The Warlock's Gambit (3 page)

“Morgan, there aren't any triskelions on these doors. If there were shades behind them, they’d have attacked us already.”

“Nothing else in here bothers to follow the rules of physics, or logic, why should the shades?”

“Better safe than sorry, I guess.” Arthur pulled out his raygun and got a better grip on the door handle. “Here goes.” He swung open the door, and found himself face-to-face with … a blank stone wall. The back wall of the loft continued, uninterrupted, behind the guest suite door, like the door had been built right on top of the wall. “What’s the point of that?”

She leaned over till her nose was only inches from the stone inside the doorway and poked it. Nothing happened. Her eyes narrowed, and then fuming, she stalked down the loft, opening each door. Arthur holstered his rayguns and stepped back to avoid Morgan.

She ran her hands through her hair, pulled out one of the café chairs, and plopped down in a huff. “Why would the doors lead to blank walls? This makes no sense — none at all.”

Arthur sat down across from her. “Sorry.”

She glared at him a few moments, then said, “It’s not your fault. It’s not like you … wait a second …”

“Hey! You can’t blame me just because you don’t understand how this all works!”

“I’m not blaming you, moron. I just figured out the guest suites. Not the wonky physics, mind you. I still have no idea about that. Lady Ylliara said the Manse was tailored to your needs. And equipment is attuned to each individual and — oh! — the equipment lockers!”

“What about them?”

“We only have access to
our
equipment, and not even you can see inside the lockers or open them. But Arms showed you your mother’s equipment in a locker.”

He nodded. “Because I was looking for it.”

“No, because you
needed
to see it, Arthur. That’s the thing. The Manse only gives you or me what we need — nothing more.”

“So you think the other lockers are just empty?”

She nodded.

“Then how come the Manse didn’t recreate my father’s sword for me?”

“Well, it must be unique and not something that the Manse generates.”

“So, if a guest arrived …”

“The Manse … or maybe Lady Ylliara, if there’s a difference … would create a room for them. Just for them. A guest with a wheelchair would have a wheelchair accessible room, while a guest who loved flowers might have floral pictures on the wall and vases with flowers on the stands. It makes sense, because the Multiversal Paladin might have to host alien guests who have strange needs.”

Arthur gestured at the stairs. “I don’t think it’s wheelchair accessible.”

Morgan shrugged. “The Manse would probably convert one of the staircases to a wheelchair lift. There’s a basic structure here with the hallways and the Kitchen, all the common areas and things everyone would need. Beyond that, rooms only exist when needed.”

“So you and I have must both have bedrooms here …”

“Duh.”

“I mean, of course the Multiversal Paladin has a bedroom. But I thought maybe the companions all slept in a barracks or something.”

Morgan shivered. “Gross!”

He shrugged. “Sorry, I’m a moron.”

“Well, you should be sorry. Did you seriously not notice my room yesterday? The doors off the Grand Hallway all have labels.”

“We
were
kind of busy fighting evil up and down the hallway.”

“Yes, but
I
noticed.”

“Yes, Morgan, but you’re …”

She cocked an eyebrow. “Yes?”

He shrugged. “Well, you’re special.”

“Thank you, Arthur.”

Leave it to Morgan not to take that as an insult; which, of course, was fortunate for him.

She stood. “Come on, doofus, I’ll show you.”

H
e followed Morgan back down the stairs to the Great Room and out into the Grand Hallway. She marched past the rooms they had already explored: the Armory and Training Room on one side and the Dining Hall and Smoking Lounge on the other. The next doors on each side of the hallway were both simply labeled COMPANION SUITE. Morgan was about to keep going, but Arthur stopped. He drew a raygun and reached for the handle to the suite door on the right.

Morgan turned around. “It’s going to be just like the rooms in the loft. The Manse only creates what’s needed.”

“Probably,” he said, “but not necessarily. You’re the one who said this place doesn’t make sense.”

“Yes, but —”

“Your pocket universe theory didn’t pan out, remember?”

“Fine,” she huffed. “Have it your way.” She activated her shield. “But that means we have to check every door.”

“It does not hurt to be cautious,” Vassalus said.

Lexi bobbed her head. “And checking them all won’t take long.”

The numina readied themselves as Arthur opened the door, and again faced a blank wall. It was just like with the guest suites: the wall continued on behind the door.

“See?” she said, triumphantly.

They opened all eleven Companion Suite doors, and found eleven blank sections of wall behind them. When they reached the last one, it was labeled MORGAN APPLE. How she had noticed the names on the doors while the hallway was dark and monsters were trying to kill them was beyond him.

He had expected Morgan to say, “Told you.” But she didn’t gloat. Instead, she stood in front of the door, staring, with a blank expression on her face.

“It’s a room designed just for you. Aren’t you excited?”

Morgan shrugged. Clearly, something about having her own room bothered her, but he knew better than to ask what. He took a few steps farther down the hallway, and smiled. “Check it out, the next door leads to the PALADIN’S CHAMBERS. We’re right next door to one another!”

“Yeah … great … fantastic.”

Arthur frowned. He was all excited about them having their own rooms, and couldn’t wait to see his, but Morgan was being a serious downer.

“No triskelion over your door,” he said, “so there shouldn’t be any shades inside.”

“Of course not,” she replied. “The Manse created this room after we arrived.”

“Don’t you want to go in and check it out?” he urged.

Morgan shook her head, and with a tremor in her voice said, “No … not yet. We need to … to explore the other rooms. Mine can wait.”

Whatever. She was weird about a lot of things — he’d just add one more to the list. She shuffled along behind him, lost in her thoughts, as they moved on to his room. “Bet it’s a lot bigger than the closet I slept in back home.”

Morgan whipped around. “You slept in a closet?”

Arthur sighed. “Not a real closet. My room is just really tiny.”

“Oh — oh, I think you told me about that the other day, when we first got here.” She sighed and looked across the hallway to see what was opposite his suite. Immediately, she began bouncing on her heels. “Ooh! Arthur — look!”

He turned and saw: THE LIBRARY. Of course, that would restore her interest. If it had said TECH LAB or COMPUTER ROOM, she probably would’ve rushed across and barged through the doors without a single care about the sigil hanging in the doorway.

“We have to see the Library!” Morgan said.

“Shades inside, possibly wraiths for all we know,” Arthur said. He had wandered farther down the hallway. He had just seen the next door down from his suite: THE PALADIN’S OFFICE. A sigil hung in this doorway, as well. “If we’ve got to clear out a room, we should start with the Paladin’s Office. It’s probably going to be more important.”

Morgan shot him a dirty look, but she didn’t say anything, which meant she knew he was right. She marched down the hallway and muttered, “Well, this one should probably come last.”

Arthur turned around to face: THE MUSEUM. Yeah, it was going to be hard to rationalize putting their lives in danger to clear a museum. But he was pretty sure that every shade and wraith in the place was — somehow — harming Lady Ylliara and the Manse. Maybe they were draining power away from her, like Entropian vampires or something.

Arthur continued walking. The next door on his side of the hallway was labelled LYONESSE. There was no glowing sigil, and something about the room just seemed warm and inviting. He reached toward the handle —

“Arthur! What the heck are you doing?!”

“No sigil, so it doesn’t have any enemies …”

“Didn’t we just have this conversation? A room doesn’t have to have shades or wraiths to be dangerous. Do you know what Lyonesse means?”

“Er … no. Do you?”

She shook her head. “Until we know, I think we should wait, or go in prepared.” She jerked her head toward the door behind her. “Same thing goes for this one.”

Arthur walked over to the door labeled THE WASTES — and shivered. It didn’t have a glowing sigil across the doorway, but Arthur’s stomach clenched when he looked at it. He backed away. There was something very wrong about that door.

Morgan patted the door. “Gives you an oogy feeling, too, doesn’t it?”

Arthur nodded as he kept backing away. “How can you even stand to touch it?”

She shrugged with a sly smile. “I like oogy. Why else would I hang around you so much?”

Arthur rolled his eyes. “Whatever.” He glanced at the final doorway that led to the INNER SANCTUM, where Kjor the warlock awaited him. Arthur shivered. “Let’s get the numina and clear the office. I’m ready to find out more about my destiny, and where I came from.”

With Lexi and Vassalus flanking him, and Morgan right behind him, Arthur opened the door to the Paladin’s Office. An almost formless mass of shadow stood just beyond the doorway. The shades, at least a dozen of them, which was how many each dark-heart could summon, crowded near the door. Each shade was skinny and a little more than six feet tall, with unnaturally long arms and legs. They were completely featureless. Gathered like this, it was almost impossible to tell where one shade ended and the next began. Unlike some they had faced before, these were smart enough not to run right into the glowing sigil and destroy themselves.

But while the shades couldn’t pass through the triskelion sigils, Arthur and his companions could. More importantly at the moment, his raygun blasts could. Arthur opened fire with both guns. White energy circles blasted out from the array at the end, growing from an inch to almost a foot wide as they traveled. Since the guns only hurt what Arthur wanted them to — they wouldn't even kill unless that’s what he wanted — he didn't have to worry about shooting up the room or destroying things accidentally when he missed.

Arthur let loose, enjoying the distinctive WHUM-WHUM-WHUM sound the guns made. He pulled the triggers as fast as he could. In moments, he had taken out all the shades they could see.

“Did you get all twelve?” Morgan asked.

“I couldn’t tell,” Arthur answered.

“I think you only got eleven,” Vassalus said.

“Nope, nope,” Lexi replied. “Only ten.”

“Any sign of the dark-heart?” Arthur asked. The Office was bigger than his Aunt Carolyn’s dining room and living room put together, and the door was in the middle. There was a lot of space to either side where a shade could be hiding, or behind the big desk toward the back of the room.

“Don’t see it,” Morgan said.

“Must be out of view,” added Vassalus.

“Only one thing left,” Lexi cried. “Charge!”

Lexi rushed toward the door, but Vassalus stepped in front of her.

“Watch it, garbage breath!” Lexi growled as they collided.

“We need to let Lady Morgan go first,” said Vassalus. “She has the shield. We follow along behind her.”

“Boring!” Lexi snarled.

“It’s a lot safer, though,” Arthur said.

Morgan stepped into the room with her shield up and spread as wide as it would go. She turned toward the right, and as soon as she did, a shade leapt out from the left side toward her.

“Morgan, watch out!” Arthur cried.

“I see it!” she yelled. But she didn’t turn.

Arthur understood why half a second later, when a shade crashed against the front of her shield. Lexi had been right — there were two of them left: one to each side of the door. Arthur took two shots at the one behind Morgan. One shot soared over the shade’s shoulder; the other blasted one of the creature’s arms off. That didn’t even slow it down. Their arms could regrow. Only a headshot or a shot to the chest could destroy them. The touch of a shade could burn flesh, so all it really had to do to hurt Morgan was run into her. Arthur had gotten burned by one the first day. It had felt like both fire and ice at once. And Morgan wasn't even wearing the companion armor the Manse had made for her.

Just before the shade hit Morgan, Lexi and Vassalus slammed into it and ripped it to shreds. They were immune to the shades’ burning touch. Wraiths, on the other hand, were a whole lot tougher and more deadly.

Morgan glanced back and saw what had happened — her eyes went wide — then she bashed the one in front of her with her shield. “Dark-heart is on my side. Above the bookcase in the corner.

Four shades began to reform in the shadows behind the door. Arthur darted in behind her and took three shots. The second one struck and shattered the stone. All the shades in the room vanished.

Morgan dropped her shield with a relieved sigh. She held out her hand and Vassalus moved up beside her, so she could scratch behind his ears.

“You saved my life.”

“Hey!” Lexi said. “I helped just as much.”

Morgan rolled her eyes, and Lexi started to say something, but Arthur interrupted her. “Good work,
everyone
.”

The Paladin’s Office had wood floors so dark with age they were almost black, and the walls were covered in gold-on-gold wallpaper. A giant desk made of an exotic, deep-green wood dominated one end of the room. The wall behind it was hidden behind thick, velvet curtains. A second, tiny desk — maybe for a secretary — sat under a row of portraits that lined the right side of the room. It held an old-fashioned manual typewriter and a rotary phone, both the same burgundy red as the curtains. A velvet-covered loveseat and several sets of bookcases stuffed with leather-bound books stood on the opposite side. There were wall sconces and lamps everywhere, but they couldn’t seem to outshine the aura of age and history. World-changing decisions had been made in this room.

“Well, this place wasn’t made new for me,” he said. There was a door to Arthur’s right that was labeled PALADIN’S CHAMBERS. “I can get straight to my room from here. That’s convenient.”

“I think Maid needs to get in here,” Morgan commented. “This place smells musty.”

Lexi trailed a paw along a lower shelf on the bookcase, and then peered at it. “No dust.”

“It’s just a very old room,” Arthur said.

“Looks quite modern and fashionable to me,” Lexi said. She often flashed little bits of Arthur’s Grandma Paladin, whom he must have met when he was a baby. She must’ve made quite an impression for her to hang around in his subconscious so long.

“Check this out, Arthur,” Morgan said. “Pictures of you.”

She was examining a shelf lined with framed photos of him and his parents. They all looked so happy; he could hardly bear to look.

Vassalus nosed between the curtains and then uttered a surprised, “Yelp!” It was maybe the most doglike thing he’d ever done.

“Vassalus, you okay?” Morgan asked.

“Fine … all … fine, miss …”

Morgan frowned and hurried over anyway. She grabbed higher up on the curtain Vassalus was tugging open with his teeth — and gasped. Arthur tore himself away from the family photos and rushed around the desk. He skidded to an abrupt stop as Morgan and Vassalus wrestled the heavy curtains apart.

“Whoa!” Lexi said with wide eyes.

That was an understatement.

The entire back wall was a giant window that looked out into deep space. Bright swirls and streaks of color — purples and blues shot through with shades of green, reds bleeding into yellow and white — zoomed past. It was like they were moving through a nebula. And behind it, in the far distance, they could see stars speeding by like meteors. They had to be moving
fast
.

“Is that the Song Between the Verses?” Morgan muttered. “It’s — it’s amazing.”

“Yeah.” Arthur breathed. He tried to find a word to describe it, but the only thing that popped into his head was “awesome,” which entirely failed to do this view justice. “How fast do you think we’re going?”

“Definitely faster than light, which isn't possible.” The window was so overwhelming that Morgan didn't even seem irritated at the Manse’s newest way of ignoring the laws of physics.

“I
looks
kind of like we’re flying through a nebula,” Arthur said. “But they aren't that big, are they? At this speed we’d have already come out the other side, don’t you think?”

“I think … maybe … maybe it's another dimension of space time?” Morgan said. “Like hyperspace. That would explain how the Manse can move throughout the universe. Because even at the speed of light, it would take four years to travel from Earth to the nearest star, Alpha Centauri. At that kind of speed, the Paladin certainly couldn’t rush all around the universe fighting evil. You’d be lucky to have one battle in your lifetime.”

“Well, whatever it is,” said Arthur, “it’s the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen.”

Lexi sat quietly beside Arthur, staring silently. Unless he was mistaken, she was purring softly. Vassalus sat so close to the window that his nose touched. They were all mesmerized, and Arthur would’ve sworn that none of them budged for a good half hour. Eventually though, his legs got tired, and he leaned back against the giant desk, setting his hands on the glass that protected the top.

The glass suddenly came alive with images and text — the entire desktop was a display.

“Cool!” Arthur grinned and touched another spot experimentally. “The Paladin’s desk — my desk — is a computer.”

Morgan spun around and shoved him out of the way. For a moment, Arthur thought she was going to either hug the desk or start drooling. “This is the best thing ever!”