Rose slid the metallic red key into the plinth in the centre of the circular chamber. Groans followed just like after the first key, stone peeling back from stone. She couldn’t tell where but she knew it wasn’t inside the chamber itself. She kept her eyes beneath the keyhole where more words began to form in a light-grey, before intensifying to a glowing liquid silver.

  They cannot be tempted

  Their desire will be clear

  Their duty will be heavy

  The Thirteen shall know fear

  Like before, at the end of the final path from the plinth, a chunk of the wall came away, sliding to the side, revealing another black gap. Her eyes flickered towards the void and then at the plinth. She was sure there’d be another verse once they secured the final key.

  “Should we take a minute?” Parek asked.

  Rose glanced at Elsie, perched on her shoulder. Elsie shook her head, holding up a tiny hand with a thumbs up. “As long as Elsie’s ready, we go on. The sooner we get this done, the sooner we can get some rest. I don’t think I’ll be in a hurry to do another dungeon.” She gave Parek a rueful smile, which he returned.

  “You and me both.”

  Rose gripped her staff firmly before walking towards the black gap in the wall with Elsie on her shoulder and Parek at her side.

  “Let’s not rush into anything this time,” she smiled at Elsie, who nodded vigorously back at her.

  Rose took a deep breath and stepped into the darkness.

  The room beyond was similar to the first. Blueish-grey stone stretched across the floor and the walls with a ceiling far closer to them than before – no higher than ten metres. Eight grey pillars decorated the floor, standing roughly two metres tall and spaced about five metres apart in four pairs. The pillar on the right at the far end had a burning flame on its head, the light bright enough for the entire space.

  Right in the centre of the room – between the two pairs of pillars closest to them and the two pairs furthest away – there was an hourglass. It stood as tall as the pillars, with sand soundlessly pouring through the thin tube at its middle and filling the bottom half. It had only just begun as they stepped into the room.

  “Looks like a two-minute timer,” Parek said. Rose nodded, her eyes on the sand in the top half of the hourglass. She had been trying to work out how quickly it was falling, but it was no wonder Parek would know quickly, being a military man and all. And of this world. She only knew of hourglasses from books – it wasn’t like she’d ever needed to use one.

  “Let’s keep to the outside for now,” Rose replied. In the previous two rooms, they began when they’d stepped onto the floor or the platforms. She was wary to begin this one before she had an idea of what was required. “You go left, I’ll go right. Study the pillars. See if we can figure it out.”

  Parek hugged the wall as he walked in the opposite direction to her. Rose left her staff at the entrance and did the same – hugged the walls – keeping her eyes on the pillars. They were rectangular, grooved vertically on the front side with heads that flared out in three square layers – each layer slightly wider than the previous one. It was when she walked around the corner of the room and saw the side of the pillar that she had an inkling as to what would be needed.

  On the sides of the pillars, the grooves were horizontal, almost like a ladder and on the back of the pillars, just below the layered head there was a flaming torch planted into a sconce on each of them except the one that was already lit. She looked across the room at the four pillars on Parek’s side, and they had the torches on the back but the side she could see didn’t have the horizontal grooves.

  “Do you have ladders on the pillars?” she shouted across to Parek, her voice echoing across the room.

  “Yes,” he shouted back. “Guess we have to light the pillars?”

  “Yeah,” Rose replied, her eyes on the hourglass. “Meet at the entrance.”

  A moment later, they stood where they had entered, a pillar to right and left of them. Rose picked up her staff. Ahead of them, roughly two-thirds of the sand had fallen to the bottom of the hourglass.

  “Do you think we’re meant to light the pillars before the timer finishes?” Rose asked.

  “There wouldn’t be enough time, and…” Parek paused, frowning. “There has to be more to it. It won’t be so simple.”

  “I know, but I’m worried what happens when that timer runs out.”

  “Maybe…” Parek hesitated. “Maybe we just let it run out? See what happens?”

  Rose kept her eyes on the sand pouring through the tube in the middle of the hourglass. There were less than thirty seconds left. She glanced around the walls of the room, the ceiling, the floor, looking for any hints as to what they needed to do but all they had was the one lit pillar in the back of the room. She turned back to the hourglass. It made her nervous; made her want to try something – the previous rooms had time components that became faster the more they cleared, but running to solve the puzzle quickly, without thinking it through, had come with its own problems. She forced herself to stay calm.

  This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

  “Let’s wait then,” Rose agreed, then another thought occurred to her. She turned to Parek. “Let’s number the left pillars odd and the right pillars even? So, those are one, three, five, seven and those are two, four, six and eight.” She gestured at the pillars to the right, the last of which – eight – was the one that was already lit.

  The three of them kept their eyes on the hourglass, Rose realising it was a universal truth that watching time caused it to slow down. It was as if each grain of sand was doing its best not to slide through to the bottom half.

  It did eventually come to an end though, the sand settling into a mound.

  Nothing happened immediately. Then a faint white line appeared on the wall to their left. The line expanded, similar to the portals Elliott had created, a white screen as tall as the room and as wide as the wall appeared though it didn’t shimmer into an image. Instead it rippled in waves and then towards the bottom, a bulge appeared.

  A large foot slammed down with six swollen toes, each the size of a human fist, covered in wild hair like brambles. A bloated hairy stomach followed, then thick, hulking arms, one of which held a club with a spiked head. The rest of the creature appeared shortly after. It had an egg-shaped head with a human-like face, except for the tusks that thrust up from its lower jaw.

  The portal disappeared behind it, the hourglass reset, sand pouring through the tube to fill the bottom half again.

  “An ogre,” Parek said.

  Elsie had conjured a black pin in her hand and threw it through the air. It was too quick for Rose to follow its path. She heard it land though. Right in the middle of the ogre’s forehead and out the other side. The creature blinked a couple of times as if it was wondering what had happened but then its red eyes widened. It barely had the time to be surprised before it toppled forwards, crashing to the floor. Almost immediately, it disappeared – simply winking out of existence.

  “Well, now we know what happens when the timer runs out,” Rose said, glancing at the pillars and the flame on pillar eight.

  Parek was walking to the side of pillar one. “May as well start lighting these then?”

  Rose agreed, making her way to the side of pillar two on her right. She clambered up the ladder carved into the grey stone, reaching around to grab the torch from its sconce. From where she was, she could see over the head of the pillar. It was an empty space, bar a thick wick in its centre.

  Across from her, Parek was already lighting his.

  The wick caught, a small flame bursting into life. The torch in Parek’s hand disappeared as the flame licked at the air above it, flaring higher and wider; growing larger and brighter. Then it stopped. Spluttered. Spat. The flame flickered as if trying to cling to life even as it sputtered and died, but a heartbeat later, the flame extinguished. Silently. Smokelessly. The torch suddenly reappeared in the sconce on the pillars back.

  A flash of movement caught Rose’s eyes – they darted to the hourglass which had flipped over. She glanced at the wall opposite where the portal appeared, but she felt goosebumps across her arms. She flicked her head around. Her breath caught as another portal opened on this side of the room – a white screen spread across the length of the wall. There were bulges pushing against the ripples. A hairy foot. A hairy stomach. The ogre barely made it outside the portal before Elsie took it down. The ogre crashed forwards. Disappeared. The one on the other side had toppled as well.

  Having the portal appear on both walls was a complication they didn’t need.

  “There’s an order to it,” Parek stated, his voice echoing across the room. He had climbed down and stood between pillars one and three on his side. “Try your one.”

  Rose touched her torch to the wick and waited for the flame to catch. It was small at first but as soon as the wick caught, the torch in her hand disappeared. The flame began to grow, getting brighter. She shielded her eyes but climbed down, jumping to the floor as she craned her neck to see. Just like Parek’s one, the flame flared briefly before it sputtered out. She immediately glanced at the hourglass. It spun on its axis, resetting the sand, before the portal opened on the wall opposite her. She glanced behind her too and as expected, there was a portal there also. She backed up, as did Parek.

  This time not only did an ogre appear from both portals, a rocky creature appeared alongside both, their hands curled into fists. Elsie let four pins loose – two slammed into the sides of the rocky giants’ faces, chipping the stone but not felling the things as the other two whistled through the ogres’ forehead. Both ogres went down like the two before, disappearing as they hit the ground.

  Elsie pursed her lips before jumping up on Rose’s shoulder, pink and blue pins appearing at her waist. The pins shot towards the rocky creature closest to them, embedding themselves into its forehead as Elsie whizzed towards it, two mallets appearing in her tiny hands. She smashed the creature’s face in, ripping its head from its neck, somersaulting back as it disappeared and immediately shooting across the floor to the other one. It went down just as swiftly.

  “This is a problem,” Rose declared.

  “We have no choice,” Parek replied, already climbing up pillar three. Rose waited where she was, between pillar two and four on her side.

  Parek lit the flame. Same result. Flame caught. Sputtered out. Torch returned to its sconce. Eight creatures appeared from the portals this time. Four ogres and four rocky giants, though two of them glowed a faint blue. Elsie dispatched them all the same.

  “Every time we get it wrong, the number of mobs coming through doubles,” Rose mumbled to herself as she climbed up pillar four. Elsie gave her a comforting pat on the cheek. Rose grabbed the torch, placing it against the wick in the square head. The wick caught, the torch disappeared. She climbed back down and backed away from the wall, expecting the flame to sputter out the same as the others but it didn’t. She peered up. The flame held and the torch hadn’t reappeared.

  Parek was already at the top of pillar five but he hesitated, the torch in his hand hovering above the wick.

  “Just light it,” Rose called out.

  He did. Like the previous flames, it flared briefly, then sputtered out. But not only that. The flame in pillar four extinguished along with it, meaning they had to start over from the beginning.

  Then the portals opened. As Rose had guessed, sixteen creatures had stepped through, eight on either side. Elsie again whizzed between them with her pins and thread at her waist – at least the creatures were close together so it wasn’t taking too much effort.

  “Four first,” Rose shouted to Parek as she made her way back to the pillar, climbing to the top and lighting it. She climbed back down and peered at the tops of the pillars on her side of the room. “We know five isn’t after. It could be two or six on my side, or one, three or seven on yours.”

  “We have another problem,” Parek said and Rose glanced across at him. He was standing by the hourglass, which had emptied and was resetting. The tube connecting both halves was wider than it had been, the sand pouring through faster.

  Portals opened on both walls. Thirty-two rock giants and ogres stepped through. Elsie shot off, weaving between them all in the blink of an eye, black pins whistling through the air, as she smashed rock faces in with her mallets or sliced across light brown skin with her pins. Rose noticed that the first ogre had taken one hit. The first rock giant two. This latest set had taken one or two more hits than the ones before. Either Elsie was slowing down – which Rose doubted – or the mobs were getting harder.

  Whether they made a mistake with the flames or not, mobs would spawn each time the hourglass reset and each reset reduced the time between resets.

  They were in trouble.