by R. Moses
Chapter Three
Everyone pulled, kicked, and hacked at the door until the oil lamp began to sputter. Icari refilled the oil quickly.
“Try that silver glow thing again,” Naomi pleaded.
Icari shook his head slowly. He seemed exhausted. “I cannot. I am sorry.”
Naomi turned to Kara. “Do something. You're the tough one. Please.” Her hands were shaking, her voice weak.
Kara opened her mouth and closed it again. She was just as scared as Naomi, but too proud to show it. Every minute they wasted trying to get to Vayne, he could be hurt. He could already be dead. She said, “We've just been reacting by attacking the door. Let me think of another way to get to him. These places are laced with hidden passages.”
So she thought of the manor house she had grown up in. They had a cellar split up into three rooms. One was for wine, one for roots, and one was where the family kept their valuables, an underground safe bolted and barred. How many times had she been sent to fetch wine for her father and his wife and seen the door, locked against her? She had heard a rumor from the servants and other slaves that there was a secret entrance to the safe, and she had found those rumors to be true after much searching on her part. The safe had lifetimes of wealth tucked away...
Thanks to her finding her own family treasure, she now knew how secret entrances of such magnitude were marked. Or she hoped she did. It was a slim chance they would find another way to the cellar, but better than beating at a door that would never open.
Kara said slowly, “Most manor cellars are enormous and have at least two entrances. This manor should be no different. There might be an entrance near the kitchens.” She held up a finger. “But I think what we are looking for is a secret entrance. He is being taken somewhere hidden. Whatever snatched him does not want to be disturbed.”
Naomi was so frustrated she was almost screaming. “This place is endless! How will we ever find another door, especially if it is hidden? It could take hours. Or never!”
“It isn't impossible. Do either of you know the heraldic beast of the family who built this manor? It should be carved above a door or archway.”
Naomi said eagerly, “A unicorn. While Vayne and I were waiting for you guys, we looked over some of the front rooms and kept seeing a crest with a unicorn on it.”
Kara nodded. “The entrance to the secret cellar will be marked by a unicorn. Look for one that is unusual in some way. Large or overly ornate. It could be a painting, a carving, a mosaic.”
Naomi looked around the mostly empty manor. “What if the unicorn got stolen?” Her blotchy face screwed up. “Let's just stay here and try to open this door.”
Icari said, “It is not going to open for any of us. Listen to Kara.”
Realizing she was outvoted, Naomi helped them gather up the supplies. Icari shrugged the satchel back on. They formed a tight little cluster and walked towards the mirrored hall. They traveled through room after empty room. Dust flew up so thick that soon they were all sneezing and coated in a gray fuzz. And the lamp swung wildly the faster they walked. The shadows jumped and clutched at them, the tarnished chandeliers creaked with oppressive weight, the floor groaned in irritation of their steps.
The house wanted them out-without Vayne.
They pushed on, determined, through the maze of halls and cavernous rooms. Kara was completely lost when Icari said, “I think I found something.”
She stepped beside him and saw a room full of death on display. Stuffed animals lined the walls. Glass eyes glittered in the weak light they brought. She saw two brown bears, frozen in a fight forever. A badger perched on a rock, small nose upturned to a stuffed raven. She wondered why none of it had been stolen long ago. She looked up and over and saw even the walls were covered in dead trophies. Buck heads and zebra heads and elephant heads marched around the room.
The most impressive wall display was two dragons. The dragons were clashing over the doorway in which they stood, and they were sinuous elegance, each scale still gleaming despite the years of dust.
The room was so enormous the lamp did not illuminate it all. Kara asked softly, “What do you think you found?”
“I just saw something out of the corner of my eye. It might have been the glass eyes. Never mind. Let us go see the other rooms.”
“Wait. Let's go a little further in. A stuffed unicorn might be what we are looking for.”
Naomi whimpered, but Kara ignored her and stepped further in with Icari. Under the smell of dust there was a faint odor of sawdust and drying spices. She remembered the scent well from her father's stuffed trophy room. She had been frightened of that room when she was small, but Lady Brahm had insisted Kara dust the displays daily. Slowly her fear had been replaced with sorrow that so many animals had to die to clutter one room in her father's manor.
She now saw why nothing in this room had been stolen. Each animal was bolted and wired into its display. She shook a pedestal and it did not budge. Even the most diligent thief would have a hard time getting these treasures out of the house and onto the market.
Pity, she thought absently as the search continued. That giraffe head alone would probably fetch at least a hundred gold coins. The fighting dragons must be priceless.
She shook her head and then paused as she saw the crown jewel of the stuffed collection.
In the dead center of the long wall was an arched nook. It was at least ten feet wide and sixteen feet tall. Inside the nook a faux sylvan forest had been constructed. Dried vines crowded carved trees. Silken wildflowers rotted in drifts around a stump.
And a unicorn stood amidst the rot and the dust, her horn broken off, her once silvery-white coat mangy and threaded.
Kara had an odd thickening in her throat, a slight tickling. She cleared her throat but it was still there, then she tried swallowing. A burning prickle bothered her eyes. Nothing, she thought, nothing that pure should be killed and stuffed for the whims of a Lord. That unicorn should still be in her forest, using the magic in her horn to create a sacred place, a place of healing and love.
But she was not in her forest, she was dead and stuffed with dust, and her horn was broken off.
Naomi whispered, “That is the saddest and most beautiful thing I have ever seen.”
Kara nodded and made herself move forward. They had to save Vayne. She said hoarsely, “Look over the display. I think the trapdoor is here.”
As they got closer, she saw how the legendary unicorn was like a deer, or a goat, or a lion, but not like any of these animals at all. She was entirely her own creature, with her enormous ears and tufted tail, her split hooves and dainty neck.
They stepped into the display and silk flowers crumbled under their feet. The unicorn's glass eyes flickered from the lamp light.
Kara said, “Let's light both lamps so we can search quicker. Do we have enough oil?”
Icari said, “No, we are running out-”
Naomi cut him off. “Then conjure a light the same way you made that door glow silver! Don't slow down us finding Vayne over some stupid oil!”
Icari swallowed and said in a reasonable tone, “I know very little magic. Just enough for my illusion show and other small tasks. I cannot understand how the silver glow happened, and I cannot conjure a light.”
“Fine,” Naomi said. “No magic. But please light both lamps.”
Icari shook his head but did as she asked, placing the lamps on the stump. Kara began to inspect the walls, running her hands over the rough stone. Icari began poking around the carved trees, knocking the larger ones to see if they were hollow.
Naomi just stood there, and Kara was beginning to get exasperated. She said, “Rub your hands over the floor. Look for a gap or an iron ring or hinges.”
“But-” Naomi looked away. “It's dirty.”
Kara went back to searching the walls, afraid if she said anything she would lose her temper. She came to the corner of the nook, brushing by some vines. The seconds ticked into minutes. Kara began
to fret worse and worse. Vayne could be dead, he could be hurt, he could be under some dark mage's evil spell...
Icari whispered, “Found it!”
The young women turned in unison. Icari had taken the two oil lamps off of the stump after blowing one out. He wedged his fingers in the thick, ringed grooves of it, under a patch of dried moss.
Kara could have slapped herself, it was so obvious. The stump was just the right size for a secret ladder down to the cellar.
The trapdoor popped up in an explosion of dust and moss chunks. Icari slammed back into a thrusting tree branch. He cried out and dropped down, holding his side.
She stumbled over to him, coughing and retching at the sweet-dirt taste of ancient moss on her tongue. She wheezed, “You okay?”
He sucked a breath in. “Fine. It just jabbed me in the rib.” She held her hand out and he took it with a grateful smile, his other hand still pressed to his side. “Just glad we found the door.”
“Me too.” Kara untangled her fingers from his when he seemed past the pain and quickly slid the spare lamp in the satchel. Naomi picked up the other lamp and peered down into the stump. “It's so dark.”
“Secret passages usually are,” Kara said dryly. “Ready to go? You know, if it is not too dirty?”
Naomi frowned at her then looked away. “I can't even see the bottom.”
Kara shrugged and swung over the lip. She was still trying to play it cool even though she was more scared than ever. “Let's go.”