Luke Swan and the Laistrynians: The Flood

Chapter 19

~Every Dark Room has a Silver~

~Riddle~

I landed on the battlements of the fortress.

When I first saw the view, I thought, Wow, what a beautiful night, but then I saw the doomsday orb of water and figured that, without any sun, it could be day or night in Selegonia.

But I didn't dwell on it...

"Luke, I just realised something that may be very important. Where are you?" Zyra asked urgently in my head.

"On the roof," I said.

"And that's exactly it. I thought there were only two gaps between our reality and the next, but... Well, maybe it's best to tell you later."

"You're such a procrastinator," I complained.

"You're such a big--"

"Okay, shut up. I can hear someone behind me."

"You have to be kid--"

I blocked my mind off from Zyra and ducked inside a turret. I could hear fervent voices speaking in a strange language. I held my breath, praying they wouldn't come closer. I heard their footsteps die away and exhaled slowly. Looking around, I saw no one. But I did see a way down into the fortress.

I have to be more careful, I thought. I can't get caught this time.

The staircase seemed to spiral down forever. The windows had no glass and were medieval-style slits, for archers to shoot through in an attack, but an attack from what? The Laistrynians? Me?

I also noticed that the staircase spiralled in such a way so that if a right-handed assaulter came up the stairs, they would have to switch their weapon to their left hand to defend from attacks from above, but coming down gave me plenty of space to swing my sword.

Wait... My sword?

Somehow, my beautiful silver and gold sword had materialised when I had appeared in Selegonia without me realising. I felt better with a weapon in my hand, even if I barely knew how to use it. It was almost as of it was part of me, connected to my spirit. No... It must have been connected to Swanicaa's spirit.

I reached the bottom of the stairwell to a sight that I was not happy to see.

The room was circular, and black like the rest of the fortress. Spaced a foot apart, closed doorways led to unknown places. I counted twenty doors.

Just my luck that I'd be stuck in the centre of the fortress with no lead. I rolled my eyes in exasperation, and saw that the ceiling was a giant mirror. And it was reflecting something very interesting...

On the black marble floor, something was written in silver lettering. Why hadn't I noticed it before? It read:

Halve me one way:

My half is the sum of my two digits

Added together.

Halve me a different way, horizontally:

These two halves added together equal

Twenty

The distance between one of these

Halves and my whole

Is my second figure.

You will have found the correct door

With my discovery.

A feeling of dread rose inside me. I don't do great with riddles. The only thing I could think of was, Well, at least it's a math riddle.

I skimmed through a few possibilities in my head. Halve me one way... Did that mean divide by two, or, somehow, "vertically", since it said to halve "horizontally down lower? I couldn't think of any logical solutions, and even though I knew I would be humiliated if I asked, tentatively in my mind I said, "Zyra?"

"Well, it's about time!" Zyra said exasperatedly. "You blocked me out forever! What's happening?"

"I'm stuck with, uh, a riddle."

"Ha! I knew you'd need my help eventually! Serves you right for pushing me away!"

"I didn't--"

"You thought you'd be okay on your own, didn't you? But of course, you will always need some help from the great and powerful--"

"Zyra!" I said, getting irritated.

"Yes, Luke, that is my name. You do not need to finish my sentences."

"No, I didn't mean... Never mind. So can you help me or not?"

She huffed indignantly. "Of course I can help you! Read it out to me."

I told her the riddle. Almost immediately she said, "That's easy! It's eighteen."

"What?"

"Half of eighteen is nine. One and eight, the two digits of eighteen, equals nine. When you split eighteen across, each of the halves is a ten. Added together they make twenty. The distance--"

"Okay, I'll take your word for it. But how did you get the answer so fast?"

"It is one I made up myself, and I told it to Selenos a long time ago. It seems he has stolen it from me and taken all the credit."

"You told him the riddle?"

"Never mind that. Find door eighteen!"

The doors each had little silver numbers ranging from one to twenty etched into the dark wood. I walked over to the door with the number eighteen. My hand hovered over the handle.

How did I know this wasn't a trick? How did I know this would really lead me to where I really wanted to be? I could be walking into a trap. Maybe u had chosen the only UNsafe door.

But a voice told me otherwise: "It's safe. I have been through here before."

Swanicaa's voice.

I went through the door.