Rise of the Evening Star

Kendra averted her eyes. He wadded up his shirt and pressed it against the wound, which was a couple of inches to one side of his belly button. Let’s hope this stanches the bleeding, he said. Can you cut me a length of rope?

Using the sharp spearhead of the bloody key, Kendra did as he said, and Warren used the rope to bind his shirt in388place over the wound. He wiped the blood from the spearheadonto his pants. Can you go on? Kendra asked.

Not much choice, he said. Let’s see if the Minotaur’s key works.

Groaning, Warren used the tall key to pull himself to his feet. He walked to the iron door, inserted the Minotaur’s key, and opened it.389The Vault

Another stairway spiraled down beyond the open door.

More sunstones, brighter than before, lit the way.

Warren prodded the steps and found that they were solid.

Kendra, he said. Go erase the lines around a few of the sinkholes near the entrance to the room.

When Kendra returned, Warren was feeling the pulse in his neck. Perspiration dampened his forehead. How are you? she asked.

I’m not doing too bad, he assured her. Especially for a guy who just underwent involuntary surgery. We have the

Minotaur’s key. If we shut the door behind us, our friend the narcoblix will probably have to earn a key of her own.

Okay, Kendra said, stepping into the stairwell with390 Warren and closing the door. She turned to face him, andvanished.

Maybe you should just keep the glove handy for the next threat, Warren said. It is tough losing track of where you are when we pause.

Kendra took off the glove. As long as they were moving around, exploring the tower, it wasn’t much of a protection anyway. Slipping it on would be little more trouble than simply holding still. They descended the stairs for some time, finding no false steps until the final few before the very end.

I like the placement, Warren said, jumping over them and wincing when he landed. He leaned against the wall, one hand clutching his wound. Just when you assume all the stairs are solid, you plunge to your doom.

No door awaited them. Instead, an arched entryway granted access to a broad chamber with a complex mosaic on the floor. The mosaic depicted an enormous battle of primates being waged in tall trees. The perspective was from the ground looking up, creating a disorienting effect.

Motioning for Kendra to stay put, Warren entered the room. A second archway on the far side of the chamber appeared to be the only way out. Satisfied that they faced no immediate threat, Warren beckoned for Kendra to follow.

The instant she stepped into the room, the ax vanished from her grasp. Below her, high in a tree, a chimpanzee screamed. Twirling Kendra’s ax, the manic primate leaped from his high perch and fell upwards toward the ground. The chimpanzee sailed right out of the mosaic, materializing in front of Kendra, brandishing the ax.391 Shrieking, Kendra ran away from the ax-wielding chimp,yanking on her glove. Rushing up from behind the chimpanzee,

Warren flung the key just as the screeching ape was beginning to give chase. The key sailed true, striking the frenzied beast between the shoulder blades, and the chimpanzee pitched forward onto the floor, long hand twitching, the ax skidding forward over tiny tiles.

Don’t pick up the ax, Warren warned. This chamber is meant to strip us of all weaponry.

Except the key, Kendra said.

Grunting, Warren bent over and retrieved the key, again wiping the spearhead on his pants. Right, he said. My guess is that to pass this room with any weapon besides the key, we would have to slay every monkey in the mosaic.

Kendra looked down. There were hundreds of apes, including dozens of powerful gorillas. Maybe it was a good thing you didn’t have all your gear.

Warren smiled ruefully. You’re not kidding. Being butchered by monkeys is pretty low on my list of ways to go.

Come on.

They passed through the archway at the other end of the room and began winding down yet another stairwell. All the stairs were real, and at the bottom they found another open archway, narrower than the previous ones.

Warren led the way into a cylindrical room where the floor was hundreds of feet below. Widely spaced sunstones provided sufficient light. A narrow catwalk without railings ringed the top of the room, level with the entrance. The roof bristled with barbed spikes. Kendra saw no way to392 descend-the walls were smooth and sheer all the way tothe bottom, where she could barely make out something in the center of the floor.

I’m not sure we brought enough rope, Warren joked, stepping onto the catwalk. I believe this is our destination.

How are you with heights?

Not so good, Kendra said.

Wait here, he said. He walked along the catwalk, testing the air with the key, as if searching for an invisible stairway.

Kendra noticed an alcove in the far side of the wide room. When Warren reached the alcove, he removed something from it. He levitated a few feet into the air, glanced up at the spikes above him, and floated back down.

I think I get it, he called. He reached into the alcove again and there was a bright flash that flung him backwards off the catwalk. Kendra watched breathlessly as Warren plummeted toward the distant floor. He began falling slower, then stopped, then started rising. He floated slowly as he drew even with Kendra, and finally stopped, hovering in the center of the room.

In addition to the key, Warren was holding a short white rod. I can’t move side to side, he explained. He floated up close to the spikes, carefully took hold of one, and pushed off, sending himself drifting toward Kendra, moving much the way Kendra pictured astronauts would in zero gravity.

Warren alighted on the catwalk beside her. The short rod was carved out of ivory. One tip was black. He had been holding the rod parallel to the floor, but now that he stood on the catwalk, he tilted it so the black tip was facing up.393 That makes you fly? Kendra asked.More like it reverses gravity, he said. Black tip up, gravity pulls down. Black tip down, gravity pulls up.

Sideways, you get zero gravity. Tilt the black tip up a little bit, gravity pulls down a little bit. Get it?

I think so, she said.

Careful of the roof, he warned.

Have you done this before? she asked.

Never, he said. You learn to experiment in places like this.

He held out the rod. She took it. I want to try it out in the stairway, without the spikes.

Go for it, he said.

Kendra went back to the stairway. Slowly she tipped the rod until it was sideways. Nothing felt any different. She jumped slightly, and it felt perfectly normal.

I don’t think it works out here, she said.

The enchantment must be specific to this room, he said. Still, strong spell, I’ve never heard of anything like it.

Remember, with the rod, you’re changing which way gravity pulls you. If your momentum is going one way, turning the rod won’t instantly change your direction. When I was falling and I flipped it over, I slowed, stopped, and then started going up. So leave yourself room to stop, or you might end up a shish kebab.