open.
Zachary’s suspicions that he wasn’t actually traveling anywhere were unfounded, as the room he is looking out toward is not the cave-like space he started in. This is a luminous room with a curved paneled ceiling. It reminds him of the atrium from the university library but smaller, with honey-colored marble walls, opaque and varied in tone, but translucent and glowing, covering everything except for the stone floor and the elevator and another door on the other side of the room. He suspects he actually is as far underground as the length and speed of the elevator ride suggested, even though the voice in his head keeps insisting that such things are impossible. It is too quiet. There is a heaviness in the air, the feel of weight above him.
Zachary steps out of the elevator and the doors close behind him. The clanking sound resumes, the elevator returning to somewhere else. Above its doors is a half-moon indicator with no numbers, only a gold arrow moving slowly upward.
Zachary walks to the door on the other side of the room. It’s a large door with a golden doorknob that reminds him of his original painted door, only bigger, as though it has grown along with him, and this one is not painted but real carved wood, its gilded embellishments fading in places but the bee and the key and the sword remain distinct.
Zachary takes a breath and reaches for the doorknob. It is warm and solid and when he tries to turn it, it does not budge. He tries again, but the door is locked.
“Seriously?” he says aloud. He sighs and takes a step back. The door has a keyhole and, feeling silly about it, Zachary bends down to look through it. There is a room beyond, that much is obvious, but other than an irregular movement to the light, he cannot discern anything else.
Zachary sits on the floor, which is polished stone and not very comfortable. He can tell from this angle that the stone is worn down in the center of the doorway. Many people have walked here before him.
Wake up, the voice in his head says. You’re usually good at this sort of thing.
Zachary stands, leaving flakes of gold paint behind him, and goes to inspect the rest of the room.
There is a button near the elevator, half concealed in marble and whatever brassy metal the marble panels are connected with. Zachary pushes the button, not expecting a result, and gets precisely that. The button remains unlit, the elevator silent.
He tries the other doorless walls next and finds them more cooperative.
In the middle of the first wall is an alcove set at window height. It vanishes from view even a few steps away, lost in the glow of the marble. Inside, there is a bowl-like depression, a basin, as though it is a wall fountain with no water, the sides curving inward to a flat spot on the bottom.
In the center sits a small black bag.
Zachary picks up the bag. It has a familiar weight in his hand. The lifting of the bag reveals a single word carved into the stone beneath it.
Roll
“You have got to be kidding,” Zachary says as he turns the contents of the bag onto his palm.
Six dice of the classic six-sided variety, carved from dark stone. Each side has a symbol rather than numbers or dots, engraved and accented with gold. He turns one over so he can identify all of the symbols. The bee and the key and the sword are familiar but there are more. A crown. A heart. A feather.
Zachary puts the bag to the side and gives the dice a thorough shake before letting them tumble into the stone basin. When they settle, all of the symbols are the same. Six hearts.
He barely has time to read them before the bottom falls out of the basin and the dice and the bag disappear.
Zachary doesn’t bother checking the door before walking to the opposite wall and he is unsurprised to find a matching alcove.
A tiny stemmed glass rests inside, the type for sipping cordials or liqueurs, with a matching glass lid on top like some of his fancier teacups.
Zachary picks up the glass. Again, a single word is carved underneath.
Drink
The glass contains a small measure of honey-colored liquid, not much more than a sip.
Zachary removes the lid from the glass and sets it down next to the carved instruction. He sniffs the liquid. It has a