Chapter 10 
The Maze of Skulls
“Atime warp?” Zavier repeated. “What do you mean?”
“I’m not sure how it works exactly,” replied Saffyre. “But I bet that after we pass a certain point, time reverses by a few minutes and we find ourselves back at the tapestry.”
“Great!” Zavier said. “And how do you suggest we get out of it?”
Saffyre began to hunt around the wall near the tapestry. “Quick, search the walls,” she said. “There’s bound to be a button or something, which we’ve missed.”
They spent several minutes combing every service of the wall on both sides of the tunnel. They couldn’t see anything at all.
Zavier sat down. “I feel like we’ve been lost in this tunnel for ever,” he said. He looked at his watch. “It’s been almost two hours since we were with the others.”
They each chewed on an apple and felt better. “I wish that raven in the tapestry would stop staring at me,” grumbled Zavier. “Its eye looks real.”
Saffyre stood up and went over to it. Two of the birds flying across the coastline were made entirely of tapestry stitches, the third looked different. She reached up and touched the raven’s eye. “It’s not material like the rest of the tapestry, it feels more like metal.”
“Press it!” Zavier cried.
Saffyre pushed the eye and the tapestry disappeared. In its place stood a golden frame with a deck of cards. “At last!” Saffyre exclaimed. She reached up, pushed the button and the deck of cards began to spin.
This time the deck stopped on a picture card of a tall I tower with three ravens flying around it.
The virtual voice spoke:
“A difficult challenge indeed draws near
Face it now with courage, not fear
Cross my maze of skulls with skill
Or snipes will swoop with intent to kill!”
“A raven card,” gasped Saffyre. “Didn’t the rhyme say that they are the most dangerous of all?”
“Do you want to use our free spin card?” Zavier asked. “There’s the pocket next to the deck.”
“No, let’s save it for when something goes wrong,” Saf-fyre said.
A rasping noise began and a section of the wall on their right opened. Saffyre and Zavier walked over to it and looked inside. The walls were brick and strewn across the concrete floor was a mass of bones and skulls. In between, snakes and spiders slithered and crawled over them. On a wall were the written words ‘do not stand on these sacred skulls.’
Saffyre took one horrified look. “Use the spin card,” she said devoutly.
“No,” said Zavier. “I think you were right before. We need to keep our free spin card in case things get dangerous. Saf-fyre, we can do this. I’ll go across first and then you can follow in my footsteps.”
“I’ve got a really bad feeling about this,” said Saffyre.
“It’ll be fine.” Zavier took a deep breath and stepped into the room. On each side of him there was a human skull and bones. The path in front of him was clear for a few steps and then littered with rocks, pieces of rope and yet more bones. He walked along the path for a while, treading carefully.
“I can see a clear path through,” he called cheerfully to Saffyre. “Don’t worry, the skulls are plastic, they’re not real.”
Saffyre held her breath. Zavier was a quarter of the way across the room now. He watched grimly but didn’t move as a snake slithered across his foot. He lost his balance for a moment and brought his left foot down hard on a piece of rope. Zavier held his breath, but nothing happened. He sighed with relief. “Almost there,” he yelled.
Zavier drew close to the brick wall, directly opposite the entrance. “I can’t see an exit,” he said. He brushed aside a black spider that had suddenly dropped from the roof on a web, right in front of his face. “Wait, I can see something,” as Zavier touched the wall, an archway opened. “Your turn now,” he called.
Saffyre stepped into the maze. She walked to the end of the clearing in the pathway and followed the way that Zavier had chosen. She did well and was soon three quarters of the way across the room. She closed her eyes when the same snake slithered over her foot, and like Zavier, didn’t move. She was almost at the wall, when a spider dropped down in front of her. If there was one thing Saffyre really couldn’t abide, it was a spider! She let out a shriek and slipped backwards. Her foot came down sharply on a skull and it cracked. The ground gave away beneath her and Saffyre fell through to another level.
“Are you okay?” Zavier called down do her.
“I think so,” said Saffyre. She looked around her, the room looked completely empty and there was no visible exit.
“I’m coming down,” Zavier shouted.
Saffyre was about to tell him not to bother, when he landed beside her.
“I was going to tell you to stay up there,” said Saffyre. “I can’t see any way out at all.”
“What’s that noise?” Zavier asked.
They could hear a rustling of wings and looked up. High in a corner near the ceiling, a square door was opening. A swarm of snipes rushed through and swooped down at them. Saffyre threw up her hands to protect her face as they pecked viciously at her. One grabbed a lock of her hair and wrenched it clean from her head. She looked across at Zavier and saw that his eyes were both bleeding. “Use the free spin card,” she called desperately.
But Zavier was now blind. He drew the card out but couldn’t move. The snipes were snapping away, at every exposed part of his body. Saffyre grabbed the card off him and looked around. “Where’s the pocket?” she yelled. A snipe took a chunk of skin from her right hand. She howled with pain.
Suddenly she could see it! On the wall, off to the right, and near her. She drove the card into it with all her strength.
It was over! They were back at the golden frame, and were both unharmed.
They sat down for a few minutes, just to get their breath. Zavier poured them each a cup of hot tea. His hands shook uncontrollably. “That was horrible!” he cried.
“I’m sorry,” said Saffyre. “If I hadn’t lost my balance….”
“Don’t apologize,” Zavier cut in. “You were great. I couldn’t move.”
“You had more snipes attacking you,” said Saffyre. She took a deep breath. “I’d really love to go back to the starship, I’ve had enough. But I also want to find our parents and the others. It’s getting late and much as I hate to do it, I think it’s time to spin again. You do it this time.”
Zavier got to his feet and went over to the golden frame. He pushed the button and they waited as the cards spun again. It was a picture card, this time it was of a hanged man and on his outstretched hand he was holding a raven.
The virtual voice spoke:
“My first is in lace and also in vice
My second and fifth are in nail and ice,
My third you may drink with your afternoon tea
My fourth is in rice and also in tree
My sixth is in nice and my last in sea.
Now if you are still muddled deep within
Clear your mind and look in the ‘rice tin’.”
“What on earth…” began Zavier.
The voice spoke again. “You have one minute. Starting now…”
“Quick,” said Saffyre. “We’ve done these puzzles before. Each line represents a letter. I think the first could be “C,” although “E” is also in both lace and vice.”
“Of course,” said Zavier. “Well, only the letter “I” is in ice and nail.” He looked at his watch, “Only ten seconds left,” he shouted.
“Rice tin,” shouted Saffyre. “It’s an anagram, the answer is Citrine.”
But a bell had already sounded as she was saying the answer.
They could hear a groaning sound from the corner. A figure emerged covered in a black cloak and hood. It turned to face them, and a skull loomed at them, its gleaming teeth appearing to grin evilly.
“The Grim Reaper,” gasped Zavier. “Saffyre, the hanged man, it’s the card of death!”
They both ran! An arch appeared in the wall ahead of them and they raced for it. Suddenly a wall of flames erupted around the arch and Zavier fell onto the other side.
The Grim Reaper chased after them, slowly but intently. Saffyre tripped at the last moment as Zavier reached out to grab her arm. The flames began to burn around them. Saffyre’s suit caught fire just as the Grim Reaper reached her. It struck at her exposed leg with its scythe. Saffyre cried out in pain. Zavier grabbed the tribazite-blaster from Saffyre’s burning pocket and aimed it at the Grim Reaper. It disintegrated as Zavier blasted it with the laser beam. He dragged Saffyre through the burning arch with every bit of strength he could muster.
They were safely on the other side of the arch but Saffyre was barely alive.