‘Good luck,’ he says with a light smirk.
‘Thanks,’ Elliot replies.
As we turn away to leave, the barman speaks again. ‘Out of interest, whose drumstick is that? What band, I mean?’
‘Queen Ego,’ Elliot and I reply in unison.
His eyes light up as he booms with laughter, tapping the bar with delight. ‘Of course it is. Well, Godspeed. Hopefully you’ll have a winner by Christmas.’
Elliot rolls his eyes and raises a hand in goodbye. ‘Cheers.’
‘Thank you!’ I call again as Elliot pulls me away.
‘We got it!’ I hiss, raising the clue above my head in victory. His hand flies to it and pushes it down gently.
‘You might not want to advertise that, princess,’ he murmurs as he looks pointedly at my fellow Queen Ego fans still looking for clues. A collection of them send fierce glares in our direction.
‘Yikes,’ I whisper, picking up the pace as we exit the tent.
Elliot pulls out his phone to inform the group of our success as we leave Mirrorball behind us. The greater the distance we can make from it, and its inhabitants, the better.
‘That seemed almost too easy?’ My voice is light and slightly breathy from the adrenaline still rushing through me.
‘For now… we’ve got five clues to go. What does the clue say?’ he asks as he types. I look at the small, tidy script on the paper.
Whatever direction,
East, North, or West,
Look out for a sign of me, the one I like best
I begin to frantically loop the keywords over and over again in my mind, thinking about any potential lyrics they could be linked to. But my mind goes blank.
‘Must be The Lakes,’ Elliot says with confidence, referring to one of the areas we haven’t seen yet.
‘What? Why?’ I demand.
‘What’s that song… “Ready Now”, I think? There’s that lyric… “you’ll find me at my favourite spot, the lake in my hometown… the one you forgot,”’ he says, shooting me a look that dares me to disagree.
A small but unmistakable feeling of resentment worms inside me that he reached the solution before me. And his answer definitely checks out.
‘Impressive work,’ I admit. ‘Maybeyou’reQueen Ego’s biggest fan now?’
‘I don’t believe I ever said that.’ He raises his hand in defence. ‘I wouldn’t dare,’ he adds quietly.
‘How far are The Lakes from here? We could just go straight there and meet the others,’ I suggest, keen to make a move and stay ahead of the competition now that I’ve seen it.
‘Sounds good, let’s get moving.’
We leave the Light Teller’s area in tandem, our pace quicker than earlier. The crowds have started to build up slightly, and I can’t deny that walking bound together with Elliot is a huge comfort as we navigate our way around swarms of people.
My arm brushes against his countless times as I instinctually lean toward him for security. He leads the way for both of us without hesitation, patiently pausing every now and then when I need it so I can breathe in greedy lungfuls of air.
We follow this pattern soundlessly, and I make a small note to myself to thank him later.
15
The Lakes is a quieter area of Firecrest, dedicated to arts and crafts, right on the edge of the site. We walk past a large platform that has been erected to hold a stained glass window workshop. A dozen small arched windows circle the edge of the platform, eager faces sitting in the centre carefully placing colourful shards into their frames.
