“We’re not,” Lana said. “That’s the whole point of the riddle. Grilish is the common tongue amongst the mortal isles, but many of them have developed their own native language as well.”
“She’s right,” Moric said. “In Foulkan, Grilish is the dominant language, but the old language of Afsar is still spoken by many. And there are seventeen letters in that alphabet.”
I didn’t have much to contribute to the discussion. I didn’t know of any other languages spoken on Serila. I had only been taught Grilish by Umma and had never heard anyone in the governor’s house speak a different language.
“Well, if Grilish is the most common language, I say we use that alphabet as the answer,” Caleb declared.
“Caleb.” Forced patience filtered through Rayna’s voice, and I was sure she’d had a similar conversion with the man before. “Our lives depend on this answer. We have to be sure.”
“There’s no way to be sure,” he retorted. “I’m fucking exhausted. My brain hurts. I don’t have the mental capacity to figure this shit out.”
“Maybe,” Lana suggested, ignoring Caleb, “it’s not the type of alphabet we’re thinking of. It could be numerical or musical.”
“But there are an infinite amount of numbers,” a woman from the first group said, and her only remaining partner nodded. “Unless we’re talking about numbers on a clock, in which case there are twelve. With musical notes, there are also twelve of those and we know the elven have a particular proclivity for music.”
“The natives on Koli speak a language with only twelve letters,” a man with round spectacles framing his face said. He was another member of Rayna’s group. “I’m from Koli. It’s the smallest isle on Tarlor and is said to have been the first island ever created by the gods outside of Dorisport. The native language was a gift from the gods themselves.”
“Are we going with twelve, then?” Caleb scoffed like it was a bad idea.
“It seems more likely than going with Grilish,” Rayna said. “Grilish seems… too obvious.”
The door snicked open and Septimus stepped back inside, looking at us all expectantly. Had thirteen minutes already passed? It seemed far too quick. I swallowed nervously.
“Your time is up,” Septimus said. “Have you come to a decision?”
Rayna glanced at us. When no one objected, she stepped forward. “Twelve. Our answer is twelve.”
Septimus winced. “So close. Unfortunately, that is not the right answer. There are eleven letters in the words ‘the alphabet’.”
We gawked at him. Surely he couldn’t be serious…
I opened my mouth to protest, but the lights in the room began flickering, dimming to a harsh maroon. Lana’s pale hair turned stark red in the glow. And when I looked back for Septimus, he had disappeared. Caleb wrenched on the doorknob, heaving and pulling, but it did not budge. We were locked in.
A soft hissing resonated from the corner of the room. The metal grate near the ceiling began rumbling, and I could not pull my gaze away as dark, wispy tendrils snuck through the gaps. Transfixed, I stared as more black smoke snaked through, twisting and undulating into a thing of nightmares: a gaunt, pulled face with no eyes and only a gaping, sucking mouth. Six clawed fingers each as long as my hand, with taloned nails, dark as onyx. And a body that seemed to be woven of gossamer shadow.
Its mouth snapped open to reveal a black hole circled by rows of razor-sharp teeth. When it spoke in a grating, guttural voice, the sound stirred the ancient darkness inside of me. “It has been a long time since I have delighted in such a banquet. I long to taste the marrow of mortal bones once more.”
It hurtled toward us, a creature of claws and teeth. I didn’t think. Iran. But the entire room had been obstructed by the obstacle course, and there wasn’t much space to run freely. I dodged and twisted around beams, not daring to look behind me as I hurried across the first part of the course.
A wide net had been cast along the floor ahead, which had required us to dive beneath and crawl our way across. I sprinted over it now, slipping and sliding against the polished wooden floor. My foot caught in one of the holes and I flailed forward.
A scream wrenched through the air, and I made the mistake of looking back.
A woman from the first group was on her back, legs kicking out as the ghoul pounced on her. Its claws, which had seemed almost incorporeal previously, solidified as they raked down the woman’s side. Blood gushed onto the floor around her. The ghoul lowered its head, teeth protruding as its mouth gaped larger and larger.
Out of the corner of my eye, Lana’s wrist flicked expertly. A dagger whizzed through the air. The silver blade rotated once, then twice, before plunging right through the ghoul and clattering to the floor. It was as if it had gone through smoke.
The ghoul did not look up or pause in its assault. Its teeth continued to extend, and it began tearing at the woman’s flesh. Her screams ricocheted along the walls, piercing and bloodcurdling. Moric, near the edge of the room, doubled over, retching. Only bile came out but the sight of it was enough to trigger my own gag reflex.
I didn’t know what was more nauseating, the woman’s screams or the harsh silence when they ceased. Lana’s dagger had done nothing to the ghoul. How were we meant to kill something that a weapon had no effect against?
Unless we weren’t meant to kill it. Maybe it had been sent here to just kill us all.
Fear gripped my heart. I couldn’t think like that. Kilian had told me to stay alive. He wouldn’t have told me that if there was no way to do so. My brain kicked into overdrive, thoughts whirring as I recalled everything we had read about ghouls. They had been found predominantly in barns and attics. Samuel Bayfield had found one in a well in the dead of night. Why?
The maroon lights flickered up ahead. They had dimmed them before the ghoul entered. They needed it to be dark. That was it! It must not like light.
The sparring room was windowless. I turned to the only person I knew would have some form of light on them.
