Naitachal, who was quietly testing the cower door, drew back with a sudden hiss. “Curse the man and his suspicious mind!” It was a savage whisper. “I know bronze is expensive, but does he really think someone’s going to try stealing a heavy bell?”
“Wh-what’s the matter?” Kevin asked.
“He’s bolted the cursed door!”
Lydia gave a frustrated sigh. “Can’t you cast some sort of spell—”
“I’m a necromancer,” the Dark Elf said flatly, “not a lockpick. Besides, you know any use of magic would bring Carlotta down on our heads.”
“Wonderful,” Lydia repeated. “Now what do we do?”
A snicker cut the sudden silence. “Helpless creatures!”
“Tich’ki! What—”
“Here, help me. This thing is cursed heavy!”
The fairy had stolen a whole coil of rope. “Tich’ki, this is great!” Lydia whispered. She craned her head back to study the tower. “Now, how are we going to get it up there?”
Tich’ki sighed in mock exasperation. “Do I have to do everything around here?”
She snatched up one end of the rope and started flapping her way up, struggling against its weight. Naitachal, watching closely so he wouldn’t entangle her or destroy her balance, played the rope out, coil by coil.
“She’s at the top,” he murmured. “Ah! She has it!”
Tich’ki came spiraling down. “That’s that—I’ve tied the thing strongly enough to hold even your weights! Now it’s up to you.”
Lydia’s teeth flashed in the darkness. “All right, let’s go! Me first, I chink, then Kevin, then you, Naitachal in case the kid has trouble.”
“I won’t—” the bardling started, but Naitachal cut in calmly:
“Agreed.”
Before Kevin could say anything more, Lydia was swarming up the rope with, he thought, disgusting ease.
“She made it,” Naitachal whispered after a few moments. “Your turn, Kevin.”
Just what I need: another chance to ruin my hands, this tine with rope bums. Ah well, better my hands than our lives!
He took a firm grip on the rope, braced his feet against the side of the tower, and started to climb. To his relief, the rope was knotted, giving him something to grasp. But he’d never done anything like this. Powers, he hadn’t even climbed trees when he was a child, not once he’d started studying music and had to be concerned about his hands! He could feel the ache in his arms and thighs already, and even the familiar weight of the lute on his back was threatening to pull him over backwards.
Cone on! Don’t be a baby! If Lydia can do it, so can you!
Hey, he had made it! Kevin scrambled up over the rim of one of the arches and stood aside so Naitachal, who also swarmed up the rope with disgusting ease, could join them.
“It’s about time!” Tich’ki jibed. “Watch your footing. There’s only this narrow strip of stone and the stairway down.” She fluttered in mid-air. “The whole tower’s hollow!”
Kevin shrugged. “Of course it is. They never expected anyone to stay here for very long. The bell would deafen anyone caught up here.”
“That is, if it wasn’t cracked so badly it couldn’t be rung,” Lydia said with a grin. “Lucky us!” She glanced around. “Naitachal, you don’t need a dear view of the courtyard, do you?”
“No. 1 sense cast magic and shield Kevin from it wherever I stand.”
