“Don’t worry about it,” said the blacksmith.
“But—”
The blacksmith winked at her. “Consider it a gift, from one blacksmith to another.”
“Thank you again,” said Anne. “I promise we’ll return!”
And with that she was out the door.
Back aboard the Leaky Mermaid, the crew worked frantically to prepare the ship for battle, to be ready for Octo-Horse Pirate at the High Castle. The airship had little in the way of weapons or defenses. They pulled the lone cannon into place along the center of the portside railing. The ship had no proper ammunition to speak of, but there was a small pile of baked goods in a basket next to the cannon.
Anne picked one up and gave it a sniff. “Fruitcake?”
“The hardest known substance in all the Hierarchy,” said Locke. “I’d rather get hit by a cannonball.”
Anne, Penelope, and Hiro helped patch the holes in the deck they hadn’t had time to fix back at Honest Ehd’s. They also tied ropes to the railing for the pirates to rappel from. As they brought up more rock-hard baked goods from belowdecks, though, Hiro tripped over a rope and collided with one of the pirates. They both tumbled to the deck.
“Sorry about that,” said the pirate, but then his eyes went wide.
Hiro’s bandage had come loose. He quickly covered his wound with his other hand, but it was too late. The pirate had noticed the thin stream of black oily smoke that came from Hiro’s wound.
“Get back!” shouted the pirate. “He’s one of those—those things!”
Anne quickly wrapped the bandage around Hiro’s arm again.
“Get away from that—that monster!” said the pirate.
“It’s not what you think,” said Anne hastily. “It’s a—a—magickal wound. It does that from time to time.”
The pirate backed away from them. “I know what I saw.”
By now the other pirates on deck had turned their attention to Hiro. No doubt at least a few of them had seen Hiro’s arm as well, and hushed murmurs suggested word was spreading fast. A few of the nearest pirates even placed their hands on the hilts of their swords. There was no way Anne could stop all of them.
Penelope stepped between Hiro and the pirates and drew her sword. The pirates had procured new weapons for themselves, and Penelope now had an honest-to-goodness real sword as a replacement for her wooden one. The polished blade shone in the morning sunlight. “If you want him, you’re going to have to go through me first.”
“There will be no need for anyone to go through anyone,” said Locke as he walked over. “The captain will settle the matter.”
Marri exited her cabin and rolled over to where everyone was waiting.
“What seems to be the problem?” she asked.
The pirate who had collided with Hiro pointed at him. “He’s one of those creatures, Captain. Bleeds black smoke. I saw it with my own eyes.” He pointed at Anne and Penelope. “And they knew about him.”
Marri’s eyes narrowed. “Is this true?”
“We only just found out ourselves while we were on the other side of the barrier, in the doppelganger world,” Anne said defensively.
“So she claims,” said another pirate.
Penelope raised her sword. “Are you calling her a liar?”
“Penelope, please put away your sword,” said Marri.
Penelope hesitated for a moment, but finally slid her sword back into its sheath.
“I’ll just leave,” said Hiro.
“No,” said Anne. “I know how this must look, and I’m sorry we didn’t tell you, but Hiro isn’t a danger to you or your crew. And you heard the blacksmith. We can’t complete our mission without him.”
The crew began muttering, and Marri put her fingers to her lips and gave a loud whistle. “That’s enough! Hiro is a part of this crew and has proven himself on more than one occasion. I will deal with the issue of his and his companions’ deception, but this is not the time. Anyone who has a problem with that can take it up with me.”
A few pirates looked about to speak again, but this time Locke stepped forward and shouted. “You heard the captain. Get back to work!”
The crew dispersed.
“Thank you,” said Hiro.
“Yes, thank you,” said Anne. “I know that wasn’t easy.”
“Don’t thank me yet,” said Marri. “I may have no choice but to kick you off the crew, which will leave you at the mercy of the Wizards’ Council.”
Anne swallowed. “I understand.”
Anne looked at Penelope and Hiro. Neither of them was looking at the other.
“Thanks for sticking up for me,” said Hiro.
“Well, I’m still mad at you,” said Penelope. “But you’re a member of our group, and that means nobody gets to pick on you unless we say so.” She gave him a light punch on the shoulder and grinned. Hiro smiled back.
Anne was relieved to see her two friends speaking again.
The Leaky Mermaid was soon headed to the High Castle, back to confront Octo-Horse Pirate and with any luck stop the barrier from coming down. Jeffery supplied the helmsman with the castle’s current coordinates, and the helmsman brought the ship about until it was aimed in the right direction. They were moving away from any inhabited tiers before having Nana fireball the ship to its final destination. Marri had requested that Nana drop them as close to the castle as possible. She hoped to avoid another encounter with Marvin the giant metal squid, or at the very least get them close enough to land so they could abandon ship if necessary.
Anne, Penelope, and Hiro prepared as best they could. Penelope sharpened her new sword. Hiro checked and rechecked the available spells in his catalog (after retaping it correctly). Anne polished her gauntlet but mostly sat in anticipation of the inevitable confrontation with Octo-Horse Pirate. Jeffery even wrote a few more stanzas of Anne’s eulogy until she told him it was probably bad luck. He got all huffy and flew up to the crow’s nest and composed a song about a lost peanut instead.
“All hands, brace for fireball travel,” shouted Locke.
Everyone held on tight. Nana sucked in a lungful of air and shot out a green fireball. It surrounded the ship and flung them across the Hierarchy on a heart-stopping (not to mention completely inadvisable) trajectory. The fireball vibrated as bolts of green flame ricocheted in all directions, bouncing off the hull of the ship and exploding against the interior shell of the fireball itself. Despite everything they were facing, Anne couldn’t help but smile. One way or another, she was finally going to get answers.
Storm the castle.
Storm the castle.
Storm the caaaaaaastle!
Storm the castle.
—Lyrics from the song “Storm the Castle” by Pompf the Mime
The Two-Plus-One Towers
As promised, Nana delivered them practically on the castle’s front doorstep. Despite her miniature size, Nana’s fireball was as precise as ever.
The castle had dropped low over the BGFM—so low, in fact, that waves of magick buffeted the tier as they broke against its rocky bottom. A great uneven tear on the surface of the barrier was visible in the distance, growing ever larger as the castle drew closer. It was the rift. The edges of the tear flashed purple and blue, but the center was the blackest black Anne had ever seen. Coils of black smoke poured out of it like tentacles threatening to grab anything that came too close. Dark clouds circled over it, sending out jagged bolts of lightning.
On the castle grounds themselves, all was quiet. The three towers rose like three great spikes, shadowy and menacing. There was no immediate sign of Marvin the giant squid, so Locke ordered that the ship descend and the rappelling ropes be made ready. Once the ship was directly over the castle walls, the crew lowered their ropes and dropped down. Only the helmsman and a handful of sailors stayed behind, the bare minimum needed to sail the ship should they need to retreat.
They had worked out a plan of attack and done their best to prepare for any surprises that
might happen along the way. Anne, Penelope, Hiro, and Marri would investigate the towers. The pirates would provide an escort and also secure the castle grounds. Even Jeffery and Nana had been assigned special tasks should the need arise.
Marri sent out scouts to see what they were facing. The rest of the crew hunkered down and waited. Although everyone remained quiet, there was a lot of nervous shifting from one foot to the other. Penelope was practically bouncing on the balls of her feet, and Hiro was mumbling to himself, no doubt rehearsing his spells. There were butterflies in Anne’s stomach, and she couldn’t even begin to wonder what Marri must be thinking of the prospect of confronting her father.
Anne shielded her eyes against the early-morning sun. “How much time do you think is left?”
Marri looked at the sky. “It’s hard to be precise. I’d guess an hour or so at the most. Maybe slightly more.”
“One hour eleven minutes and twenty-nine seconds,” said Jeffery. He tapped his foot against the black medallion. “That is, if you really trust this thing. Personally, I’ve always been a little iffy on master medallions. I once read this article in Blacksmith Token magazine, and according to them—”
“Jeffery, can we maybe discuss this some other time?” said Anne.
“Oh, sure thing,” he said. “I mean, presuming we don’t all die in the next hour.”
The scouts returned and reported that all was clear. The crew divided into two groups. One group was assigned to escort Marri, Anne, Penelope, and Hiro to the towers. The second group had orders to take up positions around the main gate and maintain a watch.
“I don’t like it,” said Marri. “It’s almost too quiet.”
“Maybe your father didn’t expect us to come back,” said Anne. “He may not even know that we escaped from the other side of the barrier.”
They proceeded down the ramp to the courtyard below and crept along the wall to the first tower. The wall was smooth and black. As soon as Anne’s finger made contact, a blue grid appeared on the side, just like the one at the Infinite Tower during their first quest. It was a way to open a door. A person could type in letters and numbers. But words already appeared above the grid: INSERT KEY. Below the grid was a small opening like a keyhole.
“What key is it referring to?” asked Marri.
Anne took out the page from The Adventurer’s Guide and studied it again. “The medallions are each pictured next to a specific tower. The first tower has the copper medallion, the one from our second quest.”
“You picked up the crystal key on that quest,” said Hiro.
Anne held her gauntlet-hand up again. “Activate crystal key.”
A small crystal key appeared in the air above the gauntlet. Anne snatched the key out of the air and inserted it into the slot. It turned a full 180 degrees until there was a distinct click. The portion of the wall directly in front of them disappeared, forming an arched doorway. They proceeded inside. The interior of the tower looked very familiar. It was basically a hollow tube with a pillar in the center that stretched all the way to the top. A set of stairs wound around the inside wall of the tower. The steps were four feet wide and had no railing. It was like being inside a smaller version of the Infinite Tower.
Jeffery’s color faded, and he became noticeably more transparent.
“Jeffery, perhaps you’d better wait in the gauntlet,” said Anne.
“Sounds good to me,” said Jeffery, and he disappeared.
“You might have to continue without me, too,” said Marri, gazing up the spiraling staircase.
“Forget the stairs,” said Penelope. “We’ll just take the elevator.”
“The what?”
Penelope marched over to the cylinder in the center of the tower. It would have taken ten adults standing with their hands stretched out to reach around the circumference of the pillar. Penelope touched the surface and a seam appeared. A set of double doors slid apart to reveal a small rectangular compartment inside.
“It’s an Old World device,” Anne explained. “It will take us to the top in a matter of seconds.”
Anne, Penelope, and Hiro stepped inside the elevator, but Marri hesitated.
“Trust us,” said Anne. “We’ve done this before.”
Marri turned to the crew. “The rest of you wait outside.” The pirates immediately began to protest, but she held up a hand. “I’m sure the four of us can handle whatever is up there. We need you to secure our exit. Besides, it’s a tight compartment, and by the smell of things not one of you has taken a bath this month.”
They sheepishly obeyed her orders.
Marri took a deep breath and pushed her chair inside. The doors closed behind her, and the elevator shuddered slightly as it began its upward journey.
“Are we sure this is a good idea?” asked Hiro nervously.
“Don’t fall apart on us now, Darkflame,” said Penelope. “This is your tower, remember?”
If anything, Hiro now looked even more nervous.
After half a minute, the doors opened and they exited into a long gray corridor with a door at the end. When they opened it, instead of the room Anne had been expecting, there was a ramp leading up to the next floor. They proceeded slowly and on constant alert.
The room at the top of the ramp filled the entire floor, and the outer wall was lined with windows. This was odd given that from the outside the tower didn’t appear to have any windows at all. In the center stood a black column only slightly shorter and smaller around than Anne herself. Another computer terminal. The stone tiles on the floor formed three concentric circles.
Anne called for Jeffery, but he didn’t appear.
“Is it the black walls again?” asked Penelope.
Anne nodded. “I was hoping he could transfer the Construct into that terminal, but I guess that will have to wait. Hopefully not for too long, though,” she added as a blue line of energy crackled across her gauntlet.
“I have a bad feeling about this,” said Hiro.
“Only one?” said Penelope. “Because I have at least a dozen bad feelings, and that’s just about the pattern on the floor alone. Don’t even get me started on the windows that only look like windows from the inside, or the computer terminal. Remember the dragon trials? This room has crazy puzzle chamber of death written all over it.”
“We don’t have much choice,” said Anne. “We can’t stand here all morning wondering what’s going to happen. We’ll just have to deal with whatever happens as it comes.”
“Was that supposed to be encouraging?” said Hiro. “Because I don’t feel encouraged.”
Anne took a steadying breath and started forward. As soon as her foot touched the outer ring of the circle, fire spread around its perimeter, forcing them back.
A voice spoke to them. “Let the Darkflame approach.”
“I don’t feel encouraged by that, either,” said Hiro.
Anne scanned the room, but there was no sign of the speaker. She held a hand toward the flames but yanked it back almost immediately. The heat was unbearable.
“Let the Darkflame approach,” the voice repeated.
“She’s talking to you,” Penelope said to Hiro.
“I know, I know,” he said. “Why are you being so pushy about it?”
Penelope cracked her knuckles. “Because Anne’s the antagonist now, and I’m her enforcer. Welcome to the dark side.”
Anne handed Hiro the copper medallion, and he approached the ring of fire. He held his hand toward the flames. “I don’t feel anything.”
Closing his eyes, he stepped through the flames to the other side. The fire didn’t seem to touch him at all.
“What now?” he asked.
“Keep going,” said Anne. “Check the terminal and see if you can find a way to make the flames go away.” If anything, they were even hotter than before, and beads of sweat began forming on Anne’s face. She, Penelope, and Marri backed up all the way to the outer wall.
Hiro walked across the first ring of tiles w
ith slow, deliberate steps.
Nothing happened.
He walked even more slowly across the next ring.
Still nothing.
He walked across the final ring at a snail’s pace.
All remained quiet.
“If you think all this nothing that’s currently happening should be making us feel better, you’d be wrong,” Penelope said to Marri as they pressed themselves against the walls to escape the heat. “The longer it takes to spring the trap, the worse it is.”
As Hiro reached the terminal, a ghostly form appeared in front of him: an elderly man wearing the long brown robes of a wizard.
“I think it’s another hologram,” said Hiro.
“You are here to prevent the barrier from coming down?” asked the old wizard.
“Yes,” said Hiro. “What do I need to do?”
The old wizard tapped the terminal. A seam appeared on the top and a hatch slid aside to reveal a circular slot just large enough to hold a medallion. “Place the copper medallion in there, and then proceed to the next tower.”
Hiro started toward the terminal, but the old wizard held up a hand.
“Hear me first, Hiro Darkflame,” he said. “I offer you a choice. If instead you should choose to withhold the medallion, your reward would be great. Within this terminal resides the power to make you human—fully human. No longer would you have to live in fear of your true nature being discovered. No longer would your magick suffer unintended consequences. You would become the most powerful wizard ever known. What say you?”
“It can really make me entirely human?” asked Hiro.
“Yes.”
“With no trace of the doppelgangers?”
“Yes.”
Anne’s heart skipped a beat. She knew what that must mean to Hiro, to become truly and fully human and have his magick finally work. Hiro looked down at his taped-together magick catalog. He glanced over at Anne and Penelope, and Anne could see the conflict in his eyes, could see how much he wanted to be rid of this curse.
The Adventurer's Guide to Treasure (and How to Steal It) Page 19