Touch of Fear ▸ House of Anubis [2]

chapter twenty-seven. house of pendulums

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As the pendulums swing back and forth in front of and behind Patricia, Sibuna watches with wide eyes. Where did those even come from?! Another booby trap?! How are we ever going to make it to the Mask of Anubis if Frobisher-Smythe set traps like this in every tunnel?

"Okay, turn around, Patricia," Nina tells her carefully. "Don't move, just turn around."

"Turning around involves moving, Nina," I remind her a little too forcefully, eyes darting between Patricia and the pendulums. This is going to be way difficult.

"Yeah, Nina, make sense," Patricia adds, sounding freaked out. She starts to take tiny little baby steps to turn around and face us. Okay, she's made it that far.

"Go now," Alfie advises.

"I can't go now."

"Okay, just—one, two, and then go," I add, trying to help her past.

"Anyone who does not have a pendulum swinging in front of their face, shut up," Patricia tells us sharply. I shut my mouth immediately, watching with bated breath. She waits for the next one, one of two shaped like a sun, to pass and then steps forward. Then she does the same with the next one, this one of two shaped like a moon, which is the last one before she makes it back to us, because the other two are behind her now. When it passes, she rushes forward and joins us on the safe side.

Amber remarks as I throw my arm around Trixie, thankful she made it past safely, "You made that look so easy. Honest." Then she adds to Alfie, rather loudly, "I actually thought she might die."

"Uh, Amber, she can hear you," I remind her.

Fabian looks at the swinging pendulums and says certainly, "We can learn this. It's just like a song."

"What? A song?"

Patricia throws him an incredulous glance. "Uh, it's not like a song. It's like a chopping board."

"No, it's got its own rhythm," explains Fabian. Uh...the most I know about music is the few things I retained from music class growing up. Which is, like, nothing. I don't even think I have rhythm...? "So think of each pendulum as a chord."

"Uh, Fabian, I think you forget we're not all as musically inclined as you are," I say.

"Oh, uh, so say, the sun's A and C and the moon's B and D," he elaborates, which makes far more sense to me. I can work with that. A and C and B and D.

"Yeah, it's like pendulum hip-hop, man," Alfie adds before starting to beatbox.

Amber rolls her eyes. "Oh, here we go."