For better or worse, Counsel had been holding the most important piece of the puzzle. The missing journal was different from the others.
It was battered and far more worn than any of the other books in the entire royal library because it was the most useful book of them all.
The only thing mentioned in the other books was that trying to remove the ball was dangerous. These notes laid out exactly what the priest had done when arriving in Crestfall.
This journal, rather than being a chronological account, was a manual.
The priest had carved the runes far outside the city walls, though whether he had received divine help was unclear. All that Cron knew was that the runes were in place before sunrise.
He wrote a copy of the runes in the journal, but of course, the symbols were not something that would ever be translated by the Spell.
Noble wished that Nickel had stayed for just a little longer. She copied down the runes to show him and also committed what she could to memory.
The strange duelist had been extremely curious about the protection spell. She hoped the information might help him in some unknown way.
'There is time for all that later.'
Moving on, Noble and Sarai found notes on the dimension of the cavern where the ball was hidden as well as methods of protection and how to avoid them.
The priest had made very sure that the heart would not be found.
The only thing missing were the two pages that had been ripped from the book. Noble had taken a quick glance at them when she found them, but could not recall them with any great detail.
Where was Counsel?
"Lenore!" Noble yelled out into the hall. Her younger maid came running.
"Check on Counsel and Pen. They should have brought me something a long time ago. They should be in the library."
Lenore trotted off like a dog on a hunt. Noble shut the door.
"If she isn't back in five minutes, I'm sending you after them, Kosi."
The Symncus sniffed. He was up for the challenge.
But three minutes later, Lenore tapped lightly. She had two papers in her hand. "Drune asked me to give these to you."
The missing pages!
Noble took them eagerly from her servant's hand and closed the door with a dip of her head. She wasn't sure why Drune had been in possession of the papers, but right now she didn't care.
Her eyes scoured the pages as she squealed.
Just as she remembered, the pages had drawings on them. Maps!
One was a map of the tunnels and the other was the location of the Heart.
There was just one problem. The entrance to the caverns did not look like any place she had seen before.
"What do you think?" Noble asked her companion as they studied the page together.
"Maybe they hid the entrance," Sarai suggested. "Could it be by the mural?"
"That cavern has no exit that I saw and no draft," Noble shook her head.
"Which is strange since the arena certainly had air movement..." The redhead mused.
"That's it! Sarai, you are a genius!" The queen threw her arms around her friend's neck. "I assumed the arena was built to hide the mural, but what if that is not the only secret that is down there? What if it is hiding the tunnel to the Heart as well?"
"It would make some sense. Counsel has checked everywhere else." Sarai couldn't think of a better explanation.
Noble grabbed two cloaks from her closet and returned to the main room. She threw one at her companion.
"There is only one way to find out for sure. Come on!"
Pulling the hoods up around their heads, the two women made their way to the place where the ancient knights of old had battled without ever knowing that mural with a terrible secret lay behind one wall.
And, if Noble was correct, the place held an even more sinister secret as well. She lit the small rivulet of oil, allowing the room to fill with soft light.
Nothing appeared out of the ordinary, but deep down Noble felt that things were not as they seemed.
"Kosi can you find the draft?" Noble asked once the Symncus had reached the bottom of the stairs.
The demon sniffed at the air experimentally.
Then, after a little deliberation, he pointed to the one corner of the room still bathed in shadows.
"Hm..." Noble furrowed her brow.
A memory struck her. Was that not the corner that Emira was hiding in when she saw Noble use sorcery for the first time?
Noble had just assumed that the queen was watching them from the darkness, waiting to make her move. But what if she wasn't spying on the pair at all, and had only happened upon them by accident?
If that were the case, then Emira would have had another reason for being down here.
"Noble?" Sarai asked slowly.
"I see them!" The queen moved slowly to the corner of the wall. She had always assumed that the two missing rings had been lost to time, but now she wasn't so sure.
There were no handles to indicate where the rings had ever been. More than that, Noble had noticed how smooth and perfectly round the indents were. Almost as if the thing that fit in them was precious.
Noble held up her hand to touch the circle when the sleeve of her gown slid down her arm.
The metal band pressed up against the stone and began to glow with a soft radiance.
"The bracelets!" the ladies said in unison.
"I left mine upstairs!" Sarai lamented. In her haste, she hadn't even looked for the jewelry that she had left by the door.
"It should be fine. I think we only need one pair anyway," Noble slid the bands off of her hands and pressed them into the grooves of the wall. They sank until they clicked softly.
The hair on the back of Kosi's neck stood on end as he hissed.
A rush of cold air blew Noble's hood back and pushed her hair away from her face. She lifted her hand to shield her eyes while simultaneously summoning the [Unlikely End].
The ground rumbled softly, as the edges of a door cracked through the stone and made their presence known.
The door slid silently on invisible hinges, bringing even more cold air into the stuffy arena. It was as if the cold air of the mountains was being thrust into the room from the darkness of the opening.
'We...we found it?' Noble looked at the forbidden hall with eyes wide open.
She lowered the hand protecting her eyes but kept the other ready with her weapon in hand. Sarai, too, had called on the [Aching Ember] to assist her
When nothing immediately jumped out of the eerie passageway, Noble relaxed slightly. She sent her sense into the hall to make sure it was empty. Then, tucking the estoc in the sash of her gown, she pulled out the pages of the map.
The queen looked at Sarai with a half smile.
"So, who wants to go first?"