Authors: Andy Holland
"Have you ever destroyed a stone?" Amber asked.
"Of course not, dear," the guide replied with a smile. "They'd have dismissed me if I had. Come and watch; they'll be heating the scales in a moment."
A middle aged lady in long red robes was arranging scales in a large, flat, metal bowl while two of her colleagues, already having transformed, watched her intently. She stood back and nodded to them, and the first dragon started to gently blow flames at the underside of the bowl. She did this for about twenty seconds before the other dragon took over. Every twenty or so seconds, they swapped over, so that the bowl was continuously heated.
"It's a difficult job, making sure that the bowl is heated to just the right amount," the guide told them. "They'll do this for about half an hour for each bowl, and they have to be very careful that they don't overheat them, or they'll be ruined. It's good practice for working on the stone, of course. Losing a bowl of scales isn't a firing offense, although if you do it more than once you might want to think about finding another job."
Suddenly, a loud bell sounded, and the guide looked up in alarm.
"What's that bell for?" Amber asked. "It's very loud."
The guide looked shocked, and paused before answering. "It's the warning bell! It's only ever been sounded once before, last year when the blues attacked the city."
"But surely we'd hear lots of bells if we were under attack," Seth said to her. "They'd be ringing all over the city. Why is there just that one?"
The guide froze, unsure of what to do. The middle aged lady ran over to her, looking angry.
"What are you doing just standing there? You know the procedure; evacuate this room immediately!"
The guide snapped out of her stupor and jumped into action. "Students, follow me. This is probably just a drill, but just in case—"
Behind them, the guards were standing with their pikes pointed at the door, which had been bolted in several places. Presumably the guards on the other side of the door were doing the same for the outer door. The third door, the one behind them which was presumably to the stone room, was shut, and everyone was ignoring it.
The guide pulled up a trap door in the middle of the room. "Come on, everyone needs to go down here. Just the guards will remain in here; we'll just get in the way."
Seemingly from nowhere, an additional eight guards had appeared and were standing by the two doors, so now each door was guarded by six guards, all heavily armoured and carrying heavy pikes. An additional four guards had transformed, and two Red Dragons stood in place by each door. John noticed that each one wore protective armour around the necks and on their bellies.
"React quickly, don't they?" Jerome noted casually to John, who had noticed him watching the guards as well.
"They do," John replied. "It's going to take a lot to get through that door."
"Nothing will get through," Jerome replied confidently. "I'm sure it's just a drill."
"Keep moving you two," Professor Silver called, looking more irritated than worried. "You're holding everyone up."
The guide however, looked a little anxious. "Come on," she called, "get down here now. I need to bolt the door from the inside."
Jerome gestured to John to go first then followed him down into the underground room, and the guide bolted the trapdoor above them. Professor Silver glared nastily as John, but didn't say anything.
"Why don't you stay up there to defend as well?" Jenna asked the guide.
"There's limited room," she replied, "so they only want the best guarding the doors. No one can get through though; we're perfectly safe down here."
Something in her voice indicated that she didn't completely believe this, and John noticed that she was trembling a little.
"How long will we need to stay down here?" Professor Silver asked impatiently.
She shrugged. "Last time it felt like forever. We were down here for two hours after the last Blue was brought down. They wanted to make sure there were none that might sneak in."
"But that can't happen," Jerome told her reassuringly. "Not with all those security measures and precautions you have upstairs. We're all quite safe down here."
She smiled at him. "Yes, yes of course. That is true."
"And there's no reason to try and get in here anyway," he told her. "It's the stone room they'd be trying to get into. Isn't that right?"
She nodded, looking a bit more relaxed. "Yes, there's no reason to try and get down here. Well, although, if they knew anything about the design of the building, they might want to try and get in here to tunnel up into the stone room. This room is directly under the stone room, and the floor is actually thinner here than the walls of the room above and that door is nearly indestructible, so it might make sense to try and break into here."
John frowned. "Are you sure you should be telling us that?" he asked.
She glared at him. "You're only children; what does it matter? Besides, it's not exactly a secret. It's in the guide books we sell to people."
Jerome put his hand on her shoulder to calm her. "Please, ignore my friend. He's rather serious about things. We've learnt to not to pay too much attention to what he says. I'm sure no one will try to get into this room. They'd have to get past all those guards first, and you'd need a small army to do that! Please, why don't you continue with your talk? We're all stuck here anyway, and some of the students may be nervous, so you'd put them at ease."
She smiled up at him. He was probably ten years younger than she was, but she appeared to have warmed to him more than John would have expected. "Of course. That's a good idea," she said gratefully. "Gather around students, we'll continue with the tour. This is almost certainly just a drill; they must have forgotten that we had this tour scheduled. I do apologise. We don't normally show people this room, as it's not particularly interesting but now that we're here…"
"Was Jerome just flirting with the guide?" Jenna asked Crystal in disbelief. "Doesn't he know when to stop?"
"As if she'd be interested in a boy like him," Crystal replied acidly.
"She's a guide in this stupid place, and probably gets paid less than Jerome spends on hats," Jenna replied. "He's tall, good-looking, and apparently has enough money to buy half of Furnace. Of course she'd be interested."
Crystal glared at her. "Arthur seems to be speaking to that attractive girl from Ash class quite a lot today, doesn't he? Isn't she from the West as well?"
Jenna pulled a face. "That's his second cousin, for your information. You're just annoyed because you still like Jerome—"
Suddenly the trap door creaked open and one of the guards stuck his head in. "All clear. Just a drill. You can all come out now."
"How did he do that?" Amber asked. "I thought you locked it from the inside."
The guide turned to her, a look of relief on her face. "Oh, yes, it's possible to release the locking mechanism from above. There's a hidden release button, in case an enemy managed to get in the room and lock us out. Everyone, follow me out of the room."
John and Daisy were at the back of the group again, and waited as the other students climbed the ladder back into the room above.
"Strange that," John commented. "I wonder if the drill had anything to do with what happened in the library."
"It would make sense," Daisy replied. "You'd expect them to increase the security everywhere."
"You would if they believed me," John replied. "I get the feeling that my credibility is starting to wane. To be fair to them, it is a hard thing to believe, and even I doubted what I was seeing."
Daisy nodded sympathetically. "I believe you. And it makes sense. Why would anyone other than a Blue Dragon steal from our military library?"
Arthur discussed the same question with Seth over lunch, which they ate back at school after the tour finished. "John doesn't make things up," Arthur stated flatly. "I don't think he has the imagination for it. If he said he saw an intruder, then that's what happened."
Seth shook his head. "Yes, but does he tell us everything? He always holds something back. Like that time he almost died. We still don't know how he survived in that valley, left all alone. He probably did see an intruder, but meeting a Blue Dragon? So close to Furnace? Doesn't seem likely."
"What are you discussing?" Crystal asked, sitting down to join them. "You look very serious."
Seth told her about what John had told Arthur and Daisy.
"So that's where he was yesterday," Crystal replied. "I wonder why he didn't tell me."
Arthur shrugged. "Has he even had time? He was busy all day yesterday, and came to see us as soon as he was free."
"So, a Blue Dragon in Furnace," Crystal mused. "Hard to believe, isn't it? Although I guess after that attack last term it's easier to swallow."
"Not really," Seth replied. "The man was only lit up by the moonlight, and John could easily have made a mistake. He was very tired. The question is, who else could it be?"
Crystal paused. "Have you ever heard of the story of the Lord who plotted against the King?"
"Lord Artus?" Daisy said from behind her, making her jump.
"Where'd you come from, Daisy?" Crystal asked. "You surprised me. I don't know the name, but John was telling me about what happened to him. The Royal Family was originally just one of several powerful families, and a few generations after Cornelius declared himself King, a head of one of the other families—one of the Lords—was caught plotting against the King of the time. John told me it could have been successful if they hadn't caught him."
"Lord Artus was his name," Daisy replied. "My tutor taught me about it last year. The plot was to persuade the other Lords to throw their allegiance behind him instead of King Lancelot the second. He wasn't the most popular of Kings, as our enemies constantly attacked us while he was in charge, and although we know now he defended very successfully, at the time, Lord Artus thought he was leading the country very badly and wanted him gone."
"Very interesting," Arthur commented politely, feeling that everyone was missing the point. "But what has this to do with anything?"
Crystal shrugged. "Are things so different now? The King is weaker than ever, many in the West and the East long for more independence, and there are several very powerful families that could probably do a better job than the King."
"Even saying that out loud is dangerous," Seth told her sternly. "It could be seen as treason. I've heard of Lord Artus as well. It's something we're all taught about here in Furnace. There's no trace of his family left; they were executed down to the last child, and most of them were killed in the most horrific ways—deserved of course. Any Lord caught plotting against the King would share the same fate."
"Yes, which is why it might make sense to put some blue in your hair and divert attention away from your family if someone gets seen," Crystal replied. "John might not have been mistaken at all in what he saw, just in what it actually was."
"But the Lords all have access to the military library," Arthur pointed out. "They wouldn't need to steal anything."
"Not everything," Crystal replied. "My father is on the council, remember? A number of the documents are only available to the five commanders. We've had our first attack on the capital and my father thinks it hasn't been handled that well. If that was leaked to the other lords, maybe they would think about choosing a new leader."
"Whatever your father thinks, it's best if no one else knows," Arthur told her sternly. "I'm guessing he wouldn't appreciate your repeating it to us."
"Don't worry, Crystal, we won't repeat what you told us," Daisy assured her. "But do you really think one of the Lords could be behind the break in? I mean, would there be anything useful they could steal?"
"John's probably the one to answer that one," Crystal replied. "The question is, which of the Lords is most likely to be behind a plot?"
"Easy," Seth replied, looking over at the next table where Daniel and Joel were sitting. "Thorne. His is the largest and richest family in the kingdom, and no offence twins, but the West has always been the least loyal of the principalities. It's rumoured that Thorne was the family that sparked the formation of the principalities in the first place."
Arthur nodded. "I believe that's probably true. The Lord Thorne of the day probably thought he could manipulate my great, great grandfather Prince Gerald more easily than King Micah, being the youngest of the five sons of Prince Henry the second. He couldn't have been more wrong. My brother may share his name, but the first Prince Gerald was as different to my brother as you could be. Studious, quiet. He probably seemed lacking in confidence to Lord Thorne before the foundation of the Western Principality, but as soon as he had real power he was a very different man. Everyone thinks that the West is rich just because of our location, but Prince Gerald had both great foresight and wisdom, and the West grew very quickly under his rule. The Thorne family can't complain too much; they became incredibly wealthy under our families reign."
"Yes, although your distance from unfriendly neighbours can't have hurt too much, can it?" Seth observed. "Easier to grow quickly when your neighbours aren't attacking you every day."