Read The Warlock's Gambit for Free Online

were trying to kill them was beyond him.
    He had expected Morgan to say, “Told you.” But she didn’t gloat. Instead, she stood in front of the door, staring, with a blank expression on her face.
    “It’s a room designed just for you. Aren’t you excited?”
    Morgan shrugged. Clearly, something about having her own room bothered her, but he knew better than to ask what. He took a few steps farther down the hallway, and smiled. “Check it out, the next door leads to the PALADIN’S CHAMBERS. We’re right next door to one another!”
    “Yeah … great … fantastic.”
    Arthur frowned. He was all excited about them having their own rooms, and couldn’t wait to see his, but Morgan was being a serious downer.
    “No triskelion over your door,” he said, “so there shouldn’t be any shades inside.”
    “Of course not,” she replied. “The Manse created this room after we arrived.”
    “Don’t you want to go in and check it out?” he urged.
    Morgan shook her head, and with a tremor in her voice said, “No … not yet. We need to … to explore the other rooms. Mine can wait.”
    Whatever. She was weird about a lot of things — he’d just add one more to the list. She shuffled along behind him, lost in her thoughts, as they moved on to his room. “Bet it’s a lot bigger than the closet I slept in back home.”
    Morgan whipped around. “You slept in a closet?”
    Arthur sighed. “Not a real closet. My room is just really tiny.”
    “Oh — oh, I think you told me about that the other day, when we first got here.” She sighed and looked across the hallway to see what was opposite his suite. Immediately, she began bouncing on her heels. “Ooh! Arthur — look!”
    He turned and saw: THE LIBRARY. Of course, that would restore her interest. If it had said TECH LAB or COMPUTER ROOM, she probably would’ve rushed across and barged through the doors without a single care about the sigil hanging in the doorway.
    “We have to see the Library!” Morgan said.
    “Shades inside, possibly wraiths for all we know,” Arthur said. He had wandered farther down the hallway. He had just seen the next door down from his suite: THE PALADIN’S OFFICE. A sigil hung in this doorway, as well. “If we’ve got to clear out a room, we should start with the Paladin’s Office. It’s probably going to be more important.”
    Morgan shot him a dirty look, but she didn’t say anything, which meant she knew he was right. She marched down the hallway and muttered, “Well, this one should probably come last.”
    Arthur turned around to face: THE MUSEUM. Yeah, it was going to be hard to rationalize putting their lives in danger to clear a museum. But he was pretty sure that every shade and wraith in the place was — somehow — harming Lady Ylliara and the Manse. Maybe they were draining power away from her, like Entropian vampires or something.
    Arthur continued walking. The next door on his side of the hallway was labelled LYONESSE. There was no glowing sigil, and something about the room just seemed warm and inviting. He reached toward the handle —
    “Arthur! What the heck are you doing?!”
    “No sigil, so it doesn’t have any enemies …”
    “Didn’t we just have this conversation? A room doesn’t have to have shades or wraiths to be dangerous. Do you know what Lyonesse means?”
    “Er … no. Do you?”
    She shook her head. “Until we know, I think we should wait, or go in prepared.” She jerked her head toward the door behind her. “Same thing goes for this one.”
    Arthur walked over to the door labeled THE WASTES — and shivered. It didn’t have a glowing sigil across the doorway, but Arthur’s stomach clenched when he looked at it. He backed away. There was something very wrong about that door.
    Morgan patted the door. “Gives you an oogy feeling, too, doesn’t it?”
    Arthur nodded as he kept backing away. “How can you even stand to touch it?”
    She shrugged with a sly smile. “I like oogy. Why