Page 32 of No Escape

We started to wander around, but I decided to focus on the sundial. Its gnomon was an angled bar of metal similar to the smaller sundial I’d already come across. The sundial was marked around the edges in Roman numerals like the other sundial had been.

What did it mean? What was I missing?

I caught movement out of the corner of my eye and saw Oscar moving around the sundial, apparently counting the small stones that circled it. Before I could ask him what he was doing, my dad shouted at me from the fountain.

“Lexi, come quick! We’ve found another clue.”

Chapter Eighteen

Lexi Carmichael

I dashed over to the fountain with Oscar, Tito, and Mia hot on my heels. “What is it?”

“This,” he said, pointing to the back side of the woman’s feet. There were tiny numbers etched there.

I squinted and saw the number 1150. The number was in the shadow of the statue and was hard to see unless you had a sharp eye. “Good catch, Dad.”

“It wasn’t me,” he said. “You can thank your mother.”

Well, well. Mom had certainly stepped up her game on this challenge. “Thanks, Mom.” She beamed, and I realized with a jolt of surprise she was really enjoying herself.

“You’re welcome, but I have no idea as to the significance of the number. That’s your job, sweetheart.”

“Did you say 1150?” Oscar mused. “That number seems odd to me.”

“It’s even,” Mia pointed out.

“That isn’t what I meant.”

They bickered good-naturedly, but my brain was racing furiously. “Why is 1150 in Arabic numerals?” I asked. “Every other number in this garden has been in Roman numerals.”

“Roman or Arabic, the clock ticks on,” Oscar said. “We have eleven minutes left.”

Panic bubbled up, but I forced it down to concentrate. The answer had to be right here in front of me. “That number must relate to the sundial, but how?” I left the fountain and returned to the sundial to study it.

Tito, Oscar, and my dad came up behind me, staring at the sundial, all of us hoping the solution would somehow present itself.

“I don’t know if it helps, Lexi, but I counted 216 stones surrounding the sundial,” Oscar said. “That means nothing to me, but Romeo tells me you’re quite good at math, so I thought I’d throw it out there.”

Numbers. He was right. That was my strength. I quickly did the math and determined that if there were 216 stones surrounding the sundial, that would equal about six stones per hour for each of the hours of daylight on the sundial.

“Six stones per hour, or one every ten minutes,” I mused aloud.

“That’s it!” my dad suddenly yelled almost giving me a heart attack. “It’s time, Lexi. The 1150 refers to a time—11:50.”

My mouth dropped open as I suddenly understood. I raced to the rocks positioned on the arc between the XI and XII. I eyeballed which one most likely represented 11:50 and bent down to pull it up. It didn’t budge.

“This has to be it!” I exclaimed in frustration. I desperately tried to pull up the stones on either side just in case my math was off, which I knew it wasn’t. Still, no luck. Nothing budged.

“What are you doing, Lexi?” Tito asked, clearly confused. I glanced up and saw everyone was looking at me as if I’d completely lost it.

“The one-one-five-oh is time, and it’s telling us which of the stones to look under,” I explained. “It should be where the disc is hidden.” I pointed to the stone I had originally tried to lift. “That’s the spot for 11:50, but the stone won’t budge.”

“Let me give it a try,” Tito said, bending over. He tugged at it for a minute and abruptly stopped and started laughing.

“What’s so funny?” I asked.

“It’s funny because we’re trying too hard.” To my astonishment, he pushed down on the stone and, with a flick of his wrist, popped it open. Reaching into a hollow cavity, he lifted out a golden disc with the number 509 engraved on the top.

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