Author's Note: Thank you all so much for reading and following this story. I would especially like to thank everyone who left reviews on the last chapter: EvergreenDreamweaver, Cherylann Rivers (and for your review on Chapter 14, too!), max2013, and BMSH. It's so encouraging to me as a writer when you leave reviews and it really helps to motivate me to keep writing. Future stories, that is – I have every intention of finishing this one with or without reviews. But anyway, thank you so much for taking the time to tell me what you think!
Chapter XV
"This isn't doing any good," Robin grumbled. "We'll never find our way through this maze, or out of it for that matter."
"It's a challenge," Nancy told him. "That must be why this picked it. First, there was the challenge of finding the Black Knight's secret, then there was the challenge of whether to trust you, the Green Knight, or not, and now getting through this maze must be the Puce Knight's challenge."
"Very clever," Robin replied sarcastically. "But it doesn't help us find our way."
"Maybe not in itself, but it does show that there must be a way to figure it out." Nancy looked around at the stone walls, shining her phone's flashlight around at them. There was nothing – no furniture, no wall decorations, no markings on the walls themselves.
Nancy swept the light around again. It was then that she realized that the walls were not so blank as they appeared. Something glinted on the wall a few feet down one of the corridors. She hurried forward to look at it, grinning when she saw what it was – a vein of some blue mineral in the stone.
"Come on." She waved for Robin to follow her. "I think I've got it."
"What makes you think that?" Robin objected.
Nancy explained what she had found. "Maybe we're supposed to go down the corridors that have stones with this mineral in them. It could be the Indigo Knight."
Robin scoffed. "That's pretty far-fetched. What kind of person would have a clue like that?"
"Probably the same kind that would set up elaborate crimes based on books," Nancy replied. As they began walking down the hallway, she added, "Speaking of basing crimes off books, it seems just a little odd to me that you are modeling yourself so heavily off Robin Hood."
"You don't still think I'm involved, do you?" Robin asked. "I already explained what I've been doing."
"If you can call it that," Nancy said. "Why don't you take off the mask and let me see who you really are?"
"Can you give me your word that you won't turn me over to the police?" Robin spoke seriously, but as if he already knew the answer.
Nancy sighed. "I can't."
"Then I can't let you know my true identity," Robin replied.
For more than twenty minutes, they continued on their way. Each time the corridor split into two or three, they found one and only one that had streaks of the indigo mineral in the stones. Finally, they came to a wooden door. Nancy tried it and found that it was unlocked. She pushed it open to reveal a dungeon.
As soon as she heard the door open, George peered out of one of the cells. "Nancy!"
"George!" Nancy sighed in relief and hurried toward her. "Are you all right? What happened?"
George grinned wryly. "I was being dumb, I guess. How did you find me?" Right then, she noticed Robin. "Oh. So he really did find you and bring you here. Honestly, I didn't think he was going to."
"Well, at least the two of you won't have a disagreement over whether or not you can trust me," Robin said sarcastically.
"Never mind that now," Nancy told them. "I'm still convinced that this was meant to be a trap, and it hasn't been sprung yet. I'd rather make as much of an attempt as we can to get out before it is sprung."
"Right," Robin agreed. "Besides, if your whole colored knights theory holds up, there should be one more to get past."
"I'd love to get out of here, too." George grabbed one of the iron bars making the prison and tried to shake it. "The problem is, this door is locked and that Looney Toons guy in the red armor has the key."
"Well, there's our last knight from the sound of it," Robin said in a forcedly cheerful voice. "Didn't you even say the last one is supposed to be red?"
"What's he talking about?" George asked Nancy.
"I'll tell you about it later." Nancy crouched down to look at the lock. It wasn't complicated, and Nancy had it picked in a few moments.
Robin whistled as George stepped out of the cell. "Are you sure I'm the thief here and not you, Nancy? I guess that explains how you got into Jim's."
"It's a useful skill to have my line of work," Nancy told him, "but we can talk about it later. Let's get out of here."
They turned to go back the way Nancy and Robin had come, but they found that the doorway was blocked by a tall man with broad shoulders. He wasn't wearing armor, which allowed Nancy to recognize his face.
"Dan Moriare," she said.
The man nodded. "Nancy Drew, I presume? Otherwise known as her latest obsession."
In a fluid, well-practiced movement, Robin drew an arrow out of his quiver and fitted it to the string of his bow. "You had better let us pass. I won't hesitate to shoot. If you wanted to stop us, you should have worn your armor."
"And I would have, if I wanted to stop you," Moriare replied. "There's someone else on the way here to stop you. The Red Knight, as he insists on calling himself. I managed to hold him up, but we don't have all night."
"Wait. You're helping us?" Nancy asked. "Why?"
"I did my time," Moriare told her. "I'm not doing any more. Not for her. She already got my brother killed and made me spend the last fifteen years in the pen. No more."
"Who are you talking about?" Nancy's heart thumped faster as she felt that she was about to uncover the solution to the whole mystery.
Just then, they heard the sound of heavy, metallic footsteps behind Moriare. He glanced over his shoulder and then pointed to the opposite side of the room where there was another door.
"There's another way out. I'll show you," he said, running toward it.
Nancy and her companions looked at each other in bewilderment at this development, but only for a moment. Without having to say a word to each other, they all agreed to risk following Moriare than wait to face whoever was coming.
The passageway that Moriare showed them was a great deal shorter and went up a flight of stairs. It led to a door that was connected to the outside of the castle. Nancy could see Ned's car parked not twenty-five feet away.
"Hurry!" Moriare urged them. "They mustn't catch you with me."
Robin and George, still bewildered, but eager to take the chance that was offered them, plunged on ahead. Nancy held back.
"You should come with us," she said. "Since you've helped us escape and if you turned over evidence about the others, I'm sure you could get a lighter sentence."
"I don't want any sentence at all." Moriare swung the door closed, leaving Nancy out in the dark and the cold.
As Nancy was still staring at the closed door in bewilderment, she heard George call, "Come on, Nancy! We need to get out of here!"
Reluctantly, Nancy followed George and Robin to the car and they all got in. As they drove away as quickly as they dared – with Nancy at the wheel this time, since she had insisted that Robin give the keys to her – George and Robin both looked out the back and Nancy continually checked the rearview mirror for any sign of pursuit. When none seemed to be coming, George flopped back in her seat in relief.
"You know," she said, "I've had some pretty weird stuff happen to me, being friends with Nancy. But this has got to be the weirdest. I mean, seriously. Getting kidnapped by a dude in armor and locked up in a dungeon and then getting rescued by Robin Hood is pretty weird."
"I'm just glad that guy let us go," Robin added. "Why would he do that?"
He looked at George, but she just shrugged. "I have no idea about anything. I suspect Nancy might, though."
"I - I don't know, either," Nancy replied, still trying to process everything that had just happened. "It could be part of their game, I guess. They seem to like doing things that make absolutely no sense. Which this doesn't, because I thought their whole plan was to use George as bait so they could capture me and get revenge on my dad." She sighed. "I don't know."
The sun was just rising over the eastern horizon when Nancy reached the town of Baker. There was a lot on her mind right now. There was relief, of course, at finding George and all of them escaping unharmed. Even so, she couldn't help the uneasy feeling that someone – probably Dan Moriare, from the look of things – was playing with her, like a cat with a mouse, letting her think she might escape but all the while having her in their claws. She shuddered. She didn't like feeling helpless and uncertain.
Then, in addition to that, there was the problem of what to do about Robin. Nancy hadn't fully trusted him until now. It was all over, and he hadn't done anything to endanger them or to help Moriare. In fact, he had even drawn a weapon on Moriare and had been prepared to defend them. More than that, Nancy knew she wouldn't have found George so easily – and possibly not at all – if it hadn't been for Robin. She owed him a debt; there was no doubt about that. But he was a thief, and Nancy was a detective.
Robin had evidently been wondering things along the same lines. He shifted uncomfortably in his seat and cleared his throat. "Now that our adventure is over, uh, would it be the same to you if I went on my way?"
Nancy bit her lip, trying to decide. After another moment's deliberation, she pulled over to the side of the street. "I owe you one, Robin. I'll let you go this time. But don't make me regret it."
"I don't see how I could," Robin replied. "You won't hear from me again. But thank you, Nancy. And good luck. I hope you'll figure out what's going on a put a stop to it." Without another word, he got out of the car and disappeared into an alleyway.
"Do you think we really won't hear from him again?" George asked, watching him go. "If we don't, I'm probably going to die of curiosity wondering who he is."
Nancy smiled a little. "If you do that, rescuing you would have been a waste of time." She yawned. "I have a feeling that he's the sort who can't go for very long without being heard of, at least, even if he's not heard from. But right now, I'm not going to worry about that. I'm going to go back to the hotel and get a few hours' worth of sleep. I'll think about what I'm going to do next about this crazy case after that."
George also yawned. "You don't happen to have a spare bed in that hotel, do you? 'Cause I could really do with sleeping on a real mattress myself for a change."