Chapter 38
The tower had a different use, once. For centuries, it served as a dungeon for some of the most notorious prisoners in the kingdom. Until a previous king desired to be a man of science and had the tower dungeon decommissioned and replaced with what stood there now.
The group had to climb until their legs ached, up to the highest point in the entire City. The group walked into the room distracted as they heaved deep breaths. Then they stopped to stare. The observatory walls were taller than the great hall, arched up and over the octagonal room. Its large windows must have been almost six meters high, allowing guests to view nearly the entire sky. At the top of the windows were eight life-size full-length portraits of astrologers. On the domed ceiling were intricate paintings of the twelve figures of the zodiac and the stars which accompany them.
The paintings had everyone looking up, but the room itself was worthy of attention. Across the floor was an embedded meridian line - a line running between the north and south points on the horizon. Astronomers could use it to identify when objects could be viewed at their highest point in the sky. To help with viewing, there were three long telescopes, as well as various instruments for measuring celestial coordinates, dials, refracting binoculars and pendulum clocks.
Draco was not a man of science, but even he was entranced. He walked into the room, taking in the beautiful mechanical tools that would unveil the heavens to those who looked.
There was just one thing out of sorts - a pair of guests standing next to a hastily erased chalkboard.
“What’s this?” Draco asked, walking up to them.
A woman in a fairly unoriginal take on a star shuffled her feet. “We got here just as everyone else was leaving. One of them laughed at us, and, well, I think they erased the clue.”
Draco blinked and stared at the chalkboard. There were scratches of letters still visible, but nothing that could be read.
“That leaves us proper fucked, don’t it,” said the comet, who’d walked up to Draco’s side. The others were gathering around to add in their two cents about the situation.
Draco interrupted to ask, “Which one of them was it that laughed?”
The second of the guests half shrugged, but still put thought into remembering. “I didn’t know him, but he was dressed in gold I think.”
Draco was thankful his mask hid his dark expression, so the only thing that showed was the thin line of his angry lips.
“You know him?” Mars asked, too perceptive for Draco’s liking, if only just for tonight. Draco shook his head so his voice wouldn’t betray him but it wasn’t convincing. She didn’t buy it. “If you know the fucker you have to tell me so I can show him what’s for.”
Draco cracked a smile at that. He tilted his head at the woman’s balled fists and fierce gaze. “I don’t think I’d ever risk getting on the bad side of anyone in your family,” he remarked off hand.
It was the twin who laughed at that. Frankly, he laughed much harder than the comment could possibly deserve. “Then you best fess up and give us a name,” he said jovially.
With a sigh, Draco just shook his head. It wasn’t that he didn’t want Colton to get what was coming to him, he just didn’t want anything to come back to him at the end of this. He made sure to shift his voice just a bit as he answered, “Speculation doesn’t suit us.”
“Don’t know if you can tell, mate, but speculation is all we’ve got without the clue here,” the comet threw in.
They all paused to stare melancholily at the board again.
Mars wasn’t one to let that sit. With a clap of her hands, she began to order folks about the room. “Searching” she called it, but really the assignments she doled out seemed more like having everyone play with the fascinating, and likely delicate and expensive, astronomy tools.
The melancholy vanished entirely as Draco stared through a telescope and saw stars like he never had before. He found he didn’t care a lick that they were trapped here. It was nice, even, being able to linger and take in each of his favorite constellations without the pressure to move along to the next step.
He almost missed the next group arriving at the observatory. Mars had to call him back over to the blackboard where she was once again huddling, this time with the astrolabe and the crew following her. Draco glanced around, he didn’t recognize any of the newcomers. They were talking very seriously and didn’t hesitate to bring Draco into it.
“It was in chapter twenty seven when the captain devised a way to track time at sea and with the star map he began in chapter eighteen…” she began to launch into a complicated retelling of this events’ namesake, focused entirely on the bits Draco had skimmed over. She looked at Draco when she finished talking, “Don’t you agree?”
Draco’s eyes went wide, and he did his best to keep the “why did you bring me over here?” look he sent Mars discreetly before pasting on a smile and actually answering, “Can’t say I rightly know.”
The astrolabe deflated. “I thought you’d read the book, too.”
Draco’s smile slipped, but he rallied and managed to answer confidently. “Not the math parts.”
Mars snorted. “I thought you were good at puzzles.”
“Not the math puzzles,” Draco said, managing to look down his nose at her primly as if she were the silly one.
“Can’t you do math?” Mars asked, clearly needling him just for fun.
Draco rolled his eyes. “Why would I bother with maths when I can just have -” he stopped talking. He had seriously been about to say he could just have Percy do it, to Percy’s sister, who wasn’t meant to know he knew any of her family at all. However, when you stop talking suddenly no one stops looking at you and now Draco was left muttering “er” in front of onlookers who he was determined to have respect him. “Specialization is how you get ahead! And the astrolabe clearly is the specialist here, let’s trust her explicitly.”
Mars snorted again, but let it go this time since she clearly agreed that following the astrolabe’s lead was the right approach. It meant listening to more math, though, which Draco was not here for, so he politely excused himself with the intent of returning to a telescope. The view of the night sky shining through the windows once again caught him up in awe. It was beautiful. He smiled just because he was able to see it. He couldn’t believe he had never been allowed to visit before. If he’d known what he was missing he’d certainly have snuck in at some point in his childhood. What a wonder the king was opening it up to everyone now.
Only… Draco turned back around to the group and tugged at the astrolabe’s arm. “How many people are left in the chapel?” he asked.
She was caught off guard at the question. “Perhaps two dozen?” she guessed.
Draco’s lips tightened again. “Were there not anymore observatory cards?” he asked.
The astrolabe shook her head. “No, most everyone with one left right at the start. More will come, most likely, in time.”
A worry had formed in the pit of Draco’s stomach and he couldn’t let it go. “Will it be enough to bring everyone, do you think?”
The astrolabe could only shrug. “I wish I knew, but I don’t know how invitations were distributed.”
Draco licked his lips, considering. “I have a card,” he showed her his observatory invitation. “And you brought one. And one that bloke over there. That’s three. If we go back in one group, we could get most everyone. Whoever’s left could easily get picked up by a group who needs a seventh to go the final way.”
The astrolabe’s eyes widened in surprise. “Why would you do that? This is a competition,” she reminded him.
Draco couldn’t hold back a sigh. He didn’t want to pick a fight, but he found her words cold hearted. “The competition only works if it’s fun. There’s nothing fun in not being able to play because the people with the power ditched you instead of putting in the work to get the puzzle right. Just as there’s nothing fun in showing up and having the clue erased so you’re stuck guessing.”
“And what’s fun about showing up to cheat with two invitations?” she asked stonily.
Draco winced. “I thought it rather fun, honestly,” he tried for glib.
She only hardened further. “If you hadn’t cheated, I would be winning,” she declared. Draco believed it.
“Alright, fine, I gave myself an edge in the game. All I can say is I didn’t know what I was getting into when I did it and it was all good spirited. Maybe I could have caught up with you on my own merit, maybe I would have been held up in the great hall by having to be more strategic in befriending strangers and it would have taken me ages to even get started. Who’s to say. At the end of the day, your big, puzzle-solving brain is what’s going to find the stamp with absolutely no clues because you’re brilliant and can do things I can’t. And while you’re doing that, I’m going to go back and get everyone else who needs your brilliance just as much as I do.” Draco was out of breath again when he finished talking, but it was worth it because the astrolabe’s face had softened.
She was still cold-hearted, though, and responded only with, “That’s an awful lot of stairs to do twice.”
It sounded mocking, or perhaps daring, in any case it sounded like she didn’t believe Draco would follow through if he thought a little harder about what it took. Draco nearly growled out, “Not only will I do it twice, but watch me find six folks who care enough to do it, too.”
The astrolabe cocked an eyebrow. While she didn’t smile, her eyes sparkled with mirth. Draco suspected she was pleased with his answer even if she didn’t say so. It was infuriating, but also gratifying. He stomped off to do exactly what he said before he broke down and asked her what the story was behind her deep expressions and terse words.
The pair they’d found in the room agreed immediately. “I have a library invitation, anyway. We just wanted to stick together, and were tired of being trapped in the chapel,” said the woman. It was like if Aergia hadn’t ended the night an asshole and Draco liked them better for it.
The random bloke who’d brought through the Astrolabe’s group agreed as well. “Anything for Hermione,” he said. On inquisition he admitted he meant the astrolabe, and yes, he did actually take confidentiality seriously, and no, he wouldn’t be breaking it again please stop yelling at him. Draco wasn’t yelling but he forgave the man for his mistake.
The shining star passed, but offered up her chapel card to Mars, who informed Draco from the start that of course she would be going how dare he not ask her first. For that matter, the twin and the comet had the same sentiment when they rounded the crew out to the chapel invitation plus six.
They left the room to cheers. Draco paused at the doorway, looking backwards. Everyone was still hard at work, either searching in earnest or out an endearing sort of obligation. They had stopped their work, though, to see their friends off on a quest to bring more of their friends back together. Draco didn’t really know any of these people, but tonight, on this strange journey, they had become friends. At the very least teammates. Perhaps even a crew, the way the voyagers in the book had been a crew. Each dedicated to the other, for the good of the whole.
Draco didn’t mind the long trek downwards. His heart was warm and his smile was happy.