Draco's quest

13. secret room

Draco pov

I continued to stare at it for a long time. It had been closed for a long time. The damp smell coming from the opening told me so. But soon, I got adjusted to the smell. My heart kept telling me to stand up and go inside to see what was hidden in it. What if it was a hidden room full of treasure? 

But the question was if the king and everyone else knew about a hidden treasure in a hidden room that could be accessed through this room, why would they make me stay here? They certainly wouldn’t let a slave being stay in a room that had access to something good. 

But my brain was continuously warning me, waving the red flag not to go in there. What if I get into bigger trouble than I already am? 

“Oh what could be worse than being a slave?” I asked myself. A monster? Or a crazy killing machine that would finish me off? If so it is over for me, right? There wasn’t anyone who would really miss me or mourn for me anyway. 

“Oh well, here goes,” I muttered standing up to my feet and picking my sword just in case and slowly descended the stairs. But I halted after a few steps, it was so dark inside. Maybe this was a horrible idea. I turned around to go back into my room, but my cursed fate made me step on a switch that made the wall close once again, trapping me inside the dark, unknown place. 

“Darn it!” I cursed under my breath. “How in the world am I supposed to go if this place is so dark. I cannot even see my hand.” I groaned in exasperation. 

I stayed in my place for some time, trying to listen to my surroundings and feel something I could hold on to. It was hot as the place was blocked with no ventilation and soon I was sweating from head to toe. 

“Well, I may as well move,” I muttered to myself and tried to descend the stairs, by holding on to the brick wall. 

I stepped down a couple more steps, and to my surprise, the place started to light up. 

“Huh?” I gasped and looked around, only to notice some lights placed on the walls. 

“Are these heat-sensitive.....” I studied them and noticed that several such lights were placed at even distances.

Oh, so this place seems to be well built. Amazing. It was only a few years back that we humans have managed to come up with such technology, but thinking this castle must be thousands of years old made it a staggering wonder. Perhaps there were more wonders to this place than I could imagine and being the curious and eager person that I am, I felt an unexplainable desire to find out more about this strange place. 

 I noticed that the brick walls were whitewashed, giving it a neat look. However, the place was dusty and I could see cobwebs all over the place, indicating that this place had been closed down for a long time. Feeling a bit more confident, I started to descend slowly and steadily down the stairs. It led to a place that looked like a basement which was empty except for a stand in the centre of the room. I looked around cautiously, trying to find out if any sort of a deadly creature was about to jump at me. 

But all I found was evenly spaced pillars which were all painted white. The ceiling also was completely white and the whole ceiling was dimly lit, heavens knew how. I was pretty certain that this place was built using magic and special powers. How in the world was I supposed to know how this was possible? 

I turned around, completely flabbergasted at the clean and peaceful look the basement had. Basement? No this was a hidden room. A spacious, hidden room which was empty except for the stand right in the centre. 

“Well, I should have known that they wouldn’t give access to a place with lots of treasure to a slave like me.” I chuckled to myself. I turned around to leave when the stand in the centre suddenly started to glow on its own. The whole white room, soon filled with a purple glow, which intensified as time passed. 

Bewildered at the discovery, I stared at the stand, not knowing what to expect. I mean, this place was so unpredictable. As I stared at the stand, I realised that the glow could only be the result of something valuable. Maybe I should take a look?

Careful not to take my eyes off the stand, I took cautious steps towards it. Just when I was a few steps away from it, a small purple gem levitated on the stand spreading its rays throughout the white room. The whole place was now lit up in a violet colour, which reminded me of royalty. Maybe this stone is precious to them. Perhaps this gem had something to do with royalty. 

But I was scared and anxious to touch it. What if it hurts me? My curiosity had already placed me in a place I never thought I would end up in. I didn’t know if it was a good idea to touch this little piece of glowing stone. 

“This is crazy! I need to write a book about this place!” I murmured.

My eyes travelled from the gem to the stand where it originated from and my eyes landed on a little string that was sticking out of the side. 

“Now what is this?” 

I pulled the string without thinking much. To my surprise, a little scroll came out of the stand. The scroll looked as if it was carefully rolled up and placed neatly in its place. I smirked. This was so much like those imaginary adventure games I used to play when I was a kid. Only the thing was this was the reality for me. This weird world full of bizarre activities and things was the new normal for me. 

Still smirking, I unrolled the scroll. It was an old scroll, that was for sure. But it was made of a strong material that made it last till this date. 

“What? A poem?” I furrowed my eyebrows, trying to read the verses written in cursive. 

“Worst of the beings will rise again

And try to complete what they had begun

But couldn’t end cause I had them shunned

But they will come and then will begin

Destroying the most prestigious of all the kingdoms

There will be one, Who is chosen

But when will he come? Is still known to no one

There is a mole

Who needs to be gone

Will he succeed? In ruining it all?

I Lord Tristan lay this in here

Which will stay hidden until the time comes

Cursed is the one

Who chose to do treason. 

Painful and slow shall be his end.”

Lord Tristan huh? I smiled. Nice. Well, I might as well go back to my room. I thought about trying to keep the scroll back in its place. But something else caught my eye as I started to roll it back. The ink on the scroll started to rearrange itself. 

The scroll was enchanted! instead of the poem, I had just read, the scroll soon changed to a drawing. It was a map. This looked like the map of this palace. I realised. But why would it show me the palace? Frowning in bewilderment, I stared at the map. 

“So what is the meaning of this?” I muttered to myself. To my surprise, an ‘x’ appeared on one side of the palace. That was the garden of the palace. I was sure. And ‘x’? Was it showing the place where a treasure was hidden? 

“Whoa! Just like those games, I played when I was a kid!” I chuckled in excitement.

Only one way to find out.

I will have to think of a way to check it out without being noticed by anyone. I don’t think that I would find anything there. But treasure hunting was always fun. I can pretend to be a scout who was about to find a valuable treasure and become the best treasure hunter in the whole world. 

I frowned. What was I thinking? Maybe I was going crazy after having all those monologues with myself. Shaking my head, I placed the scroll carefully under my clothes and retreated my steps to go back to my room. I was no longer scared of this place. This was my safe room. 

The lights automatically generated as I walked. I noticed the step that made the wall close and when I stepped on it, it opened just like that. 

Smirking to myself, and feeling confident, I pressed the loose tile when I entered the room and closed the wall. 

Cool. This was just awesome. My secret room! This was my childhood dream coming true! I lay down to get some rest. No. Actually to think of a way to look around the garden. Maybe I can do it now. I can go to trim and water the plants and dig the place. 

Yes! I better do that.