The Adventurer's Guide to Successful Escapes

by Wade Albert White

Anne placed her foot on the first step. “Then I guess we’d better get going.”

  Hiro tugged on her sleeve and spoke in a low voice. “That means we’re going to have to stop when it’s pitch-black and sleep somewhere between here and the top. Thousands of feet above the ground. On an open staircase with no railing. With him.” Shard had disappeared above, and Hiro pointed in his direction. Even Penelope seemed a little unnerved by the prospect.

  Anne took both their hands. “Everything’s going to be fine. We’ll stick together, okay?”

  “Yeah, no wandering off,” Penelope replied. “Get it?”

  Everyone laughed nervously but seemed to relax a little.

  “Let’s go,” Shard called down. “Make hay while the sun shines. Scrape barnacles while the tide’s out. Clean a dragon’s teeth while he hibernates for the winter—no, wait, dragons don’t hibernate. That’s bears. Or was I thinking deer mice? You know what? Forget the teeth thing. Just do the first two.”

  The trio started up the stairs. Anne took the lead and Penelope brought up the rear. Hiro counted steps softly as they climbed. After a few minutes they caught up with Shard, who had stopped. There was a gap in front of him where about a dozen steps were missing.

  “How do we climb without stairs?” asked Hiro.

  “Not to worry,” said Shard, and he reached inside the pack he’d given Anne and pulled out a twig the size of his index finger.

  “What good is that going to do us?” asked Penelope.

  “Watch and see,” he said.

  He laid the twig on the step. While holding it with one hand, he tapped it twice with the other. The twig began to grow, stretching outward and upward, twisting and knotting and even sprouting leaves, until it had spanned the gap. Shard stood, marched up the branch, and hopped off the upper end.

  “Perfectly safe,” he said.

  Anne went first. She set one foot on the branch and then the other, moving steadily forward and upward while using her right hand on the wall for balance. Finally, her feet touched stone again.

  “I have a bad feeling about this,” moaned Hiro, but despite his apparent fear, he was the next to cross.

  Penelope came last, practically running up.

  Shard bent down and snapped a new twig off the branch. “See,” he said with a wide grin. “Not a problem.”

  “Is there a cost for using it?” Anne asked, curious. “I mean a magick cost?”

  Shard shook his head. “No. This is a completely different branch of magick.” He grinned again. “Get it? A different ‘branch’ of magick.” He let out a howl of laughter that sent shivers up Anne’s spine. Then he continued up the stairs.

  “I hope we don’t encounter too many of those gaps,” said Penelope.

  But they did encounter more. Many more. And although the branch held firm every time, the higher they climbed, the more nerve-racking it became to walk across. Hours later they were all dragging sore feet from one step to the next.

  “How far now?” asked Penelope.

  “I think… we passed… the fourteen-thousandth step.” Hiro was panting and could barely talk.

  “I swear, this is the longest two miles of my life.”

  Hiro shook his head. “It’s more than two miles. We aren’t going straight up but in a spiral. Each step is roughly a foot long across the top. So eighteen thousand steps is eighteen thousand feet, meaning the actual distance we walk will be closer to three and a half miles, and that’s if I’m right about how high the tower is.”

  “Wonderful. Now this quest is messing with my math,” said Penelope.

  “Yours and mine both,” said Anne.

  It grew progressively darker. Anne tried calling on Jeffery, thinking perhaps his glow might help light their way, but she received no response. She tried a few more times, but the little sparrow didn’t appear. Was Jeffery still upset about their argument over the books?

  “Fine, be that way,” she whispered to the gauntlet.

  The group kept climbing until they could hardly make out the steps in front of them. Shard called a halt before yet another gap in the staircase, one with at least twenty steps missing, possibly more.

  “I think perhaps it’s time to stop, yes?” said Shard. “We’re pretty much out of daylight, and soon we won’t be able to see these gaps. Unless someone else wants to walk first?” No one volunteered.

  Anne knew they couldn’t afford to lose any more time, but walking in the dark was too dangerous, and they were all so tired they could barely climb another step anyway. The group descended a dozen steps, to get away from the gap, and sat down. Dinner consisted of stale cheese and bread from the rations Jocelyn had given them along with more of Shard’s orange fruit. They passed around a canteen of lukewarm water. Shard also offered them some meat from his own supplies, but seeing as it was raw, they declined. Shard tore into the meat and wolfed it down in chunks, snapping and slobbering. Afterward, he licked his fingers loudly and sighed contentedly.

  By the time they had finished eating, it was pitch-dark, and they settled in for sleep. The steps weren’t wide enough to lie on, so they sat next to the wall, each on a separate step, and leaned against their packs with their cloaks draped over them. Shard settled down several steps below them. Even in the dark, Anne thought she could see the shine of Shard’s eyes; he was staring directly at them.

  “The very best of nights to you, worthy adventurers,” he said. “And the sweetest of dreams.”

  Anne awoke while it was still dark. She tried to fall back to sleep but couldn’t. She was anxious about their quest, and lying only a few feet from an eight-thousand-foot drop didn’t help. Also not helping was Shard, whose soft, raspy breaths echoed faintly off the walls. Shard had been kind to them. He had brought them to the tower and been helpful during the climb, especially with his magick branch. Nevertheless, something about him just didn’t feel right.

  A scraping noise on the step above caused her pulse to quicken.

  “Pen, is that you?” whispered Anne.

  “Sorry,” Penelope whispered back. “It’s hard to get comfortable.”

  “I know what you mean.”

  A moment of silence passed.

  “Sorry I dragged you into all of this,” said Anne suddenly. “I thought we were heading off to a wonderful adventure, not getting dropped into the middle of a horrible one.”

  “Are you kidding me?” said Penelope. “This is the best thing that’s ever happened to us. I mean, yeah, okay, so whacking my head on the drawbridge hurt a lot, and the zombie sharks and the iron knights were all kinds of terrifying, and I was unconscious for part of the time, and research is boring and makes me sleepy, and I thought we were finished for sure when those suits of armor attacked us and then that rope bridge broke. And of course, the thought of falling off these steps in our sleep is scary beyond belief, and who knows what we’re going to find at the top of this tower, and sure, if we fail miserably, we’ll spend our formative years stuck in a dungeon somewhere. But, you know, other than that, I’m having the time of my life.”

  “When you put it that way, who could resist?” said Anne, not sure whether to laugh or cry.

  “Oh, you know what I mean.”

  Anne grinned. “Actually, I do. Gauntlets and sparrows, prophecy medallions, traveling by fireball, quest academies, cat headmistresses, and to top it all off a fantastically cool guidebook that helps us. When it hasn’t been absolutely petrifying, it’s actually been a lot of fun.”

  Another pause.

  “Pen?” said Anne.

  “Yes?” said Penelope.

  “I… I don’t think I trust Shard. I think we should leave. Right now. Before he wakes up.”

  Penelope sat up and grabbed her pack. “You don’t have to tell me twice. I’ll wake Hiro.”

  “I’m not asleep,” Hiro said in the dark.

  “Why, you little eavesdropper,” said Penelope.

  THWACK.

  “Hey, sorry,” said Hiro. “I didn’t do it on purpose
. Your talking woke me up.”

  “You could have said something,” Penelope replied. “And I’m giving you another whack once I can see you properly. I don’t think that first one conveyed my complete feelings on the matter.”

  “Later, Pen,” said Anne. “So we’re all agreed?”

  “Do you really think we can climb all the way back down before Shard finds out?” asked Penelope.

  “We’re not going down,” said Anne at the same time that Hiro said, “We’re going up.”

  “Up?” Penelope squeaked.

  Anne shushed her. “This tower is part of the quest. We need to find whatever’s up there if we hope to succeed.”

  “How are we supposed to get across the next gap?” asked Penelope. “And what if there are more gaps?”

  Anne hesitated. She knew her answer wouldn’t be well received. “Shard’s branch,” she said finally.

  Hiro gasped. “You’re going to steal it?”

  “Are you sure you didn’t draw the thief token?” asked Penelope.

  “I’m going to borrow it. He can always go back and get another twig from the last gap in the steps. Anyway, if we hurry, we might make it to the top and back down again before he even wakes up.”

  Without further discussion, Anne felt her way down to where Shard’s three packs were stacked. She opened the first. It was mostly filled with papers and a few smooth stones, but no wooden objects. She didn’t find the twig in the second pack, either, and was just about to give up after searching the third bag thoroughly when she felt something hard along the side. There was an inner pocket that held the twig.

  “Got it,” she whispered.

  The air was chilly, so they donned their cloaks once again and slung their packs over their shoulders. Then Anne squeezed past the other two and slowly felt her way up the steps until she came to the gap. She laid the twig on the ledge and tapped it twice, as Shard had done. The twig vibrated as it grew and extended across the gap. When it stopped vibrating, she assumed it must have reached the other side.

  “Follow me,” she said, keeping her voice low.

  Anne placed one foot tentatively onto the branch. It held. She walked across, keeping one hand on the wall to guide her in the dark. Her brain threw all sorts of terrible images at her—falling, crashing off the wall, striking the bottom—but in truth walking along the branch in the dark was actually easier. Without light, the space below them was merely an undefined pool of blackness. Not exactly comforting, but in some ways less terrifying. Hiro followed behind Anne, with Penelope bringing up the rear. After everyone was safely across, Anne knelt and snapped off a new twig. She pocketed it, and they continued onward. They moved steadily but slowly up the stairs, to minimize their noise and to watch out for more gaps.

  They stopped occasionally to listen for any sign that Shard was awake or aware of their absence. They heard nothing. Anne pressed onward, while Penelope and Hiro stayed as close to her as was physically possible without actually stepping on her heels. They weren’t sure how long they climbed, but it felt like hours. Then the dim light of predawn came trickling down, and they realized they were near the top. They could see the light coming through jagged holes in the ceiling above.

  The staircase ended, leading them into a large room at the top of the tower. The tower’s central pillar continued upward in the middle of the room and ended in a jagged break. Rows of smaller pillars filled the rest of the space, although many had been smashed, and large pieces lay everywhere. A cluster of unbroken pillars on one side held up the remains of a roof, but much of the ceiling was open to the sky. The random holes in the floor, some quite large, were no doubt where falling pillars had broken through. The floor was covered in black sand.

  As Anne was about to ask the others what they thought had caused all this damage, Jeffery appeared in a burst of light.

  “What happened?” he asked.

  “What do you mean ‘what happened’?” said Anne. “I kept calling for you and you kept ignoring me.”

  Jeffery shook his head. “I tried to respond, but I couldn’t get out. It’s like something was blocking me.”

  “Are you okay?” said Anne, their spat forgotten. “Did you get caught in the loop again?”

  He shook his head. “It was different this time. Scarier. Maybe Captain Copperhelm should take a look at me again?”

  Anne patted his tiny head. “We’ll ask him to check you over just as soon as we get back.” She couldn’t help wondering if somehow Shard was involved in Jeffery becoming trapped, and she was doubly glad to have left him behind.

  “So what now?” asked Penelope.

  Anne surveyed the ruins. “I don’t know. The first line of the riddle said we had to climb the tower, and we’ve done that. According to the second line, now we’re supposed to find a knight who never lived.”

  Penelope looked around. “You really think some knight is sitting up here just waiting for a bunch of adventurers to come along and find him?”

  “Maybe he doesn’t actually live in the tower. Maybe there’s something here that will tell us where to find him.”

  “Is there anything new in The Adventurer’s Guide?” asked Hiro.

  Anne took it out. “No. In fact, now only Shard’s letter is showing. The rest of the pages have gone blank again.” She returned the book to her pocket. “I guess we could split up and look around for clues.”

  At Anne’s direction, Hiro started checking around the staircase, and Penelope headed toward the center of the room. Anne and Jeffery navigated their way along a portion of the exterior wall that was still intact. She scrutinized the pillars closely but found no writing or other symbols. The pillars were as smooth as the rest of the tower. Whatever it was they were supposed to find, she hoped it hadn’t been destroyed. Something bad had obviously happened up here, and maybe it was related to the creature mentioned in Shard’s—

  “Help!” shouted Hiro.

  Anne ran back toward the staircase, furious at herself for suggesting the group separate, but she stopped in her tracks before reaching them. Shard was standing there, and he was holding Hiro by the front of his tunic next to one of the holes in the floor.

  “I have questions, and you’re going to answer them,” said Shard. His voice was low and snarling. “Tell me the secret of this tower.”

  “We don’t know the secret,” said Anne. “Please let him go.”

  “I’m through playing games.” Shard shook Hiro, who whimpered.

  “If you’re mad about the branch, I’m the one who took it,” said Anne. She removed the twig from her pocket and tossed it over. “There. I’m sorry. Just release him, and I promise we’ll help you find whatever it is you’re looking for.”

  “I don’t care about some stupid twig,” he said. “Tell me the secret.”

  “I told you, we don’t—”

  “TELL ME THE SECRET NOW!” he roared, and he lifted Hiro off the ground as though he were about to throw him.

  Suddenly, Shard stumbled forward and Hiro dropped to the floor. At first Anne thought Shard had released Hiro, but then she saw an arm lying on the floor. Shard’s arm. She also saw Penelope next to Shard, wooden sword in hand. Penelope looked shocked at the result of her attack, but she quickly recovered.

  “Pick on someone your own size,” she said.

  Then she froze.

  They all froze.

  The stump of Shard’s arm wasn’t bleeding. Instead, an oily black smoke poured out of it. Even more worrisome, Shard wasn’t screaming in pain over his severed arm. In fact, he hardly seemed bothered at all, like having an arm cut off was simply a thing that sometimes happened.

  Hiro scrambled to his feet and joined Penelope. Anne only wished she could do the same, but Shard stood between them.

  “What are you?” asked Anne, trying her best to keep her voice from cracking.

  Shard’s mouth turned upward into a ghoulish grin. His eyes had become glassy and unfocused. He started toward her.

  “She
knew you would come here,” said Shard.

  Anne backed away. “Who knew?” she asked, although she had already guessed the answer.

  “You think you’ve escaped her grasp, but you haven’t. There’s nowhere you can go. She doesn’t have to chase you. She’s anticipated your every move. You might as well accept defeat now and save her the trouble.”

  “If the Matron wants me, she’s going to have to come and get me herself,” Anne said.

  Shard gave a high-pitched barking laugh. “Oh, she will, she will. She most certainly will. And think of the reward I’ll receive for having captured you.”

  Anne’s heels touched the edge of another hole. She doubted there were any dragons waiting to rescue her from a fall this time.

  “Of course,” continued Shard, “if you tell me the secret of the tower, I might let you go. She’ll still find you, but at least you’ll have a few more days, a few more hours, minutes, seconds of your scrawny, pathetic, miserable lives.” His breathing became labored, and he dragged his feet across the floor. Smoke continued to pour out of his arm.

  A small rainbow-colored streak flew straight at Shard and swooped around his head.

  “Leave my Keeper alone, you big bully,” yelled Jeffery.

  Shard batted the little sparrow away with ease. Anne tried to run, but Shard grabbed her wrist and forced her back toward the hole.

  “TELL ME THE SECRET!” he screamed. “TELL ME! TELL ME! TELL ME! TELL—”

  Shard’s rant was cut short. This wasn’t so much because he had run out of things to say but more due to the giant metal hand that had suddenly clamped itself around his neck. The hand was connected to a correspondingly giant metal arm, which in turn was attached to a giant metal… man? He was over ten feet tall, and his gray body was dulled and tarnished with age. In addition to his two regular arms, a third arm protuded from his right shoulder, giving him a hunchbacked appearance.

  Shard released Anne and fought to free himself from the hand, and Anne moved away quickly from both her attacker and his attacker. Shard struggled against the giant to no avail.

  “Initiating security scan,” said the metal man, and a green beam of light streamed from his eyes and swept over Shard. “Security scan complete,” he said after the light turned off. “Intruder classification: enemy. Course of action: immediate disposal.”