The King in Reserve by Michael Pryor

to hear curiosity rather than fear in the young king's voice. He joined him and lifted the lantern to examine what Gormond had found.
    It was a black rectangle, two handspans or so tall, and half that in width, set in the rough stone wall next to the arch through which they had entered. The rectangle was flat and highly polished, reflecting the light of the lantern.
    'That's A'ak script,' Simangee said over Adalon's shoulder. She edged past him and peered closer. Then she gripped his arm, hard. 'Adalon, underneath the A'ak script, that's old Shuff writing. Hoolgar made me learn it last year.'
    'That's very interesting, but –'
    Simangee slapped his leg with her tail. 'It's more than interesting, it could be the answer to the mystery of the ages. If the Shuff script is a translation of the A'ak script, it could help us decipher their language.'
    Adalon's eyes opened wide. He thought of the A'ak books and inscriptions that had been gathered in the thousands of years since the A'ak were banished. The disc could open a treasure trove of knowledge. It could produce a vital weapon in their war against Queen Tayesha.
    He ran his finger over the rectangle and smiled. He slipped his dagger free. 'Here. Let me see what I can do. Hold the lantern please, Sim.'
    With care, Adalon placed the tip of the dagger in the crack where the rectangle was set into the rock wall. He pressed, to see if he could prise it out, but was startled when the dagger sank up to its hilt. Before he could do anything, the rectangle popped out of the wall.
    With a yelp, he danced backward so it wouldn't fall on his feet. He lurched against Simangee, who had been leaning in close. Together, they stumbled, tangling limbs and nearly falling over before Gormond steadied them.
    'The rectangle,' Simangee gasped. 'Oh.'
    A rectangle no longer, the black stone lay in three pieces on the floor. Adalon held out both hands. 'Sorry, Sim.'
    Without a word, she knelt and gathered the pieces. She handed them to Adalon. 'This time, keep them safe.'
    The stone was as thick as his thumb, with an unsettling greasy feel that made him wipe his hands after he'd stowed the pieces in his pouch. 'Where's Targesh?' he asked.
    'Over there,' Gormond said. 'Alone in the darkness he stands.'
    It took Adalon a moment, but he finally made out Targesh in the middle of the immense cavern. 'Targesh!'
    'Here!'
    They hurried to where the Horned One was standing. In the light of the tiny lantern, it took Adalon a moment to see what his friend was looking at.
    Unlike the rest of the floor, this circular area had been worked. It was a smooth disc set into the rock of the floor. Highly polished black stone flecked with grey caught the lantern light. It was a good thirty or forty paces across. At first, Adalon could see nothing but the grain of the rock, then gradually he saw that the surface of the polished area was covered with lines. Etched in the black stone, dark against the darkness like storm clouds in a midnight sky, the lines covered the disc from rim to rim, in patterns, swirls and loops of dizzying complexity.
    'A'ak,' Targesh said, when he saw the look of realisation on Adalon's face.
    'It's a map,' Simangee said. 'Adalon, it's the same as the great chart of Krangor in the Room of Dreams in the Lost Castle.'
    Adalon stared. The lines seemed to squirm about until he was staring at the outline of the mighty continent of Krangor, sailing across the endless sea. Virriftinar to Chulnagh, Shuff to Bondorborar, all stretched out in front of him. He rubbed his eyes and all was still, and he wondered if he'd imagined the movement of the lines – but the shape of Krangor was now plain and clear, of that there was no doubt.
    Simangee stepped onto the disc. Startled, Adalon went to drag her back, but when nothing happened he subsided. 'Here we are,' she said, 'in the north of Thraag. We have to cross Tayesha's lands before we're safe in the Hidden Valley.'
    'Is this where we are?' Gormond said, joining