“I think we should unchain Arxad,” Wallace said, “and fly with him to Trisarian.”
“You’re right.” Elyssa extended her hand. “Give me the sword.”
“What? You’re not going to let him go, are you?”
“Just give it to me.” Elyssa reached and jerked the hilt from his grip.
As the orb began to brighten, he shrugged. “Okay. You said you skip steps, but I wish I knew what you’re thinking.”
“You’ll see. And don’t tell any more lies until I say so.” She rose to her feet and set the tip of the blade near Arxad’s eye. “You will take us to Jason, or I will gouge your eye out.”
The sphere darkened again. Elyssa tensed her face, trying to hide a frown.
Arxad sighed. “I understand your motivation, young lady, but it is impossible to make a false threat in the presence of the crystal. Even if you believe your own words, it is able to test your resolve, which is apparently lacking. In any case, I welcome the injury. As I said before, I deserve punishment.”
Elyssa let her arm droop. The orb’s glow strengthened and began to sting. Clutching the hilt more tightly, she ached to whip around and smash the fool thing with the sword. As she imagined shards scattering across the floor, she looked at the dragon’s face. His visage brightened, as if his heart were tied to the crystal’s energy—an odd response to pain.
Elyssa returned her gaze to the sphere. What did this peculiar torture device mean to the dragons? With its prominent placement in the observatory, it had to be more than a lie detector. It was a treasure, perhaps even an object of worship. And that made it a point of vulnerability.
Grimacing as the pain increased, Elyssa reared back with the blade, ready to strike. “You will take us to Jason, or I’ll smash your precious crystal!”
“You will not!” Arxad shouted.
“I most certainly will.”
As Wallace retreated a few steps, the sphere brightened even further, sending sharpened darts of energy into Elyssa’s body. Setting her feet, she spoke in a firm, even tone. “I think your sphere has proven my resolve.”
Arxad struggled to his haunches, apparently slowed by the punishing light. “I could scorch you with a single snuff, and your quest would come to an end.”
The sphere darkened to gray.
“Does the crystal think you’re too weak, dragon? Are you really able to produce such a flame? You have five seconds to do as I say. If you don’t vow to take us to Jason, I will shatter this mind reader into so many pieces you’ll be gluing it together for a thousand years.” She took a deep breath and added, “One!”
Arxad stretched out his wings. “Fool of a girl! I cannot vow to take you to Jason. Not only would I betray my people, I would betray my integrity. I might not be able to find him at all.”
“Two! Then vow to be my prisoner and do what I say!”
“But I do not know what you will say. How can I make such an open-ended vow?”
“Three! You said you believed in the spirit of words, not their literal rendering. You knew what I meant, and now you’re prevaricating. So much for your integrity.” With the sensation of hundreds of bees stinging her mercilessly, she flexed her muscles, drew the sword back another notch, and called out, “Four!”
“Very well.” Arxad let out a long breath. “I vow to be your prisoner and do what you say.”
The sphere stayed bright, verifying Arxad’s promise.
Blinking, Elyssa backed away until the pain became tolerable. “Wallace,” she said as she lowered the sword, “go tell some lies to the orb.”
“Will do.” Holding his arm in front of his face as he approached, he called out, “This doesn’t hurt. No, not one bit.”
Within a few seconds, the sphere dimmed, bringing relief to Elyssa’s tortured skin. “Now, Arxad. Tell me how to get you unchained.”
Arxad lowered himself to the floor again. “The task will be difficult. Someone has taken the master key that I normally keep in this room, but you will find another one in the hallway you passed through. I assume you noticed the mural that featured the Starlighter.”
“I did.”
Wallace pointed at the doorway. “If you’re talking about the redheaded, green-eyed girl with the halo around her, and the spooky woman in black holding the dagger …” He shook his head. “I didn’t see it.”
“If you look closely,” Arxad said, “you will see a small cavity in one of her palms. The key is inside, but once you take it, the lights in the paintings will go out. Then, you will have to negotiate the corridor in darkness.”
Elyssa nodded. “That shouldn’t be too hard. There are no obstacles on the floor.”
“True,” Arxad continued. “It would be an easy task if not for the fact that when the key is removed, the floor drops away, creating a passage to a lower floor. This is not a problem for dragons, of course. We simply fly away. Yet for humans it poses quite a threat and therefore stands as a deterrent to the curious. You see, when we constructed the floor mechanism using slave labor, the humans spread all sorts of gossip about its purpose. They created a legend that the Starlighter holds the key to a treasure deep within the Zodiac. There is some truth to the treasure story, to be sure, but that is not important now.
“In any case, Magnar was concerned about human intruders, so he compelled one slave to add a trap. If a human breaks into the Zodiac in search of the treasure and takes the key, his plunge into the hole will not end with a painful, yet survivable thump on the ground. Instead, sharp stakes embedded in the floor will impale his body.”
Elyssa cringed. “Has anyone taken the bait?”
“Not a soul.”
“Then why go through all the trouble to install such a complex device to open the floor? A slave who really wants to get to the lower floor can find a way to avoid the stakes. And you left the key out in the open, an obvious temptation for anyone who knows how the trap works. It doesn’t make sense.”
“There are other safeguards protecting what we seek to conceal,” Arxad said, “and the key is a diversion. It unlocked a door that stood at the end of a once-secret passage between the Zodiac and the Basilica, but that door no longer exists. Most who know about the key think the floor apparatus was designed to hide the passage from humans, but they are wrong. In fact, you and your friend are the only humans who know about the obstacles, because Magnar killed the slave who put the stakes in the lower floor as soon as he completed the task.”
A cold chill crawled along Elyssa’s skin. Why was Arxad giving away all this information, especially details that made one of his fellow dragons look bad? “It’s clear that we want to stay away from Magnar.”
“Not me,” Wallace said. “Magnar and I are best friends.”
Arxad stared at the doorway leading to the corridor. “He is cruel to humans. Of that, there is no doubt. And because of that cruelty I counseled him to seclude himself from their presence. Yet his loyalty toward his fellow dragons is beyond question.”
After breathing a long sigh, Arxad continued. “Magnar and I had a plan to save the dragon race from a prophesied day of trouble, and the pieces to carry out that plan are still in place. But it seems that the coming of potential rescuers from your world has caused him to forget about our plan. In recent days he has been deceived far too easily, and I suspect that he has played along with the schemes of the rescuers and the Starlighter in order to achieve a greater purpose only he knows. I have been trying to discern what advantage he might find in allowing for turmoil in his otherwise stringently controlled world, and I have been unable to come to a conclusion.”
As the orb’s light returned, bringing again the energy needles, Elyssa tapped her chin. “I can’t worry about Magnar’s secrets right now. I just have to figure out a way to get the key while avoiding getting impaled.”
“I would love to get impaled,” Wallace said. “You could let me go.”
Elyssa patted him on the back. “Stay here and lie to the orb. You’re real good at it. But if I yell for help,
come running.”
Pointing at his eye, Wallace grinned. “I’ll keep this eye on you and use the one in the back of my head to watch Arxad.”
“The wall is lined with lanterns,” Arxad said. “If you are skilled enough, you can swing from one to the next and make your way back to the door.”
“Jason and I used to swing from tree to tree with vines. I should be able to do it.” Elyssa imagined the process. Although the gap between the lamps wasn’t too big, once the mural lights went out, the darkness would make swinging impossible. “Is there any way I can light the lanterns in there?”
“You will find a torch and flint stones near a utility box at the wall,” Arxad said.
“Can’t you just light the torch for her?” Wallace asked. “After all, you are a dragon.”
The sphere brightened, sending hot, stinging rays all around.
Wallace covered his eye. “Sorry. I mean, you’re not a dragon. How stupid of me to think so.”
As the light dimmed again, Arxad spoke to Elyssa in a resigned tone. “Bring the torch to me. I will light it for you.”
Elyssa hurried to the wall, found a long, thick torch leaning against it, and ran back to Arxad. While Wallace mumbled random sentences about flying turtles and fire-breathing canaries, Elyssa held the rag-topped torch in front of Arxad’s snout.
Arxad drew in a breath, then, exhaling slowly through his narrowed mouth, blew a fine stream of flames at the oily top. The fire caught hold of a rag’s loose edge and crawled rapidly around the torch.
“Keep lying,” Elyssa said as she marched away. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
Wallace gave her a hurried wave. “Take your time. I’m looking forward to being alone with a dragon who could bite my leg off.”
After pulling both doors open fully, she entered the massive hallway and approached the first lantern on her left, a head-high, wall-mounted lamp that looked very much like the ones at home, except that it had no glass enclosure to protect the wick. An iron bar protruded about three feet from the wall, supporting a flat metal pan upon which the lantern stood.
As she touched the flame to the wick, the torch pushed the lantern, but it stayed in place, apparently welded to its support pan. A draft blew past, drying her emerging sweat, but it didn’t affect the new flame at all. That was a mystery best left alone for now, though it explained how the lanterns could stay lit with dragons flying past.
Running with the torch and pausing to light each lantern, she tried to ignore the mental image of her body impaled on sharp stakes below. Still, her divining gifts wouldn’t allow such peace. The promise of spikes delivered sharp pangs to her chest and abdomen, so real they almost took her breath away.
As flickering flames brightened the corridor, the smell of burning oil tightened her throat and coated her tongue with an acrid film. She coughed and hacked but never slowed. The situation called for haste. Who could tell when another dragon might return to check on Arxad?
After lighting the final lantern, she hurried to the Starlighter’s mural near the middle of the hall, prominently displayed above and between two lanterns. Elyssa stared at the girl’s brilliant green eyes, then moved to the uplifted right hand, painted in tones of pink and peach. Indeed, her palm held a dark spot, apparently a crevice, not quite within reach, even if she stood on tiptoes.
Scanning the lanterns between herself and the doorway that led back to Wallace, she gauged the distance between each pair. It would take all her strength to swing from one to the other without falling, and she would have to do it several times before reaching safety.
As she laid the torch on the floor and faced the wall, nausea simmered in her stomach. With an outstretched arm, she jumped toward the Starlighter’s hand. Her fingertips touched the crevice but failed to push inside before she dropped back to the floor.
Glaring at the girl’s hand, she set her fists on her hips. There had to be an easier way.
She grabbed the torch and tamped out the flames. This would reach easily, and maybe the rags would drag the key out. As she imagined the process, the key in her mind’s eye dropped from its hiding place, and the floor collapsed at the same time. Could she hang on to a lantern rod to keep from falling and still catch the key?
Shaking her head, she muttered, “No way.”
She picked up the torch again and leaned it against the wall, then, setting her right foot on top of its thick handle, she vaulted up to the lantern rod, shot to a standing position, and listened for any sign of failure in stone or metal. The rod bent slightly, and a cracking sound reached her ears. These supports weren’t designed to hold her weight. She would have to work quickly.
She turned away from the Zodiac’s inner door. At this angle, the girl in the mural seemed warped, barely recognizable. Her hand appeared to be within reach, about at Elyssa’s own waist level and a few feet to the side. Stooping while grimacing at the lantern’s heat, she slid her hand across the wall, feeling for the crevice. The surface wasn’t as smooth as it seemed from below. Filled with tiny lumps and crags, each imperfection raised hopes that she had discovered the crevice, but her fingers found no real hole.
Leaning her body, she held to the rod with one hand while stretching as far as she could with the other. The rod bent further. More cracks sounded. Finally, her finger pushed into a crevice and detected something cool and metallic. Pinching the object, she withdrew it and pushed herself back to a stooped position.
The girl and the halo darkened. Across the corridor on the other wall, the dragon, the moon, and the hiding woman disappeared. A creaking sound echoed from one end of the hallway to the other. Beneath the flickering light of at least a dozen lanterns, the floor parted in the middle, lengthwise, from doorway to doorway, and both halves swung downward. The torch fell into the gap, and lantern light spilled into the void.
Her legs trembling, Elyssa gazed below. As Arxad had said, a matrix of sharp stakes covered the bottom, perhaps a hundred or more. Although the bed of deadly nails didn’t stretch as far as either doorway in the hall above them, there were way too many for an unwary key thief to avoid.
She stood still and listened. No more cracking sounds. The rod stayed in place. She could afford to spend a little more time.
Closing her eyes, she probed the area below with her mind. It seemed that two corridors branched away. Excited particles flowed from somewhere, invisible to the eye but perceptible to Elyssa’s senses. Apparently a passage led farther into the underground, where an energy source radiated.
She let her mind follow that path. The flow seemed tinged with life, as if someone had sprinkled the energy with living particles. Still, the life felt weak, as if struggling, similar to the way Arxad struggled under the glow of the sphere, a despondent prisoner who longed to be set free or else killed and put out of his misery.
Elyssa opened her eyes and slowly shifted around toward the doorway leading to the crystalline sphere, begging the rod to hold fast. The energy mystery would have to wait. She had to concentrate on survival.
Still at the sphere, Arxad and Wallace watched from the domed chamber. Wallace crept closer. With each step, the orb brightened, but he paid no attention.
“Keep lying to the sphere!” Elyssa called. “Arxad’s in pain!”
“I don’t care!” Wallace shouted as he approached the doorway. His words dimmed the sphere, at least for the moment. Then, standing at the threshold, he gaped at the lower floor. “Wow! Arxad was right!”
“I know. I know.” Elyssa steeled her legs. The problem with jumping to the next rod wasn’t so much the distance; it was the accuracy. Her foot would have to land directly on the dark metal. Not only that, her momentum would force her to jump immediately to the next rod, and the next, and finally down to the threshold where Wallace, she hoped, would catch her and keep her from tumbling into the hole. And what about the impact? With her momentum striking the rods, would any of them give way?
She made a quick count—six lanterns between her and the d
oor. She could do this. No problem.
“Are you ready to grab me?” she called.
Wallace held his hands out. “Ready.”
“Okay. Here I come.” After sliding the key into her trousers pocket, Elyssa crouched, then leaped, extending a leg toward the next bar. Her foot struck it perfectly. She launched to the next one, again landing without a problem. She vaulted to the third, then the fourth. When she landed on the fifth, it bent and nearly ripped out of the wall, depriving her of a solid foundation for the next leap. With a desperate lunge, she shot forward, but her foot fell short of the final bar. As she dropped, she threw her arms upward. One hand struck the final rod and held on. Her body swung with the momentum, lifting her legs high before swinging back.
With perspiration moistening her grip, she swayed over the gaping hole and the sharp stakes below.
three
Wallace called from the doorway. “Are you all right?”
“I think so.” She withdrew the key from her pocket and held it out. “I’m going to throw the key into your room. Don’t bother trying to catch it. Just let it fly by and then pick it up and unlock Arxad. He can come and get me out of this mess.”
Wallace stepped out of the way. “Go ahead and throw it.”
Elyssa gave the key an underhanded toss, then reached up and grabbed the rod, giving herself a two-handed grip. The key struck the floor well into the room and slid along the tiles. “Now hurry. I can’t hang around here all day.”
Wallace snatched up the key and ran toward Arxad. Elyssa looked down. The invisible energy from below washed over her body, sending its message of life into her senses. It seemed to draw her toward it, tantalizing, almost hypnotizing. What could be down there? What was worth such elaborate security?
Grit from the wall fell into her hair. The bar bent, and her hands began to slide. As she regripped the metal, she shouted, “Wallace!”
“The key worked,” he yelled back. “I’m unhitching the manacle. But stop asking me questions. Telling you the truth is a pain.”