Page 52 of The Grandest Game

“More than one, I imagine.” Rohan found that he couldimaginea great deal about Savannah Grayson, but he left the desire to do so in the labyrinth, alongside his questions about her motives, and turned his attention to the matter more immediately at hand.

“A riddle, a puzzle, a Hawthorne game,” he quoted.“Once more with feeling: They’re all the same.”Rohan gave Savannah a chance, albeit a minimal one, to reply, and then he continued, “I’d take the bit about three paths diverging to mean that, while this game may have started by presenting all three teams with identical puzzles, from this point on, we’re on different paths. Different challenges.A crown. A scepter. An empty throne.”

“Three clues,” Savannah said, “to who-knows-what. This riddle?”

“Time will tell.” Rohan looked from her to the words on the wall. “Time always tells, Savvy.”

She’d made it clear that she didn’t want his empathy, which was good, given how often it was in short supply. But Savannah had hiscuriositynow instead, and most at the Devil’s Mercy would have agreed: That was far, far worse.

“Can we just focus on the riddle?” Savannah said.

Rohan’s smile was more wolfish than ever. “Oh, I am.”You are the riddle, Savannah Grayson.That solving her would tell him how best to use her was a bonus. His curiosity had to be sated either way. But for now…

There was an old-fashioned rotary phone on the wall opposite the riddle, which hadn’t moved at all as the underlying layers had shifted. Rohan had to admire the mechanic genius of the chamber—and the brevity of their latest challenge.

88 LOCKS

WAIT, THAT’S NOT RIGHT

AT LEAST THE ANSWER IS BLACK AND WHITE

Rohan began to loop around the chamber in a slow circle, concentrating on the middle line of the riddle:Wait, that’s not right.

Not rightcould, of course, meanwrong. To berightwas to be correct in a factual sense, butrightcould also mean righteous or honorable, as in a person knowing the difference between right and wrong.

Then again,not rightcould easily meanleft.

Torightensomething was to straighten it.

If something was yourright, you were entitled to it.

As Rohan continued his second circuit around the chamber, Savannah spoke. “What precisely is the antecedent of the wordthatin the second line?”

Wait, that’snot right.Rohan rolled those words and her query around in his mind, a series of questions rising to the surface.

Whatwasn’t right?

How so?

And what did a person like Savannah Graysonneedwith twenty-six million dollars?

Chapter 40

LYRA

The words on the wall stared back at Lyra, the letters evenly spaced, the grooves of the writing deep. There were six lines, twenty-six words total.

YOU MIGHT FIND ME IN A CAVE

SOMETIMES I MIGHT MISBEHAVE

WASH ME OUT

GIVE ME A KISS

DON’T SAY A WORD

BUT MAKE A WISH