Page 21 of Search for the Lost

Crispin was really hot when he got all in-command like that. Leo shot him a leer to let him know that, and Crispin blushed, which was interesting because Leo almost never did. He looked kind of cute with pink cheeks. And this little distraction was fine because the robots seemed to be thinking. Leo heard their gears turning.

Finally, they spoke again. “All representatives are currently busy. The next available representative will assist you. Your wait time is eighty-six hours and thirteen minutes.” A grainy instrumental version of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” started to play.

Aspin stomped a foot. “Oh, for Great Draynar’s sake! I’ll distract them while the rest of you enter.”

Although Leo wasn’t sure this would work—especially considering that Aspin said the plan right in front of the robots—he was willing to try. He thought Aspin might pretend to sword-fight them. Instead, Aspin launched into a ballad about a mechanical being who longed for freedom from their cruel master. He had a lovely voice, so much so that Crispin had to grab Leo’s arm to snap him out of the song-induced trance and drag him through the doorway, Cypher following behind.

The robots, clearly enthralled, didn’t stop them. A moment later, Aspin entered as well, and the doors slammed shut.

“That was very good,” Crispin said to his brother without a trace of snarkiness.

Looking surprised and pleased, Aspin gave a regal nod. “Perhaps we should find the wizard before the guards change their minds.”

That seemed like a wise idea. They all looked around. They were at one end of a long, wide corridor. Ornate chandeliers hung overhead, making the space almost too bright. The floor was shiny white marble which, Leo presumed, would be slick as ice if it got even a little wet. The walls were paneled in rich wood, and framed paintings of serious-looking people ran the entire length of the hall. All of the paintings’ subjects wore long emerald robes with coordinating pointy hats. The people’s ears were pointy too.

“Fae?” Leo asked.

Both Aspin and Crispin appeared less than pleased. “Yes,” Crispin said. Rather grudgingly, Leo thought. “And they all have the look of the T’Radicans Clan. The entire clan was expelled eons ago. I wondered where they ended up.”

“Why were they expelled?”

Aspin answered, “Dastardly deeds.”

In Leo’s mind, that could mean a wide variety of things, but maybe now wasn’t the best time to ask for details. He allowed Crispin to continue towing him down the corridor, where Cypher’s hooves echoed loudly and Leo’s sneakers—which Crispin was wearing—squeaked. Apart from their little party, there were no signs of life, although there was a faint whirring noise, like a giant fan.

The hallway simply stopped, with no visible doors along the way or at the end. “Perhaps this is the entirety of the place,” Aspin said. “We must choose the correct painting to talk to?”

Leo shook his head. “We saw from the outside—this building has a big tower. There must be a way to get into it. Could be a different entrance, I guess.” This part could be just a museum or gallery. But that didn’t feel right. Leo knew in his bones that somehow there was a way to exit the corridor and find the wizard. If only he could figure it out.

They milled around a little, like lost tourists, poking at random parts of the wall. Aspin chose to greet the paintings, none of which responded, though Leo was pretty sure the one with the neatly trimmed red moustache and beard rolled its eyes.

Leo was tired and hungry and wished he’d eaten more of the transformed chocolate ice cream.

“Opposite!” Cypher suddenly cried. He did a little jig-thing of happiness, which was adorable. “We’ve seen it before. We go back to advance. So we must descend to go up.”

“How?” Crispin demanded. He looked tired too.

Cypher shrugged. “We find a way.”

They all resumed wandering, this time staring at the floor. And they might have continued doing that forever, but Minkis launched himself from inside Crispin’s shirt and started scampering around, muttering to himself in Squirrel the entire time. He stopped, sniffed at the ground in one particular spot, and stomped one of his back paws. “Here is down.”

Everyone crowded close, but it was Leo who spotted it first: an odd spot in the pattern of the marble veins. The streaks looked too regular to be caused by nature, a little spot of intentionally created order among the chaos that nature had made. Just looking at it was pleasing, which puzzled Leo until he realized that, at the moment, he himself was also a blending of order and chaos. As was Crispin, but he was too busy praising Minkis to notice the floor.

Leo pressed his fingers hard on that spot. At first nothing happened, but when he did it again, firmly enough to hurt, something under his feet made a scraping sound. That entire section of floor sank down a couple of feet, nearly causing everyone to tumble in. Then it stopped and they all looked at one another.

“Climb in, I guess?” Leo said. And he followed his own advice, although with some considerable trepidation. Everyone else quickly followed suit. As soon as they were all on board, the floor began to lift… very fast. It was terrifying, both because there were no railings or walls around them and also because one of those enormous chandeliers was directly overhead.

Cypher shrieked and fell to his belly, Aspin threw himself on top of the faun, and Crispin and Leo held hands very tightly. What a weird way to die, Leo thought…

…just before the chandelier disappeared—poof!—and a big square opened in the ceiling. The rising marble square rocketed on through. It felt familiar, somehow.

Now they were inside the tower, with about thirty feet of empty air on either side of them and, beyond that, the translucent green walls, which gave the space an underwater quality. Leo felt slightly seasick, which was unusual for him but maybe not for Crispin, so he distracted himself by remembering all the weird almost-deaths he’d experienced since Crispin had collected him. Possibly being nearly eaten by giant moth babies was at the top of that list, but there were other close contenders.

Aspin, who’d climbed off Cypher, looked up nervously. “Er… do you suppose we’re going to stop eventually? Or will we shoot out through the top like….”

“Like spunk.” Leo said this almost cheerfully, because if he had to go, that was the showiest way he could think of and way more impressive than becoming baby-moth food.

Aspin growled. “This isn’t a laughing matter. Have you thought what it would mean if both heirs passed away with Mother still missing? Do you ever think of anything at all, you⁠—”