kitchen_maid | Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?

Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?

In contrast to the candlelit ballroom, the corridor is dim, lit weakly by a few (generously spaced) torches. There are door down both sides, all closed, and placed almost randomly along the way. The hallway runs away from the ballroom at an angle, and either the lighting or just its sheer length make it impossible to see where it ends.

It's clean, completely free of dust and cobwebs, either because the spell has kept them from accumulating or because someone (or something) has tidied recently.

It is almost perfectly silent, save for the quiet hiss of the closest torch.

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"Is that music?"

Parker's hearing isn't quite as keen, currently, but it sounds like there's something under the rumbling ground and falling debris.

The run along the corridor, just far enough ahead of the cracks. Somehow, Parker has kept a hold of the wooden sword. (Any weapon in a storm, she supposes.)

Quite unexpectedly, they reach an intersection of four corridors.

"Which way?"

Scorpius pulls her toward the right without pausing to think, then stumbles to a stop a few feet down the new corridor.

"No, never mind, not this way," he says, and he turns them around, heading in the other direction.

Behind them, a door bursts open and a few angry looking clockwork services spill into the hall.

Back in the center of the intersection, Parker jerks him to the right, toward a corridor that seems to have a glow of light to it.

It could be an oncoming train, but they'll jump off that bridge when they get to it.

"I'm getting the distinct feeling that we've pissed the whole place off," she huffs.

"Is there some spell that works on clockwork? Rust? Something?"

Scorpius, dutifully, shoots a few spells over his shoulder at their pursers. It knocks a couple off course. But -

"Er. They're just repairing themselves.

"Or eating each other, I don't know."

He's not getting a very good look as he runs.

But then he skids to a short stop.

Because not too far ahead are two very large doors, one of which has been knocked from its hinges from the powerful quake and hangs askew. A very pale light and the faint sound (though loud to enhanced ears) trickles out from the room.

"Uhm." Could it be - ? "Maybe -?"

"Let's hope it's the 'eating each other' option."

Parker puts on the brakes just fast enough to keep from pulling Scorpius off of his feet.

She eyes the big double doors, though not as long as she'd like. She can hear the clockwork minions back behind them.

"Dead end. I don't think we have much of a choice."

Parker grabs one door handle and starts pulling.

Scorpius hurls a few more spells at the approaching minions and then all but shoves Parker into the room as soon as she's worked the door open.

"Close it, close it now," he's saying without even bothering to look around the room first.

The minions are right on them, already bumping against the door and trying to open it.

He casts a few spells on the door, but, with the earthquake and their insistence to get in, the magic might not hold.

(They know this palace better than Scorpius and Parker do, too.)

Parker throws her shoulder against the door, shoving it closed. (Thank God for all those bales of hay she's gotten used to heaving.)

She can feel the hoards on the other side of the door. Parker turns, bracing her back against the wood and her feet against the floor, attempting to form a human doorstop.

She almost loses her footing, though, as she faces the interior of the room they have found themselves in.

Parker blinks in something like wonder.

"Oh.....wow."

They stand in a massive throne room, with pillars that stretch and branch into the ceiling like carved trees of stone and a walkway down the center in a deep-green like the forest floor. It leads to a raised platform where a large throne sits, flanked by six seats on either side.

Behind those: An enormous pendulum swings back and forth, casting shadows with the light that trickles through the tall frosted windows it hangs in front of.

"Uhm, wow. Yeah. Er."

A bit stunned by the size and scale of the room, it takes Scorpius a moment to realize that they're not alone.

Clockwork guards line the throne room on either side. Guards who slowly turn their heads to look at them.

Scorpius starts talking, fast: "Right, so. Heart of the Palace? Could be the throne room? Maybe we need to stop the pendulum?"

Parker looks up from pushing her wooden sword through the handles of the door. Just as an added precaution.

"I'd say it's more promising than a ballet studio," she replies.

It's a throne room, which is way symbolic. It's...well, it's gorgeous and impressive. And then there's that pendulum.

"Heart of a clockwork world? Giant pendulum? Sounds like a potential win to me."

Parker comes to stand beside him, also eying the guards.

"I wonder who's supposed to sit on the thrones."

Scorpius shrugs.

"I don't know. Maybe the princesses of the story? Sir Harold said there were only four in actuality, though. And do you hear it still? The, uhm - The music? I can't tell where it's coming from, but it's here."

He takes a few uneasy steps forward, keeping an eye on the guards as he does.

That's when he notices how still the room is. He frowns. "I think the earthquake stopped."

Which means they might be getting a few more pissed off visitors shortly.

"Sir Harold would probably give his eye teeth to see this place."

But it's just as well that he's not tagging along. They have enough to worry about.

Parker cocks her head, listening.

"Behind the thrones, I think? The music? It's from somewhere up ahead."

She glances back at the door.

"How long do you think your spells will hold?

"They could hold indefinitely. But then, they might not."

The wards he'd hastily thrown up are not Scorpius' best work and the clockwork servants are putting considerable pressure on them.

" - Uhm, I don't know. Let's hurry."

After another cautious step or two, he then grabs Parker's hand and hurries down the center aisle. The music is definitely coming from somewhere around the thrones, but nothing in plain sight.

"Try to find whatever is playing that and I'll try to stop the pendulum."

"Well, that's specific."

Parker makes an effort not to sound pissy. It's not Scorpius's fault, after all. They're dealing with some major unknowns here.

She's down with hurrying.

"Just be careful!" she calls to him as she peels off to start searching under and behind the thrones.

For what, she's not sure. Fairy tale ipod. Tiny string quartet. Evil music box. Hopefully she'll know it when she sees it.

Scorpius is already hurling a spell at the pendulum as soon as Parker peels away from him.

"Aresto Momentum!"

But the spell bounces harmlessly off the swinging bar, nearly knocking him off his feet in return.

He tries a few more, each with the same disastrous results. He even tries attacking it the Muggle way, attempting to grab it as it swings past him.

Nothing works, and the clockwork guards, once amused by his feeble attempts, are getting a bit annoyed now. They start to approach the pair.

"Right, okay. Think," he mutters to himself, trying to keep an eye on the guards and stare down the pendulum.

"Any luck, Parker?"

Parker has had to dodge a couple of rebounding spells herself. Thank God, she has the thrones to take cover behind.

There's not much under the thrones besides some epic dust bunnies. But toward the end of the row, Parker finally spies something promising.

"Scorpius! Come take a look at this."

She's attempting to move one of the heavy thrones, tugging it inch by inch across the floor.

Underneath, there's a key set into the floor. Like a giant version of something you'd see on a wind-up toy.

And it's steadily unwiding.

Scorpius rushes over and helps her push the throne out of their way.

He looks at the key with a frown, then at the pendulum.

(He also spares a glance for the approaching guards.)

"Right," he says, coming to only one conclusion and what he can only hope is the correct one. "Be ready to dodge a spell and some angry guards if this doesn't work."

He points his wand at the key and fires off a spell before she can argue against it.

Parker would eat her hat (you know--if she was wearing one) that the pendulum and the key are connected. And if one is halted, maybe the other will be.

She doesn't even attempt to argue--just automatically raises her forearm to protect her eyes against a flare of magical light.

There's a near deafening sound like the grinding of gears.

Or possibly clockwork.

"Well, I'm pretty sure that made it unhappy," she says, lowering her arm.

Now, let's just hope that it's unhappy in a way that's good for them.

The approaching guards stumble at the grinding of the gears, one with her arm outstretched toward Parker, and Scorpius winces at the deafening sound.

An eerie silence follows.

"I don't think - "

He glances at the pendulum behind them, still swinging but only from momentum now. It's already starting to slow.

"Actually, I think it did work," he amends, only to be drowned out by an equally deafening chime.

The clockwork guards are starting to jerk about very erratically. Parker gives the one closest to her a firm shove and it topples, taking out three more on its way down.

The chime is like being on the inside of a bell being struck by a giant sledgehammer.

"I wonder if that means 'time's up,'" Parker says, raising her voice to be heard over the reverberation.

Scorpius' ears are ringing something fierce. He takes a moment to undo the Supersensory Charm he'd used.

"What?" he yells, nose scrunched.

Then, "Oh, never mind, I think our time is up!"

He reaches for Parker, stepping over toppled guards.

"Do you think Amy and the others are okay?"

"Let's hope so."

Parker grips Scorpius's hand tight. It won't be good to get separated now. Not when it looks like everything around them is starting to literally fall apart.

They pelt back through the castle, heading for the exit, Parker keeping an eye out for any of the rest of their merry band along the way.

It's with great relief that she looks ahead and sees Laura and Bruce, and (Yes!) Amy just a little ways ahead.

Parker can't help but grin.

"All right. Halfway home."

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Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?

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