The Dragonfly in the Tower

4. The Exit of the Tower

I don’t trust Rainer.

Sharon knew she needed to find a way out, and she needed to do it without Rainer.

His grey eyes flashed at her in her memory.

“Was he the one?”

But even as she whispered the question to Dracrys, her intuition said no. There was just something still… innocent that clung to Rainer. Maybe she was cutting him too much slack because they were so close in age, but even though she didn’t believe he was making a love potion, she didn’t believe he was… sick in the head. Not like that.

Then…

The dissected bird corpses. The dove head mounted, as though an emblem of perfection, onto a man.

It was so eerie, and somehow Sharon was sure there was more.

And I thought I had liked the previous occupant so much…

No, I still don’t know if it was him either.

But there was something about the symmetry of the Vitruvian man, the – the artistry (Sharon stumbled on the word) of the mock wings, for which each bloody feather must have been carefully hand placed, that reminded her of the deft figurines of the beautiful birds outside…

Either way, I have to move on. But what to do now?

Sharon looked to Dracrys, but it was sitting still, probably still processing what it had just seen in the study, in sharp contrast to the beautiful and benign objects in the hall.

I need to find a way to get back , she realized. I don’t have any food and water, and I’m starting to actually feel a bit faint. Not just from the shock, but because it’s been more than a day since I’ve had anything.

In the dark, she couldn’t see anything, so Sharon began to head back to look for a light.

I think I saw one on the table earlier. I’ll just grab one and… she shivered.

Walking back, her natural sense of direction served her as Dracrys lay still on her shoulder.

Does Dracrys need water too?

Sharon sped up.

Back in the main hall, Rainer caught up with her.

“Good. You’re back. I got called back so I won’t be here for a bit.” He said, looking shifty, “Look, I don’t know where you came from, but the study has all my working supplies. It’s not that I don’t trust you, but it could be dangerous for a human… I’ve locked it for now.” He looked her straight in the eyes. “Don’t mess with the lock.”

In a moment Rainer had vanished, leaving the resiny smell of burnt sandalwood.

Sharon looked at the lock. It was an ostentatious lock, purple and gold. Sharon believed Rainer when he said she shouldn’t mess with it.

Looking around, Sharon spotted what she needed instantly. It was a luminous orb. Sharon didn’t know what it was powered by, but it was perfect for her needs, and she took it and made her way back through the passageway to the marble platform.

It was almost as though the study emanated an evil aura and even though in the back of her head Sharon had a leering suspicious she might need to return, Sharon was glad for every pace she took away from it.

The orb somehow lit up the whole space, and Sharon could now see a cord with a teardrop pendant hanging out from the side of the marble platform.

The cord looks like the cord from the ceiling fan! she remembered.

Maybe this marble platform is like an elevator – and I can pull the cord for it to lift us back up.

But then she noticed something else that caught her eye.

By the tunnel she came from, there was a smaller little entryway to the left.

A second tunnel. Where does it lead?

The first tunnel led upwards, but this one appeared to go straight, but what it led to was still shrouded in inky blackness.

Weighing her options, Sharon decided to revisit her kitchen first. Dracrys’ energy was quickly fading and she was worried. Sharon knelt over to the cord with the pendant, pulled it, and the same deafening angelic sound greeted her, as well as the chirrs and whirrs of gears. Back in the library, she quickly headed to the kitchen, refreshed herself and Dracrys with water, and ate her leftovers from the day before. Capping some water into a flask, she returned to the marble dais in the library, pulled the cord again and descended.

I can’t get into the study until Rainer gets back. I should use this time to explore is this tunnel.

Sharon walked through the tunnel, the orb helping but unable to fully light each end of the tunnel. Finally she reached the end. There was a pair of large red doors.

And suddenly Sharon knew. This is it. This is the exit.

In her entire life in the tower, she had never seen any exterior doors. But this one – the weight, the thickness, the size, with its large deadbolt and brass handle, must be it.

In relief, in ecstasy, she ran to it and clutched at the door handle and swung the door open.

Stone.

She threw the other door open.

Stone.

The doors opened to nothing but stone.

Sharon was standing in front of a sheer expanse of cliff.

The exit is buried in a wall of stone. Like… like a coffin…

Wait!

She knowledgably poked at the different spots of the stone.

No buttons came to rescue her.

The doors opened to a wall of pure, solid granite. Just as it looked.

The tower, and its entrance and exit, were buried underground.

Dracrys also looked confused, skimming along the perimeter. But when the dragonfly flew back to Sharon’s finger, Sharon knew that Dracrys could not find any secret mechanisms.

Then there’s only one option left… The dread she had been holding in burst. A panic attack came on, pressing at her temples and threatening to overwhelm her mind.

The secret of the tower must lie in the study, the study that Rainer doesn’t want me to be in. The lair of a madman…

Next Chapter: 5. The West of the Tower

Previous Chapter: 3. The Mage of the Tower

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