Jenna arrived at the answer almost immediately. Her brief stay on Orum, where everything was taken literally, had been great preparation for this contest. “The word wrong,” she answered firmly.
“Correct again,” said the Chief Justice, becoming impressed.
A hush came over the crowd. They were intrigued. No team had ever managed to solve four riddles so quickly.
“Riddle number five:
You can find me in darkness but never in light
I am present in daytime but absent in night
I’m most of your daddy but none of your mom
I’m there for the dance, but never the prom
Who am I?”
Zachary concentrated. He knew right away that this was going to be very tough. What in the world could satisfy all of these conditions? Most of your daddy but none of your mom, he read from the easel. What nonsense was this?
He studied the poem again. The thing he was looking for could be found in darkness, daytime, daddy, and dances, and was absent from light, night, moms, and proms. So what did darkness, daytime, daddy and dances have in common? Darkness, daytime, daddy, and dances, he mouthed to himself, darkness, daytime, daddy, and dances. It was almost a tongue twister, he realized, although not a very good one. She sells seashells by the seashore. Bet you can’t say that five times fast.
And then the answer hit him right between the eyes and it was hard to believe he had not solved it earlier. His brain must be getting tired. “The answer is that you are the letter D,” he said simply. The letter D did not appear in light, night, mom or prom, but was present once each in darkness, dances, and daytime, and three times in the five-letter word daddy. Or, to put it another way, most of your “daddy” was made up of D’s, but none of your “mom”.
“Correct,” said the Chief Justice once again, and this time the crowd actually applauded.
The Chief Justice paused. They had made it easily through five riddles. Impressive indeed. But that still left five more. The contest was far from over.
“Riddle number six. What word has KST in its middle, in the beginning, and at the end? Also, the word only has a single K, a single S, and a single T in it.”
Jenna strained this time. This one was surely impossible. Zachary had once given her some hints on how to solve riddles. He had told her to just focus on one piece at a time. Don't get panicked by trying to solve it all. Many times you could solve the whole puzzle by solving half.
She considered the first part alone. What word has KST in its middle, in the beginning, and at the end.
And then it became instantly obvious. Her experiences on Orum had paid off again. If she took the question literally it read: What word has KST in its middle, IN, the beginning, AND, at the end.
“Inkstand,” she announced happily. The word began with IN, ended with AND, and had KST in the middle. And the answer satisfied the conditions of the second part of the riddle; the letters K, S, and T were each used only once.
The Chief Justice indicated she was right and the crowd applauded vigorously. The contestants had answered six riddles—without either of them missing a single one. It was unheard of. If they hadn't foolishly volunteered to make the Challenge more difficult by adding the Swishmer they would have been home free already.
“Quiet down,” the Chief Justice instructed the crowd. His head swiveled back toward Zachary to resume. “Riddle number seven. Solve the following poem:
Pronounced as one letter and written with three
Two letters there are, and two only in me
I provide information, I'm brown, blue and gray
I'm read from both ends, and the same either way.”
Zachary couldn't help but smile as he reread the riddle from the easel. This should be reasonably easy. The first part of the first line was the key. Pronounced as one letter. He was looking for a word that was pronounced the same as a single letter. That narrowed the answer down to one of the letters in the alphabet.
He went through them quickly. BEE? It was pronounced with one letter and written with three. And it only had two letters, B and E in it, satisfying the second requirement; two letters there are and two only in me. But Zachary couldn't see how it satisfied the rest of the poem.
How about the letter C? SEA? SEE?
SEA required three letters so it was out. SEE didn't make it past the third line of the poem.
Q and T quickly came to mind. CUE as in cue-ball. A TEE for golf. TEA to drink. No, these didn't work. R? Which would give him OUR and ARE. No, these didn't work either. He had found several words that satisfied the first two lines of the riddle but none could satisfy the third.
What about I? EYE. He considered. It satisfied the first two lines of the riddle. What about the third. I provide information, I'm brown, blue and gray. Yes, he thought excitedly, it fit. An eye was used to provide information about what things looked like. And an eye could be brown blue or gray in color.
Now for the final test. I'm read from both ends, and the same either way. It worked. The word was the same read backwards or forewords; E-Y-E.
Zachary looked up at the Chief Justice. “EYE,” he said, and then spelled it.
The Chief Justice nodded. Amazing. He had never encountered contestants so good at riddle solving. By now he was fully expecting them to solve every one. “Correct again,” he said.
Now it was Jenna's turn once more. “Riddle number eight. What is bigger than the universe, dead people eat it, and if living people eat it, they die?”
Jenna's heart sank. This one was trouble. She forced herself not to panic. If she had solved the others, she could solve this one.
But how? It was impossible right off the bat. Bigger than the universe? Nothing was bigger than the universe. By definition, it was the biggest thing there was.
The answer hit her like a bolt of lightning. Of course. That was it. Nothing was bigger than the universe. The answer was NOTHING. NOTHING was bigger than the universe. Dead people ate NOTHING. If living people ate NOTHING they would soon die.
“Nothing,” she said, elated. She wasn't letting herself or Zachary down. At this rate they would win the Challenge for sure.
The crowd broke out in cheers once again. They began chanting, “Humans . . . Humans . . . Humans,” over and over again.
The Chief Justice was also astonished by the contestant’s accomplishments so far, but this was a formal occasion and he couldn’t allow himself the luxury of becoming a fan. He had to keep order. “Enough!” he roared at the crowd. “If I hear another outbreak I'll stop the Challenge.”
The Chief Justice turned toward Zachary. “Riddle number nine,” he said. “Find the two words that complete the following statement: MADAM, IN EDEN, blank, blank.”
Zachary panicked. Was that the entire riddle? There had to be more to it.
Thankfully, the Chief Justice continued. "Here is a hint. The following statements can each lead you to the answer:
TEN ANIMALS I SLAM IN A NET
WAS IT A CAR OR A CAT I SAW?
NOW, SIR, A WAR IS WON
CAN I ATTAIN A ‘C’
A MAN, A PLAN, A CANAL, PANAMA.”
What in the world? thought Zachary, deeply worried for the first time. The clues didn't seem to have anything to do with the statement he had to finish. He scratched his head and focused all of his concentration on finding some hidden connection.
As he struggled to find the answer a bead of sweat formed on his forehead and slowly rolled down his face. He thought his brain would explode he was thinking so hard. But he was stumped.
“Your time is up,” announced the Chief Justice, sounding disappointed. They were not infallible after all.
The spectators all gasped in unison. The boy had missed one. He had tripped and fallen just a single step from the finish line.
“Jenna,” continued the Chief Justice. “You now have two minutes to come up with the correct answer. If you don't the contest is over.”
Jenna gulped. The contes
t was as good as over, then. They were as good as dead. She had studied the puzzle the entire time Zachary was working on it and had come up with nothing. Two additional minutes wouldn’t help any. Her brother was the king of riddles. If he couldn't solve it there was no way in the world that she could.
She glanced over at Zachary hopelessly. She had expected his expression to be vacant. She expected a look of defeat. A look that said, it's all over now, my moronic sister will never solve it. But instead, his eyes met hers and he made a determined fist and shook it in front of him. He nodded his head slightly as if to say, go ahead, Jen, show them how it's done.
Maybe she could. Zachary certainly had faith in her. And she did feel remarkably sharp. She reached in her pocket and clutched the generator nervously. It was time for her to step up to the plate. It was now or never.
She hastily reread the clues from the easel on which the Chief Justice had placed the riddle in writing. The meaning of the phrases wasn't helpful. She had determined that herself. And Zachary's failure had only made her more certain.
Wait a minute, she thought. The Chief Justice had said that the statements could each lead them to the answer. Not all the statements, taken together. But each one by themselves. Any one of them alone would do it.
But how? It wasn't their meaning. It must be something about how they were written. Just like in the riddle Zachary had solved. The answer had been EYE. The fact that you could read it the same way backwards and forwards had nothing to do with the meaning of the word. It related to how it was written.
Wait a second. It couldn't be that easy. She looked at the first line and almost screamed from excitement. It was.
TEN ANIMALS I SLAM IN A NET
If she started from the end and read backwards, and didn’t worry about spaces between words—it said the same thing as it did starting from the beginning.
She quickly tried reading the others backwards.
WAS IT A CAR OR A CAT I SAW?
NOW, SIR, A WAR IS WON
CAN I ATTAIN A “C”
A MAN, A PLAN, A CANAL, PANAMA
It was true for all of them. Each demonstrated how to solve the riddle; MADAM IN EDEN, blank, blank. She studied the phrase she had to complete, searching for the word EDEN going backwards. There it was. Madam iN EDEn. What followed EDEN in the backwards direction? IMADAM. I'm Adam. The whole statement was, MADAM, IN EDEN, I'M ADAM.
“Your time is . . .”
“I'm Adam!” shouted Jenna just under the wire, interrupting the Chief Justice.
A hush fell over the crowd. They looked at the Chief Justice in fascination. Was this the right answer? Most of them had no idea.
The Chief Justice smiled, surprised by how relieved he felt. These humans had grown on him even more than he had thought. His eyes sparkled. “Correct,” he announced enthusiastically, unable to completely hide his emotions.
Zachary caught his sister’s eye and shot her an exhilarated look that said, way to go, Jen.
Jenna grinned broadly. She had done it! She had saved the team. Now they simply had to answer a single riddle and they were home free.
The crowd was stunned into silence. The girl’s answer had been right. The tension had been nearly unbearable and the human girl had solved the riddle with less than a second to go. Talk about drama. They had already seen history made several riddles before. But these humans were now on the verge of the impossible.
The Chief Justice paused for an unusually long period of time to collect himself and build the suspense. “Riddle number ten,” he said to Jenna. “The final riddle.” Not a sound could be heard in the massive room, not even breathing. The spectators were on the edge of their seats. “Make the equation, 5 + 5 + 5 = 550 true by adding a single line.”
Jenna was still glowing from her triumph over the last riddle. Her confidence was at an all time high. If they solved this they would win. They would not be executed. Lisgar would be returned to her home and her children. Even Mesrobia's unfair law would be changed.
She strained. What was the trick? She looked at the numbers from every angle she could think of, adding a 1 to different parts of the equation, but came up empty. She began to panic. This should be so easy. Especially compared to some of the other riddles they had solved. But it just wouldn't come to her.
“Your time is up,” announced the Chief Justice in a stunned voice. “Zachary, you have two minutes.”
Jenna expected that her brother had already solved it during her two minutes and would immediately shout out the answer. But he did not. In fact he looked perplexed as he fought to come up with the answer. This should be an easy one, he told himself. But he was mentally exhausted and it somehow seemed impossible. What could the answer be? He couldn't fail now after they had come so far. Their lives depended on it.
“Your . . . time . . . is . . . up,” said the Chief Justice slowly, trying to give Zachary an extra moment to shout an answer just under the wire as his sister had done. But this time, no answer was given. This time, no last second heroics would save them from defeat.
There were gasps of dismay from the spectators. They had lost.
“The correct answer is that you add a slanted line to the first plus sign, turning it into a four. The equation would then read 5 4 5 + 5 = 550.”
Zachary and Jenna looked at each other in disbelief. It had been so simple. Like the answer to all riddles it seemed ridiculously obvious once it was given. They had been so close to victory that they could taste it. It would have been better to have missed the first one rather than fail just when total victory was finally within their grasp. They were devastated.
The Chief Justice was stunned. They had answered riddles more difficult than this one. The humans would have won their lives and that of the Swishmer if only the boy hadn't been so determined to fix the trespassing law. But they had ultimately failed. They had gone further than any contestants in history only to end up losing the Challenge in the end.
“Zachary and Jenna Lane, you have been found unworthy of becoming citizens of our world,” decreed the Chief Justice, knowing that no alien beings had ever been more worthy. “Your original sentence for the crime of trespassing stands, as does Lisgar’s.”
He frowned, clearly unhappy with the outcome. They had made him a believer and after answering nine riddles he knew they were deserving of citizenship. But it wasn’t his idea to add a tenth riddle—it was theirs. He had announced the rules of the Challenge at the very beginning. As much as he wished he had a way out, his hands were tied.
“But because of your excellent performance,” he continued. “I would like to bestow a high honor upon you.”
They brightened. That sounded good. Perhaps the Chief Justice had the power to give them a less . . . final . . . sentence.
The Chief Justice leaned forward. “I will give you the honor of choosing the method of your execution.
CHAPTER NINTEEN
A Method of Execution
“Bring the Swishmer forward,” commanded the Chief Justice. “She will stand with the humans.”
The guards prodded Lisgar to the front of the room. Her bulging compound eyes were moist with emotion. Eyes Jenna and Zachary had once thought were hideous had miraculously become warm and expressive as they had gotten to know her.
“You were wonderful,” she whispered softly as she approached them. “This is all my fault.” She lowered her head sadly and tried to gather her emotions. “If you hadn’t tried to help me, you’d be free. I’m so sorry.”
“It wasn’t your fault,” insisted Jenna. “You’ve become our friend. We couldn’t just let them execute you.”
“You two are very special,” said Lisgar warmly, now directly beside them.
The Chief Justice cleared his throat loudly to get the full attention of the three visitors standing before him. “We have two forms of execution here in Mesrobia,” he announced. “We can feed you to a Smorg or we can throw you over a cliff.”
Both kids gulped. Neither knew wh
at a Smorg was but they sure didn’t want to find out.
He directed his attention at the two humans. “As is our custom, the next statement one of you makes will decide your fate. If it is true we will feed you to a Smorg. If it is false we will throw you over a cliff.” He folded his arms. “We await your statement.”
Jenna felt sick to her stomach. She glanced at her brother and could tell his mind was racing. What was he thinking about at this point? Was there some way to make a statement that wouldn't result in a choice?
There was.
What if the Chief Justice didn't know if a statement was true or false? They could say, “There are exactly a billion grains of sand in all the beaches of Mesrobia.” The only way the Mesrobians would ever know if the statement was true or false would be to count.
“Oh, and one more thing,” said the Chief Justice, as if reading her mind. “I have to be able to easily determine if your statement is true or false.”
Zachary groaned. He must have had the same idea she had, thought Jenna. That was it, then. They were finished.
She looked over to her brother and could tell that he was continuing to think furiously, redoubling his efforts. She waited, holding her breath, hoping he would pull off a miracle and find some clever way to change their fate.
Wait a minute, she thought. What was she doing? They were moments away from being executed and she was leaving their fate entirely up to her brother. Hadn't she shown that she could think also? At least with the help of her parents’ generator. Hadn’t she, not moments before, even answered a riddle that had stumped her brother. She shouldn't just rely entirely on Zachary.
She put her mind back to the problem.
The Chief Justice was waiting for one of them to make a statement. What if she didn't make an absolute statement? What if she put a word in the statement like might, or could? It might rain tomorrow.
No, that didn't work. That was true. Even if the forecast didn't call for rain, it might rain anyway. She continued thinking furiously.
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