The Warlock's Gambit Read Online Free PDF

fight the shades when they first got there was again hanging below the shield. He’d dropped it fighting the takaturio in the Training Room. Valet or Arms must’ve put it away. Which was fine; the sword couldn’t hurt the shades at all.
    Staircases, one to each side, led to a high loft above the door to the Grand Hallway. Arthur had noticed the loft when they had first entered the Manse, but there hadn’t been any reason to go up there then. Arthur and Lexi went up the staircase on the right side, while Morgan, with Vassalus taking point, methodically marched up the left side, scanning everything. The loft was deeper than he had expected. Little café-style tables that could seat two each stood near the edge of the loft, just far enough back that you couldn’t see them from down below. Fresh daisies puffed out of vases on the tables. Squat, leafy trees in giant clay pots dominated the spaces between the four doors along the back wall.
    “Fresh flowers?” Morgan said, with a hint of exasperation in her voice.
    Arthur shrugged. “Maybe they’re fake?”
    Lexi jumped up and sniffed one. For a moment, Arthur thought she was going to eat it. “No, this is a real flower.”
    “I suppose the Manse magically creates them,” said Vassalus.
    It didn’t matter to Arthur. He looked at the rooms. Each door had an identical gold plaque that simply read: GUEST SUITE.
    Shaking her head, Morgan groaned. “This place doesn’t make a lick of sense.”
    “It’s a small cottage outside and a mansion inside. What did you expect?”
    “I expected internal consistency. The arrangement of the Training Room and the Armory was already straining that, but I thought maybe I had missed something. But this — if there are rooms behind those doors, then the loft would jut out into the Grand Hallway. But we know it doesn’t, because it would be kind of obvious with those cathedral ceilings in there.”
    “Maybe the rooms are above the Grand Hallway’s ceiling …”
    She shook her head. “We’re not that high up. I counted the steps. So much for my theory about the inside of this house just being a pocket universe designed to fit a large house inside of a small one.”
    Arthur shrugged and stepped up to one of the guest suites. He grabbed the doorknob, but Morgan slammed her hand against the door, stopping him from opening it.
    “Wait.” She tapped her wrists together; the gems on her power gloves struck one another; her shimmering force field activated. She had to keep her forearms up and mostly together to maintain the energy shield. The more she separated her arms, the larger the force field became, but also the weaker. If she were to spread her arms too far apart, the shield would disappear. “Okay. I'm ready.”
    “Morgan, there aren't any triskelions on these doors. If there were shades behind them, they’d have attacked us already.”
    “Nothing else in here bothers to follow the rules of physics, or logic, why should the shades?”
    “Better safe than sorry, I guess.” Arthur pulled out his raygun and got a better grip on the door handle. “Here goes.” He swung open the door, and found himself face-to-face with … a blank stone wall. The back wall of the loft continued, uninterrupted, behind the guest suite door, like the door had been built right on top of the wall. “What’s the point of that?”
    She leaned over till her nose was only inches from the stone inside the doorway and poked it. Nothing happened. Her eyes narrowed, and then fuming, she stalked down the loft, opening each door. Arthur holstered his rayguns and stepped back to avoid Morgan.
    She ran her hands through her hair, pulled out one of the café chairs, and plopped down in a huff. “Why would the doors lead to blank walls? This makes no sense — none at all.”
    Arthur sat down across from her. “Sorry.”
    She glared at him a few moments, then said, “It’s not your fault. It’s not like you … wait a second …”
    “Hey! You can’t