Free The Night of the Solstice by L.J. Smith Page B

stealthily away, through the nearest arch, toward the kitchen.
    Janie was already testing a door which led out into the courtyard, and finding it locked.
    â€œI wonder how many doors in this place are locked,” she whispered.
    â€œThese aren’t.” Alys was standing in front of the enormous double doors, which in their world shut offthe living room from the hallway. They were so heavy that it took the combined weight of the two girls to move them.
    â€œOh …” breathed Alys as they stepped inside.
    They were in the great hall of Fell Andred. As in the human house the ceiling was three stories high, but in the Wildworld the stories themselves were more lofty, and the ribs of the vaulted ceiling soared upward as if defying gravity. Thick columns sculpted like statues supported the galleries, and at the far end a staircase wound out of the northeast turret to end between two of these columns.
    As they slowly walked the length of the hall Alys shrank from the titanic statues, which seemed to be staring down at them. Some merely looked impassive, but many had twisted smiles and an air of quietly waiting… .
    â€œHere’s a fire,” said Janie.
    The hearth was in proportion to the room, and in its cavernous depths a whole tree trunk was blazing. At a distance of ten feet the heat brought a flush to Alys’s cheeks and tingled dryly against heroutstretched palms. She stepped closer for a better look, and suddenly Janie grabbed her arm, pulling her out of the way as a fist-sized fireball burst out of the flames and shot toward her, flashing past with a sizzling sound. Gasping, she watched it careen off a wall and fly about the room until, with a hiss, it winked out and was gone.
    â€œThank you,” said Alys when she could speak again. She added, “That makes up for pushing me through the mirror.”
    Janie looked quickly at her, then away. “Didn’t think you realized that was me,” she said. “Sorry.”
    â€œForget it.” Alys cast another glance around the hall, more uneasy than ever. That statue over there, of the man with steer’s horns—hadn’t it been on the other side before? And surely the winged woman above them hadn’t been smiling so cruelly.
    â€œI don’t think Morgana is here,” said Janie in a small voice.
    â€œNo,” agreed Alys. There was nowhere to hide anyone. The vast room was bare except for the greatdais which stood at the east end near the staircase and the glittering tapestries on the walls. It might have been a beautiful place, if one didn’t mind the statues, of course, or that faint faraway music which disappeared when you tried to listen to it.
    Yet right beside Alys, hanging in front of the fireplace, was something altogether lovely: a birdcage fashioned of twisted golden wires. “Look, Janie,” she whispered, going on tiptoe to look into it. Then: “Oh!”
    â€œWhat is it?” asked Janie, keeping well back in case it was something dangerous.
    â€œIt looks like … I think it’s a snake.” Somehow the thought of a snake being kept like a lovebird or canary was the most horrible of all. This is a different
world
, Alys thought, and all desire to explore left her. Aloud she said, “Anyway, it’s dead.”
    â€œWell, good. Let’s go over there, then.” Janie nodded toward the dais, which stood in front of the largest mirror Alys had ever seen, a mirror large enough for four people to walk into abreast. But even as she spokethey heard another sound, barely audible above the crackle of the fire, a sound like a paper bag brushing across a wooden floor.
    â€œâ€¦ if you please, gentle ladies …”
    Alys stiffened. She looked up, down, around. She looked at Janie, who was doing the same thing.
    â€œâ€¦ gentle ladies … if you please …”
    â€œIt’s the snake,” said Janie. There was a sort of horrified fascination in