by Chris Cannon
“I think Ivy will love the black pearl bracelet in the back of the book,” Miss Enid said. “It would suit her perfectly.”
Oh. Now I get it. “I’ll make sure to tell her about it.”
“A little slow on the uptake,” Valmont teased as they exited the building.
“Apparently. Do you think we have time to drop this off at Ivy’s before curfew?”
The Directorate-mandated curfew was strictly enforced. Her grandfather would have a cow if she was ever caught breaking it. Not to mention, Ferrin would use it as an attempt to humiliate her and tarnish the Sinclair name. Still, Ivy would want the bracelet.
Valmont increased his pace. “We’ll be fine, if we hurry.”
Just to be on the safe side, Bryn broke into a slow jog. When they reached the Black dorm, Clint and Ivy were opening the front door to come outside.
Before she could say anything, Ivy snatched the book from Bryn’s hands. “I’m so excited.”
“How’d you know?” Bryn asked.
“Miss Enid called. Do you guys want to come up?”
“We better not,” Bryn said. “Curfew.”
“Right.” Clint rolled his eyes.
Chapter Six
Once they were back in her room, Bryn changed into yoga pants and a T-shirt before joining Valmont on the couch. “I wonder if my grandfather took the key because he didn’t want Ferrin poking around in the vaults without him.”
“I’m sure that’s why he did it. Since we discovered the vaults and handed the information over to your grandfather, Ferrin has never been in the lead on anything in this situation, and I bet it’s driving him crazy.”
Couldn’t happen to a nicer person. “The man deserves some grief,” Bryn said. “I can’t believe Miss Enid kept such a straight face when she played her part.”
“She’s probably been waiting for a chance to get back at him after all the holier-than-thou comments he’s made over the years.”
“Probably true. You know—” Bryn almost said she was surprised someone hadn’t murdered Ferrin, but then she stopped because her room could be bugged. And she hated that thought.
“What?” Valmont said.
“I was going to make a snarky comment about Ferrin, but I didn’t because someone could be listening in on our conversation. I hate that it could be the new status quo, like I’m supposed to accept everything is bugged and as long as you don’t speak your mind, and stick to the party line, it’s no big deal.”
“I can’t imagine they’d take the time and effort to bug all the student rooms,” Valmont said.
“Me, neither. But they might take the time to bug mine.”
“I have no valid argument against that statement,” Valmont said, “and I hate that I agree with you.” He peered around the room. “Do you think we could spot a microphone if we saw one?”
Bryn yawned so big her eyes watered. “It’s been a long day. I’m not sure I care right now. I think I’m going to go to bed.”
“You better hope you don’t talk in your sleep,” Valmont said.
“That’s not funny.”
…
Ivy was practically bouncing out of her seat with excitement when Bryn showed up at breakfast the next morning. She held out her right arm. “Check out the amazing bracelet my wonderful boyfriend gave me.”
The black pearl and silver link bracelet shone in the cafeteria lights.
“It’s beautiful,” Bryn said, playing her role in this lie meant to convince people the bracelet was nothing more than a normal piece of jewelry, rather than a device which channeled Ivy’s lightning into an elemental sword.
“Nice job, Clint,” Valmont said.
Clint nodded in acknowledgment as he crunched his way through a strip of bacon.
Bryn frowned at her cheese omelet. “How’d I miss the bacon?”
Valmont slid two pieces of his bacon onto her plate. “I think you were still sleepwalking.”
Bryn stifled a yawn. “I had the weirdest dreams last night starring a certain Directorate member. He locked us in the vaults and told us the only way we’d get out was if we found a secret tunnel or door. By the end of the dream I’d cut myself so many times I’d stopped bleeding, like I’d bled out. I collapsed on the floor, and it was like I’d given up. “
“I would never let you bleed until you collapsed,” Valmont said. “So I find your dream insulting, both as a knight and as your boyfriend.”
Bryn rolled her eyes. “I know you wouldn’t, but my subconscious was throwing stress-bombs at me last night. In the real world, I trust you to have my back more than any other person on the planet. But in the dream, Ferrin had done something to you so you couldn’t see me anymore. You thought you were locked down there alone.” The cold horror of it settled in Bryn’s stomach. Her voice caught in her throat. “You thought I’d abandoned you. That was the worst part.”
“Sounds like a grade-A stress-induced nightmare,” Clint said.
Bryn didn’t want to visit the vaults in the near future. “I have no desire to go below ground level any time soon. And I’d prefer all the rooms I visit today to have large windows and multiple exits.”
Fate seemed to be mocking her, because she received a note in Elemental Science telling her to report to the entrance to the vaults to meet with Keegan and Ferrin after her last class. She read the note and passed it to Valmont. “I don’t suppose kicking and screaming like a toddler will get me out of this request.”
“Probably not, but if you want to try, I’m game.”
“Bryn.” Keegan waved from a few desks over. “I’m guessing we’re hanging out at the library this evening?” He held up the note, which looked exactly like the official piece of stationary she’d received.
“Looks like it,” she said. “At least my grandfather’s name is on here, too. So he should be there.”
Jaxon peered over at Bryn and then came to stand at her desk. He snatched the note without asking for permission and read it. “What’s this about?”
“You have no idea how badly I want to mock you by saying, ‘It’s official Directorate business.’”
He dropped the note back on her desk. “That’s not mocking me, because it is official Directorate business.”
“Maybe that’s why it feels like the joke is on me,” she muttered.
After her last class, Bryn trudged across campus toward her dorm. “I don’t care what the note says, I’m dropping off my book bag, grabbing a snack, and a cup of coffee before we go to the library.”
“Are you tired, or has Ferrin’s fabulous demeanor dampened your sense of adventure?”
“Yes and yes.” Bryn yawned until her eyes watered. “What I really want is a nap.”
They entered the Blue dorm. Instead of heading for the stairs, Valmont put his hand on Bryn’s lower back and directed her toward the restaurant in the back. “I know you. If we go up to your room, you will sit on the couch and then you won’t want to get up. To head off any unpleasantness, we are going to have coffee and a snack down here and then go to the library.”
“That’s probably a smarter plan.” They found an empty table, and a waiter came to take their order.
“Coffee,” Bryn said. “I need a vat of coffee.”
The young man smiled at Valmont like he was in on the joke. “I’m sorry, a carafe will have to do.”
“What’s the fastest snack you can bring us?” Valmont asked.
“A fruit and cheese tray, or bread and butter.”
“Both,” Bryn said, “and I want my own carafe.”
The waiter looked to Valmont. “She’s not joking?”
Valmont shook his head no. “She never jokes about coffee or food.”
It took the waiter less than five minutes to bring their order. It took Bryn less than ten minutes to make the food and the coffee disappear. So she didn’t know why Ferrin was so ticked off when she showed up in the library a few minutes after that.
“I said you were to come here after your las
t class,” Ferrin said. “Where have you been?”
“I stopped off at my dorm for a minute. You didn’t give an exact time. The note just said after…and this is after.”
“No harm done,” her grandfather said. “Let’s proceed down to the vaults.”
Keegan and David stood off to the side, like they weren’t sure what their role was.
“Follow us,” Bryn said as they headed into the storage room with the trap door that lead to the vaults. Ferrin and her grandfather took the lead. Bryn and Valmont followed along behind them while Keegan and David came down the stairs last.
“Good thing I’m not claustrophobic,” Keegan said.
Bryn glanced back and saw his broad shoulders were brushing the walls. “Valmont said it’s narrow for defense purposes.”
“I feel like a cork in a bottle,” Keegan muttered.
When they reached the room with the giant card catalog, two Red guards waited for them. Bryn and Valmont used Blood Magic to make the door appear.
“That’s amazing,” Keegan said.
“Much cooler than the book we opened,” David agreed.
“That is why we are here.” Her grandfather gestured they should enter the room. “We’re hoping you can find a door designated for a Red knight and dragon.” He pointed at the right hand wall. “There was a Blue door there.” He pointed at the back wall. “And a Black door here.”
“So I should bleed on the wall over there?” Keegan pointed to the left-hand wall.
“Seems logical,” Bryn followed along behind him.
“Any particular spot?” David asked.
Keegan scratched his chin and studied the wall. “There, between those two bookcases.”
“Why there?” Bryn asked.
“That’s where I’d put a door if I wanted one.” After David put his sword point onto the wall, Keegan ran his finger down the blade. When the blood hit the wall, nothing happened.
“Disappointing,” Keegan said. He walked around to the other side of the bookcase where a patch of wall two feet wide was exposed. “Let’s try here.”
Again he performed the ritual, and again, nothing happened.
“Huh.” David moved to the next blank spot on the wall, which was only six inches wide. They repeated the process, and again, nothing happened.
“What am I missing?” Keegan checked the wall and then he looked down at the floor. There was a four-square-foot area marked off by three bookshelves like a square that was missing its fourth side. He pointed at the floor. “Let’s try there.”
“I doubt there will be a door in the floor,” Ferrin said.
“The entrance to the vault is in the floor,” Bryn shot back.
Keegan bled on the floor, and the flagstones shimmered, revealing what looked like a manhole cover, except it was four feet across and there were hinges on one side and a handle on the other.
“Before I bleed on it, let’s try opening it the normal way.” Keegan pulled on the door, and the handle elongated like the telescopic handgrip of a suitcase. “This was definitely designed by a Red.” He squatted down like he was going to do a deadlift, grabbed the handle, and pulled up. It clicked up two more times before the door opened a fraction of an inch. Keegan stepped back and rolled his shoulders. “That felt like a three hundred fifty pound deadlift.” He opened the hatch with ease and peered down. “There’s a ladder.”
“The guards should go down first to make sure it’s safe,” Bryn’s grandfather said.
Once the guards had descended into the opening, Bryn edged closer, trying to see what was below.
“Don’t get too close,” her grandfather said.
“Waiting patiently isn’t my strong suit.”
Five minutes later, Bryn was tapping her foot and staring at the hole in the floor, willing one of the guards to come back up. Lights flared on, illuminating the opening.
“Sir, there isn’t anything down here,” one of the guards called out. “It looks like it was a bunker.”
Without waiting for anyone to give him permission, Keegan climbed down the ladder. David followed.
If they could go, Bryn reasoned, she could go, too. She moved toward the opening.
“No.” Bryn’s grandfather held a hand out to stop her. “Not yet.”
Keegan climbed back up a moment later. “It’s literally a concrete room with a desk and bed and what looks like some sort of plumbing system I’d rather not know about.”
David climbed out of the bunker. “Nothing fun or exciting.”
“No books?” Bryn asked.
“There’s a crate of books next to the bed and some candles,” Keegan said.
“What about the desk?” Bryn asked.
“It’s dusty and covered in old paper and those feather pens,” David said. “What do you call those… quills.”
“So no treasures?” Valmont said.
The crate came up through the opening. Keegan grabbed it and walked over to set it on the library table. “Not unless there are some rare books in here.”
“Are any of those books sparkling at you?” Bryn asked.
Keegan looked at her like she was crazy. “As a general rule, books don’t sparkle at me.”
“True, but enchantments that point the way to magical items would sparkle at you,” Bryn said.
“And sometimes they sing,” Valmont added.
“No offense,” David said to Keegan, “but you have strange friends.”
“Trust me,” Bryn said. “The better you know us, the weirder we seem.”
“Think of this as your grace period,” Valmont said. “We are actually trying to appear normal.”
“We’ll ask Miss Enid to examine the books,” her grandfather said. “For now, I think you four are free to go.”
“But there has to be a reason that room exists.” Bryn did not want to leave the vaults without some sort of payoff. “There must be something that makes it special to Reds.”
One of the guards spoke from below. “It would be a good place to lay low. Most people don’t look for doors in the floor—plus the walls of the bunker seem to be reinforced with metal bars.”
“Bars meant to keep people in or keep people out?” David asked.
Everyone turned to look at him.
“What? I work at the bank in Dragon’s Bluff. When a room is reinforced with bars or thicker concrete it’s either meant to keep things in, like money, or meant to keep people out who might want to steal the money. Not that there’s ever been much crime in Dragon’s Bluff, but historically, it was a problem.”
“So how could we tell what the room was designed for?” Bryn asked.
Keegan grabbed a brown leather novel from the box. “Start here.” He flipped the cover open, and it separated from the book binding. “Sorry.” He started to pick up the cover to replace it but stopped. “I should let Miss Enid take care of this.”
“Why don’t Valmont and I go find her? She can sort through the crate and share the information with us.” She avoided eye contact with Ferrin and directed her words toward her grandfather. “I don’t want to leave without knowing if we found something useful.”
“Go find Miss Enid,” her grandfather said. “We’ll try not to discover anything exciting while you’re gone.”
“Thank you.” Bryn exited the room with Valmont following behind her. When she hit the winding staircase, she was up it in a flash.
“How much coffee did you drink?” Valmont called out as he kept pace with her.
Bryn located Miss Enid and explained what they’d found so far and why they wanted her help. “There must be something in the crate which will give us information.”
Down in the vaults, Miss Enid put on white cotton gloves and unpacked the books with great care. The titles ranged from Economics to Architecture. The last book she removed from the crate was slimmer than the rest. She set it on the table and opened the first page. “It’s a journal.”
Miss Enid read a few pages. “It seems the room you discovere
d was a safe house, a place for dragons to lay low when there was trouble.”
“What sort of trouble?” Bryn asked. It’s not like the room was full of weapons.
Miss Enid pursed her lips. “He’s not going into detail. I mean, he is giving details of his day and of businesses he was involved in, but it isn’t telling me why he might need to hide there.”
“Maybe it was a place for guards to rest when they weren’t guarding what was in the other secret rooms,” Valmont said. “It looked like only the strongest dragons could open the door, so it could only be accessed by other Reds.”
Miss Enid pursed her lips and continued turning pages. “Here we go.” She tapped the page. “He reports that dragons attempted to access the vaults through the trap door in the storeroom.”
“The same storeroom where the trap door to the vaults is now?” Keegan asked.
“I would guess so. According to this entry, he was ordered to return to his bunker and observe the intruders rather than stop them. And he wasn’t happy about it.”
“How could he see any of that from down there?” Bryn asked.
“Good question.” Valmont gestured toward the opening. “After you.”
Bryn avoided eye contact with both her grandfather and Ferrin in case they meant to tell her no. She made it down the ladder into the dusty room. Keegan hadn’t been lying. The room was a ten-by-ten gray concrete cell with a bed, a desk, and pipes attached to a metal box she did not want to know about.
Valmont ran his hands along the walls. “Maybe there is a secret panel that slides open.”
Bryn tried to get her bearings. She pointed to the ceiling on the right of the ladder. “The entrance is that direction?”
“I believe so.” Valmont approached the metal box attached to the pipes. “My first guess is this is some sort of waste disposal, but maybe it’s more like a periscope.”
“If you’re brave enough to test that theory, go ahead.”
“Bravery and common sense are not the same thing. Common sense tells me Miss Enid should probably check this out so I don’t break it.”
“Right.” Bryn nodded. “That’s why you don’t want to touch it.”