She took an object out of her coat pocket. I couldn’t see much of what it was in the faint light, but it had an eerie gleam that came from within. “I can destroy the magic in that chamber that keeps him alive. Without its head, the organization should shrivel. He put so much effort into keeping everything secret and isolated that without him, it probably won’t function anymore.”
“There’s just one problem.”
She sighed. “I know, I can’t get in. How did you get here?”
“I came with the group that teleported over, using the spell that turned out to have been a trap for Roger.”
“And you were able to get out because you’re immune to magic.”
“Maybe I could take your gizmo in there.”
She held it against her chest and shook her head. “No. I have to be there to see it happen. I want to look him in the eye and make sure he knows exactly who ruined him.”
“Would you rather take him down or cling to your revenge fantasies?”
I could see her wrestling with the decision. At last, she said, “Let’s try it with you opening the door, first. Then we’ll see if I can get through.”
It was easier to open the door from the outside because I could lean my weight against it instead of having to pull. I stepped through the opening but didn’t feel anything. Maybe all the magic was on the door itself. If it blasted you across the room when you touched it, that was probably good enough security. I did feel some magic on the threshold, but it was different—possibly the anti-aging field keeping Mordred alive.
“Okay, give it a try,” I whispered.
She squeezed her eyes shut and clutched her device before stepping decisively through the doorway. When she opened her eyes and found herself inside the chamber, she let out the breath she’d been holding in a big whoosh of relief.
The situation inside didn’t seem to have changed in the few minutes I was gone. Mordred was still holding court, monologuing like a Bond villain. The knights still held a perimeter around the Round Table, holding in the MSI people and former frogs.
“What do you need to do to set it off?” I asked.
“Get it across the threshold,” she replied. “It’s already working. That is, if it works.”
I glanced back to the table. “How will you know it’s working?”
“I don’t know. I’ll admit, I was hoping he’d revert instantly to his real age, but it seems that it will just stop protecting him.”
“Then, depending on how healthy he is, we only have to wait ten to twenty or so years to defeat him decisively.”
And we only had about forty-five minutes if we were going to save or even warn MSI.
Nineteen
“Can you deactivate that thing and send the room back to normal?” I asked Evelyn.
“I’m not sure. But why would I want to do that?”
“The best hostage against someone with an ego that size is himself. I bet we’ll get what we want if we tell him we’ll cut off his youth magic if he doesn’t cooperate.”
“But what I want is to make him suffer.”
I tried not to sigh in exasperation and thought of a way to get her cooperation. “I’m sure we’ll get to that eventually. But since at the moment you seem to be giving him a gradual, ordinary aging and death, you’re not really bringing him down. My way, he suffers more.”
That got her interest. “Really? Okay, then we’ll try it your way. What do I need to do?”
“Hold that thing and look threatening. Now, come on.”
Keeping to the shadows along the wall, we worked our way around the room. With a magical barrier surrounding the knights, I wasn’t sure Evelyn could get through it to approach Mordred directly, and even if the barrier was one-way, I didn’t want to trap Evelyn in there, in case this didn’t work. Instead, I aimed for Mordred’
s end of the table, where we might get close to him without being inside the circle.
The MSI folks and the former frogs looked pretty glazed. Mordred’s villain monologue must have been somewhat less than enthralling. Even Merlin looked bored. Owen perked up, and I realized he’d noticed me. He immediately went still again after that initial reaction, so no one else picked up on it.