Ouch. Low blow, you old hag.
“Well, I sure hope you have a better outfit before you go to your little concert that’s more important than people’s existence.”
She looks down and back up at me through the scarf, and for a moment her eyes glow the same orange as the staff. I take a step back, uncertain of what to do if I just royally screwed up and pissed off the one chance we had at winning. But, instead of casting some crazy spell and burning me into ash, Nexus clears her throat and turns away from me.
She taps her staff and words seem to crawl out from the staff to form on the cave wall. Cool, it’s like some underground celestial PowerPoint. Her voice echoes, thick and deep. It sounds almost melodic.
“You, Sailor Monroe of New York, will be given three tasks to complete. Do so, and you will be deemed worthy.”
The words scramble and I stare, fascinated. I mean, I’ve never watched magic like this that wasn’t complete CGI. It’s probably the coolest thing I’ve seen yet. The letters form into words I recognize: First, a task of the mind.
“For your first task, I will give you…” Nexus pauses and I stare at her, hoping she will hurry up and stop with the theatrics already. “A riddle. Solve it, and it’s on to task two for you.”
“You are some immortal entity, who has the power to drag my butt down through some secretly squirreled tunnel through the many layers of our Earth, and you are going to start these Hunger Games with a riddle?”
May the odds be ever in my favor, because if this is the help I’m getting, I need something in my damn favor.
Nexus doesn’t respond. She doesn’t even move. She steps forward, close enough that I can smell her. A musky vanilla scent with the very sharp smell of moss and wet dirt.
“Yes. That is exactly how we are going to start your trials, smart ass.”
“Okay.”
“I can only live where there is light, but I die if the light shines on me. What am I?”
Nexus moves back a pace and I sigh in relief. Her close proximity didn’t do wonders for my nerves.
“Lives in light, but dies if the light touches it,” I mumble over and over.
Nexus stands all statuesque and I can just feel her smug smile under that scarf. She taps the staff on the floor and the light grows a little brighter, but she’s made a very big mistake in doing so.
“A shadow,” I finally say with a cocky grin, confident I am right.
Nexus takes a quick intake of air, clearly surprised. When she tapped her magic pole, I saw a shadow grow behind her on the wall and then die when the light dimmed. She doesn’t even know she gave me the answer.
“Now your turn,” Nexus states.
“Wait, what?”
“Oh yes, to move on you need to stump me. But let me warn you, it won’t be easy.”
“I thought if I got the answer right, we could move on to the next task?”
“That is only one part of this first task, dear.”
I curse under my breath and think about it for a second. I finally come up with the perfect one. Last year, at my old school, Ms. Keegan taught us a slew of riddles and stumpers. There was one that has stuck with me since, even more so after my mom’s death.
“She has a heartbeat but she’s not alive.
“She’s drowning but stays dry.
“She’s here but always gone. What is she?”
Nexus twiddles those knobby fingers around her staff and shifts her weight again, alternating sides. Must be painful on the joints living for eternity. Every few minutes she lifts a hand away from the staff, then switches back with the opposite hand. I take a seat as this looks like it might be a while. After I hear a few long sighs and agitated growls, Nexus comes over to my spot and props one hand on a hip.
“Fine. You win this round. What is she?”
“Aw, giving up so soon?”
I can pretty much hear her teeth grinding behind that silky mask. I know I shouldn’t taunt her—she might keep trying and guess the answer, but I have to have my fun somehow.
“Yes,” Nexus practically snarls.
“She’s depressed.”
Nexus puts one hand to her heart and looks to the side, not saying anything. I am not sure if I have just blown her mind or made the old bag feel something for the first time this millennium, but she sure does seem to be thinking hard on this one.
“Very well, task two.”
She taps her staff and the words on the wall re-scramble to read: Test her strength.
I want to ask her what that means, but the crack of her staff has me covering my ears again. Seriously, the amplification of this cave is deafening. Nexus has moved like some magician with a bunny in their hat to the corner, at least fifteen feet from where she stood two seconds before. I’m fairly certain she teleported. And, where she once stood? Well, honestly, I don’t even know what the hell I am looking at.
“Uh, Nexus, what exactly is that?”
I am pointing with my right hand but realize my left hand is suddenly weighted. Looking down, I have a curved dagger in my hand. Glowing orange symbols rest across its blade. The creature growls, but Nexus still hasn’t told me what I am looking at or what it is I am supposed to do.
“Nexus, please stop,” I start.
I am interrupted as the wind is knocked from me. Now on my back, the thing has me pinned to the ground. It looks like a werewolf and a bear-moose had a baby. Yes, a were-bear-moose. Sounds crazy, but seriously, that’s what it looks like.
It has yellow eyes, and it’s dripping slobber from its mouth full of razor-sharp teeth. The legs on this thing are brutal, and cloven, but the most terrifying aspect
