Rodrigo Zacara and the Mirror of Power

11. In the Infirmary

'We have to tell Balkar!' said Rodrigo, rising from his bed and heading for the door. 'It won't open! It's locked.'

A noise behind him made him jump. Mirena had just appeared on the other side of the room, next to the cupboards jam-packed with potions.

'What are you doing, Rodrigo?' the nurse locked her severe gaze on him. 'I told you, you can't leave here.'

'We need to speak to Balkar,' Rodrigo responded. 'It's extremely urgent.'

'Balkar isn't in the fortress. He had to leave on a mission. What's so urgent that you must see him now?'

Rodrigo considered telling the nurse what had happened but then he remembered that the grand master had told them not to speak to anyone about the rings.

'No. It's nothing really,' he lied. 'I only wanted to get out of here.'

'Well, you can forget about that,' the woman replied. 'Now, you must eat your breakfast to regain your strength.'

Mirena gave them identical trays with milk and toast before disappearing again.

'Damn it,' Rodrigo whispered. 'We need to do something. Donegan could be loose in the fortress.'

'Donegan?' Oliver appeared puzzled. 'Why would you think that?'

'Who else could have entered here without being spotted?' Rodrigo asked. 'You heard what Vega said. He entered the seer's bedroom and Balkar's study without opening the door.'

'Maybe it was the imp,' said Oliver. 'You know, the one who stole your plate of food. Why would Donegan take the rings from us? I mean, if he wanted to hurt us, why didn't he just kill us?'

'I don't know. Maybe he doesn't want to kill us. Maybe he wants to–'

'To use us to find the Mirror of Power,' said Oliver, finishing Rodrigo's sentence.

'Exactly.'

They were both quiet for a moment. The thought that Donegan could still be inside the fortress was very worrying.

'Hi, boys. Look out the window.'

Despite knowing Aisha's gift, Rodrigo still jumped every time he heard her voice inside his head. Oliver must have been surprised as well because he was looking from one side to the other as though searching for the source of the voice.

'Come on. What are you waiting for?' Aisha insisted.

They both got out of bed and went over to the window. The library's tower stretched up into the sky in front of them and they saw their friends waving to them from one of its large windows. A narrow stone bridge linked the tower with another. It was the buttress Kyle had wanted them to walk across the day they had reached the fortress.

'If you're fine, lift your arm. If you need something, shake your head,' said Aisha.

Rodrigo raised his arm but Oliver shook his head from side to side.

'Why are you shaking your head?' Rodrigo asked.

'We need to tell them about the rings,' said Oliver. 'Somebody needs to find out if Donegan's still inside the fortress.'

Rodrigo had to accept that his friend was right. Although Balkar had asked them not to speak of the rings to anyone, he almost certainly hadn't considered the possibility of the rings being stolen from them. He was about to agree with Oliver when he saw Aisha climb through the window and walk across the buttress as lightly as a squirrel.