Exciti

Chapter 37 (Liam)

Liam and Adam stood at the back of one of Marolo's storage rooms, watching Lucy follow Marolo from one box to the next. She showered him with questions about his collection, hovering around his head like a hummingbird while he searched through each box and came up empty-handed and unsatisfied.

Liam was starting to get bored and sleepy. He knew that he shouldn't have pigged out on Marolo's cookies like that, his sugar rush was turning into a sugar crash. But there was nothing else to do while he waited for Marolo to finish asking Adam what must've been a thousand questions to, "find out how his mind works," and the cookies were so good.

"How long did it take you to gather such a massive collection?" Lucy's head almost bumped against Marolo's when he came up from a box with a rattle. Adam looked alarmed.

"My whole life," he mumbled in answer before he gave a, "Tut," then put the rattle back and moved to the next box, making Adam's chest move in a sigh of relief.

"Is it true that your collection...."

Liam looked away from Marolo's search and Lucy's interrogation to look at Adam. His color was back, and it seemed this interest in finding a toy had distracted him from the awful trip in. He was about to ask him about the kind of toy he hoped to get when Marolo straightened up quickly from one of the boxes, holding a wooden cube half as big as Liam's head. "Aha!"

He then came over to where they stood, followed by Lucy, and showed them the toy. Up close, the cube had delicate Chinese characters engraved in red all over the polished Mahogany. Delicate lines showed where multiple irregular pieces joined-in together to form a three-dimensional cube-shaped puzzle.

The Warden pulled a piece of the puzzle out then slid it back into place, showing them the cube. "This is one of the oldest toys in my collection. It is called a Burr puzzle now, but it has many older names. It will make a handy weapon, with limitless potential," He avoided meeting Adam's gaze, "Once you overcome its particular problem."

He extended his hand to Adam, "It is a perfect toy for you."

Adam reached to take the puzzle then peered at Marolo with a wary expression. "What's its 'particular' problem, exactly?"

Marolo shrugged, "It doesn't seem to want to play."

"Pardon?" Lucy looked as puzzled as Liam felt.

Marolo's mask pursed its lips as he folded his arms and leaned in to examine it, "The puzzle was owned by a series of young royal princes of the Chinese court. I suspect it came into each child's possession just as they reached the age when adults start saying things like 'stop playing and grow up.'" He stroked its surface, "The poor toy seems to have taken such comments to heart."

He grinned at Adam's unconvinced expression, "Think of it as one of your mechanical contraptions and things will work out just fine."

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Marolo refused to take any money for the cube and sent the three of them on their way with the excuse of having to do all the work himself, "I just can't find any reliable help nowadays! Just a year ago, a tracker lost an entire load of newly bought first circle Exciti. He dropped them into the Waters Below and didn't even bother to retrieve them, saying the Waters made him uncomfortable...uncomfortable! Then the Board fined me for littering. Can you believe it?"

Liam suspected that the tall story was just a way to send Lucy, and her enthusiasm, away. The warden looked like he was developing a headache, even without a visible head.

Lucy told the boys to wait for her in a spot a block away from the Warden's house while she went to get them a gondola.

"Why won't she let us go with her?" Liam signed.