Part 54 (2/2)
”Look, you just have to think about what's necessary to do what was so obviously done,” Rik said, clearly trying to explain to a nonswimmer just how easy diving is.
”Carrying the stone up to three doorways also means carrying it away from only two, which would make the proper doorway the one with the lightest scent. Or it means carrying the stone up to the proper doorway twice, which would make it the one with me heaviest scent. As a last possibility it has to mean that the doorway with an unbalanced scent, lacking the last time out, would be me proper one, but I was hoping it wouldn't come down to that fine a distinction. Happily it didn't, so I think we're in. The doorway with the lightest scent is the one to the left.”
Once again looking at something became a group effort, no one voicing any of the doubts they might have felt- I.
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myself, could think of two or three ways to throw Rik's calculations out of whack, but 1 didn't care to mention that. We had to have some basis for the door we chose, and right then Rik's way was the only one we had.
? ”Well, nothing ventured, nothing gained,” Zail quoted '” in a mutter after taking a deep breath, then he turned to Dranna with the beginnings of a gleam in his eye. ”Or, if you prefer, in for a lamb, in for a sheep. Are you with me, sweetheart?”
^ ”I think I'd rather be behind you,” Dranna answered, ^ making us all chuckle, but she hadn't been joking- She ^ followed Zail cautiously as he strode to the lefthand set of jg. doors, and 1 surrept.i.tiously braced myself. If that was where the stone was, then that might very well be IT.
Zail studied the doors the way he had the outer palace wall, taking almost as much time and doing just as little.
As a final effort he went to one knee and examined the floor under the priceless carpeting we stood on, then looked up at us with a shake of his head.
”There doesn't seem to be anything on either of these doors, not even an ordinary, run-of-the-mill lock,” he said, not pleased but also not uncertain. ”Shall I do the honors again?” ^
”No, this time it's my turn,” I said before anyone else-like Rik-could voice an opinion. ”Step back, please, Zail. I get to do this alone.”
I moved toward the doors with a great show of confi- dence and a.s.surance, two things I would have needed magic to produce in myself just then. That innocent door had to be an invitation, and if my suspicions were right, then I had a date that had been set quite some time earlier.
Zail stood up and gave ground just as I'd asked him to, and despite the beginnings of protests I could hear behind me, I put my hands on both doork.n.o.bs and pushed the doors wide.
To find nothing but an empty, candle-lit room that was black as the rest of the palace was white.
”Could-that-be it?” Zail asked in a very hushed voice from behind my right shoulder, his tone the closest to reverent I had ever heard it to be. The room was empty of what / had been expecting to find, but it did hold a slim
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pedestal in its center, one that seemed to be carved out of a single diamond, and on the pedestal sat a small, silver- trimmed blue box.
”Unless there's a gate, that's got to be it,” Su said from behind me to the left, her voice more relieved than rever- ent. ”The trail goes right up to that stand and then ends.”
”Then what are we waiting for?” Zail demanded with laughing eagerness replacing the awe. ”Let's go get it.”
”We're waiting for mis,” I said, putting up my left hand while my right arm kept him from moving past me, The gesture I made linked in one of my previous spells with a flash of bright orange, just the way it was supposed to, and then I was able to relax. I'd more than half expected the stone to be s.n.a.t.c.hed away as soon as it was in our reach, but my spell had just negated any such effort and had proved beyond doubt that our quest had been successful- The stone was ours now, and whatever else the enemy had in mind would no longer involve the object of our search.
With me necessary done we all entered me room, me to move around studying the smooth black walls, everyone else crowding around me pedestal to make satisfied noises over the silver and blue box. Or almost everyone else. I looked down from one section of the ceiling to find Rik standing next to me with folded arms, inspecting me the way I was inspecting the room.
”Find what you were looking for?” he asked in a very casual, friendly way, then shook his head in answer to his own question. ”No, you couldn't have, or you wouldn't still be looking. I'm not too bad at finding things- If you tell me what it is, I'll be glad to help.”
”Thanks anyway,” I said, turning to move away from him. ”I prefer handling it alone.”
”The way you preferred being the one to open me doors?”
the pest pursued, following after me as though he were on a string. ”What you're looking for couldn't have anything to do with that, could it? You couldn't possibly have expected to find our enemy in here?”
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