Jade Amulet And The Leer Of Evil

Chapter Twenty-one: The Right Answer

'I suggest we should take the diamond and run' sidharth said tapping his foot against the floor excitedly
'and what would you do with it?' aditya said his eyebrows raised 'even if we steal it, which is quite dangerous in itself, I don't think we'll be able to sell it anywhere!'
sidharth flushed 'well..'
'we can hand it over to our government, I think we'll still get at least 10% of it' rajveer suggested. 'and as far I can remember this was our first mission! to do a discovery to be famous and all, I mean when we didn't know about mantrik'
'yeah maybe but..' Aditya started to protest
'but this is not right?' Rajveer cut in 'this is not what we are here for?' 
'well yeah!' Aditya said imprudently. he certainly didn't had a argument prepared for this, which was quite a new experience for Rajveer since Aditya hardly ran out of arguments.
'rajveer I think he's right' pakhi told him 'maybe this is our test. we shouldn't be greedy'
rajveer wasn't sure if this would be their test, yeah a part of it maybe but not whole, but he nodded anyways. 'I know I was just.. sharing my thoughts'
then he sighed, calming himself.
'I think we should first focus on our primary goal, getting the amulet, after that we'll talk about the diamond' rajveer said gathering all the authority in his voice he could gather 'we have to deal with this Mantrik, if we backed off, he would find someone else and we knew what happened with those boys vishal and sanjay. Since we get this far, I have a feeling we are the only ones who can get it, anyone else will die trying. we can't be distracted, we don't know how much at steak but still I don't think this money worth even a single life. pakhi is right we can not let our greed win' he said all that in a burst but now after saying all that rajveer was feeling as if he was laying, laying to himself. just a moment ago he was thinking the opposite, he wanted to take the diamond and flee and now he was pretending as if there was no one with better morality than him. but then this is the thing, we all feel greed, selfishness, its build in our nature. we think about ourselves before anyone else but it's the decisions what matters and he knows he made a right one.
everyone nodded, their postures relaxed, Rajveer could guess that his friends too were facing the same kind of mishmash of emotions. however now with Rajveer's vote of confidence their sense of morality finally defeated their acquisitiveness.
'okay then we should work on the riddle now' aditya said again started to recite the riddle 'stone altered state reveals the gate, okay we got a stone which cannot be it's altered state so it's not the answer. then we have sand, which are many altered stones but riddle says only stone, singular, so it's not the answer either. then finally we have a diamond which is basically a stone but so much heated and conpressed that it become crystalized. well, this was easy. diamond will open the gate'
'should I go and place it then?' sidharth asked
'NO' rajveer replied 'what about the rest of it?'
'well there isn't much in rest' Aditya replied 'only one key you may choose, that means one of the objects which we chosen, a diamond, then life in error means if we choose wrong we can die.'
'because of what we should not hurry' rajveer chided
'come on, I didn't told him' Aditya protested 'I am thinking the same thing, this is too easy to be right'
'and the last line?' rajveer asked determined to be more couscous this time, he didn't want to repeat his mistakes again. only he knows how much afraid he was when pakhi disappeared. he didn't want to lose her again, he didn't want to lose any of his friends, he pressed pakhi's hand, she replied in the same gesture.
'hold strong or forever will it close, aa.. perhaps once it opens we have to keep it open or it will be closed forever' Aditya speculated
'well, look at the size of it' sidharth said nervously 'if it wants to close I doubt we'll be able to stop it'
'fair point' rajveer nodded 'but still Aditya are you sure this riddle can not mean something else?'
'I am quite sure its diamond unless you count the door as a  key itself, it's too an altered state of stone'
and it clicked
'no it's not diamond' rajveer said smiling slightly, he stepped towards the door
'what do you mean?' aditya asked bewildered
'wait a minute' he continued toward the door. passing the objects. he reached the door, crouched and tried to feel any gap under it but find none. disappointed a bit he stood up and started searching the wall on the right side, for anything odd. he was reaching the end of the room now, again feeling disappointment. he was pretty confident about it, alas he was wrong perhaps. he turned from the corner to go back thinking whether or not he should even be bother to check the other side. he caught his friends sight and felt himself squirming under their gaze, he tried to give them an apologetic smile but before he could, he stumbled upon something. but why would he stumble? the ground inside the room was perfectly plain. he looked back to see the reason and was compelled to give some of his characteristics short laughs. he knelt down and started cleaning the dust from a ditch close to the wall, his friends came over. inside the ditch was a small slab sprouting out of the wall.
'Aditya go and check on the other side' he said looking up at him.
Aditya nodded and ran immediately, followed by elina.
'there is one like that' he announced excitedly after a minute.
'clear the dust but don't pick it now' rajveer instructed
'pick it up?' Aditya asked looking aghast 'it can not be picked up'
'it will' rajveer said with absolute surety 'if not, why are they here?'
'it can not, there are half dozen other tiles over this tile..'
'it will be, look closer' Rajveer smiled broadly he had just noticed the difference, there was only one tile, similar to the door just less wide and designed to look like half dozen tiles piled one upon another.
'what?....' Aditya asked baffled
but then he looked at the wall and traced his finger in the linings, he gaped for a minute then said 'how did you find it?'
'pity' Rajveer laughed 'you kept brainstorming and I solved the puzzle. "hmm.. one key you may choose"' Rajveer mimed Aditya still laughing 'it's only one tile like the door just disguised to look as many'
'hahaha,' Aditya grimaced. 'but how did you find it?'