Hey everyone! I'm back from the dead! Well, I've been updating stuff, just not this story. Now that I'm done with school I'll have so much more time to write. I've had an insane past few months and I'm so glad that I get to go back to working on this. I've also had to get throguh a bit of *gulp* writer's block (Skip was on an extended vacation). I think I've made up for my absense with this chapter-there are some pretty awsome things that go down and I know that there will be something that everyone will love. So far, I think this is one of my favorite chapters. I was so excited to post this that I self beta'd it so I could get it out that much faster (Sorry Nebrae). But hey you know what? You've all waited long enough for this chapter so I'll shut up for now. Enjoy!

Chapter 14 House of Riddles

Nina could barely control her nerves as the unknown person shuffled through the room. She thought the thumping of her heart would give them all away. "Nicholas, why did you have to be so good at hiding things?" the woman asked again. Amber nearly jumped up in the air at the mention of her father's name. At the very last second, Alfie and Patricia managed to hold her down.

As carefully as he could, Fabian turned his body so he could look around the edge of the boxes. A split second he spun back around and stared at Nina with wide eyes. "Amber's mum," he mouthed to her. Nina's eyes grew wide as well and she could feel every one of her muscles tense up. Nina leaned toward Patricia to pass along the message.

Mrs. Millington continued to look around the room for something, occasionally muttering to herself. Nina tried to focus on taking slow, deep and silent breaths. She had to take her mind off of the fact that if any of them made a peep they would all get caught, the fact that if they got caught then they would all be sent home and lastly the fact that she was sitting so close to Fabian she could feel his chest rise up and down with his breathing.

"I won't find it tonight," Mrs. Millington finally said. "Perhaps Adriane was able to. It looks like she and Lazar came through here." With a huff, she walked out of the room. It wasn't until everyone head an echoing click from the door did they dare to move. At one time all five of them let out a huge sigh of relief.

"OK that was way to close," Patricia said as she stood up.

"Totally. Let's just get out of here before we get in any more trouble."

"Wait a minute Alfie," Amber said. "What do you guys think my mum was looking for up here?"

"Don't know. But let's talk about it in the morning. Sibuna meeting after breakfast?" Nina asked.

"No wait, Mara said something about all of us going into the town tomorrow after breakfast. She says we haven't done enough things as a group since we got here," Patricia argued.

"OK. I guess Mara is right, after all we're supposed to be on vacation together. So far we've hardly paid any attention to Mara, Mick and Jerome." Everyone else slowly nodded in agreement as they thought about the past few days here. Quietly, the group made their way out of the room and headed towards the staircase.

When they reached the bottom Nina paused momentarily with her hand on the doorknob. Fabian glanced over at her. "What's wrong?"

"I'm trying to decide if I should lock the door or not. We don't know if Mrs. Millington is still up there."

"Leave it unlocked. It was unlocked when she came up so it would be better for to leave it that way." Nina nodded and shut the door the rest of the way. After a quick goodnight, the Alfie and Fabian went into their rooms and the girls slipped down the hallway.

Patricia eased her door open slowly so she wouldn't wake Mara up. When Nina and Amber got into their room, Nina went straight to her dresser and hid the new ring with the one she had found before. Amber pulled back her sheets and snuggled into bed. "Let's just hope," she said with a big yawn, "that the clue is easy to figure out." Nina smiled and got into her own bed. She was hoping the same exact thing.

The next morning as everyone was eating breakfast; Mrs. Millington came out onto the patio and sat in an empty chair. Amber, Nina, Patricia, Fabian and Alfie all stopped eating and stared at her. The all thought she was about to say something about the third floor. Instead she warmly smiled at them and said, "Good morning everyone. I hope you all had a good night's sleep."

Fabian, who was the first to compose himself, cleared his throat and smiled back at her. "I had a very good night's sleep ma'am." Mrs. Millington nodded in his direction and struck up a conversation with Mara.

"So are we all still going into town after breakfast?" Nina asked.

"No one said anything to me about actually going somewhere. I was planning on staying right here for the rest of the day. I'm way overdue for some R&R," Jerome protested. He crossed his arms and looked at each of his friends.

"Please Jerome? We all came here to spend some time together and seven of us going to do something wouldn't be the same," Mara pleaded. She looked straight into his eyes, as if trying to plead telepathically with him. Jerome darted his eyes away from her, but looked right back. He ran a hand through his hair and sighed loudly.

"Fine I'll go. I don't want to, but I will." Mara grinned and returned to her breakfast. As everyone finished eating, they began to get up from their seats and head inside. Nina walked behind Mara and Patricia, who were talking about what Jerome had said.

"He really can't say no to you can he?" Patricia whispered.

"Don't be ridiculous. Of course he could."

"Jerome is as stubborn as a goat with an injured foot. You know as well as I do that he rarely changes his mind. And the other day, he went seashell collecting with you." Their conversation continued as they went into their room. Nina shook her head and smiled, Patricia was totally right about Jerome.

Right before Nina let her room; she went to her dresser and shoved both of the rings into her bag. Experience had made her learn her lesson about leaving important clues in her room when she wasn't home. The last time that happened, Sibuna almost lost all of their clues and Victor had found the Elixir of life. With the clues tucked safely in her bag, Nina briskly walked out of the room to meet everyone down in the entryway.

When everyone was gathered together Mara pushed open the door and asked, "Is everyone ready to go?" Slowly they all filed through the large door and into the bright morning sunlight. Philip had offered to give them a ride but Nina, Fabian and Mara had been quick to decline. The last thing they wanted to do was to get back in a car with Philip.

Fabian and Patricia fell into step with Nina, and lagged behind the rest of the group so they could sneak a peek at the ring. "So what does it say?" Patricia asked as Nina examined the inside of the band.

"I don't know. It's in Greek."

"You've got to be joking. How are we supposed to figure out the clue then?" Patricia yelled.

"We'll just have to do more research. There should be a library around here somewhere," Fabian reassured.

"Patricia! Fabian! Nina! Come on keep up! We don't have all day," Jerome yelled from the front of the group. Patricia rolled her eyes and continued walking at the same pace. Nina dropped the ring back into her bag and quickened her pace.

The walk into the village was short, but by the time they reached it everyone was starting to sweat. The sun was blazing overhead, making it impossible to see anything. Nina shielded her eyes to get a look of where they were. It was an open air market. Locals had set up stalls along both sides of the street and were all selling different goods. Some shops had food, some sold blankets and other clothing, while some had hand crafted jewelry. Past the market there were rows of tiny stores and houses. All of them made out of the same stucco-like material.

"I think Jerome and Alfie ditched us," Fabian said as he came up beside Nina. She quickly scanned the crowd and saw them heading towards one of the food stalls. "Figures," Fabian muttered.

"Come on, let's go check it out," Nina said cheerfully. The group of eight dispersed into the market and everyone spent their time the way they wanted to.

At some point, Fabian found a store that had a series of star maps for sale and since Nina didn't know anything about stars, she stood against a retaining wall to wait for him. Out of boredom she reached into her bag and pulled out the ring. She could feel an inscription on the inside of the band. "If only I knew Greek, this could be so much easier," she muttered to herself.

"That's a very pretty ring young lady." Startled, Nina jumped n the air and almost dropped the ring. "I'm sorry; I didn't mean to startle you."

"Have I seen you before somewhere?" Nina asked. The man that stood before Nina looked oddly familiar, though she couldn't place where she had seen him before.

The man before her chuckled. "Why yes, and I must apologize. When I last saw you, I was in quite the hurry and did not notice that you were standing there. I did not mean to almost run into you." Nina thought for a second, and then she realized where she had seen the man before.

"You came to visit Mr. Millington the night he disappeared."

"Yes. Nicholas is a dear old friend of mine. Now where are my manners? I am Doctor Darien Petridis. It is a pleasure finally getting the chance to meet you, Nina Martin."

"How do you know my name?" Nina asked sharply. She wondered to herself if everyone in Greece was psychic or something, because way too many people knew who she was, where she was staying and just too many other things to be normal.

"Nicholas told me all about you. He said that you have quite the love of mysteries and riddles."

"I wouldn't call it a love. I just happen to be in the right place at the right time and my curiosity gets the best of me."

"Hey Nina! You have to come see this!" Amber yelled from down the road. "I found the most adorable—oh Dr. Petridis. What are you doing here?" Dr. Petridis smiled warmly at Amber and held out his hand. Amber took it and shook it firmly.

"It's a pleasure to see you again Amber. I was just getting acquainted with Nina. I had asked her where she found such a lovely ring." He pointed to the ring that Nina still held. "It looks like a very old piece of jewelry."

"I just found it today, here in one of the shops. I'm going to give it to my Gran as a souvenir. She loves stuff like this," Nina quickly lied. Amber looked at her curiously. With her eyes, Nina warned Amber that she shouldn't say anything.

"Well it is lovely. I think your Gran will like it very much. Well ladies, I need to get going. They need me up at the dig site so I should be heading up there. It was so nice to see you again Amber. I'm sorry about your father, but I'm sure that the police will find him soon. Also, it was good to finally meet you Nina." Nina held out her hand and Dr. Petridis shook it. It was then that Nina noticed that his right hand contained a small gold ring on it. The same ring that she was holding in her left hand.

"Well, goodbye Dr. Petridis. Have a good afternoon," Amber called as he began walking away. He turned and smiled at both of them before merging into the crowd. "Well that was nice. I haven't seen Dr. Petridis in a long time. He's always busy working up at the ruins." Nina wanted to tell her that he had been at her house just a few nights ago, but right then all she could think of was the ring on the doctor's finger. He was part of Aspída as well. The only thing Nina could think about was who owned the second ring they had? One was Mr. Millington's, but why would he have two of them?

"Nina, Amber, look what I found!" Fabina ran up to them with an ecstatic look on his face. Tucked under his arm was a large red book. He stopped in front of them and held the book up to them. Written in faded gold letters were the words 'A Guide to Archaía Elláda'.

"What does that mean?" Nina asked as she took the book from Fabian's hands.

"It means ancient Greece," Amber stated. Fabian and Nina both turned to Amber in shock. "What? You should both know by now that I've got both beauty and brains."

Ignoring Amber's comment, Fabian turned back to Nina and said, "The owner of the shop sold it to me. I think it'll prove to be very helpful in translating the you-know-what."

"Wait what are we translating?" Amber piped in. With a sideways glance to Fabian, Nina held up the ring that was still in her hand. "Oh the ring! Right! I knew that." Nina and Fabian both started fighting their laughter. The three of them began walking down the street, looking for signs of the others.

CRASH! The sound echoed through the entire market and everyone stopped to see what had caused the sound. "Anóite! Párte apó to magazí mou!" A tall, heavy-set man ran out of one of the stores and began chasing someone down the street, screaming at the top of his lungs.

"Is that Alfie? And Jerome?" Amber asked, scanning the figures running towards them. The big man continued to scream at them as he chased the trouble makers through the streets.

"Nina scooted over towards a young woman who was also watching the spectacle. "Excuse me. Do you know that man is yelling?" she asked.

The woman turned to Nina, surprised. "Yes. He's saying 'Stupid! Get out of my shop!'" Nina nodded and went back to her friends.

"Save us!" Alfie yelled as he ran to where Nina, Amber and Fabian were standing. He and Jerome both ducked behind the three of them. The man who was chasing them stopped and glared at the two before looking at Nina, Fabian and Amber.

"Mípos aftá ta dýo aníkoun se sas?" They all looked at the man blankly. The woman that Nina had spoken to a moment ago stepped forward.

"He asked if those two belonged to you," she explained.

"Unfortunately yes," Fabian muttered. Jerome and Alfie glared at Fabian in disgust, but shrunk back when the shopkeeper stared at them. The woman repeated it to the shopkeeper. He said something else in Greek and the woman turned back to them.

"He claims that these two knocked over an entire shelf of ceramic items and they are all ruined. He said that they need to leave the market before he calls the police. And also that they need to pay for the damages."

"How much?" Jerome asked.

"He said six hundred thirty Euros." Fabian's eyes nearly popped out of his head.

"That's five hundred forty-six pounds!" Fabian yelled. Nina tried to do a conversion in her head. A pound was about sixty cents so five hundred pounds would be about… "It's about nine hundred dollars, Nina." Now it was Nina's turn to gape in shock.

"How do two people cause that much damage?" Nina screamed.

"It's a long story," Alfie admitted sheepishly.

"Just tell him that we'll get him the money tomorrow," Jerome muttered. Nina thought to herself how much trouble they'll be in when their families found out about this.

"All right. Now I think its best that you all leave," the woman said. She smiled sympathetically and then walked away with the shopkeeper, who was still muttering things under his breath. Amber huffed, grabbed Jerome and Alfie by their ears and stormed down the street, yelling at them the whole way about how embarrassing they were. Along the way, they ran into Patricia, Mick and Mara and told them what had happened. Needless to say, Mara wasn't all that happy with either of them. The entire walk home was spent with her and Amber yelling at them for being irresponsible, immature and reckless.

When they got back to the house, Alfie and Jerome managed to escape to their room. "I can't believe those two," Patricia grumbled.

"We've got bigger things to deal with. Check out what Fabian got," Nina said excitedly. Fabian pulled out the book and Patricia's eyes grew wide with joy.

"Let's get to work." Patricia, Amber, Nina and Fabian shut themselves up in the library and began translating the inscription. It proved to be a harder task than any of them expected because the words on the inside of the band were very hard to read. After a few hours though, they had finally finished the riddle.

Fabian shut the book with a hard snap and leaned back in his chair. In the middle of the table was the ring and a piece of paper with what they hoped was the translated clue. Just then, the door creaked open and everyone dove to hide the ring and the clue, but all the ended up doing was smacking heads. "So this is where you all have been hiding." Everyone at the table let out a sigh of relief. It was Alfie. "Woah, did you translate the clue already?" he asked when he saw the ring and the paper sitting on the table. He picked up the clue and read over the words. "So what does this mean?"

"We don't know, but we're going to figure it out." Patricia said firmly.

"Let's think about it tomorrow. I'm starving," Amber said. Everyone nodded in agreement and began to walk out of the library.

"Just like old times huh?" Fabian said to Nina as they walked out.

"Yeah, but hopefully this time doesn't end with some lunatic trying to kill us with red electric deadly flies." Fabian chucked and the two of them shut the door to the library.

When Helios rides across the sky
The father of Triton will extend his hand
And reach for his mighty weapon

So how was that? Was it worth the wait? I sure hope so. Now it's time for my last few messages. I'd like to thank my forum members for leaving the best reviews an author could ask for. I'd like to thanks Grace, my self proclaimed number one fan for constantly telling me to update. Lastly I'd like to thank Skip the plot bunny for giving me the best ideas ever!

So I hope after this really long chaper you all leave great, specific reviews on what you liked and didn't like. Also, don't forget to leave predictions. When someone gets a prediction right, the chapter that the answer to their prediction is revealed will be dedicated to them. So, I recommend reviewing and telling me your predictions!

Last thing, I swear. I haven't said this yet so I'll say it now and please remember it for all furture references-I don't actually own House of Anubis. I do own the plot though so I ask that you dont' steal it from me. If you do, well I'll hunt you down and do...well I don't know what yet but it'll be bad. So you have been warned. Peace out for now!

~Wolfie