“No, just that he was leaving at once,” Maija said.

They kept cleaning the rooms long after they were spotless, but Merglan never left his chambers.

“Shouldn’t he be gone by now?” Kirsten asked. “I thought he said he was leaving right away.”

“Yeah,” Maija agreed. “He should’ve left by now.”

“Should we check to see if he did?” Kirsten asked. “Maybe he’s got more than one secret passageway out of his room?”

“Okay, let’s do it,” Maija said. “But be careful; we can’t get caught.”

The two silently snuck up the stairs. They examined the room at the top of the staircase, but Merglan wasn’t there.

“He’s gone,” Maija said

“Now is our chance to get the crystals,” Kirsten responded.

“I just hope that dragon is gone,” Maija added as they rushed over to the secret doorway.

Once open, they nearly ran down the narrow passageway once again, careful not to make too much noise in case the dragon was still in the secret room. Something about the trip down the hallway seemed different; somehow darker than before.

Maybe the door is closed, Kirsten thought, noticing the absence of the blue glow.

They felt along the cold stone walls with their hands, making sure they didn’t pass the doorway and stumble into the dragon’s keep. When they reached the doorway, the glow was gone, as were the dragon and the crystals.

Kirsten looked around the darkened room confused, “Where did they go?”

“Do you think Merglan took them with him when he left?”

Kirsten shrugged in response and together they left the secret room and followed the dark hallway back to the master’s chambers. Once back in the main chamber room, they searched for any other secret doors Merglan could have used, but they didn’t find any.

Giving up on their hopes of finding the crystals, the two realized they would have to wait until Merglan returned for them to try again. Now that Merglan was gone, the slaves and prisoners didn’t have any preparations to accomplish in the dining hall for his evening feast, so they were sent along with the other chambermaids to work the remainder of the day in the mine.

Like the miners, they took up picks and followed orders. Kirsten and Maija were sent to work a section of terraces on the other end of the mine away from all of the other maids. Arriving at their assigned terraces, they were surprised to see Thomas working there too.

“What are you two doing here?” he asked when he saw them.

“Merglan has left the fortress. We didn’t have any work to do in the castle, so we were sent down here to work,” Kirsten said.

“Back to work you three,” a guard shouted and cracked a whip at them. They did as he ordered, fearing a whipping.

Talking as they worked under the cover of the noise of picks striking rock, Kirsten told Thomas about going back into the secret room to get the crystals.

“They were both gone,” she said.

“Do you think he took them with him when he left?” Thomas asked.

“That makes the most sense to me,” Kirsten said. “Either that or he found out we were in there and moved them to a new hiding place.”

“But if he knew we’d been in there,” Maija said, “we wouldn’t have been allowed to work; we would’ve been tortured or killed or something, right?”

Nodding, Kirsten said, “Then he must have taken them when he disappeared today.”

“But how? Those crystals filled many crates and weighed more than he could carry.”

“Quiet down,” the guard yelled and cracked his whip again. Kirsten glanced over her shoulder at him and noticed something familiar about the guard, but she couldn’t put her finger on it.

“You know how I told you there was something big happening?” Thomas whispered with his back to the guard so the guard couldn’t tell that he was talking.

“Yeah,” Kirsten said.

“Well, I think it’s going to happen very soon,” Thomas said. “All of the guards have been acting weird. Many left the fortress gates earlier dressed in helmets, chestplates, arm guards, and iron-linked long-shirts. I’ve also seen wagon loads of swords, spears and shields being hauled out of here all day.”

“Do you think the Rollo warriors have made it to the fortress?” Kirsten asked, hopeful.

“Could be,” Thomas said. “Whatever it is, it has the whole place spooked.”

The three continued to work the remainder of the day and into the evening. They stopped when Thomas turned around to see the guard was gone. They walked to the edge of the terrace and gazed out from the pit and across the open courtyard. The whole fortress was strangely quiet.

“Where is everyone?” Thomas asked.

“You tell me,” Kirsten said. “I usually only see the inside of the walls. I don’t know how many people there are working out here with you all day.”

“There’s usually a lot more activity than this,” he said. “I mean the guards, we’re usually overseen by many more.”

“Maybe they’re off preparing for the battle that’s got everyone spooked,” Kirsten suggested.

“We could stop working now and go back to the courtyard,” Thomas said.

“Or we could go look around Merglan’s chambers for any crystals that might have been left behind or hidden in a new spot,” Maija added.

“No way. The guard left all this food behind,” Kirsten said walking over to the spot where the guard had been stationed. “There’s even a pile of firewood here. Let’s stay here until someone makes us leave. I hate the cold floor of that cell.”

“Okay,” Thomas said. “We’ve got a nice view of the place from this terrace anyway.”

The three of them sat by the fire they’d made and talked late into the night, feasting on the jerked meat, cheese and day-old bread the guard had left behind.

“I guess the rules around here are relaxed once the boss is gone,” Kirsten said as she enjoyed a thick slice of jerky.

“I could get used to this,” Maija said, warming her hands against fire.

Suddenly she perked her head up in the way she always did when she could hear something interesting happening in the distance.

“What is it?” Kirsten said, recognizing the look.

“I can hear fighting,” she said, standing up.

“What?” Thomas said, confused and trying to hear what she was talking about.