Floriano tossed his head. “I’m here for the adventure,” he said. “Not to rescue anyone. And the adventure I’ve always wanted was to become a star. I heard some stable hands talking once about something called Magikos Has Talent, and ever since then I’ve known that becoming a star was the life for me. Just think what it would do for my career if I performed for a queen!”
The girls tried to change his mind, but Floriano was determined. “This is my chance,” he kept repeating. “You go on and do what you have to do. When they come back, I’ll make up an excuse for you. Stage fright or something.”
Marabel couldn’t spare any more time. So, with a quick good-bye and one backward glance, she rejoined Ellie and they set off in search of the dungeon. Marabel tried to tell herself they didn’t need him, but she knew she was going to miss the conceited unicorn.
The castle was quiet and dim, and it smelled musty. Every once in a while they passed a sign that read HERE BE THE WAY OUT in large red letters with another, smaller sign below it that added DON’T FORGET TO VISIT OUR GIFT SHOP BEFORE YOU LEAVE!
Their footsteps echoed in the empty hallways, and Marabel grew more and more anxious that they would never find the dungeon. Marabel was sure they’d be wandering the corridors forever when they stumbled on a floor plan of the castle hanging on a wall. A red dot in the middle of the plan was marked YOU BE HERE.
“Aha!” Ellie said. “Now where is the dungeon?”
“Let’s see,” Marabel muttered. “If we just passed the keep, and the postern is on our left—”
A door in front of them suddenly swung open, and a tall female figure, clothed in a black robe, stepped out and looked straight at them.
“You there!” she called out.
It was a witch. She wasn’t carrying a broom or wearing a high-pointed hat, but such a strong air of magic and authority hovered around her that they just knew. “Where are you supposed to be?” the witch demanded.
“Well—” Ellie said.
“The green room,” Marabel managed.
“And who gave you permission to leave it?”
They had no answer, so neither one said anything.
“Let me see your passes,” she said.
They looked at each other. Ellie made a show of rummaging in her pouch and then in her hood. “Must have lost them,” she mumbled. “You don’t have them, uh, Aurora, do you?”
Aurora? Marabel was puzzled for an instant, then caught on that Ellie was hiding her identity. “No,” she said. “I thought you had them.”
“I gave them to you!” Ellie said.
“No, you didn’t.” Marabel wondered how long they’d be able to keep this up.
“Is there some trouble here?” broke in another voice, and Floriano trotted toward them. “Where are you girls supposed to be?” he demanded.
“What do—” Marabel started, but the unicorn shot her a meaningful glare, and she stopped.
“That’s what I was trying to find out,” the witch said. “And who are you?”
“Her Majesty’s new head of security,” he rattled out. “I’ll take these two with me. When I report their capture, I’ll recommend a commendation for your diligence. Come along, you two.” He nudged the stunned girls around the corner.
“That was quick thinking!” Marabel said once they were out of earshot. She patted Floriano at the base of his horn. “Thanks.”
“Why did you leave the green room? What happened to singing for the queen?” Ellie asked.
Floriano shrugged. “I realized that wasn’t much of an adventure. It’s more adventurous to go on a quest. Besides, I can try out for Magikos Has Talent after we get home.”
“Oh, come on,” Marabel said. “Admit it. You missed us.”
Floriano snorted without answering.
Marabel had lost track of where they were. She stopped, and spotted yet another HERE BE THE WAY OUT sign. It gave her an idea, and she stopped walking to think.
“What?” Floriano asked.
“The numbers on the plan started in the basement, right? And the dungeon was number two or three or something, wasn’t it? That would mean the dungeon’s in the lowest part of the castle.”
Ellie nodded. “They always are. That’s why they’re cold and damp.”
Marabel said eagerly, “So let’s see if one of the stairways goes past the exit at ground level and on to the basement. That’s where the dungeon must be.”
They tried a few doors unsuccessfully. Finally, Marabel spotted a door tucked into a corner. She opened it, expecting to be disappointed yet again, but instead, it opened on a broad stairway with a ramp along its side. Surely this led to the dungeon!
Calling, “Wait here!” she went down one flight, and was thrilled to see that there were more stairs. The second flight down was so long that she was starting to think it was some kind of magical staircase to nowhere, when she turned a corner and almost ran into another door. This one was marked AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY. DOOR IS ALARMED.
Plague it, Marabel thought as she trudged up the stairs again and told the others what she had found.
“Well, that’s no good, then. If there’s an alarm on the door, they’d find us as soon as we opened it, wouldn’t they?” Ellie said.
Marabel looked at Floriano. “Is there something about that door-opening magic in your horn that would keep an alarm from sounding?”
He shook his head. “’Fraid not. It only opens things. Nothing about turning off alarms.”
“Let’s take a closer look at the door,” Ellie suggested. “Maybe we can open it only partway or really slowly, and the alarm won’t go off.”
Ellie and Marabel went down the stairs, and Floriano took the ramp. They stopped and faced the alarmed door. Floriano peered at it in the semidark, brushing it with his horn.
A sudden “Eek!” made them all jump back.
They looked at one another. “Who said that?” Ellie asked.
“Not me,” Floriano and Marabel chorused.
“It was me,” said an unfamiliar voice.
They looked up, down, into the corners, back up the stairway—nothing.
“Where are you?” Marabel asked.
“Right in front of your nose,” said the voice. “But don’t hurt me! I’m just a simple door. I wouldn’t hurt you!”
“Don’t be alarmed—” Marabel stopped short as she realized what she had said. “Wait, are you alarmed as in ‘frightened’?”
“I can’t help it,” the door whimpered. “It’s so dark in here, and there are spiders and crickets, and I swear there’s a ghost that comes out at night carrying its own head, and—”
“It’s all right,” Ellie said soothingly. She raised her hand slowly and stroked the door. It appeared to flinch. “We won’t hurt you. We only want to go through and find the dungeon.”
“The dungeon!” the door squawked. “Why, that’s the most terrifying part of the whole castle!”
“We know,” Marabel said, “but that’s what we want to do. If we open the door, will you keep quiet and not give us away?”
“I’ll try,” the voice said with a quaver. “But be quick. If you leave me open for long, who knows what will come through? I may scream!”
Marabel turned the knob. They slipped through and then closed the door behind them. “Thank you,” Marabel said.
They looked down the windowless, silent hallway, dimly lit by torches. It smelled of mold and of musty air that never moved, and the walls felt cold and slick.
Ellie’s icy fingers clutched Marabel’s.
“I don’t like this place,” Floriano said, barely above a whisper. “Let’s go back.”
“It’s all right,” Marabel said. “It’s just old and empty. Nothing to be afraid of.” But despite her words, her heart raced. They couldn’t turn back, not when they were so close. Not when the thrennight would be up in a few hours, if they were lucky. She wanted to call out to her brother, but didn’t dare—who knew what guards she would summon, what strange beings
she would awaken?
They proceeded down the dingy hall, their feet stirring up dust. They stopped in front of a huge door.
“This must be it,” she said.
“Duh,” Floriano said. He gestured upward with one golden hoof at a sign that said DUNGEON.
Unlike the door in the giants’ home, this one had a smaller door cut into it. Its handle was at regular height, and it opened smoothly.
Dim as the hallway was, the chamber behind the door was even darker. So dark, in fact, that when Marabel took a tentative step in, she didn’t realize that something was in there until it was too late. She smacked into a cold, hard surface. It seemed to curve slightly away from her, and it seemed to be—yes, it was moving.
She leaped back, knocking Ellie off her feet. The two of them got tangled up in Floriano’s long legs. Then came a sickening sound: the slam of the door behind them.
Paralyzed by fear and the pitch dark, they clung together. Floriano whimpered and the girls shuddered.
A light flashed and a flame flew above their heads. It landed on the head of a torch on the wall, and illuminated something large that shifted and moved sinuously, like a giant snake.
Two glowing eyes glared at them, and then a huge mouth opened, showing gleaming, yellowish teeth, each as long as a human forearm. A puff of smoke came out of a mouth that grinned without humor, and realization struck them all at the same time: They were staring at the scaly face of a dragon.
he dragon was curled up, as dragons usually are, on a pile of treasure. Gold, silver, and brilliant gems winked and twinkled coldly in the wavering light of the torch. As Marabel’s eyes got used to the semidarkness, she made out the dragon’s orange scales, as large as dinner plates. He was even bigger than the one Mab had left to guard the Magikian palace. In fact, he was so huge that he scraped his head against the ceiling whenever he moved. The dragon had evidently been bumping his head for a long time; the scales on his scalp had been pushed forward over his tiny eyes, giving him a malevolent glare.
The dragon yawned, showing his long and pointed teeth and a surprisingly pink tongue curling up at the end like a cat’s. “Who the heck are you?” he asked. “How did you get in here?”
“We’re… we’re nobody,” Marabel managed to squeak out. “We got lost. We’re sorry to bother you. We’ll leave now.”
“I don’t think so.” The dragon slid his tail in front of the door. Ellie looked sick, and Marabel didn’t feel much better. “I don’t think you’re lost. No one comes down here by accident. Everyone in the queendom knows that the dungeon is in the bottom of the castle, and that the dungeon is guarded by Hotshot. That’s me, folks. Hotshot.”
“Really, Mr. Hotshot, we didn’t know any of that,” Floriano said. “We’re new to the neighborhood, and we’ve never heard of the dungeon or of you.”
“Incredible.” The dragon shook his head in disgust, his wide mouth turning down even more. “I’m famous. Everyone knows about Hotshot except you losers. Everyone also knows about dragons, and how we guard treasures and dungeons. We’re amazing, to be perfectly honest.”
“We don’t know anything about dragons,” Ellie said earnestly. “We come from… from a place that doesn’t have many dragons. We only know what we hear in tales.”
“Unbelievable. So if you know about us from tales, I bet you think you know what’s going to happen now.”
Marabel shook her head, unable to speak. Her tongue seemed to be stuck to the roof of her mouth.
The dragon went on, “I bet you think that I’m going to turn out to be a nice dragon, a sweet dragon who’s sad that everyone’s afraid of him, because he just wants to be friends.” The last word was uttered with a sneer that made Marabel’s toes curl.
Marabel had been hoping that the situation would turn out to be something like that. After all, despite everything she’d ever heard about giants and ogres, the giant family hadn’t wanted to eat them, and the troll had let them over the bridge, and Cornelius had been friendly, even though he was an ogre. She had hoped that maybe dragons, too, were less fierce than their reputation suggested.
She managed to croak, “It doesn’t matter to us whether you want to be friends.”
“Good.” Hotshot stretched one long front leg out as far as he could in his cramped quarters, and yawned until Marabel could see embers glowing at the back of his throat. “Because there’s no such thing as a friendly dragon. Believe me, we’re generally known to be unfriendly. You might even say fierce. It’s incredible, really incredible, how fierce we can be.” He puffed out a thin stream of fire, and they flinched.
“What are you going to do with us?” Ellie quavered. Marabel wondered whether she was more afraid of being eaten by a dragon or of being squeezed into this tiny room.
“That’s something you should have thought of before you came down here.” Hotshot shook his head, and smoke puffed out his nostrils. “Some people. Losers.”
“Wait a second,” Marabel broke in. What had the dragon said earlier? “Did you say that you guard the dungeon?”
“My friend, Hotshot is the best dungeon guard in the queendom, okay? Unbelievable. Just unbelievable.”
“All right, fine, you’re the best dungeon guard in the queendom,” Marabel said. “So where is it?”
“The dungeon? It’s right there.” He gestured to one side with a front foot, which was fringed with wicked-looking claws.
“Are there any prisoners in it right now?” she asked.
He looked at her sharply. “Who are you anyway? Why do you care who’s in the dungeon?”
“Official business,” Floriano said uncertainly. “We’ve been sent to make sure they’re being treated humanely.”
“Oh, nice! Humanely? Why should they be treated humanely? Criminals, all of them. The queen should toss those losers off the tower, like they did in the old days. That’s the only way to keep the homeland secure. I’m tired of the way criminals are coddled nowadays. It’s not good for the queendom, and it’s not good for the law-abiding citizens, believe me.”
“Can we go in and see him—I mean, see them, please, sir?” Marabel dropped her best princess curtsey, hoping that her etiquette lessons would finally be useful.
The dragon narrowed his already narrow eyes. “Why should I let you in? Who sent you anyway? Something isn’t right here.”
“Maybe we should go away for now.” Ellie inched toward the door, ignoring the fact that it was still blocked by the dragon’s long orange tail. “We’ll get the, um, paperwork done and come back tomorrow. Come on, Marabel.” Too late, Ellie clapped her hand over her mouth.
“Marabel?” The dragon shot up and bumped into the ceiling. “Ow!” He rubbed his head with a clawed foot and cursed dragon curses. “I think someone is looking for you, Marabel,” he said with a smirk, stretching his thin lips back almost to his pointed ears. He punched a claw into a red button on the wall in front of him, and a hideous racket of bells and sirens broke out.
It was hard to believe that the room could hold even one more person, but in less time than they would have thought possible, Marabel, Ellie, and Floriano were surrounded by soldiers.
The soldiers weren’t human, however. They were small, with brownish teeth and bulging eyes. And they were purple—not a pretty violet color, but a muddy, blueish purple. Goblins! Were goblins good or bad? Marabel couldn’t remember, but from the way they were pointing spears and swords at her and her friends, the situation didn’t look hopeful.
“Make way for the queen!” barked the goblin who appeared to be in charge.
Mab strode in, accompanied by her wizard, Veneficus. “This had better not be another false alarm, Hotshot,” she said.
“I’m a huge admirer of Your Majesty,” the dragon said. “Huge. But even you can make a mistake once in a while. I already know what you’re going to say when you see what I’ve accomplished, you mark my words. You’re going to say I’m a guy who can handle things. You’re going to say I’m the greatest dungeon guard
you’ve ever seen. Just take a look over there, and tell me what you see. Go on. Tell me.”
Mab swung around to where Floriano and the girls were huddled. “My musicians!” she said. “What are you doing down here?”
“That’s where you’re wrong, Your Majesty.” Hotshot sounded so smug that Marabel wished she could slap him. “Not musicians. I’m not surprised you couldn’t tell. You don’t have the experience that I have. I’ve seen lots of musicians, my friend, and these aren’t—”
“Oh, stop it,” Mab said. To Marabel’s surprise, he did stop, but he looked indignant, and another little puff of smoke escaped his nostrils.
Mab looked at them more closely, and then a slow smile spread across her face. “I thought you looked familiar,” she said to Marabel. “I know you now. You’re my niece, aren’t you?”
Marabel stuck her chin out. She saw no point in trying to hide her identity any longer, and she refused to lie or beg for mercy. “Yes,” she said, relieved that her voice didn’t tremble. “I’m Princess Marabel. I’ve come for my brother.”
Her aunt burst out laughing. “And you think I’ll just hand him over? You made a grave error in coming here, missy. Now I have two royal hostages, not one!”
“It might as well be only one,” Marabel said. “My parents don’t care what happens to me. If you have Marco, that’s all that matters. He’s the Chosen One. He’s the one who’s supposed to save the kingdom. Don’t count on them doing anything to rescue me.”
“Oh, boo-hoo,” Mab said. “Poor little neglected princess—everyone pays attention to your brother and not to you, is that right? Don’t come to me for sympathy—I’ve had to fight the same battle my whole life, and look at me now!” She swung her arm around, indicating the chamber, the treasure, the dragon. “It’s all mine!”
Veneficus was getting impatient. “Find out how they got here,” he put in. “They had to have had some help.”
“Well?” the queen demanded. “Did my brother send you? He didn’t give you much of an entourage!”
“Nobody knows we’re here,” Marabel said. “It’s just the three of us. We’ve made it on foot from Magikos.” Her voice trembled and she cleared her throat. “We’ve come to rescue Marco.”
Marabel and the Book of Fate Page 12
