The Indigo King Read Online Free Page B

night was as quiet as it had been moments before. And then …
    Something fell.
    “Here,” John said, pointing off to the right. “It came from this small clearing.”
    Cautiously the three scholars stepped away from the path and walked down the gentle slope, threading their way among the beeches and poplars to a small meadow that overlooked one of the streams. In the meadow, standing resolutely in the grass as if it belonged there, was a door. Not a building, just a door. It was plain, made of oak, and set into an arch of crumbling stones. A few feet away lay one of the stones—presumably the one they had heard tumble down from the frame.
    All three of them noticed something else that was obviously meant for them to see: Painted across the face of the door in the same reddish brown color as the writing on the book was the image of the Grail.
    Hugo turned slightly green. “If that’s more blood, I think I might lose my dinner.”
    Jack let out a low whistle. He recognized the door right away. It was unmistakably one of the doors from the Keep of Time.
    “But how can it possibly be here?” John said, answering Jack’s unspoken question. “And what’s the meaning of the Grail?”
    “It’s not a coincidence,” said Jack. “It’s here because we are. I sense a trap.”
    “That’s a bit cloak-and-dagger,” said Hugo, who was recovering from his initial surprise. “It’s just a door, isn’t it?”
    “A door into some other time,” stated Jack, who was examining the door, albeit from a safe distance, “and from a place far from here.”
    “Remember what the Cartographer told us,” John said. “The doorways were focal points, not actually the pathways themselves.”
    “You say that like you know what it means,” said Jack, “when really, we have no clue how the Keep or the doorways worked.”
    “I think you’re both getting all hot and bothered over a piffle,” said Hugo. “Besides, look.” He pointed with the toe of his shoe. “It’s already open.”
    Hugo was right. The door was sitting slightly askew within the arch. Not open enough to really see through to the other side, but enough to realize it could be pulled open farther—and so Hugo reached out, and did.
    “Hold on!” Jack yelled as he and John both grabbed at Hugo. “You don’t know what’s on the other side!”
    “What can it hurt to open the door?” Hugo reasoned.
    “You’ve obviously never been to Loch Ness,” said John.
    “What does that mean?”
    “Never mind,” said Jack. “Hugo may be right. Look.”
    The door had swung open to reveal … nothing.
    It was just meadow on the other side.
    “See?” said Hugo with a chuckle. “It’s just a set dressing, perhaps meant to scare us. Or maybe you’re taking a practical joke to unprecedented heights. Either way, I think it’s harmless.”
    And then, as if to prove his point, Hugo walked through the doorway, and half a dozen paces on the other side. Then he turned and spread his hands, smiling. “Gentlemen?”
    John and Jack both relaxed visibly.
    “I was really quite concerned for a moment,” said Jack, as he crouched to sit down in the grass. “I—“He suddenly stopped talking, and his brow furrowed.
    “What?” said John.
    Jack didn’t answer but started moving his head side to side, looking at Hugo. Then his eyes widened and he jumped to his feet.
    “Hugo!” he exclaimed. “Come back through the doorway, quickly! Hurry, man!”
    Hugo chuckled again. “Jack, you sound like a mother hen. How much rum did you have, anyroad?”
    John was looking around, anxious and worried. His Caretaker instincts had gone hyperactive—of them both, Jack wasn’t the one to panic easily—and he realized something was wrong.
    Jack grabbed him and pulled him two feet to the left of the doorway. As John watched, Hugo vanished.
    “Shades!” John hissed. “Hugo! Are you there?” He stepped back. Hugo reappeared.
    “Have you both gone round the bend?” asked Hugo. “I’m