The Secret of Spellshadow Manor 5 by Bella Forrest (book series for 10 year olds .TXT) 📕

“You have. Your wet feet have made the wood slippery, no doubt as a means to trick us into falling into the water, should you lose at hand-to-hand combat. Once we fall in, you will simply pull us under, and do away with us,” Aamir replied, his eyes gleaming.

The kappa howled in outrage. “What proof do you have? You think me a lowly thing, to resort to tricks, simply because I dwell beneath the water?”

“No, my proof is far more logical than that. I can only use my eyes for such evidence,” Aamir insisted. “We would slip the moment we set foot on the bridge. Just look at the slick pools of water all around your feet.”

The kappa looked down to inspect its feet, and as soon as its head tilted, the water sloshing around in the bowl of its skull emptied out onto the grass. The kappa froze the moment the last few drops had fallen, its power source drained. It stood, statue-like, perched on the edge of the bridge, unmoving.

“What did you do?” Alex asked.

Aamir grinned. “Outwitted it. But we should get going in case it doesn’t stay like that.”

Lintz and Ellabell followed them over the bridge, leaving the kappa standing there, motionless. As they ran across, Alex noticed the word “Wit” carved into the wooden balustrade at the end of the bridge.

Task two completed, he thought.

Pushing through another door, they entered a small chamber. It looked like a shrine, with two statues of twin gods, and a solitary goddess, set back into a recess that glowed with the luminescence of countless candles. Set up on tall candlesticks, facing the effigies, were four unlit candles, the wicks untouched, the wax unmelted.

Above the female statue, Alex could make out the word “Aletheia,” and above the male statues were the words “Phobos and Deimos.” They meant nothing to Alex, but Lintz looked thoughtful, the professor muttering the names over and over.

“Do you know who they are?” Ellabell asked.

Lintz nodded. “I believe the woman is the Greek equivalent of the Roman deity Veritas, the goddess of truth. There is a similar statue in the teachers’ quarters at Spellshadow. The other two, I’m not sure—my Greek mythology isn’t as good as my Roman.”

Ellabell wandered up to the shrine, where a book lay open in front of the deities. Alex watched as she leaned closer to the flames of the already-burning candles, the flickering light reflected in her eyes.

“I think it’s like a prayer,” she said. “These candles all have words carved into them… ‘death,’ ‘old age,’ ‘loneliness.’” She moved toward the book, reading it, as the others watched and waited for her verdict. “The female statue is the Greek goddess of truth, and the two twins beside her are the Greek gods of fear and terror. There’s a riddle here too. It says, ‘In order to uncover the secrets here, you must first unveil your greatest fear.’ I suppose we have to make an offering of our greatest fear to these deities, and light the candles as we say what it is.”

“Do you think we should carve the words into the candles?” Aamir asked.

Ellabell shook her head. “I think they’re there to serve as a guide.”

Alex had a feeling she was right. They were clues to the task, the lettering neat and impossibly uniform. Picking up a taper, Ellabell went first, moving toward the unlit candle closest to the door they had come through. She paused for a moment, her expression thoughtful.

“The dark,” she said, lighting the wick and blowing out the taper.

Alex went next, taking a minute to think of what he feared most. “Losing loved ones,” he murmured, envisioning his mother and Ellabell and all his friends, and the pain he would feel if anything were to happen to them. It was truly his greatest fear.

Aamir stepped up third. “Losing control.”

“Failing to reach the real world,” said Lintz, lighting the final candle.

As the flame of the fourth candle burst into life, the eyes of the deities flashed gold, and a narrow doorway creaked open on the opposite side of the room. The offerings had been accepted, and task three had been completed.

Moving into the next room, Alex saw the word “Unity” written above the door. Inside, it was pitch black, so dark he couldn’t see his hand in front of his face. The room was steeped in wall-to-wall, impenetrable darkness, and they couldn’t see each other, let alone anything farther ahead.

Alex heard the sharp inhale of frightened breath from somewhere close by him, and he reached his hand out instinctively, brushing skin.

“Ellabell?” he whispered.

“It’s me,” she replied, her voice trembling.

Suddenly, he became aware of scraping sounds, filling the room. Soft, weird noises, like fingernails dragging across stone, and Alex knew they weren’t alone in here. He grasped what he hoped was Ellabell’s hand, and pulled her closer to him, trying to calm her panicked breathing.

Something else reached out for him, brushing the base of his neck. He shuddered, trying not to shout out in alarm. No matter where he moved in the black room, he could feel things trying to grab him with unseen hands, and from the shrieks and cries of Lintz and Aamir, and the tremble of Ellabell in his arms, he knew he wasn’t the only one feeling terrified.

“Aamir, Professor, follow my voice!” he whispered, painfully aware of drawing attention to himself.

He needed everyone to be closer together, so they could figure out how to defeat this task. He heard the scuffle of shoes on stone as the others followed his instruction. They bumped into him, forming a cluster in their unknown spot in the room. All the while, he could hear low groans and rattling chains, and the scrape of something clawing along the floor. It was intended to unnerve them, he knew, and it was doing just that.

“What do you think we have to do?” Lintz asked, from somewhere close at hand.

“A teamwork exercise, maybe?” Aamir suggested.

Alex