The Zodiac Stone

Chapter Five: The Hidden Map

Aine sat at the edge of his bed and looked at the parchment in his hands. He'd already memorized the items he needed. He sat staring but not really seeing. He thought over the last couple days and how the interactions with Lyr had gone. His gaze moved to the floor and he put the parchment down. He'd lost his only friend. He felt empty and alone, and it had nothing to do with the empty dormitory room.

He let out a deep breath and rolled up the parchment. He dropped to the wood floor and pulled out the box beneath his bed. He folded the rolled parchment and tucked it beneath his other things and making sure it was near the bottom and out of sight.

With the parchment hidden he pushed the box back under the bed and stood.

He wouldn't be able to get the plate of iron until nightfall when no one would be in the kitchens and headed for a room underneath the library they used to store old and unused objects. The halls led him down a few sets of stairs, to the lower level of Saziel, the second ring of the school.

Dampness seeped out from the cold walls accompanying the smell of mildew and mold as he continued down into the mountain.

He kept his hands to himself knowing slime coated the rock walls this far into the mountain. His foot slipped midway down on the stone steps and he was forced to touch the walls to catch himself else he'd topple down the stairway chancing more bruising on his body.

His hands came away with a green film. He rubbed them with a grimace against his brown shorts, the scum clinging to his palms.

Torches hung in their baskets dotted the walls every few feet to light the way. He finally made it to the storage room and had to use his whole body to push open the door. The hinges squealed in protest as if they hadn't been worked for years.

He grabbed a torch by the door and had to carry it inside, the room pitch black. He closed the door almost all the way not wanting to be seen but didn't want to chance getting locked in by bad door hinges. The echo from the protest had to have reached the upper hallway where light spilled in naturally.

He held the torch and could feel its warmth bathing his arms and face as he looked into the flames. Flames he hoped soon he'd be able to create upon command.

Aine held the torch out so the light could touch as much as the fire gave off. Inside he saw chairs, short pews they used in their chapel when praying to the stars, tall candelabras, small and large chests that were stacked on the floor, two tables, one larger than the other, both rectangular with square edges, and so many other things.

"Please, be in here."

He moved around carefully looking in boxes, opening crates and chests and after he'd scoured trough half of the room he'd yet to find a single candle. The only thing he'd gone there to find.

Cobwebs acted like a second ceiling and Aine walked into more than he could count with both hands and all of his fingers. Dust blanketed the floor, the wood more white than brown.

His fingers felt dry and crusted from the dirt and dust. And he bent forward as another violent sneeze left his mouth. The blast from his breath broke a cobweb strand that went from the ceiling to the floor. With the back of his wrist, because even the back of his hand had grime, he wiped his nose and mouth. He stopped to survey the room, sniffing it to bring his nose back to normal. He spotted behind a tower of stuff a large dark hutch on the left that was hidden well from the crates and chests stacked in front of it. He wove between the tables and the stacks of chests and random boxes and finally after almost knocking into a corner of a stacked box, he began opening the many drawers in the piece of furniture, having made it over in one piece.