Page 18 of Legend of Scorpio
“Are there more traps?” She clasped her hands and didn’t move, worried, and with good reason, that an inadvertent step might send her plunging—or make her lose her head.
“Doesn’t seem like it. Give me a second to scout.” He cautiously treaded the circumference of the space, empty of anything—including an exit. But given the puzzles they’d encountered thus far, she didn’t panic.
Yet.
Surely there would be a way out. They just had to decipher its secret.
“Seems like we’re safe.”
She snorted. “Seems like a bit of an oxymoron to use the word safe. We’re trapped underground in a place that did its best to kill us.”
“Not us, but those who didn’t belong.” He glanced at her. “Good thinking with those symbols by the way. I’d completely forgotten that, in older times, the Zodiac started with spring. Aries would have known, though.” He grimaced.
“I only thought of it because the calendar way failed. Good thing the builder didn’t start with a different constellation, or we’d be….” She couldn’t say it. The way they’d narrowly evaded death hitting her suddenly.
“I don’t see any objects,” he stated after having walked around twice. “Nor holes. No symbols either on the floor or walls.”
Which left only the ceiling. She craned to look. The room peaked at a point overhead. She indicated. “There’s something up there.”
“Which I can’t reach,” he grumbled. He eyed her. “Maybe if you stood on my shoulders?”
Rebecca shook her head. “It’s still too high.”
“Then how are we supposed to reach it?” He glared at the ceiling.
“It’s obviously another puzzle.” She chewed the thumb of her mitten even as she debated removing layers. It was warm in here. Too warm.
“Um, Scorpio, is it me, or is the room getting hotter?”
He frowned from his spot in the center. “Not from where I’m standing.”
She approached him, and the air noticeably cooled. “Odd. It’s chillier here.”
As if he didn’t believe her, he stalked for the wall then back before announcing, “You’re right. The temperature is rising. It’s radiating from the walls.”
“Meaning we’d better figure out this next puzzle or we’re going to get cooked,” she stated, doing her best to keep her panic in check. It would help if they had a clue.
She remained in the center of the chamber and glanced upward, the nodule at the peak intriguing, as it appeared to be silvery in color instead of the stone she saw everywhere else.
Scorpio joined her. “Any ideas?”
She shook her head. “No. I don’t see any markings or holes. Nothing.” And it was getting hotter. She unzipped her coat but couldn’t stop the sweat from pearling.
Scorpio grunted. “Fuck me. What are we missing?”
She tucked her gloves in her pocket, along with her hat. “A ladder.”
He chuckled. “I’ll have to remember to store one in my back pocket next time I go on a mission.”
“You know, it’s ironic that in the coldest place on Earth, I’m about to be killed by heat.”
Saying it aloud had the words hot and cold rattling around inside her head. It made her note that, while she was warm and sweaty, Scorpio remained cool-looking.
She thought of how they’d gotten in, how her hand and arm—but not his—fit through the hole in the first chamber allowing her to open the door. How he could light the stone walls. How the sigils for the last puzzle reacted to her despite her not being some Zodiac Warrior person.
How they were opposites who’d had to work together.
She eyed him. “I’ve got a weird idea.”