The Hall of Heroes

15. - Mystery of the Inventor's Tower

They first glimpsed the tower from the road a few miles away. Even at the distance they saw that the top of the tower was in some way cut off, or even bitten off, because the line of the cut was curved. At the distance, they could see nothing else.

They didn't talk much along the way, partly because Duzz was leading the way and had no time to talk, and partly because Crefar and Hekto had very little to talk about.

When she was sure Hekto was too far from them to hear, Duzz whispered to Crefar, "H-h-how did you convince him to g-g-go with us?"

"I told him he would get paid." Crefar answered quietly and calmly.

"Are you cr-cr-crazy? We don't have any m-m-money!" Duzz shouted in a whisper.

"No," Crefar answered. "I didn't tell him we would pay him. I told him this job was paid by the mayor himself."

"But the m-m-mayor didn't say he would p-p-pay us!"

"No, he didn't. But by the time this guy figures all of that out, if ever, we'll already be far away from Medióla." Crefar flashed an innocent smile.

"Ooh, I don't kn-kn-know about this." Duzz frowned.

After a full hour of walking, Duzz signaled to walk on carefully. They were drawing near to the inventor's tower.

Watching the tower from a bush near the road, they saw that the grounds around it, enclosed by a low stone wall and overgrown with weeds, had a very strange hue. It was as though the grass around the tower was dusted with a light red glowing powder. The red hue of the grass grew weaker the further away from the tower.

Duzz and Crefar looked at each other.

"D-d-do you think that c-c-color could be da-da-dangerous?" Duzz asked.

Crefar scratched his chin and looked at Hekto, who was crouching behind them. He was looking at the tower with a wry face and didn't seem too keen on going first.

"Hekto. We need you. See that door over there?" Crefar said.

"Yeah."

"Well, that door is slammed shut and we'll need you to open it for us. We're too weak to do it ourselves."

Hekto smiled confidently and winked at Crefar. Then he got up and started walking towards the tower carefully. Duzz and Crefar followed close behind. Duzz tapped on Crefar's shoulder and nodded at him appreciatively.

When they climbed over the low perimeter wall and stepped on the red grass, they saw that the red hue was actually reflected light. It was as though something was shining at it from above, though there was nothing there, only clear sky. When they looked at each other, they saw that the same hue now rested on each of them as well, reflecting some sort of a shine from above.

Then, without warning, Hekto sprang into a run and before either Duzz or Crefar could say anything, he flung himself against the door.

The door swung open effortlessly and Hekto tumbled head over heels into the darkness of the tower. All that Duzz and Crefar could hear on the outside was thrashing and tumbling of wood. They looked at each other and shrugged their shoulders. Soon afterwards, Hekto walked to the door, shaking off dust.

"There. It's open." he said and put his hands on his hips triumphantly.

"Thank you." Crefar said and passed around him into the tower.

The first floor of the tower was a mess and not only in the places where Hekto had landed. There were overturned cupboards, tables and wardrobes all over the place and trinkets and pottery that fell from the top of them were lying about on the stone floor. The only thing left in its place were the pictures on the walls and from those, it was obvious that the inhabitant of this tower had a keen interest in astronomy. There were star charts, moon phases and depictions of various planets of the local solar system all around the walls.