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StanCarter's Blog
Category:
Fantasy
Publisher: KDP
Type: Fiction
Pages: 53
Copyright: 2-3-2018
Price: $0.99 (eBook)
Do you like puzzles? Then join Lady Eldelaide Crawson-Barrett as she struggles to solve the riddle-riddled notes sent to her by the Noteworthy Adversary, whose diabolical word games are played for the highest stakes of all – life and death. Can she conquer the conundrums before it’s too late? Can you?
Do you like puzzles? Then join Lady Eldelaide Crawson-Barrett as she struggles to solve the riddle-riddled notes sent to her by the Noteworthy Adversary, whose diabolical word games are played for the highest stakes of all – life and death. Can she conquer the conundrums before it’s too late? Can you?
Excerpt
After completing my ablutions I donned my nightgown, climbed into my four-poster bed and picked up “The Complete Works of Edgar Allen Poe” from the nightstand. Just as I began reading “The Purloined Letter,” I heard a rapping at my window. Since my bedroom is on the second floor, I found this quite odd.
It’s just the wind-blown rain, pelting the window pane, I told myself. Or a branch rattling against the side of the house. This it is and nothing more.
Then I realized it wasn’t raining, and I remembered the tree had been trimmed quite recently.
Rap-rap-rap.
This time there could be no doubt. Someone – or something – was rapping at my window. Heaving a heavy sigh, I threw off my quilt, climbed from my bed and went to the window, parting the curtains.
“Gracious me!”
A black bird was perched on the outer sill, staring straight at me.
My curiosity proved stronger than my misgivings and I raised the window, admitting a gust of chill wind along with the bird, who settled onto the inner sill. I noted, with mild disappointment, that my midnight visitor was not a raven but a grackle, and it did not gaze at me like a demon who is dreaming, but merely peered at me inquisitively.
A small piece of rolled-up paper was clutched in its beak, and as I reached for it the grackle puffed up its body, the way grackles do, its tail flaring as it let out a squawk, and the paper fell from its opened beak, bouncing off my big toe and landing on the floor.
As I bent down to pick it up, the bird let out a whistle and my head jerked up.
Quothe the grackle: “Nice cleavage!”
“Good heavens,” I said. “You talk!”
“You catch on quick, honey.”
“I didn’t know grackles could do that.”
“Any bird can talk if it’s enchanting. That’s what I am. An enchanting bird.”
“I think the word is ‘enchanted.’”
“Don’t quibble. It’s a wonder I can talk at all and you’re complaining about my vocabulary?”
“Sorry.” I grabbed the paper and straightened up. “Is this for me?”
“No, I flew to your house, rapped on the window, came inside and dropped it on your big toe because I thought this was the city dump and you were the trash collector.”
“There’s no need to be rude.”
“What did you expect? I’m a bird.”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“Haven’t you ever heard the phrase, ‘give someone the bird’? Why do you think they say that instead of ‘give someone the dog,’ or ‘give someone the cat,’ or ...”
“Alright. Alright. I get the point.”
I returned to my bed, sat down on the side facing the nightstand, unrolled the note and held it beneath the lamp. The handwriting was slanted at an odd angle and filled with strangely elongated loops, like little nooses. But the content of the message was far more disturbing.
Dear Lady Eldelaide.
I hate you. In fact, I’d like to kill you. But I shan’t, for I have planned a far worse fate.
I have placed death curses on several gems, which I intend to distribute to prominent citizens, chosen at random. The gems also contain scrying spells so I can watch the fun unfold, and a cloaking spell so you cannot locate the gems using magical means, or trace them back to me.
The only way you can find the gems, and the victims, is by using your wits ... such as they are. I shall provide you with a riddle before each attack, and you must solve that riddle and get to the victim before the curse activates. Even if you do arrive in time, it’s highly unlikely you’ll be able to stop the spell from claiming its target. But at least I’m giving you, and my victims, a sporting chance, which is more than you gave me.
Remember, the lives of these prominent people are in your hands. And the task before you is daunting. Each time you fail – and fail you shall -- the guilt will multiply until it consumes you and drives you completely and utterly mad.
Sounds like fun, eh what?
And now it’s time for the first clue: Pussy Brush. Remember, time is short, but if you make Hay while the sun shines, that should do the Trick.
Yours truly,
The Noteworthy Adversary (“Mr. NA” to you)
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