Mearsies Heili Bounces Back by Sherwood Smith Page B

royalty on their name day, or what?”
    Her tone was odd, making me once again wonder what her
background was. And Puddlenose looked so fidgety, I remembered that his mother
had been a princess, and that terrible Shnit of the Chwahir had tried to make
him a crown prince, just out of cruelty.
    And then there was me.
    The little man shrugged. Didn’t take an atomic scientist to
figure he didn’t particularly care.
    Klutz made a sour face as she pointed at the guy—she didn’t
think the Evil Mage was much on brains, though he obviously had plenty of art
talent.
    I said, “Is the antidote to the spell written down anywhere,
even as a puzzle or clue?” Clare had told me about enchantments often having
their antidotes put as verses, or riddles, or hints, as an added protection.
Maybe he’d forgotten an important word or two.
    “Oh yes. Up in the magic room, in the Winter Tower,” the
little man said. “It’s so fatiguing to walk all the way up there, and for what?
Boring books.”
    Naturally the winter tower was the highest of the four, but
since we were here ... and there was always that reward.
    “Let’s go,” I said.
    “All of us?” Id asked, tipping his chin toward the food.
    “Stay if you want. Save some eats for us.”
    Seshe and Dhana went with me—Dhana to look through the
windows and sniff the air.
    We pounded up and up and up the marble stairs, me thinking
of the White Palace at home, and wondering how Clair was. Bet she was worried,
which made me worry. I looked at my ring again, but shook my head. I felt I had
to stay with the others.
    At last we came into a room filled with book cases. They
were jammed with hand-written and bound books, most of them looking really old.
In the middle of the round room sat a couple of tables, one with a book on it,
another bare. Between the book cases, in a circle, windows streamed with light.
Dhana drifted toward the nearest so she could look out at the view.
    When I turned around, I discovered Seshe staring at
something. There was an archway I hadn’t noticed. A faint golden color glowed
in the door, through which we could see golden furniture. On tables inside this
chamber, someone had piled gems and coins and jewels in careless haste. All
glittering in the light.
    “Wow, what a stash.” I took a step forward. “Is that their
treasure?”
    Seshe turned away. “Might be. If so, that fellow doesn’t
seem to be guarding it very well.”
    “You know, if we grabbed some, we could probably buy our way
home.” I took another step forward. “It’s not like anybody is using it.”
    Seshe wrinkled her nose, and I could tell she hated the
idea. Of course. It was someone else’s stuff. The other way to look at ‘if we
grabbed’ was ‘if we thieved’. I sighed, turned my back, and began hunting along
the books—until I realized I couldn’t read any of the titles.
    “This was a waste of time,” I exclaimed, just as the Evil
Mage appeared, panting.
    “Thought I’d better come along,” he puffed. “Do you know, no
one’s come up here in years?”
    “Why not?”
    “I think it has something to do with the Enchantment of
Intent,” he said cheerfully. “The person who crosses this threshold with the
intent to possess sees a door open, oh, right about there, with treasures and
things beyond. And when they step through, snap!”
    “Snap?” Seshe and I said together, as we whirled around to
back away from that treasure room—as if the archway would turn into a mouth and
pounce to bite us.
    The archway was gone. Like it had never been. But I knew
what I’d seen, and judging from Seshe’s round eyes, she’d seen it, too.
    “Snap.” He clapped his hands.
    “Where do they go?” I asked, edging back again, just in
case, and curling my bare toes under.
    He shrugged.
    Wow, I thought. What if I’d been in a grabby mood?
    “Two kings of Chwahirsland vanished that way, one right
after the other, scarce weeks apart, I’m told.” The man chuckled as if