“I think there’s traps all along the sides where things were displayed, but we don’t have to mess with those. Carcalla said the secret door would be at the end of the room.” I scowled at the distance, as there was a great deal of possibly lethal furniture between me and the far wall, while the last fifty or so feet were wide open and bare.
“I don’t like that final empty bit,” Azarian said.
“Yeah… me neither. The rest of this place is cluttered. Why’s Korthican got a dance floor?”
“You know about dancing? I didn’t know you had dances in Fogo. The way you talk, it’s all work, work, work.”
“You’d be surprised. Work hard, play hard. The cargo bay of a barge is wide and flat, and once you drop off the Red and it’s empty, that’s the time to celebrate. We’ve always got a few folkswho can play an instrument or hum a tune. Cadre girls love to dance. I’m not too shabby at it myself.”
“You’ll have to show me later.”
Even with the tension, a pretty girl saying such nice things made me smile. “Providing we don’t die horribly here, I will.”
“I’m holding you to that, Oz.”
I set as direct a path as I could for the end of the room. Twenty minutes later, I was a third of the way across. I was surely missing a slew of traps along the way, but as long as nobody strayed off the narrow lane I’d scouted, we should be fine.
Eventually, my compulsive floor-poking paid off, as a bit of pressure with the tip of the sword caused one of the tiles ahead of me to sink. It was right next to a small table that must have once displayed something of value. There was aclick, and I leapt back as a ghostly arrow shot across the room, about chest high. Luckily, by me being careful, the only thing that got pierced was the cobwebs.
“Everybody remember to avoid that spot,” I said.
“You’re getting good at this.” Azarin shouted that encouragement from a safe distance behind me. “I can’t lie, this display of competence is making you rather attractive.”
“I suppose it isn’t that different than trapping Elementals. Just in reverse.”
Rade coughed politely. “As much as I appreciate the necessity of impressing a lady, please do focus on the task at hand, Carnavon.”
“Feel free to trade places with me at any time.”
Rade tipped his hat respectfully, and I went back to searching.
Where the furniture ended was where it got complicated. The tiles here were unlike the rest. They were in a chaotic pattern, each one shaped differently, but all of them were just big enoughto place both your feet. I wasn’t very good at sensing magic that wasn’t Red-based, but the energy collected here was strong enough that even I could tell this whole section of floor was enchanted. It was like being back home standing before rock that appeared cooled and solid enough to walk on, but which was actually a thin crust over liquid doom, where one wrong step meant burning your foot off. This felt like that, only death and dismemberment would come by magic instead of lava.
The previous traps had all been next to something that had almost certainly once held an item of value. If the secret door was on the other end, this whole section was designed to keep thieves away from it. Maybe I was close enough the password would work? It was worth a shot. I really didn’t want to try and cross the part that was practically screaming danger for nothing.
I recalled the exact words Carcalla had made me repeat until memorized, cleared my throat, and loudly announced, “At the center of the matter cloud, across all realms entwined, shines forth the beacon. Pray to the gods and saints while the enemies of the Council despair.”
Nothing happened.
“That’s a long password.” Sifuso let out an angry hiss. “Humans talk too much.”
“Did you say it right?” Rade asked.
“I think so. Give it a second. It’s been shut for five hundred years.”
Sure enough, there was a loud grinding noise, and forty feet away, a seam appeared in the rock. It was perfectly visible because of the trickle of white light shining through the new crack. The door appeared to be stuck, but there was certainly something there.
“Hot damn. It’s real.”
“What’s the hold-up?” Rufus demanded. “Go get our treasure.”
“Calm your tits, dwarf. This last part I think is like a puzzle. It’s step on the tiles in the right order, or else.” Carcalla had somehow gotten ahold of the password, but he’d said nothing about this bit. It looked like the tiles might have been color-coded once or had symbols on them, but it was impossible to tell now with so much dust, and there was no way to sweep them off without touching them. “Anybody got a spell that can make a gust of wind?”
All eyes turned toward our lone air-realmer. “Sorry,” Azarin said sheepishly. “Useful as that sounds right about now, that’s not one that I’ve picked up.”
“Just poke them with the sword and see what happens,” Rufus said. “It can’t be that complicated.”
I doubted that very much, but didn’t see any other choice. There were a dozen different stones I could step onto. Twice that many with a bit of a jump. So, I picked a tile, extended the sword as far as I could, and gently tapped the point upon it.
