TEN
"Well," said Cole, checking both doors for the third time, "they appear to be identical. Even down to the wood grain pattern in them. There's absolutely no difference between the two."
"So how do we figure out which is the correct door?" Phoebe asked. "If I'm reading that riddle properly one of the doors will lead us to what we're looking for. The other one, presumably, will kill us. Can't say I like the choices."
"We can't go back," said Paige. "I guess all we can do is go on ahead. Which means we have to choose one of the doors. But which one?"
"Why don't we just open them both and see where they lead?" suggested Chase, moving toward the right door.
"I wouldn't do that," said Cole, stopping him. "The riddle says to choose a door. Once we open one that will constitute a choice. We might not be able to open the other door. Which means we have to make sure we open the right one first."
"So just how do we figure out which one is the right door?" Leo asked.
"That's a very good question," said Cole. "As I said, both doors look exactly the same. They open the same way and the handle and hinges are identical. There has to be some way to tell which is the door we need. But I'm at a loss."
"Could one of the doors be an illusion?" Phoebe asked.
"It's possible," said Cole. "The trouble is there isn't any indication which is an illusion if one of them is."
"Maybe there is," said Paige. "Two doors to choose, one path to follow. Show us the way that we seek."
They all waited patiently but nothing happened.
"Well," said Piper, "either they're both real or the spell didn't work. You did say that magic worked differently here."
"Sometimes not at all," said Cole. "There's just no way of knowing how it will affect any particular individual."
"So what do we do now?" Chase asked. "We can't just sit here forever. We can't go back so we have to go forward. Why not just pick a door?"
"That's not a good idea," said Leo. "You all know how dangerous magic can be. If we pick the wrong door it could be fatal. For all of us."
"Well, except you and Cole," said Piper. "You're a White Lighter and Cole is virtually invulnerable."
"Not necessarily," said Leo. "As Cole said this place affects people differently. It's possible that my immortality and Cole's new powers won't be enough to protect us."
"Which brings us back to our primary problem," said Cole. "Which door do we choose?"
After casting the spell, Paige had been busily studying the engraving on the wall between the doors. She stared at it intently as if trying to burn the image into her mind. Suddenly her face lit up.
"That's it," she exclaimed. "Of course. The answer has been staring us straight in the face all the time. I guess it was so obvious we just couldn't see it."
"See what?" Piper asked.
"The answer," said Paige. "It's the right door. The one on the right. That's the door we have to go through."
"Are you sure?" Phoebe asked.
"Positive," said Paige.
"Well, if we're going through it we'd better hurry," said Cole.
They all saw him staring across the room. As they looked to see what he was staring at they the sight chilled them. The far wall was steadily moving toward them shrinking the size of the room as it moved.
"I'd suggest we get a move on it," said Cole. "At the speed that wall is moving I don't think we have more than a minute or so before it reaches this side of the room. And I don't think any of us want to be in here when it does."
"Come on," said Paige, pulling the door on the right open.
Quickly they all followed her through the door. Leo was the last to pass through the door and just as he pulled the door closed behind him the wall from the other side of the room moved over the place where the had been standing only moments before. He had no sooner gotten the door closed than they all heard the opposite wall impact the wall with the doors on it with a resounding "thud".
Beyond the door was a passageway similar to the one they had followed to the room with doors. As before the area immediately where they stood seemed to be illuminated by some unknown and unseen light source. There was no book but neither was there the deathtrap they had all imagined.
"How did you know?" Piper asked Paige. "How did you know the door on the right was the right one?"
"Because the engraving on the wall told us it was," said Paige. "Remember? It said choose the right door. And those lines below it. One door leads to death. The other leads to life. One door leads to sadness. The other to happiness. And so on. All of the bad things were on the left side while the good things were on the right side. It just made sense that the right door was the right door."
"You took a big risk," said Phoebe. "Opening that was a desperate gamble. If it had been the wrong door. . ."
"But it wasn't," said Paige. "And the way I saw it, we didn't have much of a choice. We had to pick one of the doors and we didn't have a lot of time to do it. But I was convinced I was right. I'm just glad I was."
"So are we, little sister," said Piper, hugging Paige. "Lucky for us you were able to figure out the clues they left behind for us."
"I wonder what was behind the other door?" Chase asked.
"Something not very pleasant, I'll wager," said Cole. "Remember, the engraving said we'd die if we went through it. I hesitate to think of what kind of death it would have been. The Ancients could be extremely sadistic, according to some legends."
"You thing Greggson picked the right door?" Leo asked.
"Well," said Cole, "that's hard to say. He was very intelligent. I think we have to assume that he did. That way we'll be prepared in case we meet up with him farther on. If he didn't pick the right door we won't have anything to worry about from him. Either way I think it's best to be prepared for him."
"Let's go," said Piper. "With any luck the books we're looking for are just ahead."
The group began to cautiously make their way down the passageway. No one knew what to expect, not even Cole. Even though they had the Voynich Manuscript to guide them he had told them it was far from complete. And the references it had made to the obstacles they would encounter were, for the most part, not complete.
They walked for nearly ten minutes when they came to another chamber. As before they stopped just short of the opening to the chamber. Cole picked up another stone from the floor of the cavern and tossed it through the opening. This time, however, nothing happened. After a few minutes they all decided it was probably safe to enter the chamber.
As they entered the chamber they saw a small ledge protruding from the back wall of the chamber. On the wall sat three large books. From all appearances the books appeared to be identical.
On the wall to their left was an opening leading to a passageway out of the chamber. When they entered the chamber the passage behind them vanished just as the previous ones had vanished. They were now trapped in the chamber with only one way out.
"Well, it seems we've found what we were looking for," said Piper. "The three books we need to summon this Shushaun so we can get the Golden Grimoire."
"I don't think so," said Cole. "According to all references, the Grand Grimoire, the Grimoire Arcanarum, and the Necronomicon are totally different books. That would imply that each would be distinctively different from the other two. Those three books all look to be the same. My guess is that only one of the books is real. The other two would be fakes."
"Oh, that's just great," said Piper. "After everything we've been through and we don't even get all three books? Not to mention that we have no idea which one of those books is the real one?"
"Well, the power contained in the Golden Grimoire is the most potent magic ever to exist," said Cole. "Putting the other three grimoires together is the key to finding it. It wouldn't make a whole lot of sense to put all thee keys together in the same place."
"I guess so," said Piper. "So, how do we figure out which one of those books is the real one?"
"I guess the first thing to do is take a look at them," said Phoebe. "There might be something on one of them that will identify which is the real book."
"Just no one touch them," said Cole. "There doesn't seem to be any traps in the room but I wouldn't rule out the books being trapped."
Cautiously the six walked over to the ledge to inspect the three books on the shelf.