I took the next puzzle Rohtas handed to me and laid it out over the table. It was yet another maze with three main stages.
“Each stage on the last one was rectangular, but these are all shaped like a backwards ‘C.’”
“Indeed, Madam.”
Before I got started, I checked to see if the “open-in” and “open-out” restrictions were still in place. “Are the rules the same as last time?”
“Yes, ma’am. The same rules apply, so pay close attention to which doors open inward and which open out.”
“Got it!” Thanks to the previous maze, I had the symbols down pat now.
“Let’s start with an easy one. I want you to start from here and come out through there.”
“Okie-dokie!”
“Ready...go!”
As soon as Rohtas turned the hourglass over, my eyes and fingers began to race across the page.
✦ ✦ ✦
I tried my hand at the second maze just as many times as I had the first one, changing up the route on each go. Once again, I had totally committed the maze (or map?) to memory!
“I can still see that second maze every time I close my eyes... What am I going to do if I start dreaming about it?”
It was only after Dahlia suggested I break for lunch that I learned what time it was. I’d spent the entire morning solving puzzles! If my eyes had been glued to the paper for that long, it was no wonder the second maze was stuck in my head.
It was just a maze, but this clearly wasn’t just a maze. Rohtas was definitely up to something.
“I daresay it’s a good thing to know that sketch like the back of your hand,” he said.
“What? Why?”
Something about the way Rohtas had phrased that was bugging me. I shot him a blank look, but he only responded with a mysterious smile.
What, is there some benefit to memorizing that puzzle?
“You still haven’t realized?”
“Huh?”
I have no idea what I’m supposed to be realizing here, I thought, cocking my head to one side.
When he saw I wasn’t getting it, Rohtas tapped a spot on the second maze, still spread over the table, and said, “Here’s a hint: consider the shape of the second maze and the positioning of its biggest enclosure.”
“Its shape? The biggest enclosure?”
As I said before, the maze was made up of empty spaces both small and large, strung together by doors and passages of varying sizes.
“I mean, it’s shaped like a backwards ‘C.’ And the enclosure’s...positioning...hmmm? Huh? What are you getting at? I dunno. I’m stumped!”
“Come now, don’t give up—take a closer look.” Just as I was ready to snap and yell, What am I supposed to be looking at? It’s just a dumb maze!, Rohtas gave me yet another hint. “The layout should be very familiar to you.”
The layout should be familiar?
“It’s a backwards ‘C,’ and there’s a big path right down the middle...leading to a huge room...hrm?”
Something with a suspiciously similar structure was floating around in the back of my mind.
“The room has a door that leads to the outside, as well as one that goes to the adjacent room. That big room next-door doesn’t have a way to get outside, but it does connect to a wide passageway...”
The parlor has a door that leads to the neighboring dining room. There’s a door from the parlor to the garden, but there’s no way to get to the garden from the dining room!
Once one piece fell into place, the rest of the rooms and passages started to take shape in my head.
This is totally a blueprint of the Fisalis manor!
“Rohtas! Is this a blueprint—?”
“So you finally figured it out.”
“So I’m right? We’ve been living in a maze this whole time?!”
Our very own mansion is one of those “labyrinths” you always see in adventure novels!
I looked up at Rohtas with stars in my eyes. His smile turning into a withering one, he replied, “Well, not quite.”
✦ ✦ ✦
Now that I’d taken the time to examine the maze more carefully, I found that it was indeed the spitting image of our mansion.
“Jeez... I can’t believe I was staring at it for so long and I never even noticed.”
“It’s because you approached it as a puzzle. If you’d started from the assumption that it was a blueprint, I’m sure you would have seen it differently.”
He had a point—I hadn’t gone in expecting this diagram to be anything but a maze. But honestly, the backwards “C” shape ought to have been enough to tip me off...
My first instinct as I stared down at the drawing was to roast myself, but there was something off about it—enough to keep me from realizing what it was at a first glance. Do we have these narrow little passageways? And what’s this mini-sized room over here supposed to be? Stuff like that.
I’d cleaned and run(!) my way through every nook and cranny of the manor; I ought to have known the place inside and out. Why, I was confident I knew the lay of the land even better than Mr. Fisalis himself!
“I guess so. But still...”
“What is it, Madam?”
“It looks like there are some corridors and rooms I’ve never seen. Like that one, or this one here. That’s probably why I didn’t recognize it.”
When I pointed to a couple spots on the map, Rohtas broke into a grin. The look on his face screamed, You’ve hit the nail on the head. “I’m glad you noticed. Those are our hidden passages and secret chamber, respectively.”
Hidden passages and secret chamber? Was that the whole point of this lesson?
“What hidden passages? We have a secret chamber?!” I sounded two steps away from hysterical—that’s how shocked I was to learn this outrageous secret.
“Yes, ma’am. The chamber is where you, Master Fisalis—and depending on the situation, the rest of us—are to hide during an emergency. Alternatively, you can use our hidden passages to escape the manor.”
“I don’t wanna imagine what kind of emergency would call for all that... Oh, wait! You guys must have used a hidden passage that one time!”
“Precisely.”
A while back, a band of thieves had broken into the Fisalis manor. During the incident, Rohtas must have used this hidden passage to move around behind the scenes!
Now I see! This must be the secret he alluded to at the time.
“I’m glad we had it back then, but I hope we won’t have to use it ever again. I wish I could erase its existence from my memory, but I know I shouldn’t... It’s a real dilemma.”
The last thing I wanted was a repeat of that situation. Peace be on earth!
Reminded of that absolute nightmare of an event, I furrowed my brow, but good old Rohtas stepped in to lift the mood. “Now that you know all the ins and outs of this manor, you’re truly living up to your title as a duchess.”
“Oh?”
All of a sudden, I was feeling a whole lot better about this new discovery. Talk about easy, Viola!
“It’d be a good idea for you to see these hidden areas in person at some point, however.”
“Good thinking!”
Here I thought I’d known everything there was to know about this place, but that had been naive of me. The Fisalis manor held all sorts of secrets!
While I was caught up in my weird little moment, I heard the sound of something tearing.
“What are you ripping up?”
“The blueprint.”
“What?!”
And indeed, it seemed Rohtas had ripped up the blueprint to our mansion so that not a trace of it remained. The smile on his face was enough to give me the heebie-jeebies.
Once he’d gathered up all the scraps of paper, he dumped them right into the unlit fireplace and set it ablaze.
“The blueprint to our manor ought to be kept in memory alone. That’s the only way to ensure it never leaves the premises.”
“Uh-huh...”
So that’s how they’ve guarded the Fisalis manor’s secrets so well!
* * * Bonus Scene * * *
“By the way, what was the first maze?”
“The royal palace.”
“What?”
“The royal palace.”
“...You’re not going to rip up and burn that one?”
“No need. We keep it under tight lock and key.”
“Huh?! We’re allowed to keep a copy?!”
“Whatever are you referring to?”
“The royal palace bluepri—”
“Hm?”
“Oh. Gotcha.”
I’m not supposed to comment.