Dragon Thief Box Set

Chapter 17

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Castle tried the door and this time the portal was unlocked. He stepped inside and held the door open for me. I slipped inside and the soft glow of torchlight fell over me. The flickering lights illuminated a cavernous room some hundred yards long and half that wide. The whole thing had been carved out of soft blue stone, and each angle of the rectangular room was a picture of perfection. Depressions in the floor created a maze where water had once flown, and even dry you could see the stains from countless centuries of usage. Stone columns were situated in even intervals on little islands above the water line and stretched from the floor to the high ceiling. The torchlight cast a faintly shimmering glow off the floor, walls, and even ceiling, as though the whole thing was covered in a soft clear stain.

Set into the walls on either side of us were open-faced grottoes some ten feet deep and twice as wide. Those smooth-faced walls contained bookcases, tables, and chairs, all piled high with books and papers. A few free-standing racks dotted the area, and those, too, were filled to the brim with long and short scrolls, each flung over the one underneath in a doggy pile of the written word.

Our host himself had thrown off his cloak and put on a long, ragged robe which trailed behind him as he flew from one grotto to the next. “Where is it?” came his mumbled mantra as he flung aside stacks of books and scoured through scores of scrolls.

Castle caught my eye and gave me a wink before he turned his sly smile on our host. “Might we help?”

Impara had been bending over a table when he shot up and glared at us. “Of course not! You’ll interfere with my organization!” And with that refusal, he returned to his search.

I leaned toward Castle and lowered my voice as much as I could manage. “Is he serious?”

“I am quite serious!” Impara shouted as he brushed his arm across a table, dumping all the contents onto the floor. “Now just stay there and-ah-ha!”

He snatched a book from the center of a miscellaneous pile on a chair and yanked it out. The whole pile toppled to the floor, but he didn’t pay it any mind as he opened the tome and flipped through the pages.

“Now let’s see here…” he murmured as he wandered over to us, his eyes glued to the book. He stopped his search in the middle of the tome and ran a finger underneath a mess of letters I didn’t recognize. “According to a first-hand account from one of Emperor Callidus’ military companions…”

“I thought this staff was old,” I spoke up as I recognized the name of the current ruler.

“The first emperor bore the name of the current one,” Castle told me.

Impara cleared his throat. “If you two are quite finished.”

Castle smiled and bowed his head to our host. “Quite.”

Impara resumed reading the tome. “Emperor Callidus the First,” I frowned, but let him continue, “created the script to keep the unworthy from using the magic which he had imbued in the staff.”

I studied the strange squiggles on the flute and furrowed my brow. “What magic? The ability to turn into some annoying things?”

Impara lifted his eyes just slightly above the top of the book and his bushy eyebrows scowled at me. “This is no joking matter, miss. The emperor held more magic within his hand than a roomful of sorcerers. He imbued much of his gifts into his staff so that his magic could continue to protect the realm even after he had passed.”

I turned the flute over in my hands. “So, what can it do then?”

Castle nodded down at the musical instrument. “One of the emperors some two hundred years ago used the staff to repel fifty pirate ships that had invaded the port to the south.”

I lifted an eyebrow. “How’d he do that?”

“With a mere wave of the Prima Staff,” Impara chimed in as he slipped closer to me and studied the woodwork. “He called forth a wind which blew away all the ships and sank them beneath the sea. Not a pirate was left alive.”

I blinked at my companions. “Prima Staff? Is that what it’s called?”

Castle took the flute from me and held it gently in his upturned palms as he studied the engravings. “It’s less a name then a title for this illustrious object, and the crown jewel among the king’s possessions.”

Impara, for his part, examined me. “I would be curious to know how such a valuable object came to be in the hands of an unusual woman.”

I shrugged. “It was just lying there on the park path.”

He lifted a bushy eyebrow. “Which park?”

I glanced up at Castle, who gave a sly smile to his old friend. “Have you not guessed that this woman is rather unusual?”

The professor leaned closer to me and squinted his eyes. “I have noticed some rather odd social blunders, and she is certainly a novice when it comes to the Plaza.”

Castle, too, stared down at me, though with a softer expression. “I believe this young woman has fallen from a different world.”

Impara whipped his head toward Castle so quickly I thought it would fly off his neck. “Truly? Another world? Are you sure?”

I folded my arms over my chest and snorted. “I’m not in Kansas anymore.”

The professor blinked at me. “Pardon? Oh, I see, yes, one of your world’s quibbles, am I correct? Very amusing.” He looked as amused as a clown in a graveyard. “How did you come to be here? What magic did you hold in your world?”

I tipped my head back and furrowed my brow. “I had no magic and I dropped into this world through a portal created by the stick.”

“Prima Staff,” he corrected me as he stroked his chin with one finger. “How very interesting. I was not aware it had such power, and to give a completely powerless person the ability to pass through worlds.” He dropped his hand and shook his head. “Astounding. I wonder what it cannot do.”

“I’d like to know what it can do besides give me trouble,” I retorted as I waved the flute in circles in front of my face. “And how I can use it to get home.”

Impara snatched the flute from my grasp and scowled at me. “Mindful of the object, miss! It’s very old and we cannot fathom what powers it has should it be antagonized.”

My face drooped. “Don’t tell me I can hurt its feelings.”

“There’s no telling with magical items…” Impara murmured as he lifted the item to his face. He squinted at the engravings. “How interesting. There appear to be two epitaphs on the surface of the staff, or rather one is an inscription and the other is an incantation.”

“Can you read them?” Castle asked him.

Impara scowled at him. “Of course I can! Is anyone more learned of the first emperor’s magic than I?”

Castle smiled as he pointed a finger down at the flute. “What does it say?”

“I was just about to read it aloud!” Impara snapped before he gathered himself. He lifted his chin slightly and cleared his throat. The imperious gentleman raised the flute to his face and read aloud the words. “May I be of use to the helpless and a thorn to the wicked. Whither darkness grows I will be there to light a path.”

I lifted an eyebrow. “Is that it?”

It was my turn to receive one of his famed frowns. “No, that is not it! That is merely the inscription! The important part is the incantation that bound the emperor’s magic to the stick. It reads,” The professor paused and squinted his eyes at the flute before he read the words. “My script is simple, my thoughts are kind. You’ll find the symbol within the mind.” He leaned back and wrinkled his nose. “That is… most unexpected.”

“The words don’t make sense?” Castle suggested.

Impara shook his head. “Of course they make sense! They are just… not as grand as I expected.”

I looked between the gentlemen with a look of curiosity. “So, what do they mean?”

The professor tilted the flute up and down and moved it away and toward him. “I am… not sure.”

Castle grinned. “You mean you don’t know?”

Impara scowled at him again. “Would you like a second opinion? I would be quite surprised if you were able to find one.”

The count held up his hands, but his good humor didn’t falter. “You are all we need, dear professor, but I must admit the words leave me stumped. I can’t make sense of them.”

Our host furrowed his brow as he scratched his temple. “Truth be told, at this time I cannot decipher their meaning, but I will see what I might find in my books. In the meantime, may I be allowed to hold on to this item?”

“Please,” I pleaded in an exhausted voice.

The professor sauntered over to a full table and grabbed a small wooden box. He opened the box and tucked the flute inside before turning to us. “Now then, about your world.”