“This challenge will test you in a different manner to the last,” Brother Sage told us. “It’s mental rather than physical.”
Bracing myself, I replied, “You mean, you’re not going to try to kill us this time around?”
“What happened was unfortunate.” Sister Rose’s words limped on her thin lips. “Sometimes people get over-enthusiastic in the challenges.”
“It’s not enough to keep saying things are unfortunate,” I accused. “It’s not enough.”
Poppy curled her fingers around my arm. “Let’s just get this challenge done, Evie. At least we know it’s an easy one.”
Brother Sage raised his eyebrows. “I didn’t say it was easy.”
I shrugged Poppy’s hand away. “What is any of this doing for us? It’s starting to feel like we’re performing puppets.”
Duncan’s eyes widened with surprise, looking from me to the mentors and sucking his mouth in—like a small child trying to look pious when another child was being naughty.
Brother Vito offered me his customary warm smile. “There has been a great deal of value gained in all the previous years. You will see.”
I held his gaze in mine for a moment. “I hope so.”
“We can’t hold up the challenges,” said Sister Dawn firmly, holding out the palm of her hand to guide us towards the entry to the inner rooms. “This discussion will have to continue tomorrow.”
“Please,” Poppy whispered as we walked along the hallway. “Don’t ruin your chances. You’re too close now.”
“I couldn’t hold back,” I responded. But Poppy was right. I might have just blown it. The first time I’d stepped inside the monastery, I’d told myself to hold it together. But I was either doing a miserable job of that or the challenges really were too extreme and this place really was too strange and too dangerous. I was fast losing perspective.
I jammed my eyes shut tight as we stepped into the fifth room. I didn’t want to see the dark. I didn’t want to yield to it. Things were going to happen on my terms.
Yet the sense of being swallowed whole was overwhelming.
We stopped just inside the doorway. I didn’t trust that metallic creatures weren’t about to swoop on us.
“Get it started,” I said under my breath, my voice sounding fiercer in my ears than I felt.
Lights snapped on one by one around me. I let my eyes snap open.
The room was bare, apart from a tall object in the middle that was draped with a black velvet fabric.
The object had to be one of the hexagonal boxes, but why was it covered?
“I’m not touching that,” Poppy muttered somewhere close to me.
“Well, there’s definitely something under there,” said Duncan predictably.
I glanced across at him, wondering how he’d managed to get through challenge four. He would have had to run and dodge like everyone else instead of standing and trying to lead the action. A dark part of me wished I’d seen it.
We were hesitating, losing time.
Was that what the mentors expected? That because of the last challenge, we’d do anything not to set things in motion? What had Brother Vito told me? He’d said humans were creatures of habit—once stung, forever fearful.
Stepping up to the stand, I grabbed the edge of the velvet and flipped it over, exposing what lay underneath: six projectors sitting atop the hexagonal box. The projectors were modern, about the size and shape of a large digital clock, all facing outwards. Each of them were clearly labelled from one to six. The hexagonal box merely seemed to act as a stand for them, though I couldn’t be certain of that.
I peered back over my shoulder at Poppy and Duncan to gauge reactions. Had I triggered something terrible that I wasn’t yet seeing? But the two of them looked nothing more than curious, stepping across to the projectors.
“They’re all attached to these rings,” said Duncan curiously.
There were two metal rings running around the top of the hexagonal box—an inner and an outer, the inner ring a little higher than the outer.
“Should we turn them on?” Poppy widened her eyes at me, as if asking me if it were okay.
“What does everyone think?” Duncan nodded his head thoughtfully as he crossed his arms. “If we press the on button, what do you think is likely to happen?”
“We see some films?” said Poppy scornfully.
“Then we’ll have to make a decision on whether to press the buttons or not. Because touching the buttons could set off a chain reaction we’re not prepared for.” Duncan sounded unaffected by Poppy’s sneer, but he licked his lips anxiously.