Sara had a mission, as she went into each room she either grabbed something off a shelf or out of drawer. Most of Jason’s questions she either answered with a grunt or a sarcastic laugh. “Over here, help me move this.”
“What? Move that whole cabinet? Why?” Jason didn’t mind holding all the items Sara shoved at him, he didn’t mind running to keep up with her, he didn’t even mind being ignored. But it was getting a little old the way she snapped instructions at him as though he were her servant.
“Just move it!” Sara barked.
“That thing is huge, why not use a magic spell or something?” Jason reached for his wand.
“No you idiot! We’re not allowed to use spells off the school grounds and since we are the only wizards in the house, I think they would know it was one of us. Just move the armoire.”
Jason walked up to the huge wooden case and braced himself against the side of it and started to push with all his might, only to land on his butt as the huge piece of furniture effortlessly slid out of the way.
Sara laughed out loud as she looked at Jason sitting stupefied on the ground.
“What the heck!” Obviously Jason did not have the same sense of humor Sara did.
“Oh, quit your whining and get up! My father insisted he could access it even though he has no magical powers.”
Jason was about to give Sara a piece of his mind, or at least he was thinking of doing it, when he looked behind where the armoire had just stood. A huge wooden door with a hundred locks stood in front of him. But the locks didn’t look like anything he had ever seen, the key holes were all sorts of strange shapes and sizes.
“Hand me the horse,” Sara commanded without even looking down at Jason, who was still gazing at the door dumbfounded. “The horse.”
“What?”
“Hand me the brass horse you moron.” With a look of disgust and expertly rolled eyes, Sara stepped over the still confused Jason to pick up one of the many items they had gathered through the house, a statue of a brass horse.
She quickly turned it so that the head and one of the hooves fit precisely into one of the locks, and turned. A low thud was heard as the lock disengaged.
Now Jason got it and was on his feet looking at all the things they had collected. They were keys.
“Give me the prism… the duck… the fork… the shoe… no, the wooden one… the pinecone… the yellow flower…” this went on for 20 minutes, each time an item was inserted and turned Jason could hear a thud deep in the wall. Finally there was only one lock left even though there were still plenty of ‘keys’. “Give me the bottle cap.” One last thud, then there was a whirling sound like a million gears spinning, the tarnished handle turned, and the door swung open with a long low groaning creak.
“What about these?” Jason indicated the remaining items. “What are they for?”
“The locks change every time you open the door. You never know which keys you will need. It’s easier to just bring them all.”
“Should we put them back?” Jason asked.
“No. As soon as we close the door they’ll go to new hiding places.” Sara answered absently.
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