The Uni's Secrets: The Lost Mother

Chapter Two: In the Dungeons

I had never been so angry.

I did learn that sitting in a dungeon with nothing to do except experiment with the design of the floor tiles gets very tedious very quickly.

For the first hour, I lay on my stomach casting spells to change the color of the floor–pink, orange, green, silver. Then I started making swirls and lines and pictures for another hour. At around seven thirty, I heard a clang from the cell next to mine.

I jumped up and narrowed my eyes at it.

Hisssssssssss.

I relaxed. It was just the basilisk who haunted the dungeons. They lived in the tunnels underneath Zeliaras, occasionally coming up to drink in the Sanctuary's water hole. (That was only every hundred years or so). Other than that, Thaja stayed in hibernation, living off the mandrakes that grew along the sides of the tunnels. Oh, and they loved haunting prisoners, which was probably why they were here. Not that they'd have an easy time haunting me.

I glanced at the keyhole to the door of my cell. I could open it with a flick of my wrist, but . . .

There was a better way. Or a more entertaining way, at least.

I grabbed a stick lying in the corner, probably left over from some long-lost prisoner of the Stone Age. I walked over to the wall and tapped a brick in the center of it with the stick. It fell forward into the neighboring cell.

I grinned. So, I hadn't forgotten the trick.

The cell that held the entrance to the basilisk's tunnel was enchanted. It was supposed to open only when tapped with a stick by a good-intentioned Zeliaras heir, which, no matter what my father and Anwir said, I was.

At least, the spell thought I had good intentions, since the brick fell out for me.

I tapped another brick, which also fell out. I tapped brick after brick until there was enough gone for me to climb through. Then I walked through, and the bricks whirled around me as they put themselves back in place.

Hisssssssssssss.

Thaja sat in the middle of the room on top of a large trap door. They lifted their large, serpentine head and blinked their beady yellow eyes at me.

"Lady Artemissssss."

I nodded respectfully. "Hello, Thaja."

Thaja lowered their head back onto their scaley talon and got to their feet, tail lashing impatiently. "I sssssupposssse you exxxpect me to do the talking, like lassst time?"

"Not at all," I told them. "I only have a request."

"A requesssst," Thaja hissed. Their tail curled around their front foot. "What issss thissss requessst of yourssss, Lady Artemissss?"

"I ask that you let me, Lexie, and Apollo use your tunnel," I told them. "And that you tell my father that we did not use it if he asks."

"To lie to Lord Andazzz?" Thaja inquired. "To let you and your siblingssss passss through my home?"

"Yes, Thaja."

"And what do I get in return?"

I thought for a moment. "What do you want? So long as it is reasonable."