Seth scanned the floor. "Looks like it. We'd better go let them know what happened."
Together they walked to the top of the stairs. Their companions waited not far from the bottom step.
"We killed Siletta," Kendra announced. She and Seth started down the stairs.
The others cheered and shouted congratulations. At the bottom of the steps, she and Seth had to recount all the details. Everyone kept hugging them and clapping them on the back. By the exuberant expressions of relief, Kendra could tell that most of her comrades had doubted that she and her brother would succeed. They were all saddened to hear Mendigo had been disintegrated, but no further tears were shed. Tanu said that the magic animating Mendigo had most likely been in the wood, but that he was no expert on such things, and keeping the hooks couldn't hurt. The Samoan used a key to remove the handcuffs.
"Do you think the horn sanitized the air in there?" Seth asked.
"Touch a unicorn horn to a pond and the whole pond will be purified," Tanu said. "I'm not sure how the horn would affect a gas. The vapors you saw rising from the dragon and the poison pool would be harmless, but the preexisting gasses in the chamber might still have potency."
"We'll take no needless risks," Trask said. "Three of us will proceed to the treasure room, each with a hand on the horn. Kendra should be one, to be certain the horn remains active. She should also be there in case Patton left another message."
"I want to come too," Seth said. "I remember the descriptions of the figurines."
"And I'll come for protection," Trask said.
"I'm going to head back to the hydra," Gavin announced.
Trask shook his head. "We'll face Hespera together once we retrieve the key."
"No, I have a p-p-p-p-plan," Gavin insisted. "Let me borrow Seth's crossbow. I'm going to visit the corpse of Glommus and dip my spear and some quarrels into his vital juices. I may be able to put the hydra to sleep."
"You'll probably just fall asleep yourself when you return to the area where Glommus lies," Tanu cautioned.
"If I do, you guys can wake me," Gavin insisted. "I'm inspired by Kendra and Seth. A small, focused attack has advantages. If I approach the hydra alone, I think I can soothe her and get close enough to prick her. Don't worry, I won't throw my life away. But if I can clear the path for our escape, why not?"
"I'll trust your judgment," Trask said. "You don't want somebody to accompany you?"
"My best chance of getting close is to go in alone," Gavin said. "If I succeed, you'll find me waiting. If I can't pull it off, I'll come back. Or you'll find me unconscious near Glommus. If you don't find me at all, you'll know what happened."
"I don't like this," Kendra said.
"I feel good about it," Gavin replied.
"None of our options are pleasant," Trask said. "Gavin, I think this is worth a try. If you can get close and put the hydra to sleep, we might beat the odds and see daylight again. You're free to go. In case Gavin can't subdue the hydra, the rest of you should make ready to face Hespera and dash to our rendezvous with the griffins. Kendra, Seth, come with me."
Chapter 26 Ambush
The dragons had evidently placed a lot of confidence in their guardians. Beyond the chamber where Kendra and Seth had slain Siletta, a short, spacious hall led to the doorless treasure room. Trask took his time carefully probing and investigating, but detected no traps. With Siletta and Glommus dead, and the hydra pinned back near the entrance, the treasury was left unguarded.
Beyond the giant doorway, the treasury contained three wide aisles bounded by rows of stone tables. An endless variety of items cluttered the tables, ranging from the opulent to the primitive. Elegantly cut gemstones the size of billiard balls rested alongside rough-hewn stone mallets. Walking along one row of tables, Kendra noticed an elaborate pagoda carved from lucent jade, a rusted iron helm, a ten-foot ivory tusk inlaid with gold, a bucket of crude nails, delicate baubles of colored glass, ragged books decorated with arcane glyphs, a rotting leather birdcage, a collection of large lenses inside a compartmentalized wooden trunk, fanciful bronze masks, a tattered cape, a corroded candelabrum, and a pile of copper coins with holes in the center.
Trask, Kendra, and Seth each kept hold of the unicorn horn. Seth towed them across the aisle so he could pick up a gleaming sword.
"Pure adamant," Trask noted reverently.
"Can I keep it?" Seth wondered.
"We should take nothing more than we must," Trask admonished. "We don't want dragons after us to reclaim stolen treasure."
"They'll already be after me for killing Siletta," Seth said.
"We should still avoid causing any extra harm," Trask said. "Combating the guardian dragons was unavoidable. But we don't need to inflame the insult by pillaging their treasure. We owe Thronis the figurines, so we'll pay that debt. If the dragons want them back, they can take it up with him. The key was never theirs to begin with, so, in a sense, we'll have stolen nothing."
"All right," Seth conceded. He replaced the sword and they moved farther down the aisle.
A raised dais spanned the rear of the room, supporting an extra row of stone tables. Toward the center upon a pedestal higher than the surrounding tables rested a pair of gauntlets--lobstered steel embellished with gold and platinum scrollwork.
"Look at those gloves," Seth said.
"Almost certainly not the Sage's Gauntlets," Trask surmised. "On display so prominently, they must be decoys. I wouldn't be surprised if poisoned needles awaited unwary fingers."
"I don't know," Kendra said. "Aside from the dragons and the hydra, they didn't do much to guard the room. They may have been cocky enough to leave the gauntlets in plain view."
"Maybe we should grab the gauntlets," Seth proposed. "We can give them back in the end, but meanwhile we can use them to distract the dragons. If we get in a tight situation, maybe we could bargain with them."
"Not terrible thinking in principle," Trask acknowledged. "But to disturb the gauntlets would enrage the dragons beyond any hope of bargaining. I repeat, our best chance for success is to move quickly and take only what we came for. Kendra, did Patton leave any hint at the Fairy Queen's shrine concerning where in the room he hid the key?"
"I didn't see a hint," Kendra said, being deliberately vague about not having actually read Patton's message at the shrine. Her cheeks felt hot. She hoped she wasn't blushing. In hindsight, she should probably have fished the tablet out of the pool in case he had included any extra tidbits. "And I haven't noticed any writing here in the treasury either. Patton said the key looks like an iron egg the size of a pineapple, with a bunch of protuberances on the top half."