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[size=150]Chapter 26: Onward And Upward[/size]
___“I am ready for supper, now!” Gaekwar’s drawl was absent.
___Seifas shook his head. “We were fortunate we found nothing on this level—”
___“‘Fortunate’?!” interrupted Portunista.
___“But,” continued Seifas firmly, “we should scout one level more, before we camp tonight.”
___“Why?” insisted Dagon.
___“Safety,” nodded Othon.
___“It’s not like we’ll be sleeping up there!” persisted Gaekwar.
___“No,” Pooralay sighed, “y’re sleepin’ down here. Where somethin’ might still come t’ getcha.”
___Gaekwar froze in mid-retort; then also sighed. “Never mind. Let’s just do it…”
___The stairway wound along the Tower wall, up through another median. Instead of any open room this time, it passed a single door, set in the inner wall which paralleled the outer curve.
___The sun had set; and through the narrow open window opposite the door, the stars were shining in their nightly blaze. The stairs wound onward into a gloom above.
___“Seifas—how many more floors?” Portunista asked.
___“Only one. The top—where Qarfax died. He slept and took his meals up there. We figured this was where he worked; he often used this door, but warned us—”
___“—never to touch it,” several voices chorused.
___“Well, ‘ista, go on!” said Dagon. “This is where you wanted to be!”
___She flatly glared at him.
___“Pooralay, check the door,” she ordered, not even looking toward it. She noticed he worked more quickly than before; maybe he was hungry, too…
___“Sigils all over th’ frame,” reported the little man, continuing his sweep.
___“Of course there are,” she sneered at Dagon. “He would guard his laboratory.”
___“An’ th’ handle’s false,” the thug concluded, leaning back to rest.
___“What?!” Portunista turned and stared.
___“Handle’s just for looks. Hey, jaguar! Y’ever ac’shl’y see th’ mage go in?”
___“Once,” Seifas answered. “Others did as well. He used the handle—but, I saw he also put his palm upon this plate.” He indicated near the door, a finely arabesqued rectangular slate.
___Portunista was already chuffing softly, in contemplation.
___“Flog it,” she muttered a minute later, and wiped the Yrthe from her eyes. “I don’t know what the sigils do. I mean, they act as a lock, awaiting a key—that’s obvious—but what the key is or how it works, I haven’t any clue.”
___“Anything else you saw or heard?” the Krygian asked the juacuar, who only shook his head. “So,” Dagon mused, “I suppose that means the magus wasn’t jotting to make it work.”
___“That helps us, doesn’t it?”
___Dagon blinked at Jian’s sincere remark; and so did Portunista. But the Easterner’s inference did make sense…
___“No jotting,” she perused. “Gloves, Seifas? Maybe a ring?”
___“He did wear rings,” the juacuar confirmed. “No gloves.”
___“So maybe only the hand,” she said. “I think if such a lock required a ring, the plate would have an appropriate shape.”
___“Too bad,” Othon sighed. They looked at him. “No hand.”
___“Yeah,” Pooralay winced, “that’s right. A pile-a dust upstairs.”
___A minute passed.
___“Well, that’s it!” Gaekwar gave a single clap and turned around. “I’m off to start the fire—!”
___“Hold!” commanded Portunista. “We aren’t out of options yet! If the sigils have been inscribed to read his handprints, those might still be found in his room.”
___“You’re kidding,” Dagon said; but Pooralay was nodding.
___“Yeah,” he agreed, “it’s poss’ble. Some tape and powd’r might do th’ trick; which o’course I happen t’ have. Betcha got some powd’r, too, hm?” Portunista ignored his tease; as a matter of fact, she did have some talcum powder. She would use his, however.
___“Or,” she moved along, a little sourly, “if these sigils need a ring, it might be somewhere up the stairs.”
___“In his pile of ash!” suggested Jian.
___“Or,” the maga forcefully concluded, drowning that unnerving image, “if they need his living flesh, we still may be in luck.”
___“Y’think he kep’ a spare hand inna jar, up in his room?!”
___“Woman’s secret,” she smiled mysteriously. Blank looks confirmed that only she knew where to find his living flesh.
___“I’ll be lighting the fire downstairs.” The ‘cowherd’ hastily turned again—
___“I will need you all to help me search!—so come along!” Portunista marched upstairs, sending the wisplight on in front.
___“We’re gonna end up in all these rooms before the night is over,” muttered Gaekwar; but he followed along obediently.
___After one more half-turn around the Tower, Portunista reached the final door, also set in the inner wall.
___There it was.
___Here she was!
___This was it—the real beginning—everything she had been hoping and dreaming about!
___Dagon, though, provided some perspective.
___“It doesn’t bother you at all a Cadrist died in there?!” he nervously snapped from several steps below.
___Her neck popped icy water beads. She had, in fact, forgotten that completely in her eagerness; despite Jian’s casual comment only a minute ago. Had he been reminding her, politely…? No matter. She firmed her voice before she answered:
___“Not in the least!”
___“Crazy minx…” floated up from down around the curve, but Portunista couldn’t tell who said it. Part of her mind decided it wasn’t Jian, however, and…What did she care what anyone thought?! Jian included!
___“Step aside, and let me get t’ work. No plate up here,” Pooralay added for the men below who couldn’t see the door. “I guess that’s how the jaguar got inside.”
___“Go ahead,” she said, more calmly than she felt.
___What might she find inside—waiting for them?
___Waiting for her.
___She forcibly recalled her logic about their chances…
___“Complet’ly clean,” the thug announced, disgustedly. “Wasn’t even locked.” He cursed himself in mutters, for not attempting the Tower earlier…
___“That means Qarfax wasn’t keeping important things up here…” Dagon was probably right, Portunista had to admit…But flay his bones!—he didn’t have to sound so smug about it!
___“Not in here, perhaps,” she said defiantly, “but he didn’t place that sigilplate downstairs for nothing!”
___“So, go on in!” the Krygian said.
___“All right!..I will!”
___…but she didn’t.
___a Cadrist had been brutally slain inside this room…
___…and she…
___was only an apprentice…
___A minute crawled across her.
___Then Dagon said that Jian should be let past so he could go in first…
___“Okey-doke!” agreed the irrepressible man.
___“What if a Roguent’s in there?” That was Gaekwar.
___“Oh…um… I’ll tell it there are people more worth eating somewhere else than Qarfax’s room!”
___Portunista sighed. Could Jian take nothing seriously—?!
___…she didn’t want to see his helpful cheerfulness scraped rawly away in bloody screams, along with his face and his chest and—
___“I will go,” she said.
___And she did.
(Let’s just say that Mikonese humans aren’t realworld humans and leave it at that.)