Enzo’s head spun. Their guildmaster had been taken hostage?

Glowing green arrows appeared on the ceiling, pointing to the rear of the building.

“This has to be a prank,” Leo said. “Why would someone take the time to paint a thousand arrows all across Corinth, rather than send us a message directly?”

“And who’s Cos?” said Gianna.

“I don’t know who Cos is, but the arrows could be explained by a Homing Enchantment. Someone — Tomasso or this Cos person — may be under duress, and unable to send an m-gram.”

“But they have access to a raven?” asked Gianna.

Enzo shrugged. It did not make sense to him either. To unravel the mystery, all they could do was press on.

The building’s rear led to a wooded trail. Soon they were climbing up a rugged hillside, aided by light from Gianna’s cantrips.

Onward and upward, they continued. Silvercrest was home to the villas and manses of the city’s elite. To trespass upon it was a death sentence, but the prospect of death was no deterrent to them. They’d faced worse odds before.

Finally, they came to a three story manse of whitewashed stone perched on the edge of a terrace. Elegant yet macabre, it had gold trim on the siding and windows and a roof crested with fanged gargoyles. The windows were dark, the night air still and silent.

From their present vantage, they could just make out the Water Lilies by the waterfront, still half-heartedly carrying on with their Spectacle, launching water nymphs into the air.

Enzo glanced at the note. The text on it had changed.

Tomasso awaits… the hour grows late. Room 306. Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock.

“Keep your weapons ready,” Enzo said to the others. He suddenly wished he had brought his spell scrolls. “This could be a trap.”

“It'd better be,” said Leo. “I’ll be disappointed if this ordeal doesn’t end with a little mortal peril.”

They charmed a lock on a side entrance, and slipped inside, finding an unoccupied drawing room softly lit by cerulean alchemical globes. The arrows led upstairs to Room 306.

With mounting trepidation, Enzo turned the knob and pushed the door open, expecting to find Tomasso or his captor.

Instead, he found another unoccupied room. It was oddly decorated, with furnishings such as a queerly lifelike statue; a portrait of a skeleton; a bookshelf full of Vedic epics; an over-sized hourglass; a rack of Parthian blowguns; an vanity mirror; an alchemy table topped with an assortment of vials and compounds; and a Mynx throw rug, among other things.

Entering the room, Gianna triggered a pressure plate under the rug. Instantly, the door swung shut and dark panels slid over the windows. The statue sprang to life, its eyes opening wide. It took one step forward, and spoke in a sonorous monotone:

Five minutes

Four clues

Three keys

Two doors

One lie

As he spoke, a few things around the room changed. There were two doors, including the one they had entered through. Both were now framed in scarlet light. Arkimidean Stronglocks, thought Enzo. They were common in vampire lairs and certain deathtraps. If you tried to force entry, they replied with lethal force.

Secondly, the hourglass had flipped over, marking the start of their timer. And thirdly, a card had appeared in the center of the room, offering their first clue.

Leo yawned. “Oh, a fucking escape room. How delightful.”

“Escape room?” Gianna wasn’t familiar with the concept.

“They’re common in Diji temples. You must solve a series of puzzles in the allotted time or the chamber fills with poison gas — or meet some other grisly fate. Not my preferred flavor of mortal peril, honestly.”

Gianna took the clue card and read:

Find the orphan boy betrayed by cruel Fate

He rescued the golden apple before it was too late

“See what I mean?” said Leo. “I have no fucking clue what this means.”

“It’s a literary reference,” said Enzo.

“Chronicles of Persius!” said Gianna. “Ancient Druin mythology. It must be on one of the shelves.”

Together, they methodically canvassed the bookshelves, which were neatly arranged but lacked order. It took Gianna half a minute to find it. No sooner had she clasped her hands around the frayed spine of the book than it disintegrated to dust, and a key appeared in her hands. Meanwhile, another clue appeared in the center of the room. Again Gianna read aloud:

Long have I suffered, long have I aged

Show me the true light, I’ll yield what you crave

“Uhh, this has me stumped,” Gianna said. “Another literary reference?”

If it was, it stumped Enzo too. Leo just shrugged; his forte was slaying vile goblins, diabolical mages, and other baddies — not solving puzzles. He took the key and examined the fine grooves of its teeth.

“Hmm… four clues and three keys. So two clues map to one key… ?”

“Perhaps,” said Enzo. “And what’s the one lie? I was hoping it would all become clear as we progress.”

He was still racking his brain over the latest clue. “ ‘Long have I aged’ — someone old, obviously. The true light, what does that refer to? Life? Death? The sun? I figure it must be referring to another literary character…”

“Maybe it’s Mr. Bones up there.” Leo gestured to the portrait of the skeleton.

“Actually, you might be right. And the true light…”

“Moonlight!” said Gianna. Panels had slid over the windows, but slivers of moonlight still shone through tiny gaps between the boards.

“Right,” said Enzo. “Leo, wrench that mirror off the wall, we need to angle the light onto the portrait.”

When they had done so, another clue dropped. But before Gianna could read it, Leo felt an icy chill run up his spine. Something was terribly wrong.

The statue — the one that had read the first clue — had moved or disappeared.

“Where did the statue go?”

“Here,” said a cold voice.

Leo turned. The statue was actually a man in a clever disguise. Leo noted the calligraphic letter L sown onto his breast pocket, marking him a member of the League of Assassins. He had a blade up against Gianna’s throat.

“What do you want?” asked Enzo.

“For you to lose,” he said casually. “Do nothing, let the time expire — and I will release her.”

“What does it matter to you?”

The assassin smiled, but said nothing.

“This is really intriguing,” said Leo, “and I’d love to chat, but we’re kind of busy right now.” He drew Ice.

“One step forward and I’ll slit her throat.”

“Good luck with that.”

And with those words, Gianna freed herself almost effortlessly from the man’s clutches.

An assassin may be a skilled killer, but no man was a match with Leo when it came to swordplay. Leo stepped up and cut him down. Seconds later, the assassin’s lifeless form bled on the Mynx rug.

Gianna grabbed the clue that had been waiting for them and read:

Neither earth nor air

Neither fire nor water

“What?” Again, Gianna was stumped. “A fifth element? Blood?”

“Or void?” Enzo had once heard void, or nothingness, suggested as a fifth element.

Less than a minute remained. An ominous voice began counting down.

“59… 58… 57…”

Leo instinctively reached for Whisper, his mystical longsword. The blade had a mercurial nature, and sometimes refused to be drawn, but when he could draw it, when the blade was keening, it could slice through steel. It could easily render holes in walls. But, alas, Leo did not have it equipped on him.

“13… 12… 11…”

As the time expired, Enzo suddenly realized something — the one lie. There were two keyholes, not three. The third was painted on. In the dim gloom of the room, it looked real, but it most certainly was fake.

“Give me the keys,” he said to Gianna.

“We’re missing one,” she said, but handed them over.

“5… 4… 3…”

Enzo slid the keys into the locks and turned the doorknob, just as the timer reached one second remaining.

The door swung open, revealing a drawing room. Tomasso and another man were seated before a cozy hearth, relaxing and sipping brandy snifters. Smiling, the other man stood up and motioned them to take the empty seats.

“Hello Enzo. I’d like to discuss a business proposition.”