What is the place
That calms your mind,
It subdues your anger,
And makes you shine.”
The Scavenger pulled out a piece of paper. “Also, once you solve the riddle, you will find the mark in the place mentioned in this paper. And don’t worry, there will be no more tests after this,” he chuckled.
James had already figured out the riddle. “It’s a library,” he exclaimed. “I have never heard such an easy riddle before!”
The Scavenger was pleased and said with a smile, “Wow!
That was quick!”
He handed the children the piece of paper that had alphabets written in a random order:
H-T-N-E-V-E-S-F-L-E-H-S-H-T-N-E-V-E-S-W-O-R-H-T-N-E-V-E-S-K-O-O-B-H-T-N-E-V-E-S-R-E-T-P-A-H-C-H-T-N-E-V-E-S-E-G-A-P-H-T-N-E-V-E-S-E-C-N-E-T-N-E-S-H-T-N-E-V-E-S-E-N-I-L-H-T-N-E-V-E-S-D-R- O-W
Daniel, Archer and Matt couldn’t make head or tail of the note, but once again, James’s brain surprised them all.
“I know what this is,” said James. “Seventh shelf, seventh row, the seventh book, seventh chapter, seventh page, seventh sentence, seventh line, seventh word. Just reverse the words and you will find what I found.”
Matt nodded. “Wow. It’s correct. Let’s make our way to the library!”
On reaching the library, James rushed to the seventh shelf, labelled ‘Old Books’. The books were filled with dust. It seemed no one was interested in reading them.
James counted the seventh row and moved his fingers to the seventh book. He opened it and flipped to the seventh chapter, then to the seventh page. He moved to the seventh sentence of the seventh line, then the seventh word.
Everyone waited with bated breath, but nothing happened.
“Where have we gone wrong?” Matt asked with slight despair in his voice.
“I don’t know,” James said.
James suddenly snapped his fingers.
“Of course!” he stated excitedly. “Let’s count the seventh row from the bottom.”
Their faces glowed as James counted the seventh row from the bottom and moved to the seventh book – Mythological Places.
James instinctively knew he was doing the right thing. Quickly skimming over the pages, he turned to the seventh chapter, titled ‘Dangerous Worlds’, and moved to the seventh page and the seventh sentence.
His finger went over the seventh word – ‘Death’.
Suddenly, the Earth shook and the entire bookshelf turned, revealing a dark space. A piece of crumpled paper shot out from inside and hit James. James picked it up and looked at the Scavenger, who was grinning with pride.
“Should we go inside?”
The children were surprised to hear from him a firm – no.
“But why?” Daniel asked. “Wasn’t this what you have been training us for?”
“Tomorrow, we shall begin our travel,” the Scavenger clarified. “Spend one more day with your family, for no one knows how long you will be in the Dark World.”
The children nodded.
James moved his finger over the word – Death – again, and the bookshelf turned, concealing the dark space.
James unfolded the crumpled paper and saw written on it:
‘RLLRRLRLRLLLRRLRLRLLRLRLR’
“I don’t understand,” James said, confused.
“This is the first time I’ve seen this too,” the Scavenger said. “Well, don’t worry about it. Give it to me and go home to take some rest. You are going to need the sleep.”
***
The children woke up in the morning feeling tired and down, with dark circles under their eyes. They had no appetite either. The effort involved in finding the mark had drained them.
It all started dawning on them. They were going to the Dark World to take on the Death Lord, and no one knew for how long. A sinking feeling appeared in the children’s hearts as they thought about their parents.
While leaving their house for the school, they tried to appear cheerful before their parents and said their usual goodbyes. But deep down, the fear of not being able to see them again clutched at their throats.
They walked in silence.
The day passed really slowly. At last, the bell rang. The school was over for the day.
Soon, the classes were empty. There was a knock on the window and Matt rushed to open it. The Scavenger climbed in.
They all walked up to the library, with the Scavenger leading the way. They entered and headed straight to the seventh shelf, Archer repeated the same steps, and came to the word – Death.
The Earth shook and the bookshelf turned, revealing the dark space they had seen yesterday.
“How are we going to navigate through the tunnels?” Archer asked. “We will get lost!”
“We won’t,” James said, pointing to the paper. “Last night, I thought about this, and I have figured out that the R stands for ‘right’ and the L stands for ‘left’. These are the directions that will help us get through the maze to the portal.”
The Scavenger beamed with delight as he took out the paper in which R and L were written in random sequence. James sounded logical.
The children took a deep breath… and stepped inside. They found themselves in a tunnel wide enough for them to walk together. Three doors faced them to the left, right and front.
“Let’s go,” Archer said.
James led the way, following the hints in the paper – he turned right, then left, left again, right, and right… and so on.
Finally, the children reached a large oval-shaped hole, bursting with emerald-coloured energy that was so dazzling that the children had to cover their eyes.
“Now what?” Matt asked.
The Scavenger took a deep breath. “Now, we enter the portal.”
***
Together, they stepped into the portal and fell on velvety red grass. It was a marvellous sight.
“Hey, look!” Archer exclaimed, pointing towards the sky. The children looked up in amazement. They saw not one but two suns!
“What... how…?” James muttered.
“Don’t worry about it, James,” Daniel said. “This is beyond your knowledge.”
“But just look at this! This is pure fantasy! Look at the grass, the sky, the trees… and it has two suns!”
“The Dark World is a strange place,” the Scavenger mumbled, “But it is
