Rich looked down at his hands. “I don’t think I’m ever going to get the hang of this.” He fished the letter from his pocket and offered it to Aaron. “Here. You might like to see this.”
Aaron took the note and studied it carefully. His eyebrows shot up, and he looked as if he had just drawn the winning card in blackjack. “You thought right. This is very interesting. Your grandmother will want to see this right away.”
“Let’s go, then.” They both stood, and Rich turned to Aaron. “Do you know anything about those keys? I’ve never seen anything like them before. It’s cool how they fit together.”
Aaron screwed up his face, as if trying to remember an old phone number. “They do seem familiar somehow. I know they’re an ancient symbol of some sort. Come. Your grandmother will know.”
They made their way to the closet and stood in front of the panel. To Rich’s surprise, the hand-shaped depression had completely disappeared. “What do we do now? We can’t get in without the hand, can we?”
Aaron indicated a spot farther down on the panel. “Look there. The entrance point isn’t always in the same place.” He lifted one leg and pressed his foot against a new depression which had appeared at the bottom of the wall. The panel moved away to reveal the familiar painting.
Rich immediately noticed that it had changed drastically from the last time he had seen it. The table was nearly empty except for the lone figure of his grandmother, who wore a troubled expression. A blank spot was on the canvas next to her, and without hesitation, Rich withdrew his pawn and placed it on a glowing square, different from the previous one. In another moment, he and Aaron sat on either side of his grandmother.
She smiled knowingly, as she had been expecting them all along. “Hello, Heinrich, Aaron. I trust you have something to report?”
Rich slid the letter in front of her. “Found this in a mailbox that appeared from nothing. It’s from my mother.”
Minerva took the letter and studied it. “Yes, I recognize the handwriting. We warned her against trying to set off on her own to look for your father. Thank goodness she’s alive. Though, it’s one thing for her to be alive, and quite another for her to be safe.”
“She won’t be safe unless we could bring her back here,” Aaron said. “But who knows where she is now? Perhaps she’s in another of the safe houses.”
“Maybe there’s a hint somewhere in the letter,” Rich said. “What about those keys?”
Minerva squinted and studied the pattern. “Yes, though I can hardly believe what I’m seeing.” She held the letter close to the light of a torch. “Look. Watch the keys.”
At first, nothing happened, and Rich wondered if his grandmother had actually gone senile in her old age. However, as they watched, first one and then the other keys lit up with golden light, forming an illuminated symbol.
“It’s pretty,” Rich said. “But what does it mean?”
“It means that we’ve finally confirmed the location of your father.”
To be continued …
Read the exciting sequel, Nemesis: Knight, coming March 2015 from Trifecta Books
About the Author:
Michael Young is a graduate of Brigham Young University and Western Governor’s University with degrees in German teaching, music, and instructional design. He puts his German to good use teaching online German courses for high school students. Though he grew up traveling the world with his military father, he now lives in Utah with his wife, Jen, and his two sons. Michael enjoys acting in community theater, playing and writing music, and spending time with his family. He played for several years with the handbell choir Bells on Temple Square and is now a member of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
He is the author of the novels the Canticle Kingdom series, the Last Archangel series, and the Chess Quest series. He also authors several web serials through BigWorldNetwork.com and publishes anthologies for charity in his Advent Anthologies series. He has also had work featured in various online and print magazines such as Bards and Sages Quarterly, Mindflights, Meridian, The New Era, Allegory, and Ensign.
You can learn more about him at his website: http://www.writermike.com.
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