Escape From Riddler's Pass (9 page)

Within me there is life and hope,

far from the fish and fin.

My walls of stone are strong and thick,

but see no battle din.

I do not keep out friend or foe,
but keep my contents in.

“A prison,” Rae said immediately. “It keeps something in.”

“True,” Jesse acknowledged, “but what about the first part?”

Rae shrugged. All of them had been in a prison, back in Da'armos, and Jesse knew it was not the place to go to find life and hope.

“No, no,” Silas said, staring at the riddle. “I wonder….”

“And aren't fish and fin the same thing?” Jesse interrupted. “Why did they need to repeat it?”

Silas nodded. “‘Far from the fish and fin'—far from the river, perhaps. And the life and hope of the river…water. But what about the walls?”

“So a prison with no water,” Rae suggested. “Maybe the moat around it is dry.”

Jesse shook his head at her, the last detail of the riddle falling into place. “Think about it,” he said. “Something made of stone that keeps in water.”

“A well,” Rae said, finally understanding.

“Yes,” Jesse agreed. “A well.”

“Only one more,” Silas said, sounding satisfied. He paced toward the stone pillars and glanced back impatiently. “Let's finish these so we can go on.”

Jesse shrugged and read the third riddle.

I am the weaker brother.

When I am new, I'm not.

My reign in half divided.

The dark is what I got.

“It talks about a reign,” Rae mused. “A king of some kind?”

Jesse glanced over at Silas. This time, he was not staring at the rock with a distant, thoughtful expression. Instead, he was grinning like a fool. “Not a king,” Silas corrected, “a governor.”

“A governor?” Jesse asked. He knew, of course, that each of the four districts in Amarias was ruled under a governor, a regent of the king. But that alone did not make sense of the riddle. “Explain.”

“Only someone who lives in District Two would understand it,” Silas said. “That's why it's perfect for a riddle guarding the District Two Rebellion base. No outsider would be able to solve it.”

Jesse glanced at Rae, who seemed to be equally exasperated. “I wouldn't call that an explanation, Silas,” she said.

“Governor Patrice,” Silas said. “Eight years ago, he tried to take over the throne from his brother. He succeeded, but only reigned for two years before he was assassinated.”

“I see,” Rae said. “And what does that have to do with the riddle?”

“Patrice was weaker than his brother Mirad,” Silas explained patiently. “When he was born—new—he was not king. His reign was divided by the rebels who assassinated him. And darkness, death, was what he got.”

“That does make sense,” Rae admitted.

Does it really?
“But then why doesn't it say, ‘When I was new, I wasn't,' instead of ‘When I am new, I'm not?'” Jesse pointed out.

Rae looked at him like his mind was made of rock. “Because it wouldn't rhyme.”

“Oh.” Jesse looked at the riddle again. “But what about ‘my reign in half divided'? Did Patrice intend on ruling only—four years?”

“Maybe he was cut in half!” Rae guessed.

Jesse tried not to picture that and Silas shook his head. “No. As I recall, he was stabbed by the governor who is ruling now, Elias.” He turned to Jesse. “It's just an expression, anyway. It means his reign was cut short.”

Jesse sighed. He traced the letters of the riddle with his finger. “I don't know….”

“Just because you didn't solve this one doesn't mean you have to find problems with Silas' solution,” Rae said.

“That's not what I meant!” Jesse protested.

“Never mind,” Silas interrupted. “We have more important things to worry about. Come on.” He gestured toward the gaping hole beside the wall of riddles. Jesse stared down it.
More tunnels
. “They must lead to the Rebellion headquarters.” He and Rae began to walk into the darkness with only the Rebellion stone to light their way.

“But what was the purpose of the riddles?” Jesse asked, trying to catch up.

“The main rhyme says, ‘The key for entrance is the mind,'” Silas said. “Maybe the riddles are a password of some sort.” He touched the dagger, in a sheath at his side. “Whatever happens, I will be ready.”

 

Jesse remembered when the only time he was surrounded by darkness was at night, right before he went to sleep.
Was that only a month ago
? It seemed like it had been years. Now, entering a dark tunnel lit by eerie glowing stones actually seemed normal.

“When we find Parvel and get out of here,” Jesse muttered, “I never want to go underground again.”

“Don't be so afraid,” Silas scoffed. “We haven't seen a guard or any sign of danger.”

“That's what makes me nervous,” Jesse said. “If this is the stronghold of the cunning, powerful Rebellion you always talk about, why isn't it guarded?”

“Maybe the traps Noa spoke of are enough to guard it,” Rae offered. She began to walk a bit slower, glancing down at the ground. “We should be careful.”

Yes, the traps
. That was another problem. “I have a feeling these tunnels were designed so only those of the Rebellion, who know of the traps, will be able to survive.”

Usually, it would have been Silas who thought of that, who would have insisted on going no further until they were sure of what they would find.
But not now, not when he is so driven by revenge he ignores common sense.

Sure enough, Silas only reacted to his comment with a shrug. “The Patrol member Noa told us about survived, didn't he?”

Silas must have missed the point of the story
. As Jesse remembered it, the guard had been driven mad, raving about all kinds of terrors.

Jesse stepped forward, next to Rae. “Can't you say something to him?” he whispered to her. “Maybe he'll listen to you.” She just looked at him blankly, her face even paler than normal in the light of the glowing stones. “Don't you agree that this is foolish?”

Rae paused, tucking a strand of black hair behind her ear. “Maybe,” she said at last. “But we have to find Parvel. This seems like it's the only way to do that.” She looked up at Silas, who had not stopped with them. “And I doubt anything either of us say will be able to convince Silas. He's beyond that now.”

As he walked deeper into the tunnel, Jesse decided he now knew what it must feel like to be a donkey, bucking against the pull of a rope that would take him where he did not want to go.
But it's my choice
, he reminded himself.
I could turn back
.

And go back alone, leaving my friends behind
. Jesse sighed and kept walking.
Maybe I don't have a choice after all.

They had only walked into the tunnel a few paces when the path in front of them split in two.

Jesse asked the question they were all thinking. “Which way?”

Rae walked between the two archways. She bit her lip and turned around. “The one on the left looks deeper. I can't see very far, but it looks like the right leads to a dead end.”

“Let me see.” Silas squinted down both tunnels. “We'll take the left then.”

Without waiting for agreement, he plunged through the left archway. Rae followed, hand on her dagger and eyes darting back.

Jesse pulled back, still not convinced. There were no cries of alarm from the archway on the left.

“There's a walkway covered with straw,” Rae's voice echoed back to him. “This must be it!”

Jesse glanced again at the archways. The few glowing stones nearby did not provide enough light to see down either tunnel. One of the stones, placed above the right archway, the one Silas had not chosen, caught Jesse's eye.

“Come on, Jesse.” Silas' voice, from the tunnel on the left.

Something's carved in it
, he thought, taking a step forward toward the stone above the right archway.

It was a heart.

Jesse's own heart began to beat faster as he realized their mistake. “Silas!” he shouted, whirling around toward the other passageway. “Come back! We have to….”

But his words were cut off with two nearly identical sounds: a deep shout and a piercing scream.
Silas and Rae!

In the second it took Jesse to run through the archway, he saw Silas, breathing hard, lying on a ledge. Seeing the blackness, Jesse felt sick.
Where is Rae?

“Help!” her voice cried. Jesse leaned over the side of the drop-off to see Rae, her hands clawing at an outcropping and her legs dangling into a black abyss. She was just out of reach.

“The rope,” Silas shouted at Jesse. “Get the rope!”

His fingers shook as he undid Silas' pack, trying to dig through their supplies. “Here!”

Jesse passed it to Silas, who dropped it to Rae, bracing himself to pull her up. For a second, she just stared at it. Jesse knew what she must be thinking.
How can she risk letting go?

Then Rae's hand slipped slightly. With a sharp gasp, she let go of the rock ledge with her right hand and gripped the rope. Her left hand followed, and she clung to the rope, her eyes tightly closed.

Silas began to pull, the muscles on his lean frame stretching as he brought the rope up, knot by knot. As soon as Rae's shoulders appeared, Jesse knelt to help her up. She scrambled onto the rock, moving as far from the edge as possible.

As his heart returned to its normal pace, Jesse stared out at the gorge. All that was left of the straw was a pile at the bottom of the cliff. Dimly, Jesse could see the glinting metal of spikes buried in the ground.

“I think,” Rae said at last, a slight tremble giving away the fear in her voice, “we picked the wrong way.”

“They spread the straw over a cloth,” Silas said, shaking his head. “It couldn't hold our weight.” He shuddered, looking down at the spikes. “I had only taken one step. Any farther, and I wouldn't have been able to jump to safety.”

“We can't do this,” Rae said. “Who knows how many more tunnels there will be? We'll die before we reach the headquarters.”

“Not necessarily,” Jesse said. In the dark, he knew they could not see him smile, but he did anyway. “What if I told you I know a way to choose the correct tunnel every time?”

“I would be interested,” Silas said, eying him carefully. “Skeptical, but interested.”

Jesse led them back into the tunnel, then turned so he was facing the two archways. “See?” he said, pointing to the glowing stone above the second path. “A heart.”

“Just like in the riddle,” Rae said. She stepped closer and fingered its rough curve.

Now Jesse could see several symbols, each one carved into a glowing stone set above both archways. “‘Symbols of your destiny,'” he quoted. “The riddles mark which passage we should take.”

Silas studied the archway. “But there are other symbols above this one besides a heart,” he said. “A fish, a bow, a bird. Why are they there?”

Jesse shrugged. “To confuse people, I guess. Or maybe they're important for some other reason. But I don't think it's a coincidence that the right path happens to be marked with the symbol of the first riddle.”

Sure enough, when the path split again, Rae found the symbol they were looking for, again on the right. “Here,” she said, pointing to a stone at eye level in the archway. Three rows of three small circles, stacked on top of each other.
The stones of a well
.

The first few steps into the new tunnel were the hardest, even though Jesse was sure his theory was right.
No pits of snakes, raging beasts, or pots of boiling oil so far.

“Pots of boiling oil?” Rae questioned, turning back to him.

Jesse felt his face turn red as he realized he had been muttering to himself. “Well, it's possible,” he said, defensively. Rae just laughed and continued into the dark tunnel.

Finally, the tunnel curved, then split again. Two more archways. They spread out and examined the symbols around the tunnels.

“What exactly are we looking for?” Jesse asked, running his hands over the designs carved into the rocks by the left tunnel. “Did Governor Patrice have a symbol?”

“Not that I know of,” Silas said. “Just look for something that symbolizes royalty or leadership.” A pause. “Like this!”

Rae and Jesse joined him, as he pointed to a diamond symbol near the ground. “You see? Diamonds are a symbol of royalty.”

“But all of the others had a picture of the actual answer to the riddle,” Jesse pointed out. “How do we know this is the right symbol?” He paused. “More importantly, what will happen if it isn't?”

“You're thinking too hard,” Silas said dismissively. “It has to be the diamond.”

Jesse took a deep breath. “No,” he said, grabbing Silas by the shoulder. “It's not right.”

“How do you know?” Silas asked impatiently, pulling away.

“It doesn't feel right,” Jesse said lamely, unable to find a better explanation.

“Well, you and your feelings can be wrong, you know,” Silas shot back. “What do you want us to do: sit here and stare at the two tunnels all day?”

“Silas,” Rae scolded, “he's only trying to help. And I think he may be right.”

“Fine,” Silas said, folding his arms. “Then what are we going to do?”

“Well,” Rae said, looking at the other archway, “do any of these symbols fit the riddle? What was it again?”

Jesse sat down in front of the left tunnel. “I am the weaker brother,” he recited wearily. “When I am new, I'm not. My reign in half divided. The dark is what I got.”

The darkness. What could you divide and have half be darkness?

Then Jesse thought of it.
Day and night.
“It's day and night,” he said.

“That's not a symbol either,” Silas pointed out.

“No, not the answer to the riddle,” Jesse said, shaking his head. “Just part of it.” He ran through the rhyme again in his mind. “The moon,” he said. “It has to be the moon! The sun and moon are brothers….”

“…and the moon is weaker,” Rae finished, nodding. “And you can't see a new moon, so when it's new, it's like it isn't there at all.”

“Right,” Jesse said, “and the moon reigns in the darkness—half of a full day.”

Rae pointed to a carving in the left archway. It was a simple circle. “Look, a full moon.” From where he was seated, it was at Jesse's eye level—
right in front of me!

“It makes sense,” Silas admitted. “But what if the answer really is Governor Patrice? Or what if the circle doesn't represent a full moon at all?”

For a moment, Jesse paused, staring into the dark to consider Silas' words. Then he noticed something: a thin wire stretched a few steps inside the diamond tunnel.
I never would have seen it if I hadn't been looking for something
. “Stand back,” he said, pushing Rae and Silas aside. Then, staying clear of the entrance, he edged his staff toward the wire.

As soon as the staff touched the wire, Jesse heard a sharp clicking noise. Five arrows shot out of the dark with blurring speed, bouncing off the far wall and clattering to the ground.

Silas stepped forward, his dagger drawn. “Show yourself,” he demanded of the attackers in the cave.

Jesse commanded himself not to laugh. “Silas, the arrows were just a trap. Probably crossbows rigged to fire when someone tightened the wire by stepping on it.”

Rae shivered, staring at the fallen arrows. “You mean that would have been us?” Jesse nodded, and she turned to the remaining passageway. “I think I'll choose Jesse and the moon.”

Silas grunted, but led the way into the left tunnel. “This was the last riddle,” Jesse reminded them in a whisper. “We should reach the entrance to the hideout soon.”

The doubts and misgivings Jesse had felt at the entrance of the cave grew until they were like voices shouting in his head. “Maybe we should send one person in as a scout,” he suggested. By now he knew he wouldn't convince Silas to turn back, so he tried the next best option. “The person we send can come back with news of the rebels' weaknesses. Then we'd know how to plan an attack.”

Rae disagreed with him. “No,” she said firmly. “We stay together.”

“We die together, you mean,” Jesse shot back, wanting to get in the last word. What were the chances they could get inside the headquarters, find Parvel, and escape alive? Jesse wasn't sure, but he knew they couldn't be good.

“The tunnel ends up ahead,” Rae said, pointing to a stack of boulders that blocked any further passage.
Maybe there's nothing here after all
. As uneasy as Jesse had been about storming the Rebellion's fortress, even he felt disappointed at the dead end.

“Halt,” a harsh voice commanded.

Silas reached to his side to grip his dagger, but found nothing there.

“There,” Rae said, pointing to the rock formation in front of them.

Buried deep in the shadows was a wooden door.
There must be some kind of hole for a guard to look out of.
The voice came again. “State your business.”