“Hmm, not like this one.”
Munroe moved next to Eclair. “Here, move this knob forward.”
Eclair looked at the beam of light. He waved the flashlight back and forth, and in a circle. “That’s cool.”
“Enough, Eclair,” Darius said, grabbing the flashlight. “We’re supposed to be hiding, remember?”
“Oh, yeah; sorry.”
“Keep it, you might need it later,” Munroe said.
“Thanks.”
Before long, the hour to move was upon them. Munroe, as promised, had furnished them with a detailed drawing of the mansion.
Munroe bent over the sketch, and pointed. “We’re here, in the east wing of the mansion near the kitchens. The trophy room is over here, in the west wing. We shouldn’t have too much trouble moving, because most of the security is on the outside, with very little inside. But, there may a random security guard or late night maid roaming the halls.”
The group had agreed that a cloaked Eclair would enter each new room first, signal when the room was clear, and then the rest would follow.
Eclair stood up, and stretched. “Ok, let’s do this.”
“Be careful,” Dyla admonished. “You still make too much noise.”
“I know; I’m trying.”
The group went up the stairs, and waited.
Eclair, fully cloaked, moved out cautiously into the hallway. The hallway ran the full length of the wing, to the main foyer, located in the center of the house. Eclair quickly crossed and entered one of the parlor rooms across the hallway. All the parlor rooms had connecting doors, and ran roughly parallel to the center hallway. It would be less risky to travel through each of the parlor rooms rather than try to traverse the entire length of the open central hallway.
At the top of the stairs, Dyla argued softly with her brother.
“I don’t like this. You know I can lead better than Eclair. He doesn’t have the experience that I have, and I’m worried about his stamina.”
“We have no choice. As long as the rooms are clear, Eclair won’t have to stay shielded for long. Besides, Munroe will get suspicious and ask too many questions if you lead. If Eclair starts to show any strain, then we will change tactics. Until then, he has to lead, but you still need to feel forward with him.
“Don’t worry; I’m way ahead of you.”
“What’s the problem?” Munroe asked. “If there’s something wrong, I need to know immediately. If we’re caught, we’re dead.”
“There’s no problem,” Darius replied. “We’re talking about how we’ll get out of the country when we’re done here.”
“The country? Let’s worry about how we’ll get out of this house alive first, shall we?”
Eclair’s head appeared in the doorway, and he signaled the all-clear to the group. They crossed the hallway, and made their way into the parlor. The moonlight bathed the room in an eerie, incandescent glow, and the group moved quietly through, taking care not to disturb anything. Any noise could be their undoing. Darius peered at Dyla, and saw her intense concentration as she probed forward. She would detect any living thing long before Eclair spotted it.
“So far, so good,” Munroe whispered. “But it does seem awfully quiet, like something is waiting for us.”
“Let’s just keep moving,” Darius commanded.
Darius gave the signal for Eclair to check out the next room. They crossed room after room without incident. Within moments, they were standing at the threshold of the main foyer. This would be the most difficult area to cross. There was no place for them to hide if they were spotted.
Eclair peered out of the door. The foyer was empty, and he started to move forward. Dyla immediately grabbed him and pulled him back into the room.
“Eclair, wait,” she whispered.
Eclair turned and looked at her. She must have felt a presence, so he moved back with the rest of the group.
“What now?” Munroe asked. “Keep moving. We’re wasting time, and we don’t have all night to get this done.”
Darius held up his hand for silence.
Immediately, they heard a woman’s giggle. Dyla moved back to the doorway and saw that, coming into view on the far side of the foyer, there was a security guard and one of the housemaids. The guard pinned the girl against the wall, and began kissing her. The girl was not struggling, and it appeared they would be there for a while.
“Great,” Munroe said tensely. “Now what?”
“Same as before,” Eclair replied. “Tighten up into a group, and move slowly when I give the word.”
By now the group was used to this mode of walking tightly together. Dyla watched Eclair carefully for signs of stress before they all disappeared behind his cloak of invisibility. She worried that he was over-extending himself, or worse, his crystal was becoming dangerously depleted.
With no time to argue, she moved with the rest of the group across the foyer to the far doorway. It appeared they would make it across the open foyer without incident, when Eclair stumbled in the doorway, and practically fell through. It was too loud for them to hope that the guard hadn’t noticed. Eclair let go of his concentration.
“Hide,” Eclair cautioned, looking around for cover.
Darius and Dyla quickly positioned themselves on either side of the door, while Munroe helped Eclair hide behind a large divan in the room. The group heard the guard tell the maid to leave the area, and they waited as he approached the door.
Darius looked to Dyla, and made a slight movement with his hand indicating he wanted her to distract the guard. She nodded her understanding.
Dyla stepped away from the wall, faced the doorway, and raised her hands in surrender. The guard carefully entered, leading with a huge pistol. He paused momentarily, shocked to see a beautiful, young woman standing inside a room where she had no business being. It was all the time that Darius needed. He knocked the guard out with a well-placed blow to the back of his neck.
Dyla winked at her brother. “Men are so predictable.”
“Won’t argue with that,” Darius agreed.
Munroe stood up. “Good, that problem is solved, but now we’re under a tighter time table. It won’t be long before that guard is missed, and someone else comes looking for him. Let’s go, it’s not much farther to the trophy room.”
Eclair took his place at the front of the group. He was starting to sweat, and Dyla knew those warning signs.
Dyla whispered in her brother’s ear. “Darius, we may have a little problem. Eclair is exhausted, and I don’t think he’ll be able to continue bending the light too much longer.”
“OK. We’re almost there, let’s just keep moving.”
Dyla moved next to Eclair. A sheen of sweat coated his face, but he looked ready to move ahead.
“Are you ready?” she asked.
“Sure, no problem.”
“There are no more main corridors to cross, so we should be fine,” Munroe said.
Eclair nodded, and moved out to survey the next room. He signaled the all-clear to the group, and they made their way through each successive room without any further problems.
“That’s the room we want,” Munroe said.
“Eclair, you OK?” Dyla asked.
“Yes, I’m good. I’ll be right back. Let me check the room, first.”
Eclair signaled the all-clear, and the group went into the room.
Blackheart’s artifact room was huge, as big as a ballroom, with exquisite display cases of antiquities throughout the room. Unfortunately, at first glance, most seemed useless to the trio. There was no traveling crystal in plain site.
Munroe suggested they break up in order to survey the room more quickly.
“There’s a lot to look at,” he explained. “All the artifacts similar to the goblets are in the far end of the room. I suggest you start there.”
Dyla sensed a hint of subterfuge in Munroe’s manner. “Where will you be while we’re looking over there?”
“I have my eye o
n a few particular pieces I want to sell for profit. Don’t worry your pretty, little head, I won’t wander off. I need you to get me out of here.”
“Yes, you’d do well to remember that.”
Munroe ignored Dyla’s last remark.
“Be careful. Many of these displays have hidden alarms. That’s how I almost got caught the last time.”
“We’ll be careful,” Darius said. “You do the same.”
Satisfied with Munroe’s explanation, the trio set off to explore the far end of the cavernous room.
Eclair spotted the first interesting artifact, an exquisite necklace of Otharian design. Their excitement grew. They were about half-way through the collection when Darius called out.
“Here, come look at this.”
Dyla and Eclair walked to the display case Darius was examining. Inside was a diadem of unmistakable Otharian origin. What was unique about the piece wasn’t the crystals or other jewels encrusting its circumference, but the oddly-shaped crystal at its apex.
“It’s rather ugly,” Dyla said.
Eclair pointed to the top crystal.
“That’s not a decorative crystal; it’s an old-style data cube. We have to get that, and see what’s stored inside. It may hold some invaluable information we can use to find the traveling crystal.”
Darius agreed.
“We have to be careful getting it out of the case. I don’t want to set off any alarms getting something that may be useless.”
“I can do this by myself,” Eclair said. “You two continue looking for a traveling crystal.”
“Signal if you sense any trouble,” Darius said.
“I will.”
Darius and Dyla moved away to explore the rest of the collection, while Eclair studied the display. He quickly found the light beams that encircled the display, creating a near-impenetrable wall surrounding the piece. He also found a small gap directly above the display, but the gap was so narrow that guiding the diadem through it was nearly impossible.
Unless one has telekinetic abilities, like me, Eclair thought.
He continued to study the display, to make sure he hadn’t missed any other security measures. The others were busy scouting the rest of the room, and he didn’t want to make any mistakes.
Satisfied he could lift the piece straight up and out of the display without disturbing the light beams, Eclair began to concentrate. This was child’s play compared to some of the feats he had accomplished back on Otharia.
He focused intently on the task at hand. The diadem was a beautiful piece of styling and craftsmanship. The stunning jewels mounted on its frame were masterfully placed around its entire edge, framing every inch with an exquisite panorama of color. As he surrounded the piece with his will, he felt a slight tugging. He stopped immediately, and studied the piece again.
After a moment, Eclair attributed the slight tugging to the diadem’s heft and bulk. He quickly encompassed the piece again, and began to carefully lift it. As soon as the piece was lifted off the base, a piercing alarm sounded. Momentarily confused and dazed by the loud, screeching noise, Eclair froze in place.
Dyla was the first to reach him. “What happened? What did you do?”
“Nothing, I was just lifting it, but I didn’t touch the beams. Look I haven’t moved it since the alarm went off.”
Dyla looked at the tiara hanging, motionless, in space. There was something strange going on, but she didn’t have time to study it any further. She reached through the beams of light, and grabbed the piece. “Let’s go; we can’t stay here.”
“I don’t know what happened,” Eclair said.
“It’s too late now, we must get out of here,” Darius said.
The trio raced towards the door, looking for Munroe, but he was nowhere in sight. Guards brandishing deadly pistols raced down the hall towards them..
Darius and Dyla quickly grabbed Eclair.
“Eclair, get us out of here,” Darius commanded.
“I don’t know how long I can hold it.”
“Don’t worry, Dyla and I will support you.”
The twins surged their power into him.
“Now, move quickly, we must find Munroe and get out,” Darius said.
The guards stopped in their tracks when the intruders disappeared.
***
Eclair finally let go of his power and slipped to the ground, exhausted. The twins did the same. They were many blocks away from Blackheart’s mansion.
“I don’t understand,” Eclair sputtered. “What could have happened to him?”
“I don’t know,” Darius said.
They had spent many tense moments looking for Munroe, while eluding the guards. Even with the boosted power of the twins, Eclair had limited crystal power to keep the cloak in place. After a hasty and fruitless search, Darius directed Eclair to open a portal outside the gates.
“I don’t know either, but something doesn’t feel right about this whole thing,” Dyla said.
Darius struggled to his feet, and looked around. Luckily, in the early morning hours, the street was empty of traffic and pedestrians.
“I agree, but first we have to get off the street before those guards come looking for us. Eclair, do you have enough power to open a portal back to our room?”
“Yes, I have plenty of power for that.”
Eclair quickly opened a portal back to their room. They stepped through, and the portal winked out.
Across the street, Munroe watched them from his hiding position. His smiled when he saw them disappear through a circle of light. It was the final confirmation he needed.
“You kids are good; very, very good.”
Excerpt from The Chronicles of Otharia during the reign of the First Vacancy:
Division II – The PSI Potential
Subsection VI – Data Cubes
Data cubes were information crystals capable of storing large amounts of information for an indefinite time. The data was stored in the vast array of matrices within each crystal. A device, referred to simply as a reader, was specially designed to manipulate the crystals. Using this device, any information could be stored and later retrieved. A telekinetic of moderate power could usually retrieve the information from a cube without the use of a reader, as long as the information was not encoded with a cipher.
Chapter 35 – The Cube
“It’s really degraded,” Eclair said, looking up from the data cube. “But, I think I may be able to retrieve some of what’s stored inside.”
Dyla put a hand on his shoulder.
“Not now, you’re exhausted,” she said soothingly. “We’re all tired. Let’s wait until morning, when we can concentrate on it together.”
“Yeah, you’re probably ...”
Eclair’s reply was interrupted by a sudden knock on the door.
Darius looked at Dyla and pointed to himself. Dyla quickly positioned herself behind the door, as Darius moved to open it. He opened the door a crack, and looked out. After a tense moment, he swung the door wide to reveal Munroe standing, a bit disheveled in the doorway.
“Munroe!” Darius cried, grabbing Munroe’s hand in relief, and shaking it vigorously.
Munroe struggled to release his hand from Darius’s iron grip.
“Darius, lighten up, I’m glad to see you too.”
Darius let go of Munroe and ushered him into the room, giving a nearly imperceptible nod to Dyla as the two passed her. Dyla visibly relaxed. Walking toward them, she felt a slight undertone of apprehension, but she was unsure from whom it was emanating.
“What happened to you?” Darius demanded. “We almost got caught looking for you.”
“I was at the opposite end of the room when the alarm went off,” Munroe explained. “I tried to make my way back to you, until I heard the guards coming. I didn’t have time to reach you, so I hid in the servant’s entryway. I watched the guards searching the room, and knew it wouldn’t be long before they would find me, so I snuck out through the kitchen - out th
rough the garbage chute to be exact.”
“I can definitely smell the truth in that,” Dyla said.
“I figured you’d use that device of yours to get out, and probably had a better chance of escaping than I did. That’s what I hoped for. I’m thankful you all made it out. By the way, what exactly happened to trigger the alarm?”
Eclair squirmed in his chair and turned red. “I think I might have set off the alarm.”
“I told you the displays were alarmed,” Munroe admonished.
“I’m not sure he did set off the alarm,” Dyla said. “I saw what he was doing, and I don’t see how he could have.”
Munroe glanced at Dyla, and quickly changed the subject.
“At least we’re all safe. How many pieces did you end up with? Did you get anything of value?”
“We only took the one piece that set off the alarm,” Darius said.
Dyla scowled at her brother, but said nothing more.
“I got a few nice items myself,” Munroe said, conspiratorially. “But first, I must use the facilities before I burst. Do you mind?”
“No, not at all,” Darius said.
Munroe walked into the bathroom and leaned against the sink. A slight sheen of perspiration covered his forehead. Reaching into his shirt, he began fingering the crystal hanging around his neck. He was exhausted. He hadn’t thought it would be so draining to continually mask his thoughts and emotions. The trio’s acceptance of his story made him realize he was successful this time, but he would have to be extremely careful from now on. He let out a pent-up breath.
I really must practice more with these damn crystals, he thought.
***
“What do you think? Did you read anything?” Dyla whispered.
“I probed Munroe as much as I could, but found nothing other than lingering thoughts of garbage. I believe he’s telling the truth.”
“I didn’t feel anything subversive coming from him, either,” Dyla said.
Their conversation ended with the flush of the toilet. Munroe sauntered back into the room.
“Sorry about that, I feel much better now. Now, here’s what I got from the mansion.”
The Quest for Nobility Page 26