Page 84 of Knight Moves

“That’s all the time we have left to finish,” I said.

“What’s that?” Hala asked. She pointed beneath the timer where several medieval characters had been painted on the wall, seemingly moving in procession toward the door. It looked like a king and queen, a couple of princes and princesses, a few lords, and some knights on horses.

“What the heck?” Jax muttered.

“We’ll figure it out,” I said, stepping up onto the platform. Kira joined me on a horizontal white-painted area just big enough to fit eight of us if we stood side by side. The others came up slowly and took their places.

When everyone was up, we studied the platform’s surface. It was comprised of rows of large square blocks arranged in columns and rows that went to the very edge of the platform. Each block had letters and a red-lighted line around it. Some of the letters were Greek, and others were English. Some blocks had only one letter, but most appeared to have two. The platform wasn’t rectangular, as its last three rows were missing some cells in the middle, but it ran all the way up to the door surrounded by the painted medieval figures. Above the door was the countdown timer.

“What in the heck?” Mike knelt to get a better look at one of the blocks. “Are we supposed to step on them to get to the door?”

“I don’t see any other way, do you?” Kira asked.

“I don’t.”

“Okay, so we’re in agreement that the challenge is to step on the blocks to get across the platform to the next door,” Jax said. “It can’t be as simple as running across.”

Bo leaned over and examined a block. “The blocks look slightly raised. I think if we step on them, they will sink and something will happen.”

“Probably turn red and the person standing on it would get a penalty,” Hala offered. “Remember Mr. Donovan said whoever steps on something red is clocked five minutes of time and has to go back to where they were before they touched it.”

Frankie giggled and we all turned to look at her. “What’s so funny?” I asked.

“I’m thinking this looks a lot like the Indiana Jones movie where if you step on the wrong square you get shot with a poison arrow, your head is sliced off, or you fall into a snake pit below.”

We stared at her in astonishment before Wally said, “She’s right. We have to figure out which blocks we can safely step on or suffer consequence, like Hala suggested.”

“Well, we’d better hurry,” Kira said. “Time is ticking.”

She was right. We’d already wasted five minutes just talking about it. In fact, a part of me couldn’t help but wonder how much of our tasks were designed to make us waste time so we couldn’t finish. My eyes met Jax’s, and it was like he knew exactly what I was thinking.

“We have to rule out that this isn’t just a puzzle designed to mess with our heads.” Jax said. “We need to test the hypothesis that we can’t just walk across.”

“Dude, they aren’t going to all this trouble just to mess with our minds,” Mike said and then looked doubtful. “Right?”

“I think we should be cautious,” Bo said. “Try to figure it out first.”

“No, Jax is right,” I said quietly. “Time is our enemy. We have to eliminate that possibility.”

“But which one of us would risk it?” Kira asked. “What if we’re disqualified?”

“No one will be disqualified,” I said. “Mr. Donovan specifically mentioned a five-minute penalty, but not a disqualification. It’s a legitimate move.”

Wally looked around. “So, who among us would volunteer for a possible five-minute penalty?”

I stepped forward. “I will.”

“Too late, Red.” Jax stepped onto a block in the first row with the Greek letter kappa on it.

While we watched, the cell sank slightly and started flashing red. Jax jumped back off as a voice came over a loudspeaker.

“Five-minute penalty to Mr. Drummond.”

“Why did you do that?” I asked Jax. “I was going to do it.”

“My idea. My risk.” He swept out a hand. “I just confirmed our hypothesis that we must deduce a pattern to cross.”

“There has to be a clue in those letters on the squares,” Hala said. “Why are some in English and some in Greek?”

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