mouth of a cave. It led straight back, down a corridor carved from solid

rock.

The walls were thickly veined with crystals. Torches set into iron sconces in

the walls made a dazzling display as the firelight was reflected and

refracted

in the crystalline formations.

At the end of the corridor stood a giant brass gong, fully twenty feet across.

A

large figure in a hooded black robe was ringing it with a massive striker.

Conversation was impossible in all the din that it created, but no one tried

to

speak. They all filed out of the library, two by two, and headed down the

corridor dressed in long black robes that they must have donned during their

descent. Royce felt someone come up behind him, holding a robe for him, and

without thinking, he slipped into it as if he were being helped on with a

coat.

The blond girl came around in front of him, smiled and stood up on tiptoe to

kiss him lightly and lingeringly on the lips. He was so taken aback, he

couldn't

even speak. Then she took his hand and led him down the corridor after the

others. Behind them, a rock wall slid into place across the entrance to the

corridor.

It was getting late when the cab pulled up to the gates of Carfax Castle.

"I'm

tellin' you, I really don't think they're goin'ta let us in here," the cabbie

said. His name was Liam McMurphy, and he was an experienced transportational

adept, which meant that over the years he'd learned how to maintain his

levitation and impulsion spells while carrying on a conversation at the same

time. Being Irish helped. "They don't just go lettin' anyone through, you

know.

This here's Lord Carfax's place."

"Yes, we know," said Wyrdrune patiently. "It's where we asked you to take us,

if

you'll recall."

"Right, an' if you'll recall, I said I'd take you anyblood-where you wanted

to

go, but I didn't think you'd be gettin' into Carfax Castle, 'specially not on

the night of the big bash they're havin'. How'd you expect ta get past the

guard

on the gate in a bloody taxi?"

"You just don't believe we were invited, do you, Liam?" Wyrdrune said.

"Now, would you be drivin' down in a bloody taxicab if you were the likes ta

get

yourselves invited to a bash at Carfax Castle?" Liam asked sarcastically.

"No, you've got a point. We'd probably be coming in a chauffeured limo,"

Wyrdrune said as they pulled up to the gate. "Which is exactly what the guard

on

the gate will see."

"Eh? How's that again?" said Liam, but the guard on the gate was already

approaching what appeared to him as a long, midnight-blue stretch limo with a