“That has to be it.” Phichorian crossed the room, Charles and Melissina just behind him. Charles noticed Melissina's hand went to her sword. Charles did the same as Phichorian turned the latch on the door and eased it open. Melissina and Charles leaned in, trying to see what was on the other side.
There was a staircase and nothing else. Charles relaxed. Phichorian did not.
“Bobble, would you go up and see where this leads and if it’s clear?”
“Of course." Bobble flitted up the stairs.
“We’ll hide in the stairwell until he gets back,” Phichorian murmured and held the door so Melissina and Charles could start up the staircase, then eased the door closed behind them.
The stairwell was dark and even the scratchy sound of Phichorian’s soft shoes echoed in the silence.
“Quickly,” Bobble hissed. “It is the kitchen and it's empty, and there is something cooking on the fire.”
Phichorian gave Charles a little push forward. Charles kept one hand on the wall and hurried up the stairs.
The kitchen was almost the same, not as neat though, and much darker. There was a large cast-iron pot on the stove, the gray sludge inside on the verge of bubbling over. Bobble hovered close to their heads. “I think that door is the one we want.”
Phichorian nodded. He eased the prison door closed. “Go,” he hissed at Charles and Melissina.
Charles ran across the kitchen after Bobble, Melissina just behind him. They were halfway across the room when Charles heard it: the crashing footsteps of Necorious’s troops. Charles froze.
Melissina shoved him in the back. She was right. They’d be caught if he didn’t move. To avoid it, he’d have to do the opposite of what every muscle was telling him to do. Charles sprinted for the door.
“Up,” Melissina hissed.
Charles understood and ran up until he was around the first twist of the staircase.
“Where’s Phichorian?”
Melissina put her hand over his mouth. She leaned in very close to whisper, “He’ll be fine.”
Charles nodded. Melissina took that to mean he understood he needed to be quiet and took her hand away from his mouth. Charles felt her bend down on the step. He joined her.
Charles couldn’t see Phichorian anywhere. He hoped that meant Phichorian had escaped. If he’d been caught, there would have been more noise.
The cook was not someone Charles had seen before. He could have been a shade; the way he fumbled for a spoon made Charles think it very likely. Whatever he did, it didn’t make the sludge in the pot smell any better. Then he sat down by the fire. Charles felt Melissina flinch and he understood, as long as the cook was sitting there, Phichorian could not come out of his hiding place, and Charles was not about to leave him there.
And then there was another pair of boots. A gruff voice yelled into the room. “Maggot, where is that stew?”
The cook jumped to his feet and fumbled for words. “It isn’t cooked, I mean it needs...”
“You were told to bring it!”
“Yes, sir. At once sir.” The cook ran to the fire, grabbed for the pot, jerked his hand back and tried again with a towel to protect his hand.
When the cook had staggered out of the room, Bobble flitted down from his hiding place on a shelf and flew under the tablecloth. The cloth flicked a bit and Phichorian’s head poked out. He looked around, then darted out and across the room, making it up the stairs before Bobble had made it across the kitchen.
“Let’s get up there before anything else goes wrong.”
Melissina nodded and started up the stairs at once. She passed three doors and opened the fourth a sliver. They all crowded around the small gap to look out.
“That’s the door?” Phichorian whispered, nodding to a small door across the hall from their door.
“It is,” Melissina's voice was barely a whisper.
There were two guards. One shifted his weight but neither approached them, just leaned more heavily against the wall.
“I don’t think they’re leaving,” Melissina whispered.
“So how do we get in?” Charles thought his voice sounded loud compared to Melissina and Phichorian, but the guards didn’t notice him.
“We’ll have to make them move,” Phichorian sounded a lot more optimistic than either Melissina or Charles felt.
Phichorian took out his waterskin and took a long drink, swishing the water through his mouth before swallowing it. He took two deep breaths then yelled in gruff, gravelly voice, “Maggots, what are you doing?”
The guards straightened at once. “Major, sir. We were assigned to guard here, sir.”
“Guard what?”
They hesitated.
“Nothing!” Phichorian roared, sounding so much like the soldier from the kitchen that Charles had to fight the urge to turn and be sure they weren’t followed. “Didn’t you think it was strange that you’d be ordered to guard nothing?”
“Sir, no, sir.”
“We thought we were too lowly to be trusted with the information, sir.”
“Are you saying I’m too low to know where the important things are kept?”
Both guards started to grovel. “No, sir. Not at all sir.”
“Go to your commander and verify your orders. You’re so thick, you probably got them wrong.”
The guards stumbled over themselves to follow the new orders.
Phichorian crept out of the staircase and looked around. “All clear.”
Melissina and Charles followed Phichorian across the passage and caught up with him by the door to the tower.
“I didn’t know you could do that,” Melissina whispered as they looked over Phichorian’s shoulder.
Phichorian was feeling along the wall, but he turned away long enough to grin at her. “I don’t only entertain the Royal Family.” He returned to the wall, feeling along the base. “You should hear me do your father.” Phichorian winked up at Charles.
Charles could tell that Melissina was going to ask questions, but before she could, Phichorian’s hand caught on something. He flattened himself on the floor and began pushing and tugging on the stone until there was a scrape and a groan. Phichorian sprang out of the way just as the stone wall swung away, narrowly missing Phichorian’s head.
Behind the wall was another dark staircase. Melissina started up at once. Charles hesitated but Phichorian shoved him forward. “They’ll be back before we know it. The instant they talk to their commander, they’ll know it was a trick.”
That got him started. Charles ran up the narrow staircase behind Melissina. He could hear Phichorian on the staircase, then there was the scrape of stone on stone as Phichorian pulled the door closed and everything went dark again. Charles stopped, unable to see anything in front of them. Phichorian bumped into him, almost pushing him into the step above him.
“How am I supposed to see?” Charles asked.
“Keep one hand on the wall,” Melissina suggested.
Charles tried that, tapping ahead with his foot to feel the steps, and managing to nip at Melissina's heels every other step.
There was a small glint of light floating towards them. “Where am I most useful?” Bobble asked.
“By our feet,” Melissina answered.
Bobble stayed close to the steps. His faint glow made it easier to see the edges of the steps as the staircase twisted up for what seemed like miles. It ended in another door, this one unlocked and opening easily when Melissina pushed on it.
Chapter 20
The Kingstone. It was in the center of the room, beneath a skylight that was sending a beam of light directly onto the platform. It took Charles a moment to remember that they were not on the top floor, but he didn’t bother wondering where the light was coming from. Magic obviously.
They clustered around the stone. It was about a foot square, made of granite. The top-third of the stone was two inches higher than the rest of it, and perfectly smooth except for a small, seven-sided hole in the top corner.
The bottom two-thirds was carved with symbols, three up and four across.
“What do we do?” Melissina asked.
No one answered until Phichorian said, “Does the stone Flamebringer gave us fit in the hole?”
Melissina took the small package out of her pocket and unwrapped the stone. She held it beside the hole. “It looks like it would. Should I try it?”
Silence again. No one wanted to make the wrong choice.
Again it was Phichorian who spoke. “Are there any other ideas?” He looked around. “I didn’t think so. Then we can stand here or we can try it.”
Melissina nodded and dropped the stone into the hole. The light from the ceiling focused on the stone. There was a clicking sound and the stone glowed blue. The clicking stopped and symbols started to appear on the flat side of the Kingstone. One after another, the symbols flashed, getting faster and faster. Then it stopped. They waited for something more, but nothing else happened.
Melissina sighed. “That seemed to be a way.” She picked up the stone, which was still faintly glowing blue. “Ouch!” She stuck her fingers in her mouth. “Hot.”
The relic fell out of her hand and landed back in the hole. Again the clicking and the glow, and the symbols, in a different order Charles noticed. He could only think of one reason for that.
“Hit the symbol.”
Melissina found the swirl that matched the glowing one and pressed it, a second too late.
“Keep trying.”
On her third try, she hit the circle at the same time it showed up on the flat area. It glowed and stayed lit. Melissina managed to make two more glow before the symbols stopped flashing.
“That must be it.” Melissina sounded excited.
“Try again,” Phichorian said.
Melissina wrapped the cloth around her hand and lifted the crystal out. The lights went out. She dropped it back in. Charles counted seven clicks this time. The symbols began to flash. Melissina got five, all stayed lit after the symbols stopped.
“Someone else try it,” she said and stepped back.
Phichorian took the cloth from Melissina and lifted out the stone.
“There’s seven clicks,” Charles told him, “kind of a countdown to the start.”
“Thanks.” Phichorian got in position and dropped the stone in place. Charles could hear him counting the clicks under his breath and then he started. Phichorian did better than Melissina had, but less than half the symbols were lit when he was done. He stepped back. “Who’s next?”
Charles turned to Bobble, but Bobble shook his head. “I can’t get from one end to the other in time.” He held out his small hands.
“Then it’s you, Charles.” Phichorian stepped back and nodded to the Kingstone.
Charles shook his head, “I don’t...”
“Go on, we should all at least try.” Melissina gave him a nudge.
Charles went to the Kingstone and looked at the layout. No real pattern to the symbols, but when he arranged his fingers, both ring fingers were on a swirl, and the ones over his thumbs both had dots. Charles took the cloth from Phichorian and used it to lift the crystal and drop it back in. He counted the seven clicks as it reset and started.
Swirl, circle with a dot, parallel lines, double squiggle. The interlocking squares threw him and he had to look down to find it. He was off on the next four, hitting them a little too late. He hit his stride for the next three, but the flowery round thing threw him again and he couldn’t get back into it.
“Sorry.”
“Who will try next?” Phichorian asked. He turned to Bobble. “You’re sure you don’t want to try?” When Bobble didn’t answer, Phichorian leaned down so he could look him in the eye. “Are you OK?”
Bobble didn’t stop staring at the crystal. “Does the light look dimmer?”
Now that Bobble mentioned it, the glow around the crystal did look dimmer.
Melissina held out her hand and Charles put the cloth into it. Melissina lifted the crystal out and gave it a funny look. She opened her hand and touched the crystal, then picked it up. “This is much cooler than it was when I first used it.” She held it up. “Wasn’t it all dark blue at first?”
Bobble and Charles nodded. Phichorian said, “Definitely.”
Melissina held out the crystal. It was about three-quarters clear, the edge fuzzy, like the color was leaking out.
“What does it mean?” Charles asked even though he suspected the answer.
Phichorian answered, “We have a limited number of tries.” He held out his hand. “May I?”
Melissina handed over the crystal.
Phichorian looked at it, measuring the clear area with his finger. “I think there’s at least one charge left, maybe two.”
“So we know we have one more try. Who’s going to do it?” Melissina asked.
Phichorian turned to Charles.
Charles turned to Melissina. It was her kingdom; she should have the chance to try.
But Melissina was looking at him too, like she was waiting for him to volunteer.
When Charles didn’t say anything, Bobble stared too.
“You don’t think I...”
Melissina nodded. Charles stepped back, shaking his head.
Phichorian rested his hand on Charles’s shoulder. “You did better than any of us. You got more than half of them lit.”
“But I don’t know anything about magic or anything.”
“And you still did better than any of us,” Melissina repeated.
“That’s just because it reminds me of a mini-game that comes up in Fantasy Kingdom a lot. I don’t know anything about this kind of stuff.”
Bobble flitted over and sat on Charles’s shoulder. “But that’s more than any of us have. You do seem to know about this kind of... mini-game? I assume it is like a safe-point?”
“Save point,” Charles corrected automatically. They all seemed so certain. Charles stepped up to the stone and stared at it. “All right. I’ll try.”
“That’s all we can ask,” Melissina said.
Charles looked at the stone symbols, arranging them in a pattern in his mind. He could feel the others watching him, wondering when he was going to start, he was sure. It was making it hard to think.
It was Phichorian who finally asked, “Do you need anything?”
“No, I mean, I guess...” Charles wondered how people played video games in arcades, with everyone watching.
“All right then, everybody out,” Melissina nodded towards the door. “Come on, he needs to concentrate.”
Charles was grateful. He was used to playing alone. This would be just like a game of Fantasy Kingdom, or at least that’s what he told himself. He got his hands positioned and tried the movement from the crystal to the game position. He’d be fine if it started with a symbol on the left, but if it was on the right he was in trouble.
Bobble hesitated on his way to the door. “Is something wrong?”
Charles considered. “I think it would be good if someone stayed to drop the crystal in.”
“Would you like me to?”
Charles looked at Bobble. He was the only one who knew what a video game was. “Yeah, I’d like that.”
Melissina was already at the door. “We’ll be right outside.”
“Thanks.”
Bobble sat on the flat part of the stone, examining the crystal while he waited. It was much easier for Charles to concentrate on the symbols when he knew he wasn’t being watched, especially when he started doing odd things like practicing moving his fingers between the symbols. Left thumb up was square with a dot, ring finger down was double-square. He went through them all twice, then it was time to get it over with.
“OK, Bobble. Tell me when you drop it.”
Bobble stood at once. He positioned his little hands on either side of the crystal and lifted. The symbols reset. “Ready?” Bobble asked, the strain of lifting a crystal almost his size evident in his voice.
“Ready.”
/> “Then on three. One. Two. Three.” There was a scrape as the crystal slid down, then a click as it fell into place.
Charles counted the seven clicks. He focused his entire mind on the lights. It was just like a video game, just a few minutes of concentration. He even had a second life.
And then the seventh click and it started. Square with a dot, left thumb up; double swirl, right ring finger. He wasn’t even thinking, trusting his eyes and hands to do what they were supposed to. That was the secret, the way to get into the zone. As the symbols sped up, Charles’s fingers moved faster.
And then it stopped. Charles lifted his fingers, holding them just above the stone. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He looked down.
It looked right, but his thumbs were blocking one symbol, the circle dot. In the second before he could move it, there was a flash and it went out.
“Did you touch the crystal?”
“No.” Bobble was standing a full step back from it.
Charles believed him. “Has anything changed?”
Bobble looked around. “Do you see anything?”
Neither of them wanted to be the one who said nothing had happened.
“I must have missed one. I’ll just try again.”
“Yes, all right.” Bobble picked up the crystal while Charles got his hands in position.
“Um...”
Charles didn’t want to look up. He could tell something was very wrong and that Bobble didn’t want to tell him. “What?”
Bobble didn’t answer, just made nervous sounds. Charles had to look up. The crystal was clear. Neither of them said anything. Charles felt guilt welling up in him. He’d let them down. He’d missed something. “Try it.”
Bobble dropped the crystal into place. Charles stared at the symbols, willing himself to hear the seven clicks, to see the blue light. But there was nothing, just a stone with symbols carved on it.
Bobble sat down on the Kingstone. “I was sure you got them all. I was watching and I was sure.”
It was a good attempt at making him feel better. “Thanks.”
They both stared at the Kingstone. One of them would have to go out and tell Melissina they’d failed. It would have to be him. It was all his fault. He looked up to tell Bobble, but Bobble had his head cocked to the side. It was a way to put off telling Melissina.
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