“It is well hidden,” said Kat. “I can’t see it, but I know it is there.”

Alex looked at the wall for several seconds and then reached out to tap it with his staff. For a moment nothing happened, and then the outline of a door appeared on the wall.

“Lucky we brought a wizard along.” Barnabus laughed.

“Lucky we have a seer to find hidden doors,” said Alex.

“Finding the door is not difficult, but getting it open might be,” said Kat.

It took Alex three tries to open the door. Behind the door was a small room filled with piles of treasure that looked as if they had been searched through in a hurry. To Alex, it looked like the owner of the room had been in a terrible rush to find something, and then left quickly without straightening up. Barnabus and Kat both seemed happy with the discovery, even if Alex was troubled. Absentmindedly he picked up a golden necklace. Why?That was the only thing he could think of. Why would the dwarfs leave all of this behind?

“We should get the others,” said Barnabus after several minutes.

“Yes,” Alex agreed, returning the necklace to a nearby shelf. “Thrang will want to know what we’ve found.”

“I sense you are troubled by this,” Kat murmured.

“I can’t find a reason for it,” Alex answered, turning to go. “No one leaves their wealth and their home for no reason.”

The others followed Alex out of the house. Nellus and Arconn were waiting for them in the street, but they were alone.

“Where are Thrang and Thrain?” Kat asked, looking up and down the street.

“They believe they’ve found a hidden room,” said Arconn. “They’re trying to find a way to open the door.”

“They’ll have a hard time with it,” said Alex. “We found one as well, and it was guarded better than I expected.”

“I would guess that all the houses have hidden rooms,” Arconn said thoughtfully.

“And I would guess that Thrang will want us to open them all,” said Alex.

Alex found Thrang and Thrain inside a house, standing next to a blank wall and looking unhappy. Thrang knew only a few opening spells, but he had tried them all. Alex explained about the hidden room they had found in the other house and smiled when Thrang insisted on trying one more ancient dwarf spell. Thrang stood still for a moment, deep in thought. He took a step back and spoke the words, but nothing happened.

“I suppose you’ll have to do it, then,” said Thrang, looking at Alex hopefully.

Alex bowed slightly and touched the wall with his staff. Once again the outline of a door appeared, and this time Alex was able to open it on his first try. Thrang and Thrain both hurried into the small treasure room as Alex watched from the doorway.

“Did the room in the other house hold this much treasure?” Thrang questioned.

“About,” said Alex with a shrug.

“I suppose we’ve added to our wealth, then,” Thrang said with a laugh.

“That is true, but the real question remains,” said Alex, turning away from the room.

“What question is that?” Thrang called after him.

“Why?” said Alex, walking out of the house.

Chapter Thirteen

Salinor

Why what?” Thrang questioned, following Alex out of the house and into the road.

“Why has all this been left?” said Alex. “Why are there no dwarfs here? Why do we feel troubled and then not troubled? There is something wrong here, and I want to know what it is.”

“Yes,” said Thrang, nodding his head. “I agree that none of this makes any kind of sense. I suppose we should look for the colony’s records and leave the treasure hunting for later.”

“That would seem the wisest course,” said Arconn.

“Yes, well,” Thrang said, looking down the stone-paved street, “I suppose we’ll have to move farther into town. It’s customary for the archives to be built near the center of the settlement, unless the dwarfs built most of the city underground.”

“It looks like most of this city is aboveground,” Nellus said.

“Kat, if you sense anything—anything at all—please say so at once,” Alex said to the seer.

“Whatever I sensed before has either left or hidden itself very well,” said Kat, sounding both relieved and unhappy at the same time.

Alex could not explain it, not even to himself, but he knew there was something on the island, and even if Kat could not sense it, it was still there. Whatever it was, Alex couldn’t do anything about it, not unless it wished to reveal itself to him, so he settled on the next best thing—finding the records of the city and whatever answers they might hold.

“Come on, then,” said Thrang, starting off down the road that led to the center of the deserted town.

Alex and the others followed, looking from side to side as they went. They didn’t bother picking up the small bags anymore; there would be time for treasure hunting after they’d found out what had happened to the dwarfs.

Fortunately the village was fairly small, with only about sixty stone houses. Each of the houses had an area of open land around it, which seemed odd for a dwarf colony, or at least it did to Alex.

“They must have expected the colony to grow,” Thrang said in a thoughtful tone. “As a rule, dwarf houses are closer together and often share walls.”

“The treasure we’ve found so far would indicate that this was a promising place,” Nellus said. “If the dwarfs here had found so much wealth, others would surely have come to join them.”

“Yes,” said Thrang. “But it appears that no one ever did.”

The discussion ended as Thrang spotted what he was looking for. A large stone building made of white marble stood alone in the center of the town square. Polished bronze doors still gleamed brightly in the afternoon sun.

“Locked,” Thrang said, pushing on one of the doors. “I suppose we should have expected that.”

“The bronze has not tarnished,” said Barnabus in surprise, rubbing one of the doors with his hand.

“A little dwarf magic,” said Thrang, a note of pride in his voice. “The dwarfs of this village took great care in building their storehouse.”

“This looks too grand to be a storehouse,” Nellus said.

“A common name for such buildings,” said Thrang, pushing on the door again. “The dwarfs would have used this building to store supplies as well as their records. There is also a chance that they stored community treasure here as well.”

“I suppose we should find a way to open the doors,” said Alex.

“If you would, master wizard,” said Thrang, bowing to Alex.

Alex stepped forward and put one hand on the bronze doors. He could feel the dwarf magic vibrating through his fingers and palm as if the door had a life of its own. This was deeper magic than the hidden rooms in the dwarf houses, deeper and much more powerful. For several minutes he stood motionless, letting his mind explore the spell that held the doors shut. Slowly he stepped back, then lifted his staff and knocked on the bronze door twice. For a moment nothing happened, then the shining bronze seemed to dim. The others looked in wonder as what had once been solid and locked bronze doors melted away, vanishing completely.

“Amazing,” said Thrain, a stunned look on his face.

“An interesting spell,” Alex commented. “Whoever put it here knew what they were doing.”

“Well then,” said Thrang, looking at the dark open space in front of him. “I suppose we should have a look inside.”

Alex could see how nervous Thrang and the others were, but he knew there was no danger. He stepped forward into the darkness, and, seeing no source of light inside the building, conjured up several weir lights. Thrang hurried in behind him, and then smiled as the weir lights moved along the dark passage showing them which way to go.

“Strange there are no windows,” Thrang said, walking at Alex’s side.

“The dwarfs might have been afraid of being robbed,” said Alex. “The door was impressive—though I wouldn’t think that the colony’s records would require so much protection.”