But thinking of Vera made Beck think of her body crumpled on the ground, and the blood and—
He spun around, trying to focus on the task before them. His eyes fell on a large fireplace. “A sword!” he cried, rushing to grab it off hooks above the mantel. Not sharp, but the blade was heavy enough that it could do damage.
“Good idea,” said Adi. “We should arm ourselves.”
“I thought we were trying to solve the puzzles?” said Carter, who had started inspecting a locked curio cabinet with leaded glass doors.
“Arm ourselves while solving puzzles,” he clarified.
Carter took in a shuddering breath. “Okay. We need a key for the gate, and this cabinet has a four-letter alphabet code. There are goblets and wine casks inside.”
“There are spaces for the goblets on these place settings, once we can access them,” said Beck, approaching the table with its long black cloth and high-backed chairs. “And there’s a box here. Locked.” He inspected the place settings, checking each platter.
“These books are real,” said Adi, his voice laced with awe as he pulled a leather-bound tome off one of the shelves. “My god, I think they’re actuallyold, too. Hold on, this one is by itself. Could be important?” He reached for a book on an otherwise-empty shelf. As soon as he grabbed it, a piece of paper slipped from the pages and fell to the floor. He held it up to the light. “It has some numbers written in the top corner and tiny holes poked in random places. I think I need to overlay it on a page.”
“Orpages,” Carter suggested. “Try putting it over the pages in that book that correspond to those numbers. Maybe it’ll reveal a message.”
“Right. Yeah. Obviously. Sorry, my mind isn’t running on full power right now.”
While Adi flipped through the book, Beck lifted the final plate on the dining table. “Aha!” he said, scooping up a piece of yellowed parchment. “I found something!” He scanned the paper. “It looks like a guest list.”
Nikolai Drakon
A-
Morgana Dracule?ti
O+
