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  “We know someone who will get us in,” said Shim.

  “Yeah, what did you think – we were just going to walk right in asking for Shim’s death sentence?”

  Mahnii ignored Kah’s sarcasm.

  “Well we could,” said Celeste. “I distract Kami-Shi, ya snatch tha weapon. Easy.”

  “It’s not that simple,” Mahnii quickly dismissed Celeste’s brazen suggestion. “Where is this inside person?” he asked Shim.

  “His name is Zin. We’re meeting him in a large town near the palace where it won’t be obvious or draw attention. Once we meet him, he’ll take us the rest of the way. We’ll arrive within the next two days.”

  “So patient with him aren’t you, Shim?” Kah murmured to his sister.

  She glared at her brother. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  The rest of the way, Celeste was gawking at the landscape, just as she had when travelling across Ru-Kai’s realm. Was she trying to memorize everything, Mahnii wondered?

  He knew what she’d say if he asked. ‘I gotta know tha realms if I’m gonna rule them one day.’

  Finally, they were nearing their destination.

  Mahnii could tell they were approaching the large town even before anyone announced it. Shouts and the business of its inhabitants filled the air and grew into a roar as they got closer.

  The market stretched from the edge of town to its heart and was dense with people. They walked close together so as not to get separated.

  It was the type of bustle in which you could barely hear what anyone was saying and could get swept away with the crowd without even realizing it until you were lost.

  “Over there,” said Shim, pointing to a building just beyond the main road where traffic was less intense.

  They moved as quickly as possible away from the crowd and into the building.

  “Damn. I need a drink after all that,” said Mahnii, looking around.

  They’d entered a small tavern, complete with round tables and wooden chairs scattered throughout the main room and a small stairway in the back.

  Kah and Shim ignored him, making their way toward one table in the far corner of the tavern where a hooded figure sat, eating a bowl of soup.

  Celeste followed, as oblivious as usual to the nervous glances from others who noticed the enormous hammer strapped to her back.

  Mahnii chuckled to himself at the scene, grabbing a mug from the keep and making his way across the tavern to join his travelling companions.

  As he approached, the person he could only assume was Zin was discussing details of how they would get inside Kami-Shi’s palace.

  All that could really be made out of him was a defined chin from beneath his hood and piercing blue eyes.

  “Kah, Shim, you’ll have to wear these,” he said as he pushed cloaks toward them over the table. “You other two… will be fine. No one knows your faces and Kami-Shi doesn’t much care who comes to his festivities.”

  The twins nodded, looking over the cloaks.

  “So, when we get there, keep your heads down and let me do the talking. Once we’re inside, you can go your way. And stay close. I’m not waiting for any stragglers. You’ll get one chance to get in and that’s it.”

  Kah and Shim nodded. Celeste propped her cheek on her fist as if she were bored. Mahnii glanced between the others, not sure how to respond.

  “Let’s go,” said Shim.

  Their insider, Zin, nodded, pulling his hood further down his face.

  Kah and Shim donned their cloaks, also pulling their hoods down and with that, they were leaving.

  Mahnii quickly gulped the rest of his mug and followed. He was not getting left behind here.

  Instead of rejoining the bustle of the market, Zin lead them down an alleyway and away from the town.

  Kami-Shi’s palace was visible in the distance, surrounded by a blue glow. They would reach it within a few hours. Even though they could see it, they had a long stretch of land in between, mostly covered by rocky earth but also a large river flowing southward and twisting across Kami-Shi’s realm from Cel-Lok’s realm to the north toward Ru-Kai’s realm.

  As they got closer, Mahnii realized that the palace itself was floating within a giant orb of some sort. And even worse, it was positioned directly over a volcano.

  He silently prayed it would remain dormant while they were visiting. Although it did occur to him that whatever magic was keeping the palace afloat would also protect it from any elements outside of it.

  If they weren’t here for a mission, Mahnii felt he would be far more intrigued by the floating palace and inclined to ask questions about it. However, he got the feeling that Zin was not the ‘answer-your-questions’ type of guide.

  At last, they were at the base of the volcano.

  Zin reached out the staff he carried, which Mahnii hadn’t taken any notice of until now. The twisted crystal at the end of it glowed a brilliant blue and a stairway appeared leading to the palace.

  Mahnii blinked, testing the stairway with the tip of his boot. The others moved forward without hesitation, including Celeste, though she appeared as awed as he was with her mouth slightly agape and her eyes wide.

  The stairway was solid as they moved upward, though it appeared to be made of some sort of blue energy.

  They climbed quickly, the stairway disappearing behind them until at last they were inside the orb surrounding the palace.

  “This way,” said Zin, leading them in through a side-door instead of the main entrance.

  All of them followed without question. Mahnii noticed Kah and Shim stayed particularly close to Zin.

  As soon as they were inside the palace, Zin removed his hood and pointed down a long hallway, gesturing toward a particularly enormous pair of doors in the middle of the hall. While their frame was mostly the same as any door, their tops were round. “That’s where you’ll find Kami-Shi. The item you seek is in his personal quarters which are beyond that room.”

  He wouldn’t have been able to explain once in the room. The vibrations from the activities beyond the doors were a dull throb even in the floors as they moved closer.

  “So, tell me aboot Kami-Shi,” Celeste demanded, staring at Zin.

  He blinked a moment, staring at her. “You don’t know?”

  She shook her head.

  “Well, as you’re about to find out, he is known for festivities at all times. He always has to have people around him and invites the people of his realm to come enjoy themselves frequently. It’s a rare day when the palace is quiet.”

  “There are the people who practically live here, and then the ones who come now and then. But despite his generosity, he never lifts a finger for anyone else. He just expects his people to love him for feeding them and pumping them full of booze, but rarely actually interacts.” Zin shifted his gaze from Celeste toward the doors.

  She tapped a finger to her chin. “Sounds like he could use a serious ass kickin’.” She smiled to herself.

  As soon as she said it, Zin was opening one of the doors and Mahnii blinked as he was hit in the face by an explosion of lights and sounds. Much of it was obviously created by magic, as otherwise such fantastic displays couldn’t be possible. Balls of light were bouncing around every wall of the enormous room as well as those within and while the music wasn’t different than the pieces he’d heard commonly, the glowing instruments of the band made him think it was dramatically enhanced through magic also. Then, of course, there was the throng of people laughing, shouting, and singing at the top of their lungs.

  He cursed as they stepped forward into the chaos. How could anyone enjoy such an environment?

  Chapter 6

  The five companions began making their way through the crowded room – if you could even call it that.

  There were huge pillars stretching from floor to ceiling. Smoke billowed downward, making the room misty, and the lights danced, endlessly changing in color.

  ‘How does anyone keep their
hearing after coming to a place like this?’ Mahnii wondered. The magically enhanced volume of music was deafening, and to make it worse, the people gathered were screaming to talk to each other. The floor vibrated beneath their feet.

  To make things more bizarre, everyone there had the oddest clothes Mahnii had ever seen, ranging in every color imaginable. Some even had glittering images on their tops which reflected the swirling lights in flashes. Was this, perhaps, something Kami-Shi had introduced to his territory from the dragon-gods’ home world?

  Celeste stalked through the crowd, ignoring the chaos. Her eyes were fixated on a raised platform on the opposite end of the chamber, where a tall, handsome figure was standing, hands gripping the railing, and surveying the crowd. His lips turned into a frown as he turned, exiting through one of the two doors behind the platform.

  As soon as he vanished, Celeste was barreling through even faster.

  Mahnii, Zin, Kah, and Shim attempted to stay close behind her, though struggled against the swaying bodies.

  Some of the people ignored her while others shouted, threatening to challenge her to a duel. A few drunk men’s’ eyes wandered across her womanly figure, only to immediately focus elsewhere once they saw her face: red, eyes scrunched and blazing, and features drawn in her angry focus.

  At first, Mahnii tried to calm them by explaining that she didn’t understand what she was doing, but soon gave up as it became clear she was oblivious and that the others were too drunken to legitimately take her on.

  Maybe it was her giant, intimidating hammer.

  In fact, Mahnii was surprised she hadn’t already taken a few people out with it in her typical clumsy fashion.

  “Hey, y’all ar’ new, huh?” laughed a girl with blonde hair and skimpy clothing. She grinned at Mahnii, and slung an arm over Kah’s shoulder. “Here, try th’s,” she slurred, unable to focus and using Kah to keep herself from stumbling.

  He glanced between Shim and Mahnii, hesitantly accepting a thin glass vial with some kind of blue liquid inside. He tipped it back, cringing slightly.

  As soon as he did so, the girl squealed with delight and others in the crowd began handing similar vials to him and Mahnii.

  The partiers seemed completely oblivious to Zin, though as he was Shim and Kah’s inside person, Mahnii assumed it was because he wasn’t a new face.

  “Where ar’ ya from?” the girl asked.

  “Around,” was all he could manage to get out before another vial was shoved into his hand. It seemed the participants were all too eager for the newest arrivals to join in the haze.

  Mahnii grinned sheepishly as another vial was shoved toward him as well. He didn’t want to draw even more unnecessary attention, but at this point, Celeste had already killed that notion. How did people live like this?

  Still, he continued consuming the contents of the vials, trying to push through the crowd to where Celeste was already almost to the other end of the room.

  Mahnii glanced at Kah who was becoming less sheepish at vials offered to him. His face was already growing flushed and he was laughing at something the girl who had first approached them said.

  When were they going to finally reach the end?

  As they made their way closer to the platform at the back, the crowd thinned some and fewer vials were being handed out. Thank goodness. He was already starting to understand why the girl that had first approached them had hardly been able to keep her own composure.

  A warmth was settling in his gut and everything was blurring slightly. So this was what drunkenness felt like.

  Shim grabbed his arm, pulling a little roughly as he almost bumped someone, and gave him a slight glare.

  Well, at least he wouldn’t be responsible for starting a brawl.

  He scanned the room, suddenly desiring food. Surely there would be something in a gathering this massive. There. Against the side wall was a huge table arrayed with everything from meats and cheeses, breads and fruits, to pastries and other sweets. Kami-Shi definitely went all out.

  Mahnii glanced toward his companions, not wanting to be separated from them. If only the food were closer.

  As long as he’d stood there staring at it, he was already getting swept away in the dancing crowd.

  ‘Dammit,’ he cursed, scrambling to catch up.

  He silently prayed it wouldn’t take much longer. At the very least, he needed some fresh air. He was convinced that would clear the fuzziness.

  They all tried to ignore the shouts and squeals of the people around them, and finally, they were reaching the platform.

  Celeste frowned. “Com’ out ya coward,” she said, climbing the stairs to the side.

  Zin, Kah, Shim, and Mahnii were glad to finally be free of the chaos and moved after Celeste.

  As soon as they reached the platform, Shim moved forward. “This one. It leads to Kami-Shi’s room… and the weapon.” She gripped the knob of the door on the left and stepped through, closely followed by the others.

  “Uh, thisss doesn’t look like a be’room,” Mahnii slurred.

  Kah slapped his shoulder laughing, though he coughed when he was nudged by his sister. “Is it a…” he trailed off, his eyes rolling as he looked around.

  “Ugh, seriously? You two better sober up fast,” Shim said, glaring at them before taking in their surroundings.

  They were standing on a round stairway stretching endlessly both upwards and downwards. There was no inner wall to the stairway, only empty space. ‘That would be one awful fall,’ thought Mahnii. He put his hand out to the space, only to be met with something solid. Maybe glass, or a magic barrier of some kind?

  The outer wall of the stairway was lined with an infinite number of doors, separated only by a couple of feet between each door. ‘Do they all lead somewhere in the palace?’ No, there was no way. It was more likely, based on what he had already observed of Kami-Shi’s extravagant use of magic thus far, that this was an illusion or trick of some kind. Still, how were they supposed to find his quarters now?

  “Okay, let’s move up. Kami-Shi’s room is going to be closer to the top,” Zin said.

  ‘If there even is a top,’ thought Mahnii,

  Shim opened the next door along the stairway, peaking through. Inside was a decorated chamber with a canopy hanging above the large bed and bright paintings of landscapes about the walls. A vanity was on one end and a dresser to the left near the door.

  Shim shook her head, closing the door and moving up to the next one. It opened to a hallway with several suits of armor and dim light coming in through two scattered windows.

  On to the next door.

  Each door opened to various places around the castle, some of them rooms similar to the first and others having a variety of furnishings. They encountered a study, a huge dining space, though it was covered in dust and cobwebs, and even an enormous library with floor to ceiling shelves full of books.

  There was no way Kami-Shi was a reader. Kah and Shim were certain, so that didn’t make much sense, but they moved on.

  Every few doors opened to a room they had already encountered. It became clear to Mahnii that with such an elaborate magical maze, Kami-Shi most likely didn’t feel the need for guards since he could easily keep away treasures hidden and inaccessible without some kind of magical access.

  He glanced at Zin and recalled how he had used his staff to create the stairway when they had first entered the castle and wondered if part of Kah and Shim’s plan had been for Zin’s magic to help them find the Staff of Naul. Still, clearly Zin’s magic was no match for Kami-Shi’s as they were having zero luck finding his room amidst the endless doors in the illusion hall.

  “Ugh, we’re jusss’ goin’ in circles!” Mahnii was exasperated and still trying to clear his head. “This is getting us nowhere. Why don’ we jusss pick a room, go through it, then find Kami-Shi’s room like normal people in a normal castle?”

  Kah rolled his eyes. “Idiot. Kami-Shi obviously designed it so that no one can get to
his room without using this illusion hall. If we go through a room, when we try to leave, we’re just gonna be right back where we started. See for yourself.” He gestured toward the doorway to the latest room Shim had opened.

  Mahnii crossed his arms, scowling. “Fine, but thisss is pointless. If Kami-Shi wanted uss to find his room, we would have already, don’t you think?”

  “He doesn’t know we’re here. If he did, we’d probably be caught and executed by now.” Kah turned away from Mahnii, moving past to the next door.

  “You know what, I don’t care. Let’s just try it my way, okay?” Mahnii insisted, moving through the door and stepping into a hallway.

  “Ooph!” he grunted as he nearly tripped. The hallway was like any Mahnii imagined he would find in a castle with scattered curtained windows and a few doors in the opposing wall.

  Kah stepped past Mahnii followed by Shim, Zin and Celeste.

  They began walking down the hallway and stopped at the first door. It opened to one of the bed chambers they had seen when searching the swirling doorways.

  “See? I told you,” Mahnii said, smirking.

  “It’s not Kami-Shi’s room,” Kah retorted.

  “Stop,” Celeste said as soon as they’d shut the door and begun walking once more.

  Around the corner, someone was breathing heavily and heavy footfalls echoed off the stone.

  Celeste stepped in front of the others, gripping her hammer.

  ‘Oh man, I hope it’s not some giant beast,’ Mahnii thought.

  Chapter 7

  As whoever – or whatever – was around the corner came closer, the elongated shadow shrunk and the same handsome man who had been on the platform when they’d first arrived appeared.

  His hair was disheveled, some of it hanging about his golden-brown face and his brilliant blue eyes glanced around anxiously.

  His hand was against the wall for support, but as soon as he saw Celeste he attempted to straighten. He combed his fingers through his hair and cleared his throat. “If you’re lost, the festivities are downstairs.”