“It was bonkers,” Poppy breathed. “I feel like we just lucked our way through it.”
“Yeah.” Cormack shook his head. “They’d better give us an easier time of it tonight.”
Brother Vito entered the garden, causing everyone to turn their heads. “I trust you all got some rest last night after your challenge. But if you were too excited to sleep, please find a shady spot and have a well-earned nap. Four people won’t be continuing on, and they were returned to the mainland last night. But we wish them all the best in the future.” He paused. “Please, give yourself a round of cheers for a job well done. Yamas!”
“Yamas!” everyone echoed, raising their glasses of juice and tea.
“I’ll leave you all to your breakfasting,” Brother Vito told us. “Eat well, and gain lots of energy for round two.”
He strode away, back towards the interior.
Grabbing a koulouri, I followed him out. We hadn’t seen the mentors at all between midnight and breakfast, and I wanted to tell him about the noises I’d been hearing.
“Brother Vito!”
He stopped and turned, surprised. “You should be in there celebrating, Evie. Your team finished in the shortest time.”
I blinked, feeling stupidly happy at that small announcement. “We did?”
“Yes. By three minutes. Well done. You can be proud.”
“Can I tell the rest of my team?”
“Of course. There are no secrets here. But in keeping with the history of the monastery, we do not boast about our accomplishments. We do not want to make others feel bad. We acknowledge our good fortune, and we apply ourselves to do even better next time.”
I smiled. “That makes sense.”
“You wanted something, Evie?”
“It’s just that I’ve been hearing noises.”
“Noises?”
“Behind the walls. Maybe even inside the walls. I think there might be a rat problem here.”
“Thank you for letting me know. Perhaps rats moved in during the winter while much of the monastery has been locked up. I’ll have the monks check it out.”
“Good. It’s kind of unnerving.”
“I’m sorry you’re feeling unsettled, but don’t be surprised if the monks don’t find anything. I’ll tell you something. Sometimes I hear noises, too. And sometimes I even think I see people when I roam these corridors. Not much light gets in. And there is so much history here. I think my head is stuffed with so much of the past of this place that I can sometimes experience it as if it were happening now.”
“I feel it, too. The monastery certainly has an atmosphere all its own.”
“Yes, it can be overpowering at times. Would you like a glass of wine, perhaps, to settle you?”
I nodded. “I’d like that.”
“Come this way.” He led me inside and along the halls to the library. We stepped through the library and into what I remembered from the map as being the scriptorium. Hundreds of years ago, holy books must have been painstakingly written by hand here.
Brother Vito poured me a red wine.
I picked up a book from atop one of the tall piles of books on the desk, the name Spinoza on the cover.
“Spinoza is well worth the read,” he said, pouring himself a glass of wine, “should you find yourself with some spare time and should you like to sit and think.”
“He’s a philosopher?”
“Yes. Seventeenth century. Spinoza said that we dream with our eyes open. We trick ourselves into believing we have free will, but free will is an illusion.”
“It’s not an illusion,” I said firmly, surprising myself.
“No? You don’t believe so?”
“We make choices all the time that change our lives. Like me coming here.”
“But what forces were in place that brought you here? You might think one thing, but the universe has other plans for you.”
I smiled wryly. “You mean, in religious terms?”
“I’m not a monk, Evie.”
“I know. Well, for a while there, I used to believe that mumbo jumbo about the universe changing to help you achieve your goals. Like, if you had a plan, that was all you needed.”
“And what stopped you from believing that?”
“Something that happened when I was seventeen. When the car that my brother and I were travelling in got wrapped around a tree. Two people died, including my brother. Now I think the universe is chaotic. No sense of rhyme or reason.”