“In the middle of the night?” Hiro sputtered.
“Honest Ehd figured the repairs to the Leaky Mermaid would take close to six hours,” said Anne. “By the time they finish, it’ll be closer to morning. We can just say we were eager to get an early start.”
“An early start? It’ll be five o’clock in the morning!”
“Trust us,” said Penelope. “Coming from you it will be totally believable.”
Marri smiled. “That sounds like the perfect plan, and we apparently have the perfect candidate to lead the way.”
Hiro looked stunned. “M-me? But I can’t—I couldn’t possibly.”
Anne rested a hand on his shoulder. “You’ve been there. You’re already familiar with the layout. That makes you the best person for the job.”
“But I’m no good at this stuff,” Hiro protested. “I’m terrible at lying. My tongue gets all twisted up, and I start rambling.”
“Oh, I don’t know,” said Penelope. “I’d say you’re a pretty convincing liar myself.”
“Hiro, if we had another option we’d take it, but we don’t,” said Anne. “We need to get into that warehouse, and you’re going to have to lead us. That’s final.”
“But—but why do you still get to decide what’s final?”
“Because I’m the protagonist.”
“Er, that’s not quite true,” said Jeffery.
“What do you mean?” asked Anne.
“Well, Octo-Horse guy has the gold medallion now, which technically makes him the Official Protagonist.”
“Then what does that make me?”
“Why, the villain, of course.”
“The what?!”
Jeffery hopped back several steps. “Or the Official Antagonist, if you prefer. Whatever floats your boat.”
“But that’s terrible!” cried Anne, flabbergasted. “I don’t want to be the bad guy.”
Jeffery flapped his wings. “You? What about me? Being the GPS for some scoundrel isn’t exactly going to be a glowing entry on my résumé.”
“But what does that mean? What do I do?”
“Well, typically the antagonist tries to sabotage the quest,” said Penelope.
“That’s terrible!”
“What’s the big deal? It’s what we’re already trying to do, isn’t it?”
“Yeah, but it’s the principle of the thing,” said Anne.
“Perhaps we should worry about crossing the antagonist bridge when we come to it,” suggested Marri. “First we need to get into that warehouse.”
Despite his protests to the contrary, Hiro turned out to be an excellent planner. He drew a rough layout of the secret warehouse facility from memory, and Locke crafted four very convincing fake IDs, for Anne, Penelope, Marri, and the Construct. Hiro would use his real ID, since he was playing himself.
“That should be enough,” said Marri. “The rest of the crew will remain aboard in case something goes wrong and we have to leave in a hurry.”
Just under six hours later, a newly painted Leaky Mermaid sailed out of Honest Ehd’s lot. The sails even sported the seven-pointed black star of the Wizards’ Council. Ehd had also managed to scrounge up some knives and swords for the crew, although most of them were rusty and bent.
“Give those wizards a swift kick in the rump for me!” Honest Ehd shouted from his porch.
Beyond acquiring a means of transportation, there was also the issue of how they were going to reach their destination. Despite scouring the junkyard from top to bottom, they had been unable to locate working dragon-fire engines to install on the airship. Using regular sails under normal conditions would take them several weeks to reach the warehouse tier from their current location—maybe even months, Marri estimated. They had discussed the problem at length and had finally arrived at a solution: They needed a real dragon.
There was only one problem.
“So let me see if I understand correctly,” grumbled Nana after they had released her from the metal sphere in which she had been imprisoned. “You can’t change me back to my normal size, but you still want me to fireball an entire airship halfway across the Hierarchy—”
“Using a premium fireball,” added Anne.
“—yes, using a premium fireball no less, thank you—which is something I wouldn’t attempt even on my best day. And that’s overlooking the fact that I’ve been imprisoned in a hollow metal sphere, in the dark, hanging from some pirate’s belt for the past twenty-one hours.”
“Nana, we’re so sorry,” said Anne. “So much has been happening, and we completely forgot you weren’t with the others trapped in the dice.”
“Will I at least get paid this time?”
“Er,” said Anne.
Nana harrumphed.
“Don’t mind her,” Jeffery said to Marri. “Her personality dial is permanently stuck on cantankerous.”
“Please, Nana,” Anne begged. “This is really important.”
“Oh, well, if it’s really important, then I guess I’d better do it.”
Anne could tell that more than anything, they had hurt Nana’s feelings.
“Whatever you want, as soon as we stop the barrier we’ll do it. We’ll buy you a whole herd of cattle. We’ll send you on a lavish vacation to a dragon spa. We’ll let you sleep in the office corner again.”
“In Dog’s basket?”
Dog’s sleeping basket was a point of contention between the fire lizard and Nana. Prior to their first quest, Nana had disguised herself as Dog and gotten used to sleeping in the basket in the main office.
Nana smiled. “I’m just joking. Of course I’ll help. I just like to see people grovel every once in a while.” She flew to the stern of the airship. “Normally I would follow directly behind, but given my current size I don’t know how long it will take me to catch up with you. It certainly won’t be instantly.”
“Just try your best,” said Anne. “I’m sure it will take us a little while to find the medallion anyway.”
Despite her diminutive size, Nana sucked in an impressive amount of air. After a brief pause, she shot out a green fireball. It was tiny at first, but it quickly expanded until it engulfed the Leaky Mermaid. The fireball shot off at an incredible speed. Green energy burst all around, causing Penelope’s teeth to chatter and Anne’s hair to stand on end. The hull of the Leaky Mermaid creaked and groaned, but it held together.
When the fireball dissipated, it dropped the airship smoothly back into normal flight.
A single tier glowed in the moonlight in the distance. It was perfectly flat, as though someone had razed the hills and filled the valleys. There were dozens of rows of long narrow buildings, no doubt the warehouses in which the council stored any quest-related items it had confiscated. As Anne took everything in, she wondered how in the world they were going to find one tiny silver medallion.
“That’s it,” said Hiro. “Nana was exactly on target.”
As they glided toward the tier, the pirates were unusually subdued. Everyone knew that any irregularities whatsoever could spell disaster and get them all arrested—or worse. They had all taken Hiro’s warnings about the security very seriously.
The docks were mostly empty. Only two airships were currently tied up. One was under repair, and the other was having its cargo unloaded. The Leaky Mermaid eased into a berth. The crew secured the ship and extended the ramp, and Anne, Penelope, Hiro, Marri, and the Construct disembarked.
A robed figure approached, no doubt one of the wizards from the council. The wizard was flanked by two iron knights. They were easily as tall as the ones at Saint Lupin’s, and even more heavily armored. Anne experienced the momentary impulse to run back up the ramp and sail away, but she resisted.
Penelope leaned over to the Construct and whispered, “You’re standing in my foot.”
Indeed, the Construct’s foot was currently inside Penelope’s.
“Sorry,” said the Construct, and she took a step to the right. They could only hope the wizard hadn’
t noticed.
The wizard marched up to them and lowered her hood.
“This is a top-secret facility,” she said. “And it’s not even dawn yet.”
Hiro stepped forward to present himself as the leader of their group. “Yes, we know. We’re here for—”
“No one is permitted on these premises without proper authorization.”
Hiro held out the forms. “Well, actually, we do have—”
“In fact, no one is permitted to know these premises even exist without proper authorization.”
“If you look at these forms, I think you’ll see—”
“And even if you do get proper authorization, this facility is so top secret we would ignore it and arrest you anyway.”
Hiro faltered. “I, uh…”
The wizard crossed her arms. “Also, the penalty for trespassing is immediate execution.”
“E-execution?”
The wizard snapped her fingers.
And the iron knights drew their swords.
THE ADVENTURER’S GUIDE TO SUCCESSFULLY INFILTRATING A TOP-SECRET FACILITY OFFERS THE FOLLOWING TIPS:
1) Use a disguise.
2) Always have a backup plan.
3) Always have a backup plan for your backup plan.
Secrets of the Wizards’ Council
Hiro stumbled back and reached for his spell catalog. Marri and Penelope drew their swords and fanned out to either side, ready to throw themselves into the fray. The Construct also drew her dagger, even though having a non-solid hologram in a fight wouldn’t really help much. Anne raised her gauntlet-hand to summon the Three-Handed Sword. Then the council wizard started laughing and everyone paused. In fact, the wizard was laughing so hard that she nearly fell over.
“What’s so funny?” demanded Penelope.
“The looks on your faces,” said the wizard between wheezes. “I’m telling you, this never gets old.” She wiped a tear from her eye. “Sorry, that’s just a prank we like to play on visiting students. I assume you’re here for Take Your Student to Work Day. Bit early, though, aren’t we?”
“We didn’t want to miss out on anything,” said Hiro.
Anne looked again at the looming hulks of the iron knights and the sharp edges of their sword blades.
“Oh, don’t mind them,” said the wizard. She held out her hand; in her palm sat a glass cube with a dragon stone suspended inside. “They can’t do anything unless I order them to.”
“You have iron knights here?” asked Anne.
The wizard nodded. “Only recently. They’re extremely helpful to have around.”
“So, just to be clear, we’re not being executed?” asked Marri.
“Of course not,” said the wizard, still chuckling. “But your reactions were priceless. Wait until I tell the others.” She extended a hand. “Kelley Stampfoot. Pleased to make your acquaintance.”
Hiro quickly regained his composure and shook her hand. “Hiro Darkflame.”
Stampfoot clapped her hands together. “Oh, you’d be Tora and Raiden’s boy, yes? I haven’t seen them in months. How are they doing?”
“They’re fine,” said Hiro. “And in case it seems in any way unusual or strange that we’ve arrived here without them, they said to tell you they would be along later, after they finish secret agenting… people… and stuff. Because that’s what they do. For their jobs. Because they’re agents. Secret ones.”
Anne elbowed Hiro in the ribs to get him to stop talking.
“Wonderful!” said Stampfoot, seeming not to notice anything unusual. “So, what would you like to see first?”
Hiro passed her their student forms with trembling hands. “We completely at random heard about a silver quest medallion. It was removed from a place called Saint Lupin’s, although in using the word removed, I don’t mean to insinuate any wrongdoing on the part of the Wizards’ Council. I’m sure they have perfectly legitimate reasons for confiscating objects with no legal basis for doing so, however questionable that might appear to the general public. Anyway, we thought seeing the medallion might be interesting, though not to steal it or anything. And not all of us thought it would be interesting, because uniformity of opinion among students our age might present undue cause for suspicion. So we took a vote, and some of us won and the rest of us are having a bad attitude about it.”
Marri kept motioning for Anne to give Hiro a swift kick to make him stop, but again the wizard didn’t seem to notice anything odd. Penelope’s surly demeanor at least lent a certain credibility to his last comment about some of them having bad attitudes.
Stampfoot scratched her chin. “Saint Lupin’s, hmmm? Name sounds familiar, but I can’t quite place it. No matter. Come with me, and I’m sure we can get you looked after.”
She put an arm around Hiro’s shoulders and led them along the dock into a two-story building, still chuckling to herself as they went. Stampfoot regaled the several wizards inside with the little joke she had played on the students. The other wizards laughed out loud, and one even shook Stampfoot’s hand. Anne kept a tight smile on her face and simply nodded along, hoping to show a good sense of humor.
Stampfoot told them to wait and went into another room. When she returned, she was holding a long piece of parchment. “Warehouse Thirteen. We should be able to find what you’re looking for in there. I’ll take you over so you don’t get lost. The layout here can be a little confusing at first. You don’t want to step in any of the bear traps.”
Anne wondered if the wizard was serious about bear traps or whether it was another joke, but she was too nervous to ask.
With the iron knights still accompanying them, they zigzagged their way across the grounds, down small streets and between enormous warehouses. Any guards they met along the way seemed to take Stampfoot’s presence as conveying an unspoken stamp of approval upon their entire group. At each checkpoint, the guards simply waved them through until finally they arrived at a building with THIRTEEN painted on the side. Stampfoot ushered them inside.
“Here we go,” she said. She pointed down the center aisle. “According to the manifest, the items you’re looking for are in the third section, about halfway down on the left. Feel free to make your way there, and I’ll join you after I fill out some paperwork.”
The first section of the warehouse was filled with long rows of shelves and stacks of crates. They walked down the center aisle to the far end and proceeded through the doors there. Everyone came to a halt. Row upon row of iron knights filled the second section. Their armor had been polished until it shone like new, and every one of them had a sword strapped to its side. Each also had a dragon stone in its helmet. The stones were what powered the knights.
“Erm, that’s a lot of iron knights,” said Anne nervously.
Hiro looked ready to pass out. “I—I didn’t realize there were that many knights in the whole Hierarchy.”
“What could the Wizards’ Council want with them?” asked Marri.
“World domination,” said the Construct.
“I’m not sure,” said Anne uneasily. “But we might be able to make use of one. Jeffery, can you tune the dragon stone on one of those knights to the gauntlet?”
Jeffery appeared in a flash of light. “No problem.”
The little sparrow flitted up and landed on the helmet of the nearest iron knight, just above the dragon stone. He concentrated for a few seconds, and there was a brief flash from the stone. Anne gestured toward the knight, and it took a step forward.
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” asked Marri. “Someone might notice a missing knight.”
“I’ve learned it’s always good to have a backup plan,” said Anne. “If something goes wrong, we can use the extra muscle. And if anyone asks, we’ll simply tell them we don’t know what happened. They’re not going to suspect that a group of students moved one of their knights.”
They continued between the rows of knights and proceeded through the doors at the far end.
The third section
was much like the first: long rows of shelves with crates of all shapes and sizes. Halfway down the center aisle sat a stack of crates belonging to their school, just as Stampfoot had indicated. Oddly, though, they were all labeled SAINT LUFFIN’S.
“Is all this stuff from Saint Lupin’s?” asked Marri.
Anne stared in disbelief. “They told me everything was destroyed in the fire.”
“It looks like a few things weren’t,” said Hiro.
Anne couldn’t believe how much the council had removed without her knowledge or permission. It infuriated her, but she willed her fists to unclench. There would be plenty of time for outrage later. Hopefully. Right now they needed to focus on the task at hand.
Marri picked up a crowbar that was lying atop one of the crates. “We’d better get to work. There’s no telling when that wizard will be back.”
She shoved the crowbar under the lid of the nearest crate and pried the lid off. It fell to the floor with a clatter. Anne peered inside and immediately stepped back. The smell of smoke and charred wood was overpowering.
“I’m guessing there’s not too much of value in that one,” said Hiro, holding his nose.
The contents of the next several crates were much the same.
“Why would they want all this junk?” asked Anne.
“It’s Old World technology,” said Hiro. “Even burned to a crisp like this, it could prove to be of value someday.”
Penelope leaned against one of the crates. “Maybe the council stored anything of real value someplace else. You’d think our ‘leader’ would have known that.”
Hiro looked hurt but said nothing.
Anne wandered over to the next row. There were five large cylindrical chambers clustered together in the aisle—or what was left of them, anyway. Seven chambers had formed a semicircle in the middle of the laboratory, but they were all at least partially destroyed from the fire, and two of them completely so.
“Over here,” said Anne.
The others joined her.
The Adventurer's Guide to Treasure (and How to Steal It) Page 15
