by Lily Webb
“Have any of them come from room 666?” I asked, and Keez froze on one foot. Her eyes flashed as she re-examined me.
“Maybe human girl not human.”
My heart rate doubled. “So, there is a room 666 here?”
“Many rooms here. Imps see them all.”
“Even 666?”
“Not know. Number means nothing to imps, only shiny.”
Annoyed with the imp’s endless games, I considered stomping away until another realization electrified me: if the imps really could get around the inn undetected, could they know something about Feal too? Had they ever been in her home under the bottom stair while she cleaned or slept? Had they seen what happened to her?
“Have you ever stolen from Feal?”
Keez hissed. “No! Keez like play tricks on Feal, but no steal.”
“Do you know where she is?”
Keez’s expression fell. “No. Keez sad. Keez miss Feal. Lox, too. Have deal with Feal.”
Lox wailed his agreement through a fresh round of tears. “Feal!” He banged his little fists against the pile of keys, alternating left and right, filling the room with the jingle of metal against metal. “Deal with Feal! Deal with Feal! Deal with Feal!”
“What deal?” I pressed.
Keez lifted off the ground, pulling Lox along with her, and fluttered toward me. She summoned me toward them with a microscopic finger. Cautiously, I approached, and she flew to my ear. “Deal keep Feal safe. Feal no like people, so imps scare them away.”
“Why?”
“Feal is brownie. Brownies not like company.”
“Did something happen to her?”
Keez fluttered back and shrugged. “Keez not know. Keez hear Feal squeal, and now Feal gone. Imps not keep Feal safe.”
“Feal squeal! Feal squeal! Feal squeal!” Lox howled and let himself fall out of the air, dangling by his tail from Keez’s mere inches from the ground.
Did that mean someone had walked in on Feal while she was cleaning? Or had she walked in on someone who wasn’t happy about being seen? I couldn’t say, but I no longer doubted something bad had happened to Feal. The imps were natural-born tricksters, but I didn’t think for a second they were lying about any of it, based on the way they reacted while talking about Feal.
“Human girl look for Feal?” Keez asked.
“Yes, I am. So, anything you know, please tell me. I’ll bring you shinies in exchange. How’s that?”
Keez’s eyes lit up like coals flaming in the night. “Shiny! Girl have deal,” she said, and the floor beneath her twisted into a burning ring. The imps dropped into the black hole and disappeared. As soon as they passed through, the ring vanished. Well, that explained how they could get around the inn.
I didn’t know what else to do, so I waited. A few moments later, the portal re-opened in the floor and the imps buzzed up out of it. Keez held what looked like a tiny broom, approximately the size of the imp herself. She held it out to me and plopped it into my hand.
A roaring in my ears made me cry out as another vision ripped through my mind. Through a dreamlike, hazy filter, as if watching the scene through fogged glass, I saw a tiny, knobby creature waddling down one of the inn’s hallways. Brittle, straw-like brown hair poked out from under the creature’s pointed red hat, and a broom rested on their shoulder.
The creature stopped outside the door to a room, but because they were so short, I couldn’t see much of the door or the room number. They rested their broom against a strip of decorative siding along the door and raised a thin, gnarled fist to pound on the door, and when no one answered, they rested their hand against the surface and the door swung open by magic. As they stepped inside, leaving their broom behind, the roaring in my mind once more overtook me, and I crashed back into my body.
It had to have been Feal.
“Human girl? Human girl sick? Keez get help!” the imp shrieked.
“No, no. I’m fine,” I insisted, though my head felt like someone had taken a meat cleaver to it — and Keez’s grating voice didn’t help. “Is this broom Feal’s?”
Keez nodded. “Keez find on sixth floor. Also near dwarf room. Dwarf not like Feal.”
“He doesn’t? Why not?” I asked, though I could barely concentrate through the splitting headache radiating through my entire body.
“Feal not listen. Dwarf say leave room alone. Feal not obey,” Keez said.
“Brownie not help herself. Must clean. No choice,” Lox chimed in. “Sometimes touch imp’s shinies. Lox not like.”
Though I didn’t see it in the vision, a thought struck me. “Do you think that key you found was also Feal’s?”
“Imps not know.”
I was afraid they’d say that. “Why did you take it down to the first floor where I found you?”
“Accident. Try to bring key here. But key fight imps.”
My head throbbed, and because of it, I couldn’t make sense of what Lox and Keez were telling me. “What do you mean? How could a key fight you?”
“Imps not know. Try to come here, but key refuse. Pull imps out of portal,” Lox said.
“Human girl keep broom. Help find Feal. Imps help human girl,” Keez insisted.
“Okay, thank you. I’ll find her. I promise,” I said, more to get away from the noisy imps than anything else.
“If human girl finds Feal, imps give back buzzy box. Have deal?”
“It’s a deal,” I said, and Keez beamed, an otherworldly sight.
Lox floated up beside Keez. “Imps like human girl.”
“Maybe you two aren’t so bad yourselves.”
“Twirl with girl! Twirl with girl! Twirl with girl!” the imps squealed as they flitted in circles around my head, but my thoughts and pain consumed me too much to join them.
The imps had found Feal’s broom and the key on the sixth floor, which must’ve been where I’d seen Feal in my latest vision. Were they connected somehow? It could’ve been a coincidence that Lox and Keez found both items outside Aron’s room, but I found that increasingly hard to believe — especially since Blair had assigned him to search the sixth floor for Feal the night before.
What was the dwarf hiding?
Chapter Seven
I returned to the others with Feal’s broom tucked under my arm. Blair glanced from me to the broom and back again, her eyes widening.
“Is that…? Are you okay? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“Well, I kind of did. And yeah, this is Feal’s broom. The imps said they found it on the sixth floor near Aron’s room and gave it to me. When I touched it, I had another vision.”
Blair’s brows rocketed upward. “What was it?”
“It didn’t seem like much at first, but now I’m not sure. I saw Feal walking down the hall of the sixth floor. She stopped outside a room, put her broom up against the wall, knocked, and went inside. That was it. But the imps told me they found the broom outside Aron’s room, along with the key.”
“But Feal doesn’t go anywhere without her broom. It’s practically attached to her hip,” Blair said incredulously.
“Then something must’ve separated her from it,” Kiki said, and silence settled over us as we contemplated what that meant. No one wanted to believe it, but none of us could deny it anymore — especially not now after my latest vision. But who would want to go after a harmless housekeeping brownie? Granted, I’d yet to meet Feal, but from the way the others described her and what I saw of her in my vision, she seemed harmless.
“I can’t believe the imps handed the broom over to you. They never do that. What did you say to them to win them over?” Blair asked a few moments later.
“Basically, I told them I was looking for the missing key, and they swore they didn’t take it. They dropped hints about being able to move around the inn undetected so, on a hunch, I asked if they saw what happened to Feal. They said no, just that they found the key that gave me the visions and the broom on the sixth floor. Oh, and they promised to help me find
Feal.”
Blair smiled at me, her eyes twinkling. “I’m wondering if your magic is stronger than we realized.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, you’ve now had two visions, and if you can charm Lox and Keez out of one of their prized possessions, you must be innately talented.”
I shrugged. “I’ve always been good at talking to people. And on that note, I’d like to talk to Aron. Is he around?”
Kiki chuckled. “Now I see the family resemblance. She’s just as determined as you are, Blair.”
“Normally, that might scare me, but given how badly we need to find Feal, I’m grateful for it,” Blair said, still smiling. She held her hand out for her wand so I passed it back to her, and as soon as it left my hand, the magical hum that’d been flowing through me went out like a snuffed candle.
“Selena and I had an idea,” Jadis spoke up as we headed for the stairs. “Just because you and Kiki don’t know of a room 666, that doesn’t mean there isn’t one. Aron built Kindred Spirits, right? So, if anyone would know about any secret rooms, it would be him.”
“Not necessarily,” Blair said and walked away without explaining. Given that her wand was the only source of light in the darkness, we had no choice but to chase after her. “The thing is, visions can be, well, misleading,” she said when we reached the staircase. She hitched up her robes with her free hand and started climbing. “I don’t doubt what Selena saw in her visions, but seeing something doesn’t make it true. Unfortunately, divination doesn’t work that way.”
“Then how does it work? Don’t forget, I’m new to all this magic stuff,” I called up the stairs from behind Blair.
“Visions are peeks into what could be, not necessarily what is. They can also be metaphors, prompts to get the seer to think deeper about an issue. They’re often incomplete pictures, depending on the magical strength and skill of the seer.”
“But what I saw in both was so vivid. I don’t think there’s anything missing; Feal’s trapped in room 666. I’m sure of it now. I just don’t know who put her there or why.”
Blair paused on the stairs to turn and look me in the eye. “How can you be so sure?”
“I dunno. I just feel it in my gut. Don’t you ever get feelings like that? Things you can’t explain, but you just know you’re right about?”
Blair smiled again and nodded. “Oh, have I ever, love. Why do you think I left my family behind and ended up here in Starfall Valley?”
“Then you know exactly what I mean! You’ve got the same intuition. I’m telling you, Blair, something’s not right here, and I think Aron might be tied to it somehow.”
Blair continued up the stairs. “Well, you’re welcome to speak to him if you think it’ll help. But I’ll warn you: Aron’s not known for his skills in conversation. He prefers to speak with his hammer.”
A realization slammed into me as if Aron had swung at me with his hammer. “What if I touched his hammer?”
“What?” Blair asked, her brows stitching together.
“Think about it: both of the visions I’ve had were triggered when I touched a personal item. If Aron won’t tell me anything, what if I touched his hammer? It might give me another vision.”
“I suppose it’s possible, but good luck getting to his hammer. It’s sacred to him.”
“Yeah, I noticed that he wouldn’t let go of it during dinner last night. What’s the story with that?”
“Forging and construction border on being religious activities for the dwarves. There’s an old saying about them being born with a hammer in hand. Anyway, don’t be surprised if you can’t get anything out of him. Even we barely know the dwarf, and we’ve lived with him for the better part of twenty years.”
That didn’t make me trust Aron more, but I kept it to myself as we emerged in the comparatively blinding light of the foyer. Thankfully, the pain I’d been feeling in my head had dulled enough that the light didn’t hurt too badly.
“Aron’s room is what we like to call the penthouse suite up on the sixth floor. You can’t miss it. We’ll hold on to Feal’s broom in the meantime,” Blair said and took the tiny cleaning tool from me. “Good luck and let us know what you hear. Kiki and I will keep probing the other guests to find out if they’ve seen or heard anything that might point us in Feal’s direction.”
Jadis’ stomach grumbled, making everyone laugh. “Maybe we’d better finish our breakfast first,” I suggested with a sympathetic look at Jadis. She breathed a sigh of relief.
“Thank you. I’m dying,” she said while she rubbed her stomach, so we went back to the kitchen together. The other guests and staff had already cleared out, except for Emile, who was still chopping vegetables like a machine in the prep room.
Jadis and I followed the sound through the kitchen to the prep room and retrieved our bowls of oatmeal where we’d left them. Even cold, Jadis tore into the food like she might never see nourishment again, and guilt washed over me for keeping her from breakfast when I’d already known how hungry she was. She finished her bowl in record time, set it on the table, and gripped her stomach in pain.
“Ugh, I ate too fast,” she groaned.
“Yeah, I noticed. Dang, girl.”
“It’s your fault for making me wait,” she said and stuck her tongue out at me. “So Aron, huh? You really think the dwarf is behind all this business with Feal?”
I shrugged. “Honestly? I don’t know what to believe anymore. Nothing seems impossible in this place. I mean, can you believe this? We’ve only been here for a day and we’re already walking around unfazed by the witches, imps, and vampires sharing the space with us.”
Jadis chuckled. “Right? Like I said before, I wouldn’t believe it if I hadn’t seen it all with my own eyes. And these visions of yours? Fascinating.”
“More like terrifying. Anyway, I’m not all that hungry. Are you ready to go?”
“You’re just gonna go accost Aron?”
“What else am I supposed to do?”
“Yeah, good point. All right, fine. Let’s go then,” Jadis said, so we thanked Emile again for the food and headed out of the kitchen for the stairs.
Conversation died while we climbed, which I was thankful for because it gave me time to think and get my story straight. If Aron was really as reserved as Blair said, he probably wouldn’t tell me anything at all if I came across too strong. I couldn’t outright accuse him of hurting Feal; I had to get him to incriminate himself somehow.
Unfortunately, as long as the climb was, it wasn’t long enough for me to sort everything out. We stepped onto the sixth-floor landing, and even from the end of the hall, I immediately knew which room was Aron’s.
At the far end of the hall, a huge, ornate door decorated to look like a gate stood out like a sore thumb. If the size of the door was any sign, the room inside had to be massive — no wonder Blair referred to it as the penthouse suite.
“You sure you wanna do this?” Jadis asked, and I scowled at her.
“Don’t you dare chicken out and leave me up here on my own with him.” Truth be told, I was just as afraid of the dwarf as she was, but I couldn’t let that show.
“All right, all right. Fine. But you lead the way.”
Determined not to look like a coward myself, I stormed ahead of her toward Aron’s room and pounded on the door before every ounce of my courage drained out of me. I waited with my arms crossed and breath held, but no answer came, so I hammered on the door again, harder this time, just to make sure Aron heard me.
I’d just raised my fist to knock a third time when the door cracked open, and I had to look down to see him. Aron glared up at me, his hammer in one hand, its head resting against the floor beside him.
“What. Do. You. Want?” he snapped, his beard fluttering with each forceful syllable.
I gulped. “Um, hi, Mr. Aron. I’m Selena, and I’m new at the inn. Anyway, I wanted to, uh, talk to you about some things.”
“Like what?”
I f
roze, unsure what I could say that wouldn’t lead to him slamming the door in my face — or worse. Thankfully, my brain shifted quickly into gear. “It’s about the layout of the inn. I know you built it, and I can’t help admiring your handiwork.”
The annoyed expression he wore — or what little of it I could see through his beard — softened slightly. “It’s my magnum opus,” Aron said. “Few people staying here seem to notice or care, though. What did you want to know?”
“Well, specifically, I wanted to ask you about a certain room,” I said cautiously.
Hesitating, he looked me up and down, but eventually refocused on my face. “Which one?”
“Room 666.”
Aron stared at me blankly, like I’d spoken another language to him. “I’m sorry?”
Jadis jumped in. “Room 666. You know, with three sixes.”
The dwarf shook his head, making his beard rustle. “No such thing.”
“Are you sure? It’s just that Selena saw—”
“I ought to know,” Aron cut her off. “I built the place, remember? I’m telling you, there’s no room 666 in this building. Whatever Selena saw, she’s wrong. Anything else I can do for you two?”
I shifted on my feet uncomfortably. “Listen, Mr. Aron, I don’t mean any disrespect, but I’ve been having, um, these visions, and I distinctly saw a room 666 here in the inn. So, are you positive there’s not a room like that? I mean, Blair told me that the building’s enchanted and likes to move rooms around, so is there any possibility that—”
“I’ll show you the bloody blueprint, if you don’t believe me,” he interrupted again and flung the door open all the way, revealing a stunning room with floor-to-ceiling windows lining the whole far wall, providing an incredible view of the snow-covered village below. Dwarf-sized, black leather furniture filled the room at an appropriate height for Aron.
