Read Online Kendra Kandlestar and the Door to Unger by Lee Edward Födi - Free Book Online Page B

silver key from under his armpit. This he inserted into a small slot in the step just ahead of him. He turned the key with a click and then lifted up the step to reveal another set of stairs, leading even further down.
    This time they took the steps all the way to bottom, where they ended in a small round chamber. There were eight doors in the room. Without a moment’s hesitation, Crumpit went to the door that was second from their left and produced a small rusted key from behind his ear.

     

    “There are so many doors in this place,” Kendra told Uncle Griffinskitch, as the key master fiddled with the lock. “Maybe one of them is the Door to Unger.”
    “It’s unlikely, Kendra,” Uncle Griffinskitch murmured. “But perhaps this King Reginaldo will be able to shed some light on the mystery.”
    “If we ever get to him,” Kendra remarked. “This place seems to be bursting with tricks.”
    “Indeed,” Professor Bumblebean agreed. “I do say, Mr. Crumpit, are you not worried that we will remember this secret set of doors into the land of Umbor? You haven’t even blindfolded us!”
    “Ya won’t remember it at all,” Crumpit replied, finally opening the door and leading them through to the passage beyond. “It’s a long way, and it takes a lifetime fer a Key Master to remember everything along the way. And one wrong turn can mean disaster.”
    “What do you mean?” Kendra asked.
    “Well, fer example, if we took the wrong door back that way we would have ended up in a nest of skerpents,” Crumpit explained, pausing to return his key to its rightful place on his body. “And those ones aren’t friendly like our little Pooky-Wooens.”
    “Oh, dear,” Oki murmured. “I’d sure hate to meet a big Pooky-Wooens.”
    “It’s no account anyway,” Crumpit muttered. “I doubt much you’ll be comin’ back this way.”
    “And what do you mean by that, Crumpit?” Uncle Griffinskitch asked.
    “Eh? What’s that?” the Dwarf asked. “Oh, nothin’. Now, c’mon, we’re just gettin’ started.”
    With this remark, the strange fellow continued on his way, leading the small company through the network of caverns and unlocking doors with his collection of keys. This activity continued for several hours. Sometimes the doors were plain to see, and sometimes they were hidden. Some were in the floor, some were in the ceiling, and some were so tiny that the Dwarf had to crawl through on all fours (though Kendra and her friends were so small compared to Crumpit that they could just walk through normally). Once they had to cross a lake of bubbling lava on a narrow bridge of rock. Halfway across, Crumpit stopped, inserted a key into the bridge deck, and a large bucket was lowered down on a chain from the ceiling. They all climbed in and were pulled up to the next series of caverns. Kendra could only imagine what would have happened if one were to cross the length of the rock bridge. She guessed that it might collapse when you were almost to the other side; or maybe a terrible creature was waiting to attack any unsuspecting intruder.
    In any case, Kendra realized that Crumpit was right; there was no way she could remember all the twists and turns that led to the Kingdom of Umbor. Without him to guide them, they would never find their way into—or out of—the land of Dwarves.
    The trip seemed to stretch on for hour upon hour. Kendra had been so used to sitting in the boat that it was quite a bit of exercise to suddenly use her legs through such a set of stairs and tunnels, and she could tell by the grunts and groans from the rest of the party that they felt much the same, save for Jinx, who rarely seemed to tire. Kendra kept hoping that each door would mean the end of their journey, but still the strange Key Master continued on, opening door after door with his assortment of keys.
    “How many doors do you think we’ve gone through?” Oki asked Kendra after a time.
    “I’ve lost count, to tell the truth,”