Page 85 of Knight Moves

“They look really familiar,” Wally mused. He stood at the edge, his hand on his chin, staring at the letters as if they would magically speak.

“The only thing I know from Greek isThe IliadorThe Odyssey,” Hala offered. “But I barely remember what happened.”

“There was Euripides,” Kira suggested. “Didn’t he write several significant plays in Greek?”

“Guys, you’re overthinking,” Wally said. “These are just letters. Symbols.” He turned to me suddenly and snapped his fingers. “Symbols! That’s it. It’s the periodic table of elements.”

“What? The periodic table?” I repeated confused, staring at the blocks. “The last time I checked, there were no Greek letters in the periodic table.”

“Regardless, that’s what this is, Angel.” Wally’s voice was excited. “Look at the pattern of the blocks. They match exactly to that of the periodic table of elements…except they’re messed up.”

“Really messed up,” I agreed.

“No, Wally’s right,” Mike said. “Those letters on the cells could be the two-letter element designations.”

“But what’s with the Greek letters?” I asked in exasperation.

Wally looked at me, his eyes distant, which meant he was in deep thinking mode. “Well, there’s a Greek equivalent to the English alphabet, you know. Maybe the Greek letter is being substituted for the English one, just to make this more challenging. In fact, that makes sense if you look at that top left block. It saysHand the Greek letter epsilon.”

“Um, what’s an epsilon?” Frankie asked. “Chemistry isn’t my thing.”

Wally pointed toward a funny-looking E. “Essentially it’s the Greek equivalent to anE. It’s the fifth letter of the Greek alphabet. In this case, if you translate, HE, it equals helium.”

I could feel my own excitement growing, but something still wasn’t right. “That works, but it’s in the wrong place on the periodic table, guys. Helium should be in the top right, and it’s in the top left on this one.”

Wally nodded. “I know. Somehow the table is jumbled. Maybe that means we have to jump across the blocks in order to match the periodic table.”

“That would be impossible,” Mike argued. “Those blocks are way too far apart. I mean, if we were to go in order, helium and hydrogen would be the two elements we’d have to jump on first, and they’re the farthest away from us. None of us could jump that far.”

“He’s right,” I said.

“Well, maybe we need to do it backward,” Kira offered. “You know, start with the last element and get off at the first, which would be hydrogen.”

“Still won’t work,” I said. “The door we need to go through is in front of helium, not hydrogen.”

Frustrated, we stared at the blocks. I couldn’t even bear to look at the timer as valuable time slipped away. It felt like the answer was staring us in the face, but none of us could see it.

“Wait,” Wally finally said. “We agree the elements are mixed up, but take a closer look. At least the elements are still in the same rows they’re supposed to be in. That has to mean something.”

“True,” Mike said. “Theyarein the correct rows. Way to be observant, Wally.”

“Thanks. But what does it mean?”

I wished I could contribute something, but I was coming up blank. My anxiety heightened.

“Not to be the bearer of bad news, but tick tock, everyone,” Jax said.

I tried not to be annoyed at him and everyone else that the pressure was just on Mike, Wally, and me to figure it out. I guess since we were the experts in chemistry, it was only fair, but still.

“Okay,” I finally said, thinking aloud. “Let’s look at what we know. We think this is the periodic table of elements. The elements are mixed up but are in the correct rows. We know we have to cross the blocks using some kind of pattern that has to do with the elements. Jax tried it randomly, and it didn’t work. They can’t expect us to pull a pattern out of thin air. So that means therehasto be a clue somewhere in this room to help us determine that pattern.”

Frankie raised her hand, pointing it at the wall. “My bet is the clue has to do with the royalty painted on the wall. Other than the Greek designations on the blocks, that seems to be the only other obvious sign.”

My focus snapped back to the wall with the paintings. Frankie was right. The clue had to be on the wall.

“So what does that painting signify?” I mused aloud. “Kings, queens, knights? Where’s the clue in that?”

We all studied the mural as if the answer would magically come to us.

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