The Wardrobe (But No Lion or Witch As Yet)

"What is Manathus playing at?" Fred grumbled. "He says that he wants us to find some potion for him, yet how can we do that if we can't even get out of this bedroom? I'd had an idea about what that message that was puzzling him might be referring to, as well. 'Where the knight moves to capture the castle, there shall the potion be found.' That sounds to me like a reference to a game of chess. 'Castle' is another name for 'rook'. Out in the Palace grounds there is a chessboard made out of black and white tiles, with stone pieces. On fine summer evenings, people would often use it. Perhaps the potion is hidden underneath one of the tiles."

"But which one? After all, a knight could capture a rook on any square. I suppose that one could remove all sixty-four tiles, but that would seem to make the clue rather pointlessly precise. Besides, surely Manathus would already have thought of that? Anyway, if we can't get out of this room, perhaps we can at least get something better to wear. Let us see what is in that wardrobe."

She flung open the wardrobe door - and gasped in surprise.

1. The wardrobe was empty of clothes, but at the back of it was a door.
2. Not only did it contain clothes, but there was also a door at the rear.
3. Not because it had a door in its back wall, since that was initially hidden from them by all the clothes hanging in it. No, it was the strangeness of those clothes that had made her gasp.

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