“Follow where it leads,” Aahz said. “Starting with the secret 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 positive 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.