Chapter 12

“Why don’t you just jam your sword through the keyhole,” Ezza said. “It would save a lot of time and trouble in my way of thinking.”

Aden shook his head. “The entire security blanket is designed to multiply wherever pressure is applied. Even if I fire a full charge of phyzeec, the barrier is built with the expectation of moving all its resources to the point of attack. If it was designed to best practices, the phyzeec I apply will be incorporated into the security mechanism, making it harder to penetrate.”

“Fine, no easy solution,” Ezza said. “What do we do?”

“First, we obtain the key,” Aden said, holding up his finger above his head.

“Who has the key?”

Aden began shooting tiny seeds of phyzeec to every doorway on either side of the school building. All but one of the sparks dissipated. The one sparked brightly for an instant and winked out. “That one, fifth door down on the right.”

“What, don’t wizards usually hide keys in secret niches of half-forgotten pagan temples with demon guardians to keep out adventurers?”

“Too much work,” Aden said. “You have a great imagination though. Much easier to ask a nearby family to hold the key, giving them a phyzeec gift to pass down through the generations. Phyzeec is only a tool; keep it simple.”

“Oh, so you just go knock on the door and say, ‘I’m a wizard’ and they ... hey, wait up for me.”

Aden knocked and patiently waited for the door to open. A middle-aged woman wrapped in an apron opened the door. “Good afternoon, ma’am,” he said.

“Curses and corruption,” she said, spitting at his feet. “A wizard finally shows up at my doorstep. I suppose you want your contraption back too.”

“I don’t think so,” Aden said. “What device did my fellows give your family?”

“Everlasting kitchen knife and edge sharpener,” she said. “It’s quick, easy, and never errs making an edge.”

“A good trade then,” Aden said. “Thank you for your guardianship. All I request is the key. The knife and edge is yours to keep as a gesture of appreciation. How many generations has it been?”

“Ten.” She turned and closed the door behind her. A moment later she re-emerged with a dusty tin box. “Here ya go.”

“It’s that simple?” Ezza said as they walked back.

“Well, with the master key, smartly alive within the imprisoned soul of the demon king, according to your logic,” Aden said, “We shall inscribe magic symbols on the front steps in chalk and provoke the fiendish soul to awaken with magical incantations.”

“Horse shit.”

“Apples, my friend, apples in front of polite company,” Aden said. “Besides, I love these wizardly puzzles. Go ahead and draw some five-pointed stars on the ground in front of the door.”

“Wha? Why?”

“Confuse and confound the locals who seem to be gathering in one’s and two’s. If you would rather, you can strip to the waist and start dancing in circles, throwing your arms over your head while reciting lines of gibberish – that works too.”

“There is not enough beer in the world to get me to go dance half-naked in front of a bunch of strangers. Stop throwing me off topic. Put the key in the hole and we are done.”

“Only if you want me to fry off my arm,” Aden said. “Having the key and knowing the key are two different tasks. There is a barrier in place, and it covers the keyhole too. Have a look at this key: it’s a heavy brass or maybe it’s pig iron dipped in a layer of brass. If the key was gold or silver, then we would know what mechanisms to use to slip into the keyhole, easy peezy. This device, however, is like an old, dull sword. What in the world should I do with it?”

“Swallow the key and throw yourself against the door,” Ezza said. “Trust me, my way will work. I want to go home to my wife, please.”

“Hmm,” Aden said. “Mutti Altada had a key system that required a vine to grasp the key and cross the barrier. No human body parts could touch the key or the barrier. Use phyzeec to manipulate vine, difficult but doable. Yet I do not see a planter or even a place for a planter, which is a clue – no go Mutti Altada.

“Perhaps the key is music.”

“Oo, let me retrieve my drums and lip harp, and we can have a drunken revelry,” Ezza said.

“Try it in the bedroom with your wife, please,” Aden said. “Surely, she should be the one who understands you best. I am speaking of the science of harmonics.”

Ezza looked dubious.

“The barrier operates at a certain frequency of sound and if the key matches the same frequency, the barrier will allow it to slip into the keyhole, with the bonus of not torching the hand holding the key.”

Aden flung a spark against the barrier and a slight ping sounded. He flicked a spark at the key and a different, lower ping sounded. “Eh, this is going to take a while.” He heated the key slightly with phyzeec and tried again. A higher ping emerged. Heat and ping, heat and ping, Aden repeated the exercise eight times before he was comfortable that the sounds with similar. The key was warm but not quite uncomfortable yet. A small zap and he turned to the door. “You can start dancing now with the gibberish.”

The key slipped into the hole and although Aden’s arm tingled, it did not flare into a mess of charred flesh. He turned the key and he heard tumblers falling. The door pushed open on its own as a gust of dry, musty air full of dust settled on his clothes. He carefully withdrew the key and felt the barrier stubbornly clinging to the cylinder. The barrier collapsed into the key and the key turned blazing hot.

“Son of a whore!” Aden yelled as he danced in a circle shaking his hand and trying to quell the burning of his fingers. “Nasty little trick and totally unnecessary. Who does this to a colleague?”

“Wizards,” Ezza said as he pushed past Aden and stepped inside. “Um, I think you are going to need some buckets and a dozen mops. The dust is thick in here.” He sneezed.

Aden picked up the cooling key in his other hand as he sent phyzeec to his fingers, trying to squelch the throbbing nodes of pain. He stepped into the gloomy foyer, moving past Ezza into the main hall. “Ten generations of a family must be at least five hundred years. No one has been in here for five hundred, maybe five hundred and fifty years.”

Ezza reached behind and shut the front door. With his good hand, Aden began twirling his finger and channeling phyzeec, creating a small whirlwind that captured the layers of dust without spinning the outer strands upward and free. He set his whirlwind free and conjured a second one, which he sent in another direction.

The main hall was two stories high with double doors on either side and a single ornate door at the back. On the second floor, open hallways looked out into the hall with evenly spaced doors discernable in the gloom. Aden conjured a third whirlwind and sent it spinning to the windows above the second floor that framed the barrel vault roof. Sunbeams began to illumine the dark wood floors.