Innovator: Adventure by Association the Everternia Saga Page 3

  “You okay?” he asked.

  She blinked a few more times, wondering how he’d gone from the fountain to right in front of her without her seeing it. “I’m five.”

  “Did you say five?” he asked.

  “No. Fine. I’m fine.” She forced her tongue to the back of her teeth to make then n sound.

  “You spaced out there for a few minutes. What were you doing?”

  A few minutes? He’d just started up the fountain a few seconds ago. “Just thinking,” she said.

  “All right, well…I guess you were thinking really hard. Did you hear me about the maze?”

  She shook her head slowly.

  “There are three other fountains, and from what I could see, they’re about the same distance from one another. So I think the maze is symmetrical or something.”

  “That’s all?” She’d hoped for more information. From the sound of it, the maze was larger than she’d thought. The bigger it was, the tougher it would be to solve.

  “What, was I supposed to see the way out? No can do, wagon wheel, since the fountain wasn’t that high.”

  Wagon wheel was not one of his better endearments.

  She looked down at her notepad, frowning. After sketching the fountain in at the center, she added faint curving lines that showed what Rex had described.

  “Like this?” She showed him the drawing.

  He bent slightly, peering at it. “Yeah, pretty much, so far as I could tell.”

  She tapped her pencil against the paper, thinking. “Okay.”

  They needed more to work with. They needed to fill the map in. Not all the way, but enough to find the pattern.

  She turned and started walking.

  “Hang on, isn’t that the way we came in?” Rex looked from the passageway she was moving toward, then glanced at the other three possible choices. “Or maybe not…it’s easy to get turned around when things are symmetrical…”

  “It’s the same way,” Sally said, not pausing. When Rex caught up to her, she said, “To go forward, we need to go back.”

  “Ah yes, that makes perfect sense and is not at all a paradox.”

  Sally carefully repeated the word, stringing together the three syllables. “Paradox. Paradox. Hmm, good word. I like it.”

  “Yeah, it’s all right, but you know what would be better?”

  She raised her eyebrows at him inquiringly.

  “Getting through this maze and actually getting into the manor.”

  She smiled. “We’re working on it.”

  He followed her back to where they started, then she followed their original path until the first choice of three paths. Instead of going straight, she went left, and began a second sketch of the maze as they walked.

  At the next two intersections, she chose the left path, drawing their choices in along the way. When they got to the fourth choice of paths, she put her pad and pencil on the ground and said, “Lift me up.”

  “Lift you what?” He looked at her like she’d just asked him for a mud sandwich.

  She pointed toward the sky.

  Understanding dawned and he nodded. “Ahh, you want to see if you can peep the fountain from here?”

  She nodded.

  “All right, then. Alley-oop!” He braced his legs, put his hands on her waist, and hoisted her up to his shoulder.

  Tilting her head back, Sally scanned the horizon for a peek of the fountain. Unfortunately, she didn’t have quite enough height to see clearly over the top of the hedges.

  Hang on. She had an idea. Flipping her goggles down from their customary spot on her head, she switched to the green lenses that showed power flow. Since they were among cobblestones and thorny hedges, the only power signatures should come either from items she and Rex carried or…

  “Aha!” She spotted a small power source through the hedges. It had to be the fountain.

  “Can I put you down now?” Rex asked hopefully.

  “One minute.” She shifted to the orange lenses that showed distance and measurement, then marked the distance between them and the power source on the map, then patted him on the head.

  “Down.”

  He put her neatly on the ground, looking mildly irked.

  She hurriedly filled in more of her sketch, then nodded in satisfaction. “Okay.”

  “Let me guess,” he said. “We go back to the beginning and take all the right turns now.”

  She smiled. “Yes.”

  “All right. Let’s do it.”

  Once again, they backtracked to the beginning, then took the other path options. Once again, Rex hoisted her up so she could get their bearings relative to the fountain. While she had her orange lenses on, she gazed out toward the maze, making some additional notes on her map.

  She put together all the information she had, and smiled.

  “You know how to solve it?” Rex asked hopefully.

  “Not sure. I have an idea to try.” If it didn’t work, then they’d have more information to test out a new idea.

  This time, they went to the right side of the maze. It appeared to be a symmetrical duplicate of the left side, which confirmed Sally’s suspicions. Backtracking once more, they made three lefts in a row, then four rights, then straight three times.

  “Are we lost?” Rex asked. “I feel like we’re lost. All of this looks the same. Haven’t I seen that branch before?” He frowned at a shrub.

  “No,” Sally assured him. “It’s new.”

  She hoped it was true.

  The third straight path did look like everything else. But then it did something different. It started to lean to the right rather than being perfectly straight. The curve quickly grew more extreme, and they suddenly stepped out into a grassy courtyard.

  Rex let out a whoop of victory. “We made it! How did you know which way to go?”

  “The fountain. Three cubes, four spheres, three triangles. Three turns one way, four another, and then three the last. Based on the shape of the maze, I thought right side, three left, four right, three straight. Or left side, three right, four left, three straight.”

  He followed her train of thought. “But couldn’t it have meant straight twice and then left once, straight three times and then one…” he trailed off. “Whatever came after that. I’m getting confused.”

  “It could have been that,” she agreed. “I picked something to try that seemed most likely.”

  “All right, nice job.” He held his fist up and she bumped it with hers. “Now the manor.”

  She hesitated. Now that they’d gotten close enough to see the place, Sally wasn’t sure it was a good place to go poking around. It was a grand, three-floored manor, complete with ornate gargoyles as downspouts and mechanically louvered shutters—all of which were closed, giving the mansion a foreboding appearance.

  Actually… Sally turned her head to look behind them, then returned her gaze to the manor. Yes, it was darker around the house, as if twilight had fallen, even though the sun shone brightly everywhere else.

  It was unnatural, and didn’t follow the laws of science. It gave Sally a bad feeling, and she was reminded that she had no godsends, and that neither she nor Jin knew what would happen if she were to die.

  And she had learned that death was common on quests.

  Rex started toward the manor, then paused when she didn’t follow. “What’s up?”

  She looked from him to the house, trying to find words to express her uneasiness.

  “Scared?” he asked. He sounded sympathetic, his tone gentle instead of the teasing note she’d expected.

  His understanding loosened her up a little, and she nodded. “A little…it’s strange.”

  “Yeah, it is. Places like this are designed to give you that bad feeling in the pit of your stomach. It scares off the looky-loos.”

  “You feel it too?” she asked.

  “Sure, it’s a creepy place. But it’s just a feeling. It’s okay to feel that way. It just lets you know to be careful.”

  He came closer and put a hand on her shoulder. “You can stay out here if you want. You don’t have to go in.”

  She hadn’t come all this way to sit outside and not do the quest, though. She wanted to do new things, and maybe sometimes new things were scary, and maybe that was okay.

  Rex grinned. “You want to go, don’t you?”

  She bit her lip and nodded.

  He put a brotherly arm around her shoulders. “If there are any monsters, I’ll jump into their mouths, and while they’re chewing on me, you can run away. Okay?”

  The image of that happening was wonderfully silly, and it made her laugh. Her nervousness eased, though it didn’t go away.

  “Okay,” she agreed. “Let’s go.”

  3

  After climbing up four steps, Sally stood on the porch of Myrtle Manor. Frowning, she looked down at her foot and bounced experimentally.

  Rex followed her gaze. “What, loose board?”

  Sally shook her head. Quite the opposite. She’d expected the manor to be falling into disrepair, but the wooden planks hadn’t given a single squeak. “You said no one’s here, right?”

  “Yeah, everyone says it’s abandoned. Why?”

  “It doesn’t seem…abanded.” Nope, she missed that one. “A-band-unned,” she said.

  She hadn’t said it perfectly, but she’d done better the second time.

  If Rex noticed her difficulty with the word, he didn’t let on. “What, you think people are here?”

  She tried to peer in through one of the large picture windows, but it was dark inside and she couldn’t see anything. “I don’t know.”

  “We’ll watch out, okay? You stay just a step behind me. If anything comes flying at us, it’ll hit me instead of you.”

 
She frowned. She didn’t want her friend to get hurt in her place.

  He patted her arm and smiled. “Don’t worry. I have lots of experience at getting hit. Even if I do, it’ll be fine.”

  “Yeah?” She peeked at him for reassurance. For some reason, she felt like if he said it, it was true. He tended to be more blunt with her than Essley and Darthrok were, so she always felt like she was getting the unvarnished truth.

  “Yeah, we got this, gadget girl.”

  “Ooh.” She brightened.

  “What?”

  “I like that one.” She nodded approvingly.

  “Gadget girl?” He laughed. “Okay, I’ll remember that one. Now let’s go before some fools show up and beat us to the treasure.”

  “You think there’s treasure here?”

  He shrugged. “There’s something. Quests always have some kind of reward. Otherwise they wouldn’t be worth doing.”

  She’d argue with that because she’d have solved the hedge maze just for fun, but this wasn’t the time to explain the finer points of life to him.

  “Okay.” She sidled up to the door. “Do we knock?”

  “Nah, seems like a bad idea,” he said. “If there is someone in there to answer, do we really want them knowing that we plan to get in there and poke around?”

  It was a good point. She positioned herself behind him, steeled her nerves, and said, “Okay, let’s do it.”

  Casually, as if he lived there, he twisted the door handle and pushed the door inward. He was so cool. If she’d done it, she would have done it all cautious and nervous-like.

  Following on his heels, she found herself in a large entryway with a soaring ceiling and a grand staircase. A huge chandelier hung overhead, but no light came from it.

  Black-and-white checkerboard tiles gleamed under her feet, even in the low light. She looked for a switch plate to activate the lights, then supposed that even if there was one, it might be best not to use it. There was no telling if this place had guards or warrior maids or something.

  She rather liked the idea of warrior maids. They could duel with mops, and outshine each other by polishing silver. Or…

  Rex moved toward a large set of open double doors, and she shook herself out of her reverie. She could think about battle maids later. She should pay attention to her surroundings right now.

  She stuck to Rex’s heels, just like he’d said. In her haste, she clipped the back of one of his feet with the toe of her boot, making him stumble slightly. He cast an exasperated look at her over his shoulder.

  She smiled and shrugged, and his exasperation changed to a smile. He winked at her.

  Her eye caught on the sword he held. She hadn’t even realized he’d pulled it. When had that happened? He was smooth.

  Sally received a notification from her store that a customer had tried the door, but it was locked. Hm. She thought Essley was going to be at the store until evening, but maybe something had come up.

  There was nothing she could do about it now. After they’d finished here, she’d go straight back to Pivot to tend the store.

  They entered a gaming room. A billiards table stood prominently in the middle, a triangular configuration of balls sitting, poised for a fresh game.

  She hitched her thumb at the table. “You know how?”

  He followed her gesture with his eyes. “Not really. Played once, and was so bad I never played again. You?”

  She shook her head.

  “Let’s hope that’s not the thing we need to do here, then,” he said, moving through the room.

  A dart board hung on the far wall, and decks of cards lay as if a game had been abandoned before its conclusion.

  She dragged two fingers across one of the tables, then looked at her fingertips.

  No dust. She saw no cobwebs anywhere, either. She’d expected to see both. What kind of haunted house didn’t have dust and cobwebs? They were part of the mystique.

  Maybe this wasn’t a haunted house. Or maybe her expectations had simply been off-base. Why would her impressions of a thing she’d never even seen accurately represent the thing itself?

  It was silly, now that she thought of it. In fact, if she ever had an idea match up to the reality it represented, then surely that would be the aberration.

  “Hey!” Rex hissed. He stood several paces ahead of her.

  She blinked. “What?”

  “Why aren’t you following me?”

  “Sorry,” she called softly. “I was thinking.”

  “Think later,” he said when she caught up. “We have things to do.”

  It was true. They did.

  She doubled down on herself, determined to stay focused.

  Having found nothing noteworthy in the gaming room, they moved on, entering a dining room.

  “Man,” Rex said under his breath.

  The room had no windows, so it was darker than the other rooms they’d seen. Even so, she could make out a massive table that would seat thirty people, and a two-story fireplace.

  Rummaging in her backpack, she pulled out a torchlamp. She squeezed it several times, causing the internal components to whir and generate electricity. The torchlamp lit, creating a beam of light that cut through the dimness.

  “Could have gotten that out earlier, sister,” Rex muttered.

  “It wasn’t this dark before.” She shone the beam around, tracking it over the table, the massive, carved-stone fireplace that looked like it had been sitting cold for days, and across the floor.

  Like the game room, nothing here seemed compelling. Should they keep looking in here or move on?

  Without asking her, Rex crossed the room and peered through another doorway. “Kitchen.”

  He then went to the doorway on the opposite side from where they’d entered the dining room. It opened out into a long hallway with a green and cream tiled mosaic floor.

  “Look.” Sally pointed the torchlamp at a portrait that hung on the wall. A man wore an impeccable suit with wide, pointed lapels and a pocket watch dangling from a tidy little breast pocket. He also wore a tall top hat and an amusing piece of eyewear. “He’s wearing a monocle.”

  She smiled at the portrait and the outdated fashion. Next to Mr. Monocle’s portrait was one of a lady who sat so straight and rigid that she must have been very concerned with looking proper.

  “You think they were married?” she asked Rex, who stood over her shoulder. The two people seemed close in age, and the clothing suggested that they lived in the same time period.

  “Dunno.” He sounded bored. “Let’s keep going.”

  Sally wanted to look at the portraits some more, but he was probably right. These photos weren’t likely to be helpful to them.

  She listened but heard nothing but the ticking of what sounded like a grandfather clock and the soft hum of a steam boiler. “I don’t think there’s anyone here.”

  He switched from his quiet voice to a more natural volume. “Yeah, I think you’re right. That’s good.”

  “Is it?”

  “Sure. I didn’t want to have to fight some mega maid or a brigand butler. You know, the kind of weird villain that tends to spawn in places like this.”

  Sally stared at him mutely. Sometimes she just didn’t have any words for his nonsense. He liked teasing her and telling “tall tales” as he called them, but sometimes he seemed to mean the strange things he said, too. It was probably related to him being from Reallife. The more she heard of the place, the more certain she was that she didn’t want to visit.

  He pointed to a flight of stairs. “Let’s see what’s on the second story.”

  She nodded and followed him up a short flight, trailing her hand along a smooth, highly polished banister. A landing led to another set of stairs and they continued onward. This way to the second floor was not nearly as grand as the curving staircase in the foyer, and was probably meant for everyday use.

  She tried to imagine having a home with so much space. Ridiculous, unless she had about twenty people living with her.

  That would be fun!

  But since she didn’t have twenty people to live with, all she really needed was a place to relax and store her stuff. She didn’t really have that at the moment. She needed to see about updating her store for her current needs. But that was just one thing among many that she wanted to do, and she had a hard time prioritizing such things.

  Now on the second floor, Rex warily approached a doorway and pushed open an ornate door. He poked his head inside, then the rest of him followed.