by Layton Green
Will’s face scrunched as he stared at the granite wall. “Mysterious fact number one: anyone else notice something missing?”
Val folded his arms. “It’s hard to get inside without a door.”
Will had scanned the face of the keep and seen no sign of an entrance. He paced alongside the wall, then returned to the group and frowned.
“Alexander?” Mala said. “Any ideas?”
Alexander tapped a finger to his lips, slowly shaking his head. Will pointed at the tower, remembering the wizards coming and going from the tops of the spires in the Wizards’ District. “Maybe there’s an opening up there.”
Mala looked at Alexander. “It’s worth a look.”
He nodded and flew into the air, arms extended. Will never ceased to be impressed by that.
The geomancer returned a few minutes later. “I circled the castle. It’s solid granite all the way around, and the windows are secured with iron bars.”
Val waved a hand. “Can’t you make an entrance?”
“Doubtful, as solid as this keep looks. And trying to break in to a structure is always a dubious proposition.”
“Because you don’t know what supports what,” Will said.
“Correct.”
Val swore. “Don’t tell me we came all this way just to stare at the walls of this place.”
“You don’t build something this big without an entrance,” Will said. “Not even a wizard’s keep. It’d be impossible to transport anything inside.”
“Perhaps a secret entrance?” Mala asked.
“Let’s try something more obvious first,” Will said. “I do think there’s access through the wall we’re looking at right now, but I’m guessing it opens from the inside. I think we’re looking at the back of the castle.”
“How’s that?” Lance said. “There’s nothing but ocean on the other side.”
Alexander turned to Will. “As I said, I didn’t notice an opening.”
Will beckoned for everyone to follow him alongside the wall to his left. After reaching the end, he turned the corner and followed the wall towards the ocean, realizing the keep was set ten feet back from the edge of the promontory. A stone walkway led along the cliff beside the fortress.
The walkway was wide enough for two people to walk abreast. Lance joined Will at the front. “Why would you even think of something like this, Blackwood? Who has an entrance on a cliff?”
“I saw it on the History Channel, during this awesome special on Scottish Castles. One of the castles was built just like this, backing onto the ocean. The entrance was on a walkway along the cliff. Imagine trying to breach that fortress.”
Lance grunted. “Good point.”
When they reached the center of the cliff-side wall, Will placed his hands on the wall and began to probe. Feeling nothing, his eyes roamed upwards. Ten feet to his left, at the top of the wall, the gaping mouths of two gargoyles leered downward. “I suppose it’s as good a welcome mat as any,” he muttered.
Will stood under the gargoyles. He guessed the mouths were arrow slits, and put his hands on the wall. It felt smoother than the other parts, and he noticed a slightly lighter shade of stone.
Will pushed. He heard a loud click and then a groaning sound as two sections of the wall rotated inward, revealing the blackened interior of the keep.
-37-
Sunlight barely penetrated the thick doorway as a rush of stale air poured out of the keep. Mala extracted her torch from her backpack, soaked and lit the tip, then helped Marguerite check the entrance for traps.
After Mala gave the sign to proceed, the party warily stepped inside. Their torches outlined the edges of a vast entry hall. Just past the door, stone-walled passages on either side of the grand foyer led deeper into the keep.
As he entered the musty fortress, the party’s footsteps echoing in the silence of the hall, Will felt an almost crippling rush of fear. This wasn’t some brightly colored Dungeons & Dragons module, ready to be unwrapped and masterminded by a pimply dungeon master cackling in his parents’ basement.
This was happening.
This was real.
What awaited them in this abandoned fortress that had claimed the lives of two parties of trained mercenaries? How foolish were he and his brothers to think they could come here and escape with their lives?
As he peered down those silent, stone-walled corridors, he forced himself not to think about what might happen, instead taking deep breaths until his hands stopped shaking. He formed a mental image of Charlie in the grasp of the necromancer, got his emotions under control, and turned to inspect the two huge blocks of stone that comprised the door. After everyone had stepped away from the entrance, the stone blocks swung shut silently behind them.
“That’s not good,” Caleb said.
“It must be a pressure plate,” Will muttered, though he could detect no visible hinges or soft stones.
Alexander noticed Will’s examination of the workmanship. “Leonidus belonged to the Stonemasons,” the geomancer said. “A secret society of master builders, philosophers, and occultists. They’re known for their brilliant fortifications.”
Will stood back from the doorway. “I’d be a lot more impressed if I didn’t feel trapped.” He reached for one of two levers on the wall beside the door, but Mala stayed his hand. “Who knows what those levers will release? Why tempt fate before we must?”
“She’s right,” Alexander said softly.
“It appears Leonidus managed to secure the keep before his death,” Mala said. “Which means that whatever he left inside is still here.”
No one responded to Mala’s statement. Will felt the tumor of fear within him expanding. Caleb didn’t try to hide his unease, and despite Val’s stoic expression, his hands were clenched.
Will forced calm into his voice. “So what? We look for an exit when we need it?”
“That or we make one,” Mala said.
With that, she started walking deeper into the shadowy entrance hall. Eschewing the two stone corridors branching off to the sides, the party walked the length of the foyer, which extended towards the center of the keep.
Pillars and life-size statues dotted the massive chamber. Rugs covered the floor, tapestries decorated the walls, heraldic banners and flags hung from the roof and wrapped around the dusty pillars. Iron candelabras were spaced at regular intervals, but Alexander opted for a flare of magical illumination from his torch, staring at a line of silky banners with a reverent expression.
“Our family’s lineage,” he said, running his hand over a wooden shield engraved with a pair of crossed feathers.
After exploring the room and finding nothing of interest, Mala led them back to the entrance and chose the passage to the right. Alexander’s wizard light had already started to dissolve, and he lit a torch. Will assumed he wanted to conserve his power.
Walking three abreast, they started down the gloomy corridor and swiped away cobwebs, the slap of their footsteps the only break in the silence. After three left turns at right angles, they followed the passage all the way back to the entrance, checking each door along the way. They had seen five other great rooms spaced evenly apart and similar in size to the grand foyer: a banquet hall, a kitchen area, a library, an armory, and the largest billiards and games room Will had ever seen. Smaller rooms filled in the gaps.
On the opposite side of the keep from the entrance hall, a broad staircase led to the second level. Will pointed out another pair of levers by the stairs that, he speculated, manipulated an entrance on the side of the castle fronting the forest.
Nothing stirred inside the keep. The longer they went without an encounter, the more nervous Will grew. The thought did cross his mind that Leonidus’s treasure was a hoax, or that Mala had tricked them for the gold. If that was the case, she was a great actress. Judging from her catlike stance and probing eyes, she was just as wary of the keep as they were.
The second story, as musty and cobwebbed as the first, contained
the living quarters. They pushed through the plush bedrooms, Mala and Marguerite probing the walls for secret passages as they went. Will was pleased to see Caleb attempting to do the same.
Alexander stayed alert for signs of wards or magical concealment, and Val studied Alexander. Hashi and Lance and Allira kept a constant eye on their flanks. After exploring the second story, the party gathered at the top of the staircase. Some of their tension had dissipated, replaced with an edge of frustration.
“I don’t understand,” Mala said. “There’s nothing here.”
Hashi looked just as disappointed, which Will found curious. He thought Hashi was along for whatever gold Mala was paying him.
He also found it curious that Hashi and Alexander had just exchanged a look of mutual confusion. Their relationship on the journey had never been cozy, though Will gathered that stemmed from Hashi’s mistrust of wizards.
As the others debated what to do, Will replayed the journey through the castle in his mind, searching for a detail they might have overlooked. He went further back, to when they had exited the forest and first gazed upon the keep.
He snapped his fingers, then laughed. “Of course,” he said. “It’s so obvious.” As everyone turned to stare at him, he continued, “Mysterious fact number two, which we all seem to have forgotten: where’s the entrance to the tower?”
They retraced their steps through the keep, focused on looking for a way to access the hexagonal central tower they had seen from outside. Will was sure they had not missed anything obvious.
On a hunch, he led them to the rear of the cavernous entrance hall, a bare block of granite at least twenty feet high. As he stood in front of it, a slow smile spread across his face.
Lance folded his arms. “Cough it up, Blackwood.”
Everyone watched as Will walked up and pushed on a stone block in the center of the wall. Nothing happened, which didn’t surprise him. He turned back to address the group. “The tower is hexagonal, and there are six large rooms about the same size—I’m guessing the exact same—on the lower level. The rear walls of these rooms must back onto the base of the tower.”
“Granted,” Val said, “but what if the tower’s only decorative?”
Will smacked an open palm against the wall. “No way that tower is comprised of a few thousand square feet of solid granite. Because, well, that would be ridiculous.”
“T’is curious,” Mala said.
“It’s more than curious,” Will said. “It’s not right. Does anyone else notice something different about this particular wall?”
Everyone stepped forward to inspect the granite. No one found anything amiss.
Will swept his arms wide. “All five of the other rear walls have twenty stone blocks along the bottom. This wall has twenty-one.”
Lance snorted. “Who else in the free world would notice that besides you, Blackwood?”
Will saw the approval in Mala’s eyes. She said, “What do you propose?”
“This is a wizard’s keep. Though we might have missed a secret entrance, my guess is the entrance is right here in front of us, accessible only to a wizard.”
Will tapped a chest-high block of stone in the center of the wall, then turned to Alexander. “I suggest pushing on this block of stone.” Will wriggled his fingers. “You know, like a wizard.”
Alexander stepped forward, face tightening in concentration. Nothing happened, and Will watched the geomancer’s eyes rove lower and then higher. A few seconds after Alexander’s gaze rested on the block of stone just above his head, Will heard a barely discernible scraping sound, and the block of stone moved inward, as if on a track. The two blocks directly underneath it receded at the same time. All three blocks slid into the wall and then to the left, creating a doorway-size opening.
Marguerite gripped her trident dagger. “A wizard’s passage, t’is.”
-38-
After checking for traps again, Mala ushered everyone through the secret passage, putting Alexander and Hashi in the lead. “A little illumination,” she said, and the geomancer expanded the torchlight to cast the secret room in a dim red glow, exposing a sprawling hexagonal chamber that matched the contours of the tower.
Giant columns of stone, covered in scrollwork, supported the ceiling at each of the six corners. Candelabra again lined the walls, and a spiral staircase on the opposite side of the room led upward into the tower. What made Will gawk, however, lay at his feet. Starting a few feet in front of him, extending all the way to the staircase and comprising the vast majority of the room, was a huge tiled chessboard, complete with life-size statues for pieces.
Only it wasn’t a chessboard, and the statues weren’t chess pieces. Will counted out a nine-by-nine square board instead of a chessboard’s eight-by-eight. Also, instead of the traditional black and white, the board was comprised of three colors arranged in a seemingly random pattern: midnight blue, silver, and a rich earthy brown.
After the party tested the outside of the board for traps both magical and mundane, Mala took a tentative step on one of the squares. Nothing happened. As Will entered the board, he realized that the “squares” were granite blocks that had been painted or lacquered with vivid hues.
The figures were incredibly lifelike. On the side nearest to them, statues filled the back two rows, just like a chessboard. All eighteen pieces were emerald green. Will tapped one, and it felt as solid as a real emerald.
Surely not, he thought.
The front nine pieces resembled knights, with the center three mounted on black steeds. But the back nine looked nothing like chess pieces. The two end pieces were club-wielding giants, the next two were dragons, and the pair inside the dragons were fish-faced humanoids wielding tridents. Next to the fish-men loomed two cowled figures, and the ninth piece, occupying the middle square of the back row, was the Queen: a robed woman holding an orb-topped staff.
Not a queen, he thought.
A sorceress.
“This is a Zelomancy board, isn’t it?” he said, remembering the museum.
Mala stepped next to the emerald wizard. “Aye.”
“What do the pieces represent?” Val said.
“This side is a traditional set: dragon, giant, and kethropi. Representing air, land, and sea.”
“Kethropi?” Caleb asked.
“A race of fish-men that live beneath the oceans,” Mala said, “in Zelandia and elsewhere.”
“Ah,” Caleb said.
“And the two pieces beside the wizard?” Val asked.
“Majitsu.”
When Lance stepped onto the board, the last of the party to do so, Will heard a groaning sound. He whipped around and saw the stone blocks behind them swinging into place. He raced back to where the secret passage had opened, but only a featureless wall remained.
Alexander concentrated on the wall concealing the hidden opening, then shook his head. “It must be a one-way door.”
“Queen’s Blood,” Mala said. “The stairs it is.”
They had to walk across the Zelomancy board to reach the spiral staircase. As they approached, Mala swore again and pointed. Will looked closer and saw that the opening above the stairs was a depth illusion. Nothing but a ceiling of granite blocks loomed above.
“False stairs,” Val said. “Why?”
Alexander crossed his arms and concentrated on the ceiling above the staircase. “It’s another wizard’s passage, but it’s warded.”
“You can’t break the wards?” Val said.
“Leonidus was much stronger than I. And very skilled at wardcraft.”
“So we’re trapped,” Lance said.
Alexander probed the room with wary eyes. “There’s an answer. We just have to find it.”
Will felt a flutter of unease as he turned to regard the Zelomancy statues on the far end of the board. It was missing two pieces. Sixteen ruby-red figures, unnerving in their verisimilitude, remained. Waiting as if poised to move.
Will studied the figures and realized the
two missing figures were mounted knights. Moreover, the entire back row was different from the emerald set.
On the corners stood a pair of hulking bipedal creatures with bark-like skin and pincers instead of hands. Two grotesque, worm-like creatures with gaping maws replaced the dragons. Giant cubes of solid ruby occupied the squares adjacent to the worms. An aristocratic man in a high-collared shirt stood in the center position, flanked by solemn guardians that resembled the colossi Will had seen in the Wizards’ District.
“Why are the pieces different?” Will asked.
“While the rules of movement are uniform, the pieces represented on a Zelomancy board can vary, depending on the whims of the owner commissioning the set.”
Alexander stepped onto the wizard’s square and touched the brow of the aristocratic figure, who bore a powerful and stern, yet also whimsical, expression. “Not just that,” he said. “This is Leonidus himself.”
“Intriguing,” Mala said. “A touch of hubris?”
Alexander let his hand linger on the statue. “Leonidus was not a proud man. I believe he’s informing us that he’s in control of the game, whatever it may be.”
Everyone split up to examine the pieces, inspected the floors and walls, probe for secret doors or anything out of place.
Nothing.
Will stood with his hands on his hips, at a loss. The room was as solid as, well, a granite tower. While no immediate threats had manifested, he knew the oxygen in the room wouldn’t last forever.
“There seems to be only one solution,” Val said from the center of the room, standing with folded arms on one of the blue squares. He swept a hand across the board. “We’re supposed to play Zelomancy.”
“Hopefully we’re not supposed to play in the Harry Potter sense,” Will said, stepping further away from the club-wielding giant next to him.
Mala turned to him. “What?”
“Nothing.” Under his breath to Caleb, Will said, “This board isn’t here for cocktail parties.”