by Lady Ellen
Thaddeus shoved his hands in his pants pockets and shrugged his shoulders. “I know that on the surface. It’s just Laurel’s always been tough to please. I never really know how she feels. It’s like I’m just being tolerated.” His eyes went up to the sky. “I dunno. Just wished I’d grown up with my own folks, I guess.”
Persy nodded. She got it.
Benson flew back and forth, exercising his ability up to warp speed and to check out where they are going. P-C lumbered behind, humming softly to himself.
Suddenly, Benson zoomed back and said, “It’s just up there--the castle--about ten minutes at the rate you lot are going. Very dark and creepy if you ask me. Think I’ll stay with you...um....you may need my protection.”
Persy grinned. “Oh, sure, thanks Benson.”
In less than ten minutes, they came to a clearing, about an acre in size. They stood at the edge of the forest in the shadow of a great oak and studied Bodesnoir Castle in detail. It was still close to five hundred feet away.
The castle was built of stone and colossal heavy wood. The front doors were about twenty feet high, comprising of massive beams, brass strapping and hardware. A dozen stone steps led to the landing before the doors, where two immense and very thick-looking trolls stood, drooling down their hairy chests.
“Okay, this is it,” said Persy. “Benson, I don’t have to charm you. Once we get through the doors, you just zoom by the trolls. You fly too fast for them to detect you. As for us,” she said to Thaddeus and P-C, “Here goes.” Persy tapped each of them, and herself, repeating ‘Tegos’ on all.
Immediately they felt their energy start to sap; they went as quickly as they could across the open area to the castle and up the stone steps. Halfway up, Persy felt like she was walking through quicksand, that something was pulling on her legs, making every move a slogging effort. She glanced behind her and by the look of things, Thaddeus and P-C were having the same problem.
Persy called to them in Silent Speak. “Come on, we’ve got to get by the trolls before we are overwhelmed by this lack of energy. Put everything you have into it,” she encouraged them. The trolls were too dim and blind to notice the sparkles.
By the time Persy was on the landing, she was crawling to get to the door. She glanced up at the Trolls, who were both dozing against the stone walls. Good thing they’re so useless, I was wondering how I was going to open the door, unnoticed.
She dragged herself up to the door, pressed down on the latch and gently, but firmly, pushed it open, just enough to let the three through. Benson zoomed past her as she slipped in.
Thaddeus, too, was pulling himself along by his elbows, while P-C half crawled and half used his wings in slow oscillation to help drag his bulk through the door.
The three of them collapsed on the floor.
“I…must...do...the...counter-charm…,” Persy sluggishly said. She tried to take her wand from her pocket and finally succeeded in extracting it, but then dropped it on the floor, too exhausted. It rolled out of her reach.
“Persy,” whispered Thaddeus with what seems like his last breath.
“Un...do...the....Veil...p-l-e-e-e-e-z-z-z-z-z-e-e-e-e,” and his air ran out.
Benson saw what was happening, practically jumped out of his skin, ‘er...exoskeleton’.
He sped to Persy’s wand and tried with his little legs to lift it to give it back to her. “A-a-a-a-a-r-r-r-r-r-r-g-g-g-g-g-h-h-h-h!” he spewed. No good...too heavy.
A light-bulb moment struck Benson. He turned around and used his butt end to edge under the wand and flick it up. It rolled toward Persy. He only needed to repeat this three times and it was within her reach. Persy slowly wrapped her fingers around the wand and lifted it as if it weighed four hundred pounds.
“Push,” she said to herself weakly. She had to free herself from the Veil to help the others. At a snail’s pace, she curled her arm up and tapped her own head. “Lexos…” she grunted more than spoke.
Whoosh! In a millisecond, she could feel the blood circulate through her limbs, then her body. Although for a few minutes more, she felt like she hadn’t slept in a week, she had enough ‘umph’ in her to sit up, reach Thaddeus and P-C and perform the same counter-charm.
Whoosh again!
All three began to move. Recovering. They sat for a few minutes and then stood, ready for action.
“Wow, that was weird,” said Thaddeus. “I can see why you wouldn’t want to do that very often.”
“That’s for sure,” agreed Persy, slowly looking around the entrance hall.
Before them was a round foyer, about fifty feet in diameter. Like the outside, everything was made of stone and wood. On each side of them was a semi-circular staircase leading up to a balcony about thirty feet above them. On the back wall in the centre of the balcony was a large pentagram, hung upside down.
Persy studied it carefully. “It’s a sign of Black Magic to hang it like that.”
“Well that fits,” stated Benson. “Considering where we are.”
“Laurel told us to look for something out of place,” said Thaddeus. “See anything?”
They looked around. Benson flit up and down the staircase. Candles were along the walls, lit and burning, there was a small table at the back of the entrance area, but on examination, there was nothing unusual about it.
After several minutes Persy decided, “Well, the only strange thing to us would be the upside down pentagram.”
“But it’s not strange to Melanthios, that’s the way she would have it,” replied P-C.
“Yes, but I doubt the key would be giving clues to the likes of Melanthios, it would be addressing someone like us and that is odd to us.” Persy was becoming more and more certain that the symbol is the hot item.
“Well, no sense arguing, you lot,” said Benson. “Let’s go see.” And he buzzed up to the pentagram while the others scampered up the stairs.
They stood, except Benson, he was on Persy’s shoulder, in front of the pentagram. Persy stepped up to it and pushed on it, felt around the edges for hinges, pulled on it...nothing happened.
“Hey,” said Thaddeus. “If it’s upside down, maybe we should try rotating it.”
He grabbed it by the sides and pulled in a circle to the right--nope! Then to the left and over it went. When the star’s top point was at the twelve mark on a clock, something clicked and a drawer opened just beneath the pentagram. Persy craned her neck to see inside, along with Thaddeus, and there lay a small, six inch scroll.
Thaddeus took it out and handed it to Persy. “Here,” he said, “You should be the one to read it. After all, they’ve dragged you here all the way from your world.”
“Thanks,” smiled Persy as she unwound the scroll and read:
“Three sets of pacings must thee do – and in good order
Face Magic’s symbol before you commence -
10 paces sinister – half turn thee hence -
12 paces again – and not many more –
10 paces dextro – in the wall a hidden door –
When all is done and in good order –
In view a red lever on said door’s border –
Depress seven times to pass thee through –
For your quest continues –
See what thee must do –”
They read the scroll over several times, each pitching in what they felt each line meant.
“Sinister is left and dextro is right, that’s pretty straight forward,” offered Thaddeus.
“Face Magic’s symbol has to be the pentagram,” said Persy.
“Right, then,” said Benson. “Start pacing this off. Obviously my steps won’t mean diddly.”
“Mine either,” noted P-C. “Far too big!”
It was up to Persy and Thaddeus. They stood together facing the pentagram and paced off ten steps to the left. Their counting ended at a hallway which went left and right.
“Turn thee hence,” queried Persy. “Does that mean left or right?”
“Hmmmm, good question,” Thaddeus answered. “But I think ‘hence’ is kind of like ‘as before’ so let’s try left.”
Left they went…twelve paces more. Then turned to the right, do the last ten. The walls were of solid wood planks, and nowhere could they see a red lever on the border of any of the planks.
“Maybe we counted incorrectly,” suggested Persy.
“Or if they think grown-ups will be finding the clue, maybe our paces are too short.”
Meanwhile, Benson and P-C were buzzing and stomping around respectively and generally getting in the way.
“Listen you two,” said Persy, “Could you just go sit somewhere, evaporate or something? You’re making this harder for us to concentrate and figure out.”
“Well! Pardon me for breathing!” scoffed Benson flying off down one of the hallways to explore on his own. P-C tried to keep up, but wound up meandering around alone at his own pace.
“Ok. Let’s start again and take big strides and see what happens,” said Thaddeus.
Back they went to the pentagram and restart the whole process six or seven times before collapsing on a bench in one of the hallways to re-think their attack on this puzzle.
Persy pored over every word of the message, trying to decipher hidden meanings, plays on words...anything which could give them insight on how to do things differently.
“Wait!” she yelled out.
Thaddeus rocketed three inches off his seat “Good grief. I just about swallowed my tongue....what?”
“Sorry, but look,” Persy pointed to the wording.
“It says twice in the rhyme ‘in good order’ which normally one would think means something like ‘right away’ or ‘in good time’. But what if it’s not that? What if it’s more literal? In-good-order...meaning ‘a certain order of doing the instructions’ and that we have to choose that order correctly?”
Thaddeus jumped to his feet. “That’s the twist. Let’s go back and try doing it in reverse. Doing it as written didn’t work.”
They ran back to the pentagram. Took ten paces to the right, turn right again, take twelve paces and then to the left for ten more.
There was quite a commotion with their excitement. Benson came drilling down the hall where they stopped, P-C stomped up behind him.
“What’s the hub-bub, Bub?” asked Benson.
They didn’t answer right away. They had spotted the red lever together and ran over to it.
“This is it, Persy,” cried Thaddeus, his eyes sparkling.
“Ok.” They each put their thumbs on the lever, “Count.”
“One, two, three, four, five, six, SEVEN!”
A loud ‘thunk’ was heard and a door, which took up five planks in the wall, slowly swung inward.
In front of them was an enormous room, finished with a rich green marble floor and golden light fixtures. It’s the largest and most impressive house library Persy’s ever seen.
When they entered the room, the four could inspect the details even better. There were eight centre stacks of bookshelves within the room and all the walls were lined with more shelves, except the wall on the left side of the room. That wall was covered with three over-sized mirrors, about five by six feet each. The mirrors all had a centre glass and two side panels. There were three high arched windows in the walls between the mirrors, which made the room bright and welcoming. These windows were about fifteen feet high and stretched high above the shelves. The whole room had twenty-five foot high walls and a richly embossed ceiling.
As the four stood with their jaws slack, they heard a loud clang. The door closed itself. Thaddeus ran over, tries to open it, but it was securely locked with no handle or latch.
Persy, Benson and P-C watched Thaddeus and couldn’t believe their eyes.
“Great,” sighed Benson. “At least we can be well-read in our dying hours.”
“Relax, Benson,” grumbled Persy. “We’ll find our way out. I can’t help but believe there’s a plan to this whole quest for the key. Something about this felt like manipulation. I think in the vernacular, one could say, ‘I smell a rat and me thinks her name begins with a big black M’.”
“Yeah, ya gotta wonder. Why are we in this castle, running up and down the halls and we haven’t run into her?”
Persy bit her lower lip. “I know. Right? Why?”
“Dunno. But she’s probably as sneaky as a Marsh Howler. I wouldn’t trust this.”
“Marsh Howler?”
“Yeah, like large toads but dog-size. They catch kids in particular around marshes or swamps and try to drown them. Howl something awful when they catch something. Creepy as heck.”
“Ugh. Nice,” Persy said sarcastically.
They circled around the library, screening every shelf, fixture, and mirror with great care; they knew somewhere there were clues to the location of the key, or even the key itself could be in this room.
“The scroll wouldn’t have led us here, if the next hint or the key isn’t in this room,” Thaddeus said.
Persy scoured shelf after shelf, looking behind books. “I agree. Only it sure isn’t making itself known, is it?”
After an hour or so, they began to get tired, so they sat down and opened the backpack Laurel sent along with them. Persy, Thaddeus and P-C shared the food while Benson flew around the windows and mirrors looking for tempting morsels of small insects.
He perched lightly on top of one of the mirrors and noticed that even with his small weight it moved. Intrigued, he gently slid behind the mirror and spied rows of small hinges along the inside back border. ‘Hmmmm….’
Benson quickly checked out the other mirrors...lo and behold. All of the mirrors had the same hinging along their back, inside borders.
“I say, Perse,” yelled Benson. “Come here a mo’ will ya? I think I’m on to something.” He knew in his exoskeleton that there must be a reason for this.
Persy jumped up, ran over to Benson. Thaddeus and P-C followed, curiosity getting the better of them.
Benson showed them what he found and Persy and Thaddeus grabbed the outside panels of the mirrors and tried to move them back and forth. It was plain that the middle mirrors’ panels didn’t move, but the two on the outside did and very easily.
“Look what happens when I move them,” said Persy, “the light from the windows is bounced off one mirror to another and then travels in light beams to the books.”
Thaddeus had the bright idea to check the books or points where the beams ended, thinking maybe they indicate a hiding place or a clue.
Moving the mirrors one at a time, they did that, but found no book or concealed compartment behind any book. When Persy decided to move both outside mirrors on each side toward their respective middle one, they hit pay dirt.
“Look,” she exclaimed. “The light pours in through the window, hits the one side of the middle mirror, bounces around all mirrors in a very symmetrical pattern, converges and zaps over to hit the middle stone embedded into an archway on the back wall of the room.
“Humph. “Should have seen that coming...that stone is the keystone of the arch,” she said.
They ran over, but it was too high for Persy or Thaddeus. Benson flew up and landed just beside the marked stone, “Yup, something unusual about this one. It has no filler of any kind around it like the others. It’s just sitting in there.” Unfortunately, it was far too heavy for Benson to do anything about.
P-C began to hum. Everyone turned to look at him, realizing it was his wings, revving up. He rose, bit by bit vertically until he was at eye level with the stone. Digging his talons into the edges of the stone, he managed to extract it with ease. Peering inside, he squealed, “There’s something in here!” He was losing his balance and descended a few feet. Persy and Thaddeus gasped.
“Hang on, there ol’ chap,” called Benson. “Don’t want you splatting yourself on the floor like some great melon.”
P-C grinned, righted himself, reached into the cubby-hole and extracted a key. He allow
ed himself to descend and gave the key to Persy.
“This has to be it,” she cried, “look at the top of the key.”
There was a knotted piece of rope at the end of the key and nothing said ‘binding’ more than that.
Persy pocketed the key. She picked up her backpack and headed for the door. Their short-lived delight quickly vanished when they realized they are still locked in the great marble library.
“Nuts.” said Thaddeus. “Now how do we get out of here?”
Immediately, they looked around the edges of the door for lever, buttons, pulls, and loose stones, anything which can ultimately lead to tripping the door open.
When nothing could be found after a half an hour, they began scouring all the walls.
Persy walked in deep thought between the rows of bookshelves, thinking, playing out ideas in her mind. Unaware of what she was doing, she dragged her fingertips across the face ends of the free standing bookshelves and suddenly became aware that each had a light switch embedded in it. Hmmm, a little Time-Linxed technology was swiped and brought home, got to love modern comforts like electric lights.
There were two small levers on each plate which turned the individual lights for its respective shelf on and off. Under each lever, she felt the rune script for ‘On’ and ‘Off’, embossed on a metal plate.
All but one, that was; the switch plate on the end bookcase, the one furthest to the right of the doorway as one came into the room had only one lever and its rune read ‘Out’.
“YES! I’ve got it.”
Persy pushed down on the switch and the heavy door creaked open. They charged outside into the hallway and down to the entrance way.
Thaddeus carefully edged the front door open a titch and peeked outside. Luck was with them, the trolls were still dozing.
“Ok,” said Persy. “I’m putting the Veil back on us, so use your energy carefully. It’s all downhill from here so we shouldn’t totally exhaust ourselves this time. Be quiet and be steady, and get to the edge of the forest as quickly as possible.”
