Book 3 Epilogue: A New Day
The sound of scraping stone echoed through the empty amphitheater as the mechanism, sticky from millennia of non-use, rattled and screeched.
“Gods, what a racket,” Johnsson complained. “If anyone’s spyin’ on us, they know something’s up now for sure.
“Duke Barnes said we wouldn’t be disturbed,” Annie muttered, as she slid the next piece of the puzzle into place. One of the columns in the back of the Greybeard’s Lyceum rotated in place and sank down into the ground, revealing a key beneath the floor. “I’d like to believe her.”
“I think that’s for the second keyhole in the fresco!” Aqua cried excitedly, running up to grab it. She then sprinted over to the two-storey high tall mosaic of a golden mountain and shoved the key into a keyhole that we’d uncovered under one of the tiles.
“I really cannae believe this was never found,” I muttered. “Has this place never had a deep cleaning, or renovations, in all this time?”
“Good dwarven architecture,” Richter said, thumping a nearby column. “No need.”
I waited a breath for the column to immediately fall over because he’d said that, but alas. I waved at Bran across the rows of seating. “Pull the lever, Bran!”
“That’s Lord Bran to you, Pete!” Bran drawled.
“You mean Lord Pete, you upstart noble!” I sniped back.