were both unpredictable and he had no idea into what direction she might think now.
"I want a good book about swords, but you need a good book about healing. If they won't let us use the library, then let's check out my father's study – the best books in the palace are there!" Zia continued to whisper.
Nick looked at her stupefied, "Do you understand what you just said? It's the king's study! There is no way for us to get in. And if we do, we might get seriously punished. Maybe you will just get a slap on the wrist, but my wrist will get cut off!"
"No one has to know. We can sneak in!"
"The study definitely is guarded. Do you really think there is a way to sneak inside?" Nick tried to reason with her.
"You are the smart one – you figure it out. Let's go take a look." She pulled Nick's hand as usual and darted towards the king's study.
Just as Nick thought, the entrance was guarded. There was a guard standing at the each side of the door and there was only one entrance.
He pulled Zia to a side and they both sat while pretending to look bored.
"Let's wait and see. If we can't really figure out anything, we will postpone it for a later day." Nick only wanted to show her this was impossible and then Zia would calm down and that would be it.
"But what if you die? It might take months for my father to return and that doctor is with him. I don't want to you to die!" Zia protested.
Nick was startled, 'In a way she is right. But I have a whole library with me and, although it might take a lot of time, I should be able to find something useful there. It's unrealistic those freaks only knew how to make poisons and not an antivenom. On the other hand, I haven't had any steroid food in days! What if I need it to keep myself alive? The old witch said that I will be fully grown in three years, But what will happen if I suddenly stop the excessive growth?'
Nick looked at Zia, 'What if I only looked at few books and then quickly got out? Even if they think something is wrong, they can't prove we were in there if we don't take anything, right?'
"Fine, there might be a way, let's just sit here and watch. But don't look their way, pretend to talk with me." In the end Nick gave in and instructed, "We have to figure out how often the shifts switch and if there are any guards who patrol nearby."
"I can tell you all of that, that's not a secret." Zia laughed, "Guards in the palace have six hour shifts and the patrol here passes by maybe once every half an hour."
"How do you even know that?" Nick was confused.
"Everyone knows that!"
'What the hell is this security? Like this a random Qi master can come in and go out as they wish! The palace guards are most likely only Qi practitioners.' Nick furrowed his brows.
"Why is the security so weak?" He just could not understand.
"It is always like that in the palace when father goes somewhere." Zia looked a bit dejected "And now he has been away for so long, he probably will have a long beard, hihihi."
'What is up with her mood swings?' Nick sighed to himself.
"Alright, we have a chance, but it's very dangerous. We will have around ten minutes to get in and out and we can't take anything in case we get caught." Nick was thinking out loud in a serious voice.
Zia's eyes lit up, "How do we do that?"
"Will you follow my every instruction?" Nick asked.
"Sure!"
The two kids bumped their fists and the execution of the crime begun.
Some minutes later, when Nick explained her the plan, they started to play 'catch' near the entrance to the library. Laughing and shouting they left and ran around other the places as well. When Zia was out of breath and tired, Nick said goodbyes and left.
On the way home Nick got his new clothes and gave Stefan few more kicks, although the latter was already prepared and, to Nick's great disappointment, dodged most of them.
The next morning the two young criminals met again. This time they didn't eat breakfast in the kitchen – Zia had a large plate with dried fruits and nuts with her. While strolling around the palace corridors, munching on nuts and chatting, they approached the royal study. Then they sat down on the floor a bit further away and continued to chat and laugh, basically behaved like regular, normal children. Guards at the door were obviously bored and had nothing better to do than to watch the duo carelessly enjoying their childhood.
Suddenly Nick with a loud laughter grabbed the big plate with snacks and ran away while Zia tried to catch him, but she managed to do so only close to the entrance of the study. Zia took the plate away from Nick and kicked him while loudly laughing, calling him a bully and a thief.
Then she calmed down a bit and said that she would rather give the snacks to the guards and let Nick starve to death. Nick was obviously upset and tried to apologize, but Zia pouted and kicked him again. Then she turned towards the guards and offered them the snacks. After few persuasive sentences guards finally ate few snacks and … passed out.
"We have less than ten minutes, quickly!" Nick whispered as they entered the study, "Don't touch anything on the table, only look at the books! And put everything back where it was after you're done!"
The king's study was a large hall with a row of big windows of colored mosaic glass on one wall. Directly in the middle, facing the entrance was a big desk, covered with documents – probably the place where the king worked. To the right there was a smaller tea table with few large and comfy looking chairs around it, but to the left – rows of bookshelves, forming a small library.
Nick would have loved to take a more detailed look around the study of the most influential man in the world, but it had to wait until a later day. After entering, both children dashed towards the bookshelves.
King Alexander was a famous Qi swordsman and had a good collection of books related to the sword arts. Therefore Zia almost instantly found few interesting texts.
Nick, on the other hand, had a bit harder time. After wasting a couple of minutes looking at books one by one, he understood this was the wrong way of doing things. He started to check one book in each bookshelf to see the theme and then turned to another. He was lucky enough to find a shelf with the alchemy subject on the fourth try.
Nick quickly scanned the alchemy books one by one trying to find something about curing poisons while Zia leisurely sat on the floor and casually browsed books with the sword skills.
After few more minutes Nick's eyes lit up when he closed a thick book in his hands, "Let's go! We are out of time."
They put everything back were it initially was and got out of the study.
The two guards were still lying on the floor in strange poses. Nick, closed the study door, quickly cleaned up the snack plate, put all the snacks in a small bag and then poured fresh ones out from another. Then they sat near the 'sleeping' guards and continued to munch on snacks, chat and laugh.
After few minutes the guards woke up in confusion. Nick knew better than anyone how this tranquilizer worked – he had used it on Elsa multiple times. He gave a signal to Zia, she jumped on her feet and started kicking the guards while cursing them for being lazy. One of the guards got a bad premonition, he ran into the study, checked everywhere, but didn't find anything.
"What are you looking for? I guarded the door while you were napping!" Zia complained.
Guards were no rocket scientists, but were no fools either. They took the plate from Nick's hands, one of them ate few snacks, but nothing happened. Then he ran away and called their captain who performed a small investigation in the study, then heard out the parties, thought for a bit, switched the guards and ordered the previous ones to go and see a doctor. Basically everything happened according to Nick's expectations.
When both kids finally got away, Zia brought Nick to a small empty hall – it probably was waiting a room of some sorts. She barely could hold back her excitement, "We did it, we actually did it!"
"Tshsh, quiet! We just ate some snacks, that's all we did." Nick whispered back.
But the little princess was way too excited. She paced around the hall, jumping up and clapping hands from time to time.
After a while she sat down besides Nick and they silently finished the snacks.
"I think everything went too easy. Something is wrong." Nick had a bad feeling.
"No way! All of them believed us! It was so fun! We have to do it again!" The adrenaline was still boiling in her blood and probably will for the rest of the day.
"It's too dangerous. Well, even if anyone suspects us, they can't prove our guilt. We didn't take anything after all." Nick smiled at Zia who suddenly blushed all red and looked … guilty?
Nick's bad premonition became even worse, "Don't tell me, you took something with you? Zia! I told you to only look!"
"It's just a small book, no one will notice." She quietly whispered and took out small stack of papers that looked like notebook.
"Zia, are you trying to kill me again?" Nick sighed, closed his eyes and hid his face in palms.
'Ben was right, so right! I got into trouble again. Although I can't really blame her, she is just a girl! But I should've been more responsible.' He was not angry or panicked, but just a bit sad, 'Maybe no one will notice, who knows. Also, I think I did manage to find something.'
The last book he checked, was actually on healing and contained many body cleansing formulas. Most were complex, but he found a simpler one that was said to be a very effective if continuously used for a longer periods. It was based on essences from three quite common plants – echinacea flowers, bedstraw and marian thistle. Even if he couldn't buy those in the market they should be definitely available in the regular alchemy supply shops.
"Don't show that to anyone. We have to think of a way to put it back at a later date." Nick instructed, "I have to go now, otherwise Ben will get anxious."
"Did you find something that could help you?" Zia was actually worried about him.
"Ye, I think so. I'll try it out later in the afternoon and if it works, maybe I can survive until the doctor's return." Nick finally smiled.
Ben, in fact, was not worried at all. Leisurely chatting with the busy and a bit annoyed Nigel, he was sipping tea in the kitchen.