But this castle was built right on a place where energy flowed up from below and out into the sky in all directions. Mapping meant someone who could read energy lines had to somehow get above the castle and look down at it all.
“So what do we do?” Tanda asked. “How do we start doing that?”
“First,” Aahz said, “we try to figure out how the energy flows into that skull room. It was strong and getting stronger in there right before all the cows turned to vampires the other night.”
“Really?” Harold asked.
I was surprised that Aahz had wanted to start there, but it made sense. We had to map the energy patterns, and starting where we knew a lot was being tapped seemed logical.
Suddenly I realized what I had been thinking about.
“Map,” I said aloud.
Everyone sort of turned and stared at me.
“Map,” I said again, smiling at them. I reached into my pouch and pulled out the magik map we had used so often to get into this fix. If it got us here, it just might be able to get us out.
“Oh, heavens, yes,” Aahz said, smiling at me. “Great thinking, Skeeve.”
That was the third time he had complimented me on something to do with the map. I was going to have to keep this parchment with me at all times. Aahz hadn’t given me that many compliments in the last year.
I opened up the map. It was completely blank. Nothing on it at all. For some reason, that wasn’t what I was expecting. I’m not sure exactly what I was expecting, but a blank parchment just flat wasn’t it.
“Perfect,” Aahz said, looking at the empty sheet.