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years to make it through to the other side. Maybe I could tunnel under it . . . ?
Then again, Father always said that the best way to deal with a seemingly insoluble problem was to try
to look at it from the opposite side. An idea popped into my head.
I snapped my fingers. "Give me your belt buckle."
"What? No. You're mad. What could you possibly want with my get off me! Thief! Madwoman!
Leave me alone!"
* * *
It wasn't nearly as hard to take the hinges off the door with Rupert's belt buckle as I'd thought it would
be. They popped off so quickly that for a moment I was worried that the door would swing out and hit
me in the head, but it didn't.
"You can't just leave me here!" Rupert wailed as I levered the door open and slipped through the gap.
"I'll scream until the guards come! You'll get caught!"
I popped my head back into the room. "Be quiet. I'm just getting the keys to unlock your manacles. I'll
comeback."
Rupert looked unconvinced. "You'll probably get caught and killed anyway."
"Then you won't be any worse off than before."
The hallway outside was bare with a vaulted ceiling and torches spaced at intervals. It was quite clean
and neat; Vexor had good housekeeping. I took a torch down off the wall and crept down the corridor.
All the halls seemed to be deserted. I was just congratulating myself on my stealth when I turned the end
of the corridor and smacked directly into a guard. I nearly knocked him over; he gave a bellow of
surprise, righted himself, and came at me yelling and waving his sword.
I was hastily backing up when I realized from the striped helmet and the dimunitive size that this was
Tiny. He swung the sword up and came at me from the left, but I was prepared I ducked out of the
way and hit him over the head with the torch. He went down with a grunt and strong smell of singed ear
hair.
"I told you not to always feint from the left," I said severely, and bent down to grab him by the feet.
He was very heavy to drag and I'm afraid I hit his head against several uneven steps before I found a
door, pushed it open, and hauled him inside. It was only after I'd dropped his feet and straightened up
and looked around that I realized I'd wandered straight into Vexor's private chambers.
They were really quite plain. There was a long table covered with maps of the Four Kingdoms, some
couches, and a high black bed hung all around with long glimmering curtains. They had the constellations
picked out across them in slivers of what looked like either diamonds or glass. The bed was empty. I
wonder where he is,I thought, turning around nervously.
It was then that I caught sight of him, wrapped in his black robes, lying prone across one of the couches
against the wall. I was too shocked to scream, which turned out to be a good thing for two reasons. The
first was that he was fast asleep. The second was that lying on the floor by the couch was Prince Rupert's
sword and his mail armor, quite neatly folded.
I set the torch into a bracket on the wall and crept over to Vexor. I suppose I ought really to have been
more frightened but he did seem so very asleep. Up close, without the mask on, he looked much younger
and his hair was ordinary brown and in need of brushing. He had long eyelashes. If it hadn't been for the
familiar boots and the black robes, I wouldn't have even guessed it was him.
I snatched up the mail and the sword and retreated to the other side of the room. Much as I would have
liked a change of clothes, it didn't seem the time or place. I shrugged the mail on over what I was
wearing Prince Rupert wasn't that much taller than I was, so it only bunched a bit buckled on the
weapons belt, sheathed the sword, and, as an afterthought, pinched Tiny's helmet. I apologized to him
when I did it; I had a feeling the other minions wouldn't be too pleased with him when he woke up.
The mail clanked so much that I was worried it would wake up Vexor, but he didn't stir. Which was a
good thing because as soon as I slipped out the door, I discovered that the hallway was full of guards.
Why, oh why, did they have to go everywhere together? Before I had a chance to go for my sword, the
one in front spoke, "Oi! Boris! What's going on?"
He thought I was Tiny! I pitched my voice low. "Nothing," I grunted.
"Thorvald thought he heard a noise," the guard went on, eyeing me.
Thorvald was the huge one. I looked at him with loathing. "I was just . . ."
"Where's Vexor?"
"Not around," I said quickly. "Gone to visit relatives."
"I didn't know he had any," said Thorvald.
They really were useless, I thought furiously. "He left explicit orders," I said. "We're to practice our
underwater fencing all afternoon until he returns."
"But none of us can swim!"
"Time to learn, then!" I cried. "To the lake!"
Thorvald took up the cry. "To the lake! Everyone!"
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