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Figuring they had that covered, I kept my focus on the giant stone circle. “What I’ve noticed is the discs appear to be ordered consecutively with the challenges that we performed. For example, the gamemaster took your team, Slash, to the room with the bull before he came to take us to the garden maze. So, the bull room was technically the first challenge, and the garden maze was the second one. The number for the bull room, 395, is located on the outer ring. The number for the garden maze, 509, is located on the second ring, and so on. It’s a precise match of challenges and position of the discs on the stone circle. That has to match up for a reason.”

I looked up and saw Slash smiling at me. Had he been thinking the exact same thing?

“You’re right, Lexi,” Tito said. “That has to mean something.”

“But what does it mean in terms of the big picture?” Father Armando asked.

“I’m not sure yet,” I admitted.

“What are those holes for?” Juliette asked, pointing at the one-inch-diameter holes found on each of the rings. “There’s one on every ring.”

Gio leaned over, sticking a couple of his fingers into the hole. “It’s round, like a pole or something should go here.”

“So, maybe we should look for a pole or a broom handle to stick in there?” my dad asked.

“Possibly,” I said. “But I suspect there’s something special about the length or weight of the object. Let’s look around and see if we can find anything that would work.”

Everyone split up and started searching for a suitably sized rod or a pole. Several people left the room to look in other areas of the castle, while Slash, Vittoria, and my mom stayed in the planetarium room, as I’d started calling it in my head. It didn’t take us long to clear the room, as it had no additional furniture or decorations.

I headed out of the room to look elsewhere and nearly collided with Stefan and Gio, who were running back into the room, Stefan held a marble rod about twice as long as the width of his hand out in front of him like a spear. I was lucky I hadn’t gotten skewered.

“Sorry, Lexi,” Stefan said, catching me by the arm and straightening me. “I yelled at everyone to come back to the room as soon as I found this. It was sitting in the drawer in the butler’s desk right in the entryway.”

“What does a butler need a marble rod for?” Vittoria wondered aloud.

“Everyone needs at a stiff rod at some time, right, Gio?” Stefan said, snorting.

Gio burst into laughter and smacked his brother on the back of the head. “You’re lucky Mama didn’t hear you say that.”

“Here, Romeo,” Stefan said, handing over the rod. “You take it from here.”

Slash rolled his eyes at his brothers but took the rod. Holding it in front of him, he walked over to the stone circle, sliding one end into the hole on the outermost ring. It fit perfectly, sinking in about halfway. By this time, our entire team had reassembled back in the room.

“It fits,” my mom said. “Now what?”

We looked around to see if anything happened on the device or the ring, but we saw nothing.

“Try the next hole,” Oscar said. Slash removed the rod and tried the hole in the outermost ring.

Again nothing.

Slash tried sticking the rod in each of the holes on the device, with no success.

“Perhaps the rod acts as a handle to turn the individual rings?” I suggested.

“Good idea,” Slash said. He reached over and pulled the rod, which was now in the innermost ring, trying to pull it toward him. After a moment, he put some real muscle in it. As he increased his effort, the ring began to rotate.

“Look!” Mia shouted, pointing at the wall. “The stars…they’re moving.”

Chapter Forty-Nine

Lexi Carmichael

Slash continued to slowly rotate the ring, and the stars moved with him.

“Not all the stars are moving,” Alessa said after a minute. “It’s only those in a band near the ceiling.”

Slash stopped pulling on the rod, and the stars ceased moving. “Try the hole in the next circle,” I suggested. “Let’s see what happens then.”