Arthur Otley and the Order of the Arthropods

191
The dungeon door
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As the other Hedgehog House students file off into the corridor on their way to Hedgehog House tower you and Kensley quietly tip-toe away to one side, making no more noise than little mice. After two or three turns of the passageway the hubbub of the other students has faded away to nothing.

"Where do we go now?" asks Kensley, her voice shaking a little with the audacity of what you have done.

You look around trying to get your bearings. You realise that the school is absolutely huge. There must be hundreds of corridors, archways, passageways and staircases. How will you even find the way to the dungeons?

But just at that moment you notice five spiders walking along the floor, lined up one after the other. How curious, you think, what are those little fellows up to? You and Kensley start to follow them along the corridor.

They turn left, right, right again, then left before disappearing under a door.

You look up. Above the door is a sign scrawled in thick black letters: DUNGEONS.

"I think this is the door to the Dungeons!" you whisper to Kensley, afraid to speak too loud in the silence. With a trembling hand you reach out to turn the great brass doorknob and open the door. But it doesn't budge, and as you pull on the doorknob the edge of the door glows golden.

"Look!" says Kensley to you quietly, "The door is locked with an enchantment. That means it will only open when you say the magic password."

Before you have time to speculate what the magic password might be, you hear the tramp of many feet coming towards you from around a corner. It must be a group of students on their way to their house tower! Before you have time to hide, they turn the corner and spot you.

"Arthur and Kensley isn't it? How did you two get here? Well never mind: join the line, we are all going to Hedgehog Tower now" To your surprise you are addressed by one of the older Hedgehog House students. You must have somehow taken a hidden shortcut when following the spiders.

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1. You hang your head and slip back into the line with the rest of the students. ~ Go to number 89