The Secret of Spellshadow Manor 5 by Bella Forrest (best biographies to read TXT) 📗

glass orb. No such clue appeared, the stone plinth devoid of anything useful.

“In the study of physics, and it has been many years since I’ve studied such ordinary sciences, vibration is often a good means of shattering glass,” Lintz said, having walked around the glass globe for a tenth time.

Alex looked at the professor with excitement. “Vibrations! Of course! If we put our powers to use on both sides of the glass, we might be able to shatter it.” He thought back to his high school physics classes, the teacher explaining how it was possible for an opera singer to break a champagne glass with only their voice.

“Shall we?” Lintz grinned.

Alex nodded enthusiastically, approaching one side of the orb, while Lintz approached the opposite side. They stood, facing each other, and rested their palms on the cold glass. Taking a deep breath, Alex wove his anti-magic through the glass, letting it flow within the molecular structure of the orb. He felt his energy touch that of Lintz’s, and held his anti-magic back from it until the globe was alight—half gold and white, half black and silver.

“Ready?” Alex asked.

Lintz beamed. “Let’s science this thing into submission!”

Alex vibrated the molecules within the glass, feeling the pressure build. It pushed harder and harder, the anti-magic expanding the very fabric of the orb until, with one triumphant crack of breaking glass, the globe shattered, water surging over the edge of the plinth like a waterfall, cascading to the floor. Now that it was drained, the golden letter lay in the center. Alex plucked it out, careful not to touch the jagged edges of the broken glass.

“Good job, Webber,” said Lintz.

“Good job, Professor,” he countered, with a small smile. There were undoubtedly more mini-challenges ahead; it wasn’t yet the time for patting each other on the back.

Clutching the letter tightly, Alex and Lintz carried on through the labyrinth, peering nervously around corners, in case there was anything unpleasant lurking in the tunnels beyond. As they walked, they kept their eyes peeled for whatever might come next. It turned out to be a riddle, etched on the wall.

“What comes once in a minute, twice in a moment, but never in a thousand years?” Alex read aloud, his eyes glancing over the pattern of alphabet letters that had been pressed into the stone.

“Easy!” cried Lintz. “This one was around when I was a child!”

Alex frowned. “You know the answer?”

“Yes, it’s the letter ‘M’—get it?”

“I’ll have to remember that one.” Even though he knew the professor must be right, Alex felt a shiver of trepidation as Lintz approached the board of alphabet letters and pressed down hard on the letter “M.” As it was pushed inwards, the letter “Y” popped out of the board and fell to the ground. Alex picked it up.

As they carried on, Alex’s mind turned to Ellabell and Aamir. Were they collecting letters too? How far along were they in the labyrinth? He glanced over at Lintz and saw his own worry reflected back at him in the professor’s expression.

They hurried onwards, having to turn back a few times after taking the wrong fork in the road and coming to a dead end. The labyrinth had low visibility, lit only by the flicker of torches and the glow of some unknown substance lurking in the walls, and Alex and Lintz kept missing entrances in the stone that were shrouded by shadow.

Eventually, after a lot of missed turns, a burst of inspiration seared into his mind—the forced image of a small statue with a tangle of vines above, camouflaging a letter hidden in the wall, zinging into his brain, vivid and unexpected. Knowing what it meant, he insisted they go back.

“It’s this way. I know it is,” he promised.

“How do you know?” asked Lintz, his tone dubious.

Alex shrugged. “I can’t explain it. I just feel like we missed something.”

Lintz said nothing else, seeming to go along with the plan, as Alex led the way. At a small statue, Alex paused, and looked up to find the intertwined curtain of dark green vines that he had seen in his mind’s eye. Delving into the thorny weeds, the barbed points scratching his forearms, he found what he was looking for, buried within the center. With a great heave, he tugged the letter free of the wall and removed it from the spiny bushel.

Lintz eyed him curiously. “How did you know that was there?”

“I just… knew,” he replied. To try and explain that Elias was somehow in his brain, without yet having confirmation of the fact, wasn’t a conversation he felt like having at that particular moment. It was still something he was trying to come to terms with.

In his hand, he held the letter “H,” though it meant little to him. Together, they had the letters “P,” “Y,” and “H,” but he couldn’t picture the word they might make.

“Any idea what it means?” Alex asked.

Lintz shook his head. “Afraid not, dear boy, though I have been wracking my brains a good long while. I’m sure it will come to us, with a few more clues.”

“Let’s hope so,” said Alex, decidedly less optimistic.

With the three letters gathered, they headed back through the tunnels, treading carefully. Alex was still convinced there were going to be traps set around every corner, but so far, they had come across none. Much of the labyrinth looked the same, and so it came as quite a surprise when they abruptly found themselves at the end of it, arriving at a door with six blank squares on the wall beside it. Above the squares were the words “The Goddess of Lost Souls.” Sticking out of the wall beneath the squares was a demonic head, sculpted from pure silver, its savage mouth agape. It reminded Alex of a guardian to the gates of Hell, ready to snap its jaws at anyone unworthy. Wasn’t that what Hadrian had said? Only the truly worthy would be able to attain the prize. He could only pray he’d done