Dralin (31 page)

After checking all of that, she looked back
and listened to make certain no one else was coming down. Then she
unrolled the picks onto the barrel and chose three that were the
most useful. Pelya knelt in front of the lock. Bobbell had snuck
her around a few times to different doors and had her practice, but
this was the first time she had ever attempted it by herself.

The lock looked very similar to another one
she had learned on. Pelya carefully inserted two of the picks in to
see if they became warm. When they didn’t, she knew there weren’t
any magical wards on it and pulled them back out. Pelya trusted
Bobbell’s judgment of their ability.

Before trying to pick the lock, she tested
whether or not the door was even locked, a rule Bobbell had
hammered into her head to make sure she would never look the fool.
It was, so she eagerly inserted the first pick into the lock. Once
it was set, she put in the second and third. With a little
pressure, the lock clicked. It surprised her that she might get it
so quickly, but when she tested the handle, it opened.

The room beyond was dark too. Pelya put the
picks back and grabbed the lantern. She was disappointed to see
more crates of household furnishings. Some of the items on shelves
along the wall appeared to be tarnished silver, which would justify
the locked door. Pelya wouldn’t have stolen anything. She
considered herself a member of the Guard sworn to uphold the law,
but picking locks and sneaking around took skill and made her feel
alive. They were also useful abilities to have when hunting down
true thieves and criminals.

Pelya sat down on one of the crates in
disappointment. She put the lockpicks back under her tunic and felt
the pouch with her other two rune balls, remembering that one of
them would find secret doors. Ebudae had told her that most of the
manors in older districts like the Merchant and Noble Districts had
secret passages. She picked out the light green ball and rolled it
around in her hand. Before doing anything, Pelya grabbed the
lantern and went back to the upper basement to see if anyone had
come down to check on her.

That level was clear and a minute later, she
was back in the room. She said the key word to activate the rune
ball and it began to glow green. Pelya shined it around the room
only to be extremely disappointed when it didn’t reveal anything.
Not willing to give up, she took it out into the rest of the
sub-basement to see if she could find something.

When the light revealed a space behind a
stone wall in the back corner, she smiled gleefully. It took a
moment of moving the rune ball around the area to find the trigger,
a stone she had to push near the low ceiling. She stood on a crate
and pushed with all her might while still holding the rune ball. It
worked, but created a slight grinding noise.

Pelya froze in hope that no one had heard.
After a minute, she investigated the passage beyond, taking the
lantern along for better light. It was much cleaner than she
expected. There was little dust or cobwebs and the floor was swept,
meaning that the passage was used. It worried her that she might
get caught. People didn’t tend to be understanding about strangers
in their secret passages and the standard excuse of looking for a
chamber pot defied credibility.

She was undecided for a moment, but decided
to explore to the left first. About two hundred feet away, there
was a set of stairs going upward. Pelya didn’t want to go up, so
she turned in the other direction. The secret door to the
sub-basement was still open, so she found the passage-side trigger
and closed it, hoping it would also let her back out. She kept the
rune ball activated. It would continue to work awhile and there
might be other passages.

After another three hundred feet, there were
stairs going down. Pelya stayed to the left-hand side and hoped
there were no traps along the way as she quickly moved down. After
sixty steps, they turned and went down the other direction. They
did that three more times before coming to another hallway.

Pelya made her way carefully through the
damp passage. Patchy moss covered the walls and ceiling, but the
floor was clear. She followed it for two hundred feet before coming
to another door. It was metal, but plain. She tried the latch,
expecting it to be locked, but the door opened easily.

What she saw on the other side of that door
caused her eyes to go wide in amazement.

Chapter
19

Instead of a dark and dusty room with
treasure and hidden dangers, Pelya saw a room filled with magical
lanterns, bookshelves along one wall, a stone floor with thick
magical runes painted on it, workbenches with items of wizardry
much like Ebudae had in her labs and more runes painted on the
walls. In addition to that, there were a few small, magical
creatures in cages scattered throughout the room. On the far end,
surrounded by eight orange, glowing orbs of lights that were set on
stands, was a large cage. But the thing that made Pelya gasp was
the orange dragon lying in the middle of the cage, staring at her
with liquid-silver eyes.

She had heard a few tales of dragons, but
few people ever saw one. They were mysterious creatures that stayed
away from human civilization. What she remembered hearing from
Mieky, a bard friend of her father’s at Carnival, was that dragons
were the most powerful creatures in the world. He told her that
entire armies had fallen before them, but hadn’t heard of dragons
killing humans or vice versa anytime in the last millennium or more
and didn’t know why. Mieky said little was known about them other
than the facts that they were bigger than a large inn, very
beautiful, could fly, and that it was an absolutely
horrible
idea to upset one.

As she carefully walked toward it after
shutting the door behind her, Pelya observed that the dragon was
beautiful, stunning even. Metallic orange scales covered the body
from snout to tail, glimmering in the light of the orbs and
lanterns. The wings were folded back and its head was resting on
its front claws. Pelya got the distinct impression that it was sad,
though she couldn’t figure out how she knew that.

Mieky had mentioned that dragons were bigger
than most large inns, but this one was more the size of a large
wagon. Pelya wondered if he exaggerated the facts or if it was just
a small dragon. She wasn’t sure if it was safe to get too close,
but curiosity was stronger than anything. “Hello, beautiful dragon
. . . you are a dragon, aren’t you?”

Its head lifted a tiny bit and a pitiful,
trembling wail emitted from its mouth before settling back on its
forepaws. The small dragon looked weak to Pelya and she instantly
felt sympathy for it. “You poor dear,” Pelya said, moving toward
the cage. She stopped at the edge of an intricately spoked, large
circle of runes that surrounded the cage. She studied them for a
moment without understanding what any of it did. “You’re trapped in
there aren’t you?” she asked before instantly realizing it was a
stupid question.

It gave her just the slightest miserable nod
of its head. She was surprised that the creature understood her,
but remembered Mieky telling her that they were said to be much
more intelligent than humans.

There was a large lock on the gate and Pelya
got the idea of helping it escape. It was probably a stupid idea,
but she didn’t care. The creature was far too beautiful to be
locked away. She noticed that the circle on the floor had spokes
leading outside of it that attached to the stands the glowing orbs
were above. Those spokes were the same color orange as the orbs and
went directly underneath the dragon. “Are they draining your
power?” Pelya guessed.

The head rose further that time and a louder
wail came forth.

“Shh, shh,” Pelya hushed anxiously. “I don’t
want anyone to find me here, otherwise I won’t be able to rescue
you.” The dragon tilted its head in curiosity at the word rescue.
Pelya glanced back nervously to make sure no one had entered the
room before turning to the dragon again. “I don’t know what I’m
doing or if I’ll succeed, but I’m going to try.” She gestured to
the circle of runes on the floor. “Is that some sort of magic that
keeps anything from getting to you?”

It didn’t respond right away. Its eyes
swirled more rapidly. Then it nodded slowly. Pelya got the
impression there was more to the answer. Guessing what the dragon
was trying to communicate to her was difficult. Setting down the
lantern, but still keeping the rune ball in her hand so it wouldn’t
deactivate, she pulled one of the picks out of her pouch and held
it forward toward the circle. It didn’t just become warm, it turned
white hot and burned her fingers, causing her to drop it. “Ouch!”
she yelled, ignoring her own advice to be quiet. The dragon raised
one of the long ridges that ran over his eyes in a most humanlike
expression. Pelya stuck the wounded finger in her mouth and glared
at the creature.

Luckily, the pick only became hot when
handled. She was able to retrieve it with the leather of the pouch
and work it back into its opening. “I need to be able to pick the
lock, but I have no idea how to get past anything magical,” she
told the dragon sadly. It slumped its head in dejection.

Pelya sighed and looked around the room. The
other creatures appeared to have their energy being drained as
well, which suddenly made her furious. She wanted to save all of
them, but couldn’t without some sort of magical knowledge. Pelya
wondered briefly if Aunt Kally knew about the room, then she
panicked in fear that someone might have come into the basement to
find her. She calmed her breathing and decided she didn’t care.

“Let me see if I can figure something out,”
she told the dragon. It didn’t respond except to follow Pelya with
its eyes while she explored. It was a very large room with multiple
tables. Magical items of all sorts were on many of them along with
tools and ingredients to make those items. Pelya couldn’t help
think that Ebudae would love the place.

Then, along the back wall, the rune ball
exposed a very large secret door. It occurred to Pelya that it was
large enough to fit a dragon. She looked for a mechanism, but
couldn’t find it. For five minutes, she scanned the wall without
discovering its secret. Some sort of room or wide hall was behind
it, but the light only exposed fifteen feet beyond.

Foiled in her attempts, Pelya rapidly began
searching the rest of the walls and even the bookcases. No other
door revealed itself. Then she looked around all the tables and
shelves for a key, scroll or anything else to give her a clue about
the dragon’s cage or the entrance. It was to no avail. Well after
an hour had passed, she sat down cross-legged just outside the
circle in front of the dragon. Pelya put her chin on her fists and
felt tears beginning to flow.

She was tired of crying and wiped them off
furiously. “I’m sorry, beautiful dragon. I just don’t know how to
get you out of here,” Pelya apologized miserably. It didn’t respond
other than to continue staring at her dejectedly. Pelya began
tossing the rune ball back and forth from hand to hand.

Aunt Kally was probably done with . . .
‘
the
meeting
,’ as Pelya considered it in her mind.
She didn’t want to think about the other stuff. “I’m supposed to be
in the basement killing rats,” Pelya admitted to the dragon who
didn’t respond. “Someone’s most likely searching for me now. I
don’t care if I get in trouble, but I just wish I could save
you.”

The dragon lifted its head up for the first
time in a while. Pelya watched as it inhaled. Then it sneezed on
her.

Pelya sat there in shock as it lowered its
head again. Dragon snot covered her face and clothes, even oozing
down her collar. “Eww,” she told it while holding her arms out in
disgust. “I can’t believe you just sneezed on me after I tried to
help you.” It didn’t respond at all. It didn’t even
look
guilty.

She crushed the snot-covered rune ball to
destroy it. Pelya was about to throw the dust on the ground, but
realized it would give someone a clue that she had been there. With
a huff, she picked up the lantern, turned and stomped back to the
door she had come in, still holding the dust. At the same time, she
did her best to wipe off the extra-sticky snot with an arm.

As she ripped the door open and entered the
secret passage, it occurred to her that she was doing a terrible
job of sneaking around in a place that was owned by someone with
powerful enough magic to capture a dragon. Her senses came back to
her. Pelya set the lantern down and closed the door before picking
it back up.

Everything was quiet ahead, so she made her
way back to the stairs and up, stopping at each landing to listen
again. It was still clear when she reached the original hallway and
she headed instantly to the secret door. At that point, Pelya
realized she had crushed the rune ball that allowed her to see the
trigger to open it.

Pelya went to the steps up and counted back
to where she remembered the secret door being. She was very pleased
with herself when she got it right on the second try. The door
opened in front of her and she slipped through. Much to her relief,
there was no one in the sub-basement that she could see or hear. A
rat noticed her, but seemed willing to keep the secret.

The secret door closed when she pushed the
trigger on that side. It still made the grinding noise, but didn’t
seem to alert anyone. Pelya moved to some crates a short distance
away and threw the dust of the rune ball on the ground where it
wouldn’t be seen. She wiped off the remaining powder on her
pants.

There was no one in the upper level of the
basement either. Pelya walked to the bottom of the stairs and stood
there for a few minutes. Faint sounds of the kitchen trickled down
the steps, but there was no indication of trouble or alarm.