A step in the hall silenced the conversation that wasn’t going anywhere, and Amber came around the corner bearing a tray filled with food.
“Dinner time, my dear friends,” she announced, her smile sickly-sweet. It made Summer want to hurl, but considering that there wasn’t anything in her stomach at the moment, that probably wouldn’t have been a good idea. They only ate when Amber brought them food – which was, fortunately, every time she visited. That was the only thing that made those visits bearable.
Amber set the tray down on a table, pressed her hand against a glowing stone in the wall, and Tyler’s prison door swung open. Then she picked up one of the steaming bowls of soup and entered his cell.
“Ah, doesn’t it just smell simply delicious?” she asked, setting it down in front of him. “Come now, you know you want it. Boys your age always want food.”
Tyler stared at her firm in the eye and folded his arms over his chest. “Not until she has some as well.”
That was the deal – neither ate until they both had food. Otherwise, Amber would likely forget the other while asking her questions – especially if her questions yielded fewer answers than she wanted – which was frequent. To be honest, Summer was surprised that this system worked, but she was glad it did, so who was she to question it?
“Ah, you dear thing, do you honestly think that I’d forget her?” asked Amber. “You two really are adorable.”
But she left Tyler’s cell, closed the door behind her, opened Summer’s, and brought her the other bowl, which Summer took gratefully. Really, as far as food went, they could have done worse considering that they were in a dungeon. Dungeon food was notoriously bad if Reuben’s books were to be believed.
“Now, tell me about Petra, dears,” said Amber, leaning against the bars in Summer’s cell. “What would you say is her greatest accomplishment?”
Amber was obsessed with Tyler’s sister. Summer wished that Petra was in this dungeon instead of them – one lunatic deserved another, as far as she was concerned. Tyler was of quite a different opinion, however, and they had discovered days ago that giving up information wouldn’t gain them any special privileges, so Summer shook her head. “You’re mistaking me for someone who cares about her accomplishments.”
“What would she say is her greatest accomplishment?” Amber continued, staring at Summer sharply.
“You’re asking me?” asked Summer, shrugging helplessly. “I just told you I don’t care. Besides, Petra has a thousand interests, but doesn’t like talking about any of them unless your name is Reuben.”
“Reuben?” Amber repeated, tilting her head to the side.
Summer winced and glanced hastily towards Tyler. Here they’d been working so hard to keep Amber from finding out about her brothers, and she just went and dropped his name with a stupid slip of her tongue.
“My brother. Her best friend. They spend a lot of time together.” Summer shrugged as if it didn’t matter, as if it wasn’t vitally important. She’d taken years of drama. Hopefully, that would pay off now.
“I see,” Amber muttered. “Her best friend, you say?” She turned to Tyler. “Tell me, Petra’s brother, is that all he is to her?”
“That depends on which one of them you ask,” said Tyler, with a forced laugh. “He thoroughly intends to marry her someday and has since we were kids, but she refuses to do any sort of romantic experimentation – as she puts it – until they’re older.”
“How old did you say your sister was? Sixteen? Why would she think that too young? I married Granite at that age.”
“We don’t get married that young in our world, not these days anyway,” Summer explained – marriage customs were safe. Probably wouldn’t get Petra or Reuben killed. “To be honest, it’d be perfectly acceptable for them to be dating, but she says they don’t need any distractions while they’re preparing themselves for life. She’s weird like that.”
“I wouldn’t call that weird,” said Amber, a small smile twisting her lip. “Romance can be terribly distracting. If your world doesn’t call for a young marriage, then she is wise to put it off. She sounds like a very … practical girl.”
Practical. That wasn’t a word Summer usually used to describe Petra, but she supposed it was true. She frowned. Amber had the ability to twist information out of whatever they used to divert her attention.
“Well, I do hope your brother won’t be too devastated by her loss,” Amber continued with a shake of her head. “But you humans recover remarkably well from that sort of loss. You move on, become better people, and all that. Well … unless you just turn bitter. That’s never pretty. I knew a queen – or rather, I knew her children, we were allies in the great war against the dragons of Lintooalintae. She had so let bitterness consume her after her husband’s murder that she allowed herself to lose faith. That’s never good. Though I’ll admit that hers was a particularly terrible circumstance.”
Amber stared at the wall, lost in thought for a long moment, and neither Summer nor Tyler dared do anything that might snap her out of it. If the insane queen was reminiscing about the past, then she was not asking questions about Petra.
“Would Petra hate to lose Reuben?” asked Amber, at length, turning to face Tyler.
Tyler frowned, leaning backward. “I think she would,” he said at length. “She takes him for granted most of the time, but I think losing him might break her completely. She never recovered from Sarah’s disappearance.”
Summer glanced Tyler’s way in alarm. How could he just betray one of his sister’s weaknesses like that? This woman meant to kill her! “Unfortunately, he’s in our world and beyond your reach,” she quickly inserted. Hopefully, Amber would see the futility of the idea and dismiss it.
“Yes,” said Amber, slowly. “It is a pity.” She stared at Tyler for a very long moment. Then she turned and left Summer’s cell. As she closed the door behind her, she finally spoke again. “It was a pleasure, this chat, but I must attend to other things.” And then she was gone.
“Good work, Tyler,” Summer hissed, marching up to the bars between them, “now she knows how important Reuben is to Petra and she wants to kill both of them.”
Tyler put up his hands, playing innocent. “Hey, I’m sorry, she asked me a question that I hadn’t prepared an answer for – never really thought about before. If I remember right, you were the one who brought him up in the first place.”
Summer sighed, turning away. “Maybe it doesn’t matter. She doesn’t know what he looks like, so I don’t think she suspects his true importance. We … we need to get out of here.”
“Agreed,” said Tyler. “But how? This isn’t an ordinary dungeon with locks that you can pick or keys you can steal.”
“Amber controls the doors with those stones,” Summer pointed out, walking towards the glowing stone that controlled her door. She pressed herself against the wall, slid her arm through the bar, and reached forward as far as she could, but then shook her head. “I can’t reach mine.”
“But it’s only barely out of your reach,” Tyler observed. “I bet I could reach mine. Amber probably has them programmed so that they only respond to her touch, though. After all, she wouldn’t want her prisoners to escape.”
“But I doubt it would hurt to try!” Summer pointed out. Why hadn’t they thought of this days ago?
So Tyler reached his arm through his bars, towards his glowing stone. Barely, just barely, the tips of his fingers brushed the edge of the stone.
At first, nothing happened, but just as it seemed that Tyler was about to give up, the door – which was always silent when Amber opened it – gave a terrible groan and began to inch open. As soon as the opening was large enough for his body, Tyler withdrew his hand and squeezed through.
Summer’s heart pounded as he crossed over to her cell. Would he be able to open hers, too? What if Amber heard the noise and came to investigate?
When he placed his whole hand against this stone, her door swung open as silently and smoo
thly as it always did for Amber.
Relief washing through her, Summer ran out of her cell and threw her arms around him. He staggered back, clearly surprised, but before she could withdraw and apologize, he returned the hug, whispering in her ear, “We’ll get out of here yet, just you watch!”
Her hand slid into his, and together they left the room, only to realize that they had no idea how to get out of this place or where they could go once that was accomplished. This was a strange, new world and all they really knew of it were the dungeon cells that they’d just left.
As they discussed their next move in whispered tones, they heard steps just up the hall. Both fell silent, hoping that it wasn’t Amber returning.
But it was her husband, Granite, who appeared around the corner ahead, Laura just a few steps behind him. Granite stopped short when he saw Tyler and Summer, his eyes widening in surprise.
“How are the two out of your cells?” Granite asked. “Did – did my wife change her mind and release you? What game is she playing?”
“No, no game of hers, so far as we know,” said Summer, shaking her head. “Tyler could reach the glowing stones and let us out. Kinda stupid of her to have them within reach of the prisoner if just anyone could open them.”
“But … just anyone can’t,” said Granite, turning to Tyler with a wondering expression. “Not even I can use them, and I’m her husband. That’s why I’ve brought Laura with me. She’s the only one outside the Lunar royal line that can operate them.”
“Well, if I’m going to take responsibility for a bunch of high-minded queens, I’m going to make sure that I have the keys to the castle,” Laura pointed out. “Although, Tyler is the brother of the Tela Du. Perhaps that has something to do with it?”
Granite stared at Tyler for a very long moment and then shook his head. “I haven’t an idea what it might mean, but I’ll take your word for it, Laura. You’ve rarely been wrong before. This is hardly the time to be puzzling over such riddles. We must get the two of you out of here while we have the chance.”
“Out?” Summer repeated, hardly believing her ears. Oh, the glorious thought of sunshine and fresh air!
“Of course,” said Laura. “You must make your escape while Amber is away. I have a message and warning for you to take to your siblings so that the final steps for the Final War might be prepared.”
“Why did you bring us here in the first place if you knew there was a crazy Petra-lookalike who’d likely put us in a dungeon?” Summer asked, folding her arms over her chest.
“Summer, there are a lot of things that I do that I can’t explain,” said Laura, shaking her head. “You haven’t been physically harmed while here, have you? Amber fed you well enough, didn’t she? See, no harm done. You might have had it a lot worse off.”
“We provided Amber with information about Petra!”
“None that she wasn’t meant to know, I’m sure,” said Laura, shaking her head. “She has also gained information from Sarah, me, and Ritis. Indeed, it’s nothing compared to the information that Petra can gain – is gaining – about Amber. That’s the thing that Amber doesn’t realize. Yes, Petra’s youth may mean that she lacks experience, but it also means that she’s an unknown. Amber doesn’t stand a chance – especially not if you play your part and take this message to Reuben and Petra.”
“But we told Amber about Reuben,” said Tyler. “Not the fact that he looks like you, Granite – we managed to not goof it up that badly – but she does know that he’s Summer’s brother and Petra’s best friend.”
“And in two days, that won’t matter,” said Laura, with a shake of her head. “Because the message you’ll be taking back to your siblings is this: two days from now will mark the fiftieth anniversary of Amber’s arrival on the Rizkan mainland. Amber will give a speech. Reuben and Petra must come and spoil the party, at which point she’ll see him for herself and understand everything. So, no worries, you two. You did wonderfully.”
“So…” said Summer, confused.
“Here,” said Laura, shoving a piece of paper into Tyler’s hands. “I have all of the instructions already written down. Come on, we don’t have time to waste.”
The halls of the dungeon and castle were as twisting as Summer remembered that they’d been when Amber tricked them down there. She was glad they had guides. Still, it didn’t take terribly long before they emerged in the courtyard, blinking in the beautiful, bright sunlight.
“It is tricky to leave this place when Amber’s not here,” Granite admitted.
“But not impossible for me,” Laura added. “Now are either of you scared of heights?”
Summer glanced towards Tyler before she shook her head.
“Only a healthy fear,” said he.
“Healthy fear might still be a bit too much,” said Laura, tilting her head to the side. “But we’ll have to work with it. Follow me.”
Laura took their hands and pulled them across the courtyard to a guardhouse of sorts. It came complete with another spiral staircase, which, of course, they had to climb. Fortunately, it didn’t seem to be as high as the one that she had taken them through to get here, but unfortunately, it was a normal staircase that proved to be a rather exhausting climb.
At last, they reached the top. Laura still didn’t seem to be tired. She scampered over to the wall and peered down. “It’s a long jump,” she admitted, “but if I time things right, it’ll be perfectly safe.”
“So … let me get this straight,” said Summer, joining Laura. “We’re going to jump down from this tower? How can that possibly be safe, much less ‘perfectly safe’? Look, I said I’m not scared of heights, but jumping stupidly off of a tower is, well, it’s stupid.”
“Oh, I quite agree,” said Laura. “But we won’t be jumping stupidly. We’ll be taking a calculated risk. You can’t see it, but there’s a door just below us. I’ll open it so it can break our fall.”
“A door to where? Where are you taking us this time?” asked Tyler.
“Luna, interestingly enough – this castle’s original world,” Laura explained. “But we won’t be there long, only long enough to find another door that will bring us back to Rizkaland.”
“And you expect us to just jump?” asked Tyler.
“Sometimes you just have to have faith,” said Laura, climbing onto the wall. “Now, come on. I have it on the best authority that you’re going to survive this day.”
“Really?” asked Summer, tilting her head to the side. “Whose?”
“Why, yours, of course. How could I have met you when you were thirty years older if you died today?”
“Thirty years?” Summer repeated.
“Give or take, and that wasn’t even the oldest I’ve met you,” answered Laura. “Look, I’m not giving you permission to be reckless all of the time – you will still be held accountable for all decisions you make – I’m just saying that this should be perfectly fine.”
“Okay, let’s jump. Dying would be preferable to spending more time in Amber’s dungeons, anyway.”
Summer scrambled onto the wall next to Laura, and Tyler reluctantly joined them. Laura grabbed their hands, and with a cry of, “Now!” she jumped, pulling them down with her.
Jumping from a tower was just as terrifying as Summer had always imagined it might be. Maybe she hadn’t been scared of heights before, but she suspected that after this experience that might change, should she survive, that was.
Suddenly, the world shifted. The sky went dark, and their descent slowed, as though they were falling through water instead of air. The darkness shimmered around them strangely, giving Summer a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach.
“Perfectly timed,” Laura muttered, and her voice echoed around them eerily.
Summer squeezed her eyes shut.
They landed so gently that Summer didn’t even realize that they were on solid ground until Laura tugged her hand with a laugh. “Oh, come on. We won’t get back to Rizkaland very quickly if the two of yo
u just stand there like statues.”
“You didn’t change this time,” Summer observed, after opening her eyes.
Laura shrugged. “I told you that it’s unpredictable. Doesn’t happen with every door. Wait, hang on.” She pulled the end of her ponytail to where she could see it and squinted. “Nope, there’s purple there now.”
“Purple?”
“I dyed my hair purple once, when I was younger and depressed, and later green when I felt rebellious. Now the color shows up at the most random times. Come on, let’s go find a good door back to Rizkaland. If I remember right, there should be one not too far from where we are. Do be careful what you touch. I don’t have any crescents on hand, and we have apparently shown up during Market Day. Technically, I could charge purchases to the castle, but I don’t like doing that if I don’t know who’s ruling or if they’ll pay.”
“Market Day?” Tyler repeated, glancing up at the dark, starry sky.
“This world has no proper day,” Laura explained. “Well, this side at least. Its day is equal to its year, which means that one side always faces the sun, while the other always faces away. Like Earth’s moon. So this side is lit by stars and twelve moons instead. Now come on. Your brother should be waiting for us, Summer, and we know how he can get impatient.” With that, she took off, weaving through the vendors and crowd, pausing only to say the occasional ‘excuse me.’ Tyler and Summer had little choice but to follow. After all, without this Doorkeeper, their chances of getting back home were pretty slim.
And Summer, personally, wasn’t fond of the idea of living the rest of her life without a proper day/night cycle.
Following the girl proved to be no easy task, but at length, she stopped short in front of a stand that sold brightly-colored rugs. When they finally caught up to her, Laura was leaning against the counter, whispering something to the woman who stood behind it.
Laura drew back, folding her arms over her chest as the woman’s eyes widened fearfully. “So, if you’d like to keep your booth, you’ll let me and my friends in so we can use it.”
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