That Grey Area - Book 1 - The girl from Otherworld

The winner of the Sphinx Tournament

Rowan is staring at her with an open mouth, all annoyance drained from his face. My heart sinks. This is the kind of girl I could not even dream of being.

'This is my niece Isolde,' the Wise One says.

'Izzie,' the girl corrects.

'Well, I shall leave you to it then,' Esther says, closing the door behind her as she leaves. Izzie strides towards the table with the confidence of somebody who owns the place. Without a smile, she pulls out a chair and sits with us, bringing with her a spicy scent. Rowan stares at the riddle, a tactic I recognise well - he is trying to avoid looking at the beautiful girl.

'Esther did not explain very much, only that you wanted help solving a riddle, but she bound me to secrecy with a spell, so I can only assume it's important,' Izzie says in one breath.

Rowan explains his situation again, and this time I follow a little bit better. Unlike me, Izzie does not stop him with silly questions. Once Rowan is finished, having said about ten times how important and secret the riddle is, Izzie turns her attention to me.

'And who's this?' she asks, pointing her nose at me as though I might offer any sort of competition.

'She's... I mean I am...' Where is the 'on' switch in my brain?

'This is Lacie Vaughan,' Rowan says. 'Marec gave me a piece of parchment saying to find her. The Wise One agreed to help and brought her but... well, anyway, the Wise One said you might know how to solve the riddle.'

'This is it, I assume?' she says, turning to the riddle still glowing on the drape. 'Hmm, it's very tricky. What do you have so far?'

'Well, not much,' Rowan answers for us. 'There's three parts to it, plus the introduction.'

'Obviously,' Izzie says dismissively. 'What else?'

'Well...'

'And what happens when you get the answer?' she asks. 'Do you just get the key? Just like that? Do you have to speak it? Is it okay for you to get help?'

'I guess so. I don't know, Marec didn't really explain. He said he couldn't. Bound by magic.'

Izzie twists her lips and looks ahead pensively.

'What goes from black to white?' she wonders out loud. 'The ground when it snows? I suppose the eagle is a mountain animal but the crow is a lowland one... but that seems a bit far-fetched... What do you think?'

Rowan sits there dumbly.

'We're going to need some books,' she announces, pushing her chair back to get up and strutting towards the bookshelves. If she is impressed by the vast collection, she hides it well.

Izzie's hand trails along the spines of the book as she reads their titles out loud, commenting on their worth. She piles a few up in her arms and brings them to the table. 'Here, that should get us started.' She then takes out inkpots, quills and parchments from a small cabinet near the drape. 'Look for any keywords in the riddle. Eagle, animosity, that kind of thing, and make a note of any links you make.'

Her chair groans as she brings it closer and she digs into the books with gusto. Rowan and Izzie start working straight away; Izzie's quill in particular is hard at work scratching notes on pieces of parchment. I stare at the riddle on the drape, and the quills. I take one in my hand and survey the nib. I don't even know how to write with one of those. I grab one of the books. It smells of dust and old paper, and the cover leaves a grey smear on my fingers. The title is engraved onto the faded leather. 'Puzzles and riddles: a guide to word associations' by Martin Lotiken.