The Unsuspecting Mage - Brian S. Pratt [160]
“If you say so,” Miko replies halfheartedly.
Leaving the body behind, they continue down the hallway, passing two doors before coming to a halt before the third.
“Why are you stopping?” Miko asks.
“It’s indicating that we need to go through this door,” he explains. He tries the handle but finds it locked. He hands the compass and glowing orb to Miko before throwing his weight against the door. With a crash, the door bursts in, breaking off a two foot section of the door jamb in the process. His momentum carries him a little ways through the door where he stumbles and falls as his foot fails to find purchase on the floor. He rolls down a flight of stairs coming to rest at the bottom. Bruised and scraped but otherwise unhurt, he gets to his feet.
From the top of the steps he sees Miko illuminated by the glow from the orb in his hand looking down at him. “Are you okay?” he asks.
“Yeah,” replies James, “come on down. But be careful, I might have broken a few of the steps during my fall.”
Being extra careful, Miko takes it one step at a time, having to skip over one due to it being in such bad shape that he doesn’t think it will support his weight. He finally makes it to the bottom.
By the time he’s reached the bottom, James has taken a cursory look around the room. It’s a small room, only about ten feet by maybe twelve. The only exit is the door at the top of the stairs. The room itself is empty except for the dust that has accumulated over time.
He retrieves the compass from Miko and sure enough, it’s still pointing the way. Only this time it’s indicating the direction they need to go is through the wall. Pointing to the wall indicated by the compass, he says, “It says that we are to go this way.”
“Another secret door like in Lord Colerain’s estate?” suggests Miko.
Nodding his head, he replies, “I think so, give me the orb for a second.” Holding out his hand, Miko passes him the orb.
He does a thorough inspection of the wall and fails to find anything that looks like it could be a trigger to open the secret door. He then moves to the adjoining walls, searching for some trigger or other mechanism that could possibly open a secret door.
Miko looks around as well and notices a design on the floor, partially hidden by the accumulated dust. “James, look at this,” he says as he points it out to him.
James comes over and kneels down, taking a closer look. Brushing away the dust he discovers that it is a square shaped stone engraved with a design of a circle within a circle within a circle. He presses on it but nothing happens. Getting to his feet, he has Miko step on it while he goes over and pushes on the wall but nothing happens. “Maybe there are others we need to release first,” he theorizes. “Look around for any more similar designs.”
They look around and Miko discovers another one on the wall about midway up the stairs. This one is just a single circle. Excited, James says, “If there is one with three circles and another with just the one, then there may be another with two circles. And hopefully by pressing them in the correct order, it’ll enable us to open the secret door.”
“Makes sense,” agrees Miko.
They continue to look but fail to find two circles, one in the other. “I don’t think there is one here, James,” Miko says after they’ve searched for a while.
“There has to be,” he insists. “It wouldn’t make any sense otherwise.” He continues to look around, getting on his hands and knees to closely examine the floor inch by inch.
“But we’ve examined all the walls and floor over and over,” Miko goes on. “There is no such design here.”
Stopping and standing up suddenly, James looks at Miko, “You’re right. We have searched all the walls and the floor, but we haven’t looked at the ceiling.” He turns his gaze up toward the ceiling and sure enough, there is the design with two circles, one inside the other. “I knew it!” he exclaims excitedly.
“Miko, go and press firmly on the single circle,” James tells him.
Miko cautiously makes his way up the stairs and presses the circle, “Now what?”
“Toss the piece of the