I'm back! Hopefully I can finish this before I start school again Monday because then my updates will be really sporadic with finals coming up. Don't forget to review with which ship you want- Nice (Luce and Nick) or Anuce (Anubis and Luce)

Disclaimer: I own neither House of Anubis or Doctor Who (catch the reference). I'm trying to change that, but at the moment no one is answering my calls.

Chapter 13

House of Riddles

I didn't mention Nina's words as I met up with the others in the room of my vision. They trusted me as the (mostly) normal girl with no real stakes in this. If it came out that apparently everything rested on my shoulder I might lose both their trust and their needed companionship. As little as I wanted to admit it, the past two days of laughing with Anubis and now Nick were the best days since my parents deaths. And, as I followed Nick to the Senet board I noticed something else remarkable. I was no longer limping.

Pushing all thoughts out of my mind I looked at the game board. Supposedly, no one knew how to play Senet, but the game was inactive and the case behind it open which could only mean that Nina's gang had successfully beaten the game. Thank god it hadn't been reset like Sarah said the other traps had or we'd all be in big trouble. I couldn't play chess never mind a game that no one alive should know.

"We have to go one at a time," Nick told us facing the board. "I'll go first and then you do exactly what I did, got it?"

"Why can't we just walk through the corridor after you open it?" Anubis asked doubtfully. Clearly he didn't feel in the hopscotch mood.

Nick only grimaced and replied, "It doesn't work like that." Taking a step forward I watched as Nick jumped from space to space in an 'r' pattern. Before hopping on the last space Nick gave them another warning, "Oh, and before you hit the last space be ready."

"Be ready for what?" I asked nervously. What happened when you hit the last space?

"This!" Nick yelled as he was sucked in by the darkness of the hole that had appeared beneath his feet.

"Nick!" I cried. No! He couldn't just be... gone.

To my relief I quickly heard chuckling and Nick yelling back, "Don't have a heart attack. I'm fine. The drop is only a few feet."

"Don't ever scare me like that again!" I bellowed back as I made a mental note to slap which when I got there.

"Well I don't know about you but I've always wanted to fall through a trap door," Anubis told me with a wild grin. Quickly following the pattern Anubis smiled and yelled, "GERONIMO!"

This time I heard the thud of him hitting the next set of tunnels and followed behind without haste. Yet, something was different with me. When Anubis and Nick had gone the stones made no reaction to touch, but with each place I landed the stones lit up like the sun. Nervous as to why it was different for me I continued the pattern and didn't hesitate before jumping on the last spot.

But nothing happened. I landed on the stone with a thud, but no trapdoor opened. I turned to see if I'd made a mistake, but the blazing light illuminated the exact path Nick had shown me. "What's wrong?" Nick called up fro beneath the floor. "Why did you stop?"

"I don't know!" I cried back. "I did the pattern like you showed me but it didn't work!"

The boys stayed silent for a moment until Anubis suggested I go back the way I came and tried again. The moment I stepped off the final stone blazing words appeared on the wall where another Anubis mystery had once lie.

I'm Robert Frobisher-Smythe and you shouldn't be here

but if you are then danger is near

Beneath this game lies the Scales of Truth

that hold the secret to eternal youth

But be careful for you have been warned

Any heart heavier than a feather will be mourned

And beware the obelisk for if it is found

A new king must surely be crowned

The words disappeared as I read them and I felt dread rising up inside me. I'd heard them mention scales before, but it never really clicked in my mind. Anubis weighed each soul (heart) against a feather when someone died. If the soul and feather were equal you were good. If the soul weighed more than the feather Ammut the devourer ate you... The story always freaked me out as a kid because last I'd checked every heart weighed more than a feather, even the feather of truth. There must be a lot of devouring going on.

What concerned me even more was the reference to the obelisk and king. I didn't know of any special kind-crowning Obelisk myths, but they supposedly were a ray of sun immortalized. The Egyptians thought of the sun as powerful, so I could only imagine obelisks harvesting a similar power. And if we had to beware the king... well then he couldn't possibly be a good guy.

When the words were all gone the passage reopened and I jumped down with the others. Anubis and Nick, who'd clearly been worried when I couldn't get through, breathed a sigh of relief.

"What happened? It always let us through," Nick questioned. Despite the danger he'd seen Nick had an innocent quality to him I just couldn't destroy with the truth. Someday I'd have to tell the rest of Sibuna, but for now... now it was better that they didn't know of the flames or the riddle. It was certainly better for Anubis not to know we were searching for the test his namesake performed.

Nick is the Chosen of Anubis. That little nagging voice reminded me. In a way those scales are his. He could measure your heart and it weighs more than a feather. You'd be devoured.

"What's wrong?" Anubis asked clearly seeing the pallor in my face.

"Nothing," I lied feigning a smile. "I just did the pattern wrong that's all. It worked the second time. Let's go, I want to see what this first task is."

Nick and Anubis shared a concerned look that I pretended not to notice. It seemed all three of us know I was lying; yet, no one pushed me for answers. We all knew that whatever was going on with me would be revealed in turn and that for now all we could do was wait.