I let my eyes adjust so that I could see the plan of the castle that far down. I instantly saw what she was pointing at. The wide, thick river of energy that was pouring up from the ground suddenly thinned, like a good part of it had been drained away into an unseen drain. That unseen drain, using that much energy, could only be a spell large enough to control an entire dimension.
"I think you have it," Aahz said, nodding.
"I agree," I said, remembering what the energy below that point felt like while I had been floating, and what it felt like above that point.
"Where did you get this floor plan?" Harold asked, staring at it. "I've never seen anything like this before. That corridor isn't there, and I have no idea what that tunnel goes to."
I glanced at Aahz, who only smiled.
"You've seen this before," I said. "It's painted on the ceil ing of the library in there."
"No, it's not," Harold said, shaking his head. "This is a picture of the castle during Count Bovine's first days."
"Go look for yourself," Tanda said. "It took me a while to see it as well. Skeeve spotted it first."
Harold stared at us as if we had all gone nuts. I didn't blame him. If I had been living in a place for as many years as he had been trapped here, and a stranger had pointed something this important out, I wouldn't believe him either.
He huffed and stormed off toward the library.
"Okay," I said, "we know where Count Bovine tapped into the energy stream. How do we untap it?"
"We have to get down there," Aahz said. "Then we have to divert it for just an instant to break the link. That's all it will take."
I looked at the massive flow of energy rushing up out of the ground. I could tap into small energy streams, but I had no idea how a person would go about blocking something this large. And I wasn't sure I wanted to ask.
Harold came back in, looking stunned and embarrassed.
"If we manage to block this," Tanda said, "what do you think will happen?"
Aahz looked at the map. "Probably every spell ever put up by any of Count Bovine's people will be broken."
"My people will have their minds and free will back," Harold said.
"Yeah," I said, "and every vampire will suddenly be around every day of every month."
"Half of the population of vampires will be dead moments after they turn from cows," Aahz said. "And all the others will be without resources, clothes, shelter, and food, with the sun coming quickly."
"Do you think my people will remember all the years of having to submit to the round-up?" Harold asked.
"I have no doubt," Aahz said. "You still remember it before you were rescued from here, don't you?"
Harold nodded. "My people will hunt down and kill most of the remaining vampires."
"And you'll be free to leave," I said.
"If we can break the vampire hold on my world, I won't want to leave," Harold said. "I'll stay here and help my people rebuild."
I shook my head. It was all fine and good to plan what people would do if we succeeded, but I sure didn't see that happening any time soon.
"So no one has answered the question yet of how we stop that flow."
I didn't even want to try to bring up the point of getting down to that spot in the castle. We were way up at the top, and that breach in the main flow was way down in a sub-basement, where I doubted anyone had been in centuries.
"Gold," Glenda said, her voice sounding tired and worn. "Gold would stop the flow, if you could focus enough of it."
Aahz seemed to be off somewhere inside his head, thinking. Tanda was doing the same thing.
Harold and I looked at each other. Clearly, as apprentice magicians, neither of us even had a clue what the other three were considering.
"I think it might be done," Aahz said, nodding. He looked at Glenda. "Good idea."
She said nothing in return. It seemed that as the closer we got to a possible answer, the more sullen and reserved she became. I was still so angry at her for what she did to me that I didn't care enough to even ask what was happening.
"Okay, to the next problem," I said. "How do we get down there with enough gold to stop the energy stream?"
"We won't need much gold," Tanda said. "Just enough, with a good connection spell, to hook other nearby gold into the blockage. Maybe something gold-plated and flat."
"A golden shovel?" I asked.
Tanda nodded. "That would do it, I'm sure."
Harold moved over toward the front door of the suite, near where the grass was planted. He tapped a spot on the wall and a closet door opened. He reached inside and pulled out a golden shovel, just like the ones the palace guys had. It seemed that, in the palace, no cow droppings could be picked up with anything but a golden shovel.
"Okay, we're set for the gold part," Aahz said. "Tanda, when we're ready to try this, can you do the connection spell to hook enough gold into the shovel?"
She nodded. "I've done a number of them over the years to build shields and walls."
"So back to my problem," I said. "How do we get down there without being run over by the mounted posse?"
Aahz pointed to a spot on the map. At first I couldn't see what he was pointing at, then I saw it. The very same tunnel I had been afraid I was going to end up down in.
"Follow where it leads," Aahz said. "Starting with the se cret opening back in the library."
I did as he suggested, focusing on the map as it changed, showing me the different levels of the secret passageway as it dropped through the mountain behind the castle, curved under everything, and came out in the very room where the big energy flow had been taken off for the spell.
"Looks like there was a reason that tunnel was built," Aahz said, smiling at me.
"Count Bovine used it to get to his main power source when he lived here full-time," Harold said.
"What do you know?"
"So we're going underground," I said, reaching over and taking the heavy shovel from Harold. "I just hope I don't have to dig my way out."
"You and me both," Aahz said, staring at the map.
My mentor had a way of making everything seem so posi tive that it was a wonder I could even move most mornings.
It took a little longer than I had expected to find the hidden passageway into the tunnel in the old library. We had to move pile of furniture, old books, and more rolled-up scrolls than I could count. The scrolls were the hardest, since Harold wouldn't let us just kick them aside. Finally, we got to the spot where the passage should be and faced a stone wall.
"I didn't think there was anything back here," he said. "After all these years, I know this room."
I didn't want to mention to him that he really didn't, since he hadn't even noticed the map painted on the ceiling.
"Oh, it's here all right," Aahz said.
All five of us were standing there in the dusty place. I had the shovel, Tanda had the map.
"Glenda?" Aahz said.
She stepped up to him.
Quicker than I had seen my mentor move in a long, long time, Aahz had the rope out of his pouch, over her head, and tied.
She dropped to the ground, sound asleep, before she could even get a complaint out of her mouth. I was stunned.
"Harold," Aahz said, "pick up her feet and let's move her to a couch."
Harold looked as stunned as I felt. Tanda seemed to again know exactly what was happening. Aahz moved Glenda to the couch, made sure the rope was tied, then looked at Harold. "No matter what you do, what you think, what happens around you, do not untie her until we get back. Understand?"