Until we reach the artifact.
I'm coming, Kendra said.
Face reddening with exertion, Warren gripped the handle of the key tightly and began turning it. The key rotated 180 degrees and stopped.
The platform shuddered. It became apparent that the circular grooves marked divisions between concentric rings of stone when the outer ring fell away into darkness, followed by the next, and the next, and the next. The massive rings thundered as they struck the ground.
Warren pulled Kendra near him, standing atop the innermost circle with the key. Though the other rings all fell, the innermost never dropped. Peering down, Kendra saw that the outermost ring had fallen the farthest, with each ring thereafter plummeting a shorter distance, so that all together they formed a conical stairway. From the outside of the platform, it was at least a thirty-foot drop to the floor of the chamber. From the center where Kendra and Warren stood, the next ring was only four feet lower, the next four feet lower again, and so forth down to the floor.
They just don't build entrances like they used to,
Warren said. He tugged on the key, and, with a musical ring of steel, the portion of the key in the socket separated from the rest of it. Now instead of ending in a complicated series of protuberances and notches, the key ended in a slender, double-edged spearhead. Would you look at that?
Can't be good, Kendra said.379 Yeah, it probably turns into a weapon for a reason,Warren said, looking down into the chamber. I don't see any trouble yet.
I'm putting on the glove, Kendra said. She vanished.
Not bad, Warren said.
Kendra waved at him, reappearing as she moved. It only works when I hold still.
Do you know what any of the potions do? Warren asked.
I know a couple that would make us about eight or nine inches tall, she said. And I know some are bottled-up emotions, although I'm not sure which is which. Seth might know a few others. We should have asked him.
Warren began climbing down from ring to ring. As a last resort, you can always try a random potion, he said.
Hopefully it won't come to that.
The chamber was not much larger than the widest ring of stone. The floor appeared to be a single slab of bedrock.
There was nothing in the chamber except a pair of doors at opposite ends. One wall was covered in writings in various languages, including a few repeated messages in English.
This accursed sanctum lies outside the domain of Fablehaven.
Do not proceed.
Go in peace.380 Kendra assumed the other messages restated the same thingin their respective languages.
Why did they write it in English so many times?
Kendra asked.
I only see it in English once, Warren said.
Oh, fairy languages, she said.
They reached the bottom ring. Stay near me, Warren instructed. Step only where I step. Be ready for anything.
He tapped the ground with the handle of the key before stepping down. Kendra followed him.
Which door should we try? Kendra asked.
You pick, he said. It's a toss-up.
Kendra pointed at one of the doors. Warren led the way, prodding the floor with the key like a blind man. The door was of plain, heavy wood bound in iron, and appeared to be in good repair. Warren probed the ground off to one side and had Kendra stand there holding the ax. Standing still, she disappeared. Holding the key like a spear, he pulled the door open.
Nothing waited behind the door except a stairway curling downward. Warren got out the dying flashlight. He tried to tap the top stair with the handle of the key, but the handle went right through it.
Kendra, look, Warren said. The handle of the key disappeared through the first few steps. False stairs. Probably masking a drop of hundreds of feet.
They crossed the room and repeated their cautious actions at the other door. Again the door opened to a stairway, and again the stairs were only an illusion. Warren381 leaned out far, testing with the key, to check if perhaps onlythe first few stairs were counterfeit, but nothing within reach proved to be tangible.
Warren led the way around the perimeter of the room, tapping the floor and the walls. They reached a place where the key passed through the wall. Warren leaned through the illusion, and Kendra heard him tapping with the key.
Here is the genuine stairway, he said. Kendra passed through the insubstantial wall and saw a stone stairway winding downward. White stones set in the walls emitted a soft light.
You never know what might be a mirage in places like this, Warren said. He poked one of the glowing stones with the key. Ever seen a sunstone?
No, Kendra said.
So long as one stone sits under the sun, all the sister stones share the light, he said. It's probably atop one of the nearby hills.
As they descended the stairs, they found a few places where illusionary steps disguised gaps in the stairway. Warren helped Kendra leap across the empty places. Finally they reached the bottom of the stairs and another door.
Again Warren had Kendra move over to one side as he opened the door. Strange, he murmured, testing the ground. Warren stepped through the doorway. Come on,
Kendra.
She peeked through the doorway. The room was large and circular, with a domed ceiling. White stones set in the ceiling illuminated the scene. Deep, golden sand covered the382 floor. On the far side of the room a door was painted on thewall. On the left side of the room murals of three monsters decorated the wall, with another three on the right side.
Kendra saw a blue woman with six arms and the body of a serpent, a Minotaur, a huge Cyclops, a dark man who from waist up looked human and from waist down had the body and legs of a spider, an armored snakelike man wearing an elaborate headdress, and a dwarf in a hooded cloak. All the images, though a tad faded, had been rendered with supreme skill.
Warren raised a hand for Kendra to halt. The key sank into the sand in front of him. There are places where the sand becomes treacherous, he said. Watch your step.
In order to avoid sinking in quicksand, they took a circuitous path to the painted door on the far side of the room.
The painting depicted a door of solid iron with a keyhole below the handle. Hesitantly, Warren touched the painting.
The image of the door rippled for an instant, and suddenly the door became real, a mural no longer.
Warren whirled, key held high, and eyed the other murals in the room. Nothing happened. Finally he turned back to the door and tried the handle. The door was locked.
Notice anything all the creatures on the wall have in common?
Warren asked.
Kendra focused on comparing them. A key around their necks, she said. The keys were not obvious. They were small, and subtly drawn, but each painted being had one.
Any theories on how we get through the door? Warren asked, obviously with an answer in mind.383 You've got to be kidding, Kendra said.Don't we both wish, he said. The old guys who designed this place sure knew how to throw a party. He led