William roamed around the room, seeing nothing of real interest to him. Out of the entire castle, this room was the only one he had not explored. The teenager with a full head of curls was dead set determined to find something of importance here. There had to be something unique or special in here since it was the tallest room in the whole castle. After all, the room was in the tallest tower. Old furniture and trunks were scattered about in a haphazard manner around the room giving little walking space. A sliver of light from the open window gave spotlight to one trunk. It caught William’s eyes because it was a large rectangular box. A few jewels adorned the edges, but mostly the reason he was so transfixed on it was the fact that it was completely made of glass.

The boy made his way across the room and dropped to his knees beside the strange box. Carefully, he peeled back the top to fully examine the contents. There were a few garments obviously made for a man, folded very neatly to one side: one of them was a blue coat with red piping. On top of the winter coat was an elaborate golden speckled mask. Uninterested, William brushed it away and kept looking. A small wooden box was underneath the clothing. When William opened it, he found three broken pieces of a mirror. The glass was warm to the touch and the surface seemed to ripple when his fingers brushed against it. He closed the box and placed it back down. Beside the box sat a comb, a corset with the strings cut, and an apple. There was a bite taken from it, yet it was still as red and ripe as if it were just picked from the tree. Curious, William thought to himself.

William’s hands felt something smooth and velvety underneath a white covering. It was a very large book, almost too big to sit in his lap, with gold plating making thin branch like lines from a corner that weaved and circled in various patterns around the cover. His fingers traced the lines absently before he carefully opened the cover. It was blank. There wasn’t one word written on any pages. Frustrated, William shut the book with a loud SNAP. Maybe he was mistaken. Why would there be a beautiful book with no words in it? He pulled open the cover one last time. Nothing. He dropped the book in his lap and stared at it. Sighing, William placed his fingers on the page gently, willing there to be writing there. He wished it were something that held deep secrets that no one else knew. Perhaps it could have been a military planning book, or a recount of every dirty secret of the past royals compiled into one book.

Suddenly brown script formed where his fingers brushed on the paper. Startled, William pulled his fingers from the page quickly. The words disappeared. The boy grinned as if he had just bested a foe in a fencing match. He moved his finger across the page, starting from the top, and read.