by Guy Antibes
“All they’ve done is change the locks,” Henni said. He held up a key. “All the doors are on a master key.”
“Even in my building?”
Henni nodded. “It makes it easier to get into inmates’ cells if we have to.”
“Can’t inmates get a copy?”
“Nah. Why would they do something like that?”
Ricky realized that Henni didn’t have a very creative mind. “I guess I don’t know,” he said. Ricky still had the markings scratched on his key to make it into a master. He was certainly more creative than Henni, but he didn’t know if he’d ever need a master. Still, such a thing might prove to be as important as any weapon.
“Kela, you can try the doors on this side and Ricky can check the others.” Henni had probably checked these doors hundreds, if not thousands of times and they probably always stayed locked. Ricky counted eleven doors on one side and nine on the library side and they never made it all the way down the corridor.
They returned to the library after a few minutes.
“Twice a day?” Ricky said. “Maybe you should open one of them up and turn it into a secret room.”
Henni laughed. “My life isn’t grand enough for something like that.”
Ricky remembered his hideout in Shantyboat Town. “Neither is mine right now,” Ricky said. He looked over at Kela, who just stood silently looking on.
Someone had placed a note on Henni’s desk. “I have to see the warden. Can I trust you two while I’m gone?”
Kela shook her head. “Better that you are here alone,” she said.
“Are you okay, Ricky?”
“Sure,” Ricky said. “I’ll find something to do.”
He watched them head up the stairs to the main level and then headed to the back of the library. Ricky quickly removed the books from the back shelf and examined the door outlined in the wall.
A letter opener lay on the desk. Ricky grabbed it and ran the point along the door frame, cutting into the layers of paint, and stood back, not knowing if he should try to open the door. Perhaps dead bodies or worse might be on the other side.
He took a deep breath and found the spot where the doorknob would have been and cut out a hole through layers of paint. Ricky pulled on it, but the door wouldn’t budge. Perhaps he needed a sharp knife to separate the door from the frame. Defeated again, he thought. He needed more time to work on his project.
In a few moments, the shelf looked normal. Ricky sighed and found an old novel that he had started and abandoned just after he cleaned out the library. Ricky thought of levitating the book. He hummed up and down the register until the pitch matched his will and he felt his body fill with power.
The book rose from the table, and he moved it from one side of the library to the other. What would happen if he moved it fast? Not wanting to destroy the old book, Ricky took a broom from the closet and levitated it and then moved it as fast as he could towards the stone wall. The shaft shattered when it hit the wall, and Ricky cringed at the sound.
He quickly cleaned up the splintered wood and hid it back in the closet. He hadn’t intended to create a magical weapon, but it looked like he just developed one. Ricky thought he’d have to practice on small slivers of wood. They would be lighter and wouldn’t do any damage while he investigated the feasibility of using his power as a weapon.
No wonder the nobility worried about sorcerers. Moving the broom handle was too easy. Swordplay seemed a fairer way to fight, but sometimes one had to resort to any means to save oneself and others. He thought of Saganet and Mistress Merry as an example.
He heard Henni descend the stairs. Ricky shelved the book and met Henni at his desk. Ricky gasped silently. The letter opener was on the table next to the shelf.
“I’ll be right back,” Ricky said. He returned with the tool. “I had to clean my fingernails. The letter opener doesn’t work very well.”
“Letter openers generally don’t,” Henni said. The guard didn’t say another word, but Ricky could see a few wheels turning in Henni’s head.
“I’ll be going. I was reading a novel I tried before, but it wasn’t interesting. Thanks for the basement tour,” Ricky said.
“Anytime,” Henni said.
Ricky didn’t turn back as he walked away. He walked up the stairs faster than normal. He sat in an alcove close to the warden’s office, collecting his wits, wondering if Henni suspected something. Ricky didn’t know if he could trust Henni with the secret of the door.
He resolved to do a little checking later, very early in the morning.
~
The halls were empty as Ricky slid past the warden’s dark office and down the stairs to the library. To his surprise, Henni had closed the door to the library that had always been open. He returned to his room and locked the door behind him.
He needed a master key. Ricky examined his room key to check if the scratch was still there that would turn his key into a master. Sitting on the bed, he wondered where he could find tools to file off the nub that would do the trick. The gardener’s shed, the kitchens, and the basement training hall would probably have files or grinders or something useful enough. Ricky didn’t know enough spells to imagine there would be a spell that could help.
After thinking of reducing the tab on the key, he chanted a scale but couldn’t find a pitch that filled him with power. Ricky didn’t lack for will, but he didn’t know the right focus. Disappointed, he gave up for the night and went to sleep.
He woke up to the early morning bell and hurried to the library. Henni sat there as usual. This time he read an old book.
“I didn’t think you read,” Ricky said.
“I saw you reading this novel and decided to give it a whirl. I like it.” Henni produced a smile.
Ricky felt he might have over-reacted to Henni’s question about the letter opener.
“I wasn’t in the mood yesterday,” Ricky said.
“I took a walk around the library,” Henni said, narrowing his eyes a bit.
The rest of the guard’s face didn’t look malicious or angry.
“It’s clean,” Ricky said.
“All but in the very back. What are you up to?”
Ricky had to sit on one of the chairs close to Henni’s desk. He took a deep breath and said, “There is a sealed door.”
Henni nodded. “That’s what it is. I noticed the line on the wall but didn’t bother to slide the shelf out of the way. You tried to use a letter opener to open a door?”
After shrugging and deciding he’d have to be honest with Henni, he nodded. “I was able to scrape enough of the paint away, but it still wouldn’t come loose. I’m out of ideas.”
Henni chuckled, an encouraging sign. “I doubt it. You are an enterprising lad. Do you want some help?”
“Aren’t you going to report me to the warden?”
Henni looked evenly at Ricky. “Do you want me to?”
Rick shook his head. “I’d like to see what’s on the other side of the door. Someone papered and painted it shut so there might be something interesting on the other side.”
“Perhaps it’s a torture chamber,” Henni said.
“That’s more likely than hidden treasure. If this has always been a library, then I was thinking along the lines of old books. That would be a treasure to me.”
“Not so much to me, but it’s still a mystery, isn’t it? I’ll get some tools, and we can get to work this afternoon. You don’t have much time left down here before you have arms training and sorcery training both, do you?”
“I don’t think so,” Ricky said. “Enough time to find out what’s behind the door, though.”
Ricky wondered what he’d do with Kela. Should he tell her? He didn’t know. He had wanted to keep his find from Henni, so now that the guard knew, Ricky didn’t have a good idea how to proceed.
“This afternoon, then,” Ricky said. He browsed through the library and felt too wound up to read. “I’ll come back and talk to Kela, first thing.”
For the next few hours until lunch, Ricky wondered if he should have the girl help them or not. The more people who knew about the door, the easier it would be for others to find out.
He sat down for lunch. Ricky eyed Kela walking in with three other girls. She seemed to be freely contributing to the conversation, so his help must have been working. He concentrated on his meal, trying to make a decision when Kela stood beside him, holding her tray.
“Can we miss this afternoon?” she said.
“Do you have something else?”
She nodded. “Sewing. One time a month we repair things. It’s today.”
Ricky suppressed a sigh. He didn’t have to make a decision. “Go ahead. I can find other things to do.”
“I’ll see you tomorrow.” She gave Ricky a quick smile and rejoined her girlfriends.
Ricky quickly finished his lunch and headed to the library. The door was locked, but he didn’t have to wait long for Henni to saunter up the corridor.
“There is a cell filled with old tools,” Henni said. “These should work. The tools could stand some sharpening.”
Ricky saw a file among the pile of tools that Henni extracted from an old dusty sack. He could use that on his room key. He grinned. “I’ll get the books off the shelves and move them out of the way.”
In minutes, Henni and Ricky stood in front of the hidden door.
Henni shook his head. “I don’t know how we’ll hide this once we get it opened.”
Ricky looked around the library and brightened. “We trade this shelf for one that has a back. It will hide the door.”
The guard rubbed his chin. “See? I said you were creative enough. Let’s get to work.”
Ricky carefully removed a layer of the plastered paper that covered the contours of the opening, revealing a stout oak door. As he thought, the knob had been removed, but no one had filled it when they plastered the paper on the wall.
He looked at the rest of the wall. “This is all very old.”
“Centuries old,” Henni said.
Ricky worked on the lock mechanism while Henni used the newly sharpened knife to work his way around the doorframe.
“Squirt some of this lamp oil in the latch opening,” Henni said.
Ricky did as he said and then used a screwdriver to work the lock until the latch began to wiggle. “I’m nearly there,” he said. He hummed and spelled a little vibration in the lock. A few minutes later, the latch freed up and whatever locked the door slid back and forth.
“Now a crowbar,” Henni said. He tried to force the door open, but he couldn’t muster the leverage without breaking the wood. “I’m afraid we’ll have to bore a hole in the door to pull it, while you unlatch it at the same time.”
Ricky nodded and found a thinner place in the door and used the tip of the knife to dig into the door. He hummed a tune to soften the wood, similar to what he used when he pulled weeds. With a few adjustments, he could feel the wood soften and carved out a hole just large enough to work the crowbar through.
“Man the latch,” Henni said.
Ricky smiled. “Let’s hope it works,” he said as he worked the latch open. “Go ahead.”
Henni pulsed his strength as he pulled on the door. Suddenly, the sound of grinding surfaces filled the air, and both of them fell to the floor as the door flew open.
The air flowed out of the room. It smelled stale but dry. Saganet had told Ricky that libraries couldn’t be too dry or too damp, or the paper and leather would rot or dry out. So far so good, he thought.
He generated a sorcerous light, bright enough to light up the entire room beyond. The size of the room surprised Ricky. Dusty shelves filled a room not that much smaller than the library.
Ricky stepped inside. He couldn’t find any evidence of rats or mice. Dusty spider webs draped the shelving. No insects would be caught by those webs.
“No gold?” Henni said.
“Maybe some of these books are priceless,” Ricky said. He grabbed one off a shelf and blew the dust off. “I don’t even know this language,” he said after reading the cover.
“There are scroll bins over here,” Henni said from behind a set of shelves. “I don’t know what’s written on these either.”
Ricky didn’t know if he should be disappointed or elated since he didn’t know how much the language of Paranty had changed over the centuries. He walked to a different shelf and spotted a word he knew.
“Here, this is newer,” Ricky said. “An Account of the War between Applia and Huzellia.” Ricky hadn’t heard of a place called that. He shook his head.
“That doesn’t sound very valuable to me,” Henni said.
“Then why would someone hide these books? Maybe this isn’t an approved version of the actual events.”
Ricky put the book back. He sneezed.
“I think what we need to do is clean the room and list all the books. Maybe Huzellia is mentioned in one of the books in the main library,” Ricky said. “I’ll work the rest of the week in here.”
“Maybe Kela can help,” Henni said. “I trust her to keep our secret.”
Our secret, Ricky thought and smiled. He felt better about enlisting Henni’s help. Now they had another thing to bind them as friends. If he approved of Kela, then Ricky felt better about including her help.
“Let’s find the right bookshelf to hide the door,” Henni said. “You can get back to work on this tomorrow.”
~~~
CHAPTER ELEVEN
~
I N THE DIM LIGHT OF HIS BEDROOM, Ricky stared at the small file in his hands. He had felt guilty slipping it into his pocket after he sharpened the knife that Henni used, but he wanted to keep his work secret.
He started using the file on the key. The metal was relatively soft, at least softer than the file, and that made his work go easy. In a few hours, Ricky had reached his mark. He listened for footsteps outside his door and made his way to the cleaning station. He slipped his key into the door and worked the mechanism. It nearly turned, but it had before when he tried his unmodified room key.
Ricky retreated to his room and softened all the edges. He couldn’t hear anyone in the hall, so he crept to the cleaning station and tried his key again. This time he jiggled the key enough to get in. He quickly lit a tiny sorcerer’s light and compared his key with the master hung on the wall.
He spotted the error and quickly filed it to match the master key. He would have to do something to make his work less noticeable. Perhaps something in the gardening shed might help make the metal a bit more worn looking.
After replacing the master, Ricky tested his key on Master Pisan’s office, locking and unlocking the door. He nodded with a smile on his face. He had created a weapon for use at another time. Ricky could sneak into the library whenever he wished, he hoped. He would find a time to test it on the doors along the basement corridor.
He put his head on the lumpy pillow in his room and went to sleep, excited about the book room and the tiny surge of personal power that the master key now gave him.
~
Henni greeted him during his first hour. “An hour isn’t enough to clear out the books, move the shelf, and do any work, you know.”
“I can prepare the lists, though,” Ricky said. “Maybe we can move some of the books into the main library this afternoon so that we can examine them during first-hour.”
“That’s another good idea,” Henni said.
“I’ll go clean up our work.”
Henni smiled sheepishly. “We did leave a bit of a mess. At least no one has been down here.”
Ricky hadn’t seen anyone in the library for a few weeks. He could only hope it continued. The pair of them had left more of a mess than Ricky remembered, but then both had gotten tired getting the door open and everything replaced by the end of the afternoon the previous day. He generated a bucketful of debris.
“I found this in a pile,” Ricky pulled the file that he had taken out of the bucket, now covered
with plaster dust. He tapped it on the side of the bucket, knocking off the dust.
“Easy to miss,” Henni said. “That sharpened knife helped us.”
“It did,” Ricky said. “I’ll dispose of this upstairs.”
Henni nodded. “I’ll inspect your work.” He grinned and stood up behind the desk, slapping the file on his hand.
Ricky plunged his key into the plaster dust and began to rub the fine material over his key. He cleaned it off, disappointed that his key looked much the same. His filing looked so much brighter than the other metal.
He quickly emptied the bucket in the rubbish bin behind the kitchen. Ricky stirred the refuse around and returned to the library.
“Looks presentable enough,” Henni said. “What’s next?”
Ricky was surprised that Henni looked to him to lead their little project. “I’m going to look for a reference to Huzellia.”
It didn’t take Ricky as long as he thought. He found an old military history that had a cross-reference to old location names. Huzellia was an archaic term for Hessilia. Maybe at one time, the city-states of Hessilia were united as a kingdom. Ricky looked forward to finding out. He replaced the military history at the end of the shelf of histories, so he could refer to it if he needed to later.
~
Gardening wasn’t very exciting, although the rain and the mud had given way to dry, cooler weather.
“Time to level paving,” the Head Gardener said to the assembled inmates. “Most of you know what to do. Grab a bucket, fill it with sand from the new pile over there and go to work.”
Ricky looked at the sand and smiled. He looked at the task as an opportunity. He grabbed his bucket, a trowel, and went off by himself. He walked around to the path that the kitchen staff used in the back of the main building and went to work. He began leveling the stone that had buckled with the days of rain and began his work.
From time to time, he rubbed his key in the sand or on the stone pavers, replacing the paver’s scratched side down. The file marks were softening, but the entire key began to brighten up. When he heard the bell, he had leveled a good length of the path leading to the kitchen door. He slipped into the alcove and pulled out his key and tried the door leading down to the basement kitchen storage.