Darn! I missed the sign ups for this lodge! Oh well, I'll just have to read along!

*Takes up the challange*

Okaaaaay, are you....

PoinsettiaScuttlesPeripangolinGloomyBearMoonWolfWildWolfHexAnastasiaOvermorrowLyricAmethyst

ThunderLEJaybellsSeadragonAvaraStarHoaxSinePheonixPheonixTearsWolfyDarkvineVerdeBookGirl

BlackfootedBobcatSilverCrystalCelineParodyRainbow_______________

*pants*

*runs out of names*

*collapses* 

Oh no! Am I dead?

“They’re alive!”

Moon gasped, hurrying over to pry the wreckage of the chandelier away. “Are they injured?” she exclaimed.

“Do they look injured?” Hawk snapped, then exhaled. “Sorry. I’m just … shaken.”

With everyone working together, they quickly extracted Verde and Celine. Verde had been knocked out—which was probably better, considering the extent of injuries on their legs. Celine was still awake, letting out hisses of pain with every move.

Moon helped Pangolin to heave Verde up. “Should we take them to the carousel room?” Moon asked.

“Too far,” Pangolin decided. “Take them to a parlor.”

They stumbled through the dining hall and into a side parlor with cushy couches. Moon and Pangolin set down Verde on one couch. Celine collapsed on another with the assistance of Wild and Hawk, breathing hard. Ash followed nervously behind.

Pangolin sighed, looking up. “Is there any first-aid here?”

Moon shook her head. “No, but I’ll look.”

She quickly began to scan the parlor, but then something made her stop short. That painting … had that painting been there before?

It was a small oil, seemingly of the parlor itself. There were the same baroque cabinets, and the same golden lamps, and the same two couches. But on the couches … there were also two people. Who looked a lot like Verde and Celine.

The blood drained out of Moon’s face. How did that painting predict—

“Oh my gosh,” someone else whispered, catching sight of the painting.

Moon walked forward, lifting the painting. It came off easily from the wall, having been hung on a nail. “Check the back,” Pangolin suggested.

She flipped it over. There, on the back, was a small calling card.

Moon drew out the card. Everyone else gathered around her, reading the words on the card. They were in an elegant cursive scrawl that was familiar by now.

You’d probably like fidi star by now, wouldn’t you?

For your friends Vesperdreme and Lenice?

If you wish to help them, you’ll need to seek out the briarly.

Decoresorts are fair game.

And find the concealed yip.

Love,

The signature was hastily scribbled on mostly non-illegible, but Moon could barely make out what looked like a T.

“What’s fidi star?” Moon asked.

“And who’s Lenice?” Ash seconded.

“It’s an anagram,” Wild said excitedly, seeming to have forgotten about their dilemma at the moment. “Lenice is Celine. Vesperdreme is—yes, the letters check out—that’s Sempreverde. Then fidi star is …”

“First aid,” Pangolin supplied.

“Briarly is obviously library,” Wild continued. “And decoresorts … corrodes? Escorted? Secret? Rooster?”

“Secret!” Moon exclaimed. “Secret doors!”

Almost immediately, the group dispersed to search every nook and cranny of the parlor for secret doors. Moon scoured the mantlepiece of a grand fireplace, pressing bricks to see if they were loose. On one, there was a small inscription. Commissioned for Baron Tiowri.

Out of the corner of her eye, Moon saw someone slip out of the room. Was that … Pangolin?

“I’m going to go to the restroom really quick,” Moon excused.

Nobody seemed to notice her. Moon left the room really quick, scanning her surroundings for Pangolin. She caught a flicker of a shadow rounding a corner, and followed. Where was Pangolin going?

The pursuit took her up a flight of stairs, through a narrow hallway, and at the end, a small restroom. Moon stopped at the doorway, looking around. She’d definitely seen Pangolin go in here but the room was empty. Beautiful sky-blue tiles, frescoed ceiling, a sink carved in the shape of a turtle—but where was Pangolin?

Moon slowed down, looking around carefully. Secret doors.

She ran a hand along the faucet levers, turning one on. Water trickled out. When she turned it off, it stopped at the correct place, but she swore it had a little give. With all her strength, Moon forced the lever back.

As she pushed, the entire back wall slid open. Moon let go, gasping despite herself. The lever began to inch slowly back to its regular position, the wall doing the same. Moon hesitated, then rushed straight through the wall.

It was dark. The floor seemed to be slanted. Moon walked towards the direction of the slant, feeling around blindly in the dark, until she nearly ran into a figure.

“Ah!” Pangolin yelped.

Moon leapt back, looking at Pangolin. She had kneeled down on the floor, and seemed to be examining a small hole very intently. “What are you doing?” Moon asked suspiciously.

Pangolin looked at Moon with wide eyes, barely visible in the dark. “Nothing.”

Moon knelt down beside her, looking down through the hole, which was a pinprick of light in the darkness. She saw the whole dining room splayed out below them, and the shattered chandelier directly beneath. Moon jerked her head up, looking at Pangolin. “You—”

“No, no!” Pangolin exclaimed hurriedly. “No, I didn’t try to drop the chandelier! I just—I needed to examine it. Look at the screw. This was a rush job. Someone clearly didn’t have time to properly unscrew it—maybe because it was too heavy—so they just smashed straight through the bearings. It would’ve broken slowly—just in time to fall on us.”

Moon stood up, staring at Pangolin. Her heart was beating very fast. “How did you know this passage was up here?” Moon asked, backing away.

Pangolin sprang up, looking desperate. “It was my card! In the rainbow room! It told me about this passage, and said that someone had already left while we were all separated—I didn’t get what it meant, until now! I swear I didn’t unscrew the chandelier!”

Moon hesitated. It seemed convincing, but the other possibility … and wasn’t Pangolin the one with the revolver?

“You can explain yourself once we’re back with the others,” Moon decided. “And if you kill me right now, we’re the only two gone, so they’ll know it’s you.”

“I wouldn’t—”

“Let’s go.”

Pangolin followed Moon silently back to the parlor, and through a passage which had opened through the fireplace. It was an awkward crawl, but they emerged into a grand room with high ceilings, lots of sunlight, and the most books Moon had ever seen. Wild, Hawk, and Ash were all there, poring over a card. A large encyclopedia (what must’ve been the concealed yip) lay open on the table.

“Read this,” Ash said, offering the card to Moon and Pangolin. “Can you make any sense of it?”

Moon took the card, reading it over.

Where Love is nothing,

Singles make two,

Doubles make four,

And six makes Victory.

P.S. The front door has been unlocked now! Happy hunting!

~ - ~

Your puzzle is: find the place the riddle is referring to.

Your clues are: the riddle card. The unlocked front door.

Your answer will be: a place. The palace has this on its outside grounds, but you have not seen it yet.

The next chapter will be posted when someone has solved the riddle. Sorry Verde & Celine—you’re out of the game. Only temporarily though ;3

“It’s a tennis court,” Moon suggested.

“Really?” Wild asked, looking at the card in confusion. She didn’t really get the riddle. “How do you know?”

Moon shrugged. “I mean … I guess, because love is zero in tennis?”

Wild thought about it for a moment, then snapped her fingers. Moon was so right. “Of course! And there are two players in a singles game, and four players in a doubles game. And normally, you have to get six points to win a tennis game. That must be why they unlocked the front door—there are tennis courts. What are we waiting for?”

Wild led the group, minus Verde and Celine, towards the front door. Her heart was racing. Even though they desperately needed first aid for their friends, Wild couldn’t help but enjoy the puzzle a bit. It was all part of the game—and the stakes could not be higher.

Reaching the front door, Wild tested the handle. At a single touch, the double doors swung easily outwards. Wild stepped out.

Oh my gosh, Wild thought.

The palace stood atop a high mountain, looking down onto a rolling plain, and then the sea far below. From here, Wild could see lush palace grounds—gardens, an outdoors swimming pool, and—

“Tennis courts!” Ash exclaimed, pointing towards the distance.

Wild began to walk rapidly over the terracotta-tiled path, then broke into a run.

She skidded to a stop in front of the tennis courts, breathing hard. There were seven of them, laid out at awkward angles.

“Let’s split up and search the courts,” Wild suggested. The others agreed easily.

Strangely enough, there was nothing on Wild’s court. No tennis rackets or balls. Wild frowned. Was there really nothing here? She stooped down, looking down under the bench.

Aha!

Oh. That wasn’t first aid.

Wild drew out the item—a crusty, dirty boot with silver buckles. She made a face, about to drop it, but then hesitated. What if it was actually really important? You could never tell with this place. Making a decision, Wild kept the boot, and went to go reunite with the others.

“Did anyone find anything?” Hawk asked, once they were all together again.

“I found a boot,” Wild offered.

Hawk raised an eyebrow. “That’s fantastic, but we don’t need a boot.”

“I’m keeping the boot,” Wild insisted.

Hawk shrugged, smiling. “Suit yourself.”

“Why would they tell us to go to the tennis courts if there’s nothing here?” Pangolin complained. “We need first aid, but all we found was a boot. And the courts are super hard to navigate too. I accidentally searched the same one twice. Why are they diagonal?”

Wild craned her neck, looking at the courts. They were laid out pretty weirdly. It was almost like a triangle. Or a chicken-foot. Or an—

The idea struck her like a lightning bolt. “It’s an arrow!” Wild gasped. “Quick, let’s see where it’s pointing.”

She took off across the tennis courts, slamming open the doors at the point of the arrow.

“Oh my goodness,” Hawk said, grabbing Wild’s shoulder just in time to stop her from running straight into a stone wall.

Wild stood, panting. “Thanks.”

“It points to a wall,” Pangolin said, walking up and running a finger over the stones.

“Wow, I didn’t realize,” Ash laughed. Pangolin stuck out her tongue at themm playfully.

Wild stared at the wall, trying to think. Why would the arrow lead them to a wall? This wasn’t what they needed. This wasn’t what they needed at all.

“Look at this,” Moon said.

Everyone gathered around where Moon stood, pointing to an odd engraving on the wall. It seemed to be the shape of a palm-sized sun, carved in the stone.

“That’s weird,” Ash said. “It almost looks like—hang on.”

They reached into their pocket, fumbling around. After a moment, they drew out their item—a gleaming golden medallion with the shape of a sun on the face.

“Try putting it in,” Pangolin suggested.

Ash reached out. The medallion fit into the engraving perfectly, and when Ash let go, it stayed there, almost magnetically. Despite that, nothing happened.

“Hey,” Wild said, a thought occurring to her. “Wasn’t there another medallion? A moon one?”

“And there’s a moon engraving here. Who had the moon medallion?” Moon asked, looking around.

“It must be with Verde or Celine,” Hawk said. “Be right back.”

After a few minutes, Hawk returned with a silver moon medallion, placing it in the matching moon engraving.

Wild heard a rumbling sound, instinctively stepping back. Dust sprinkled from the cracks of the stone bricks as the wall began to slowly, slowly slide open. As the moving stopped, Wild stepped through the newly-opened passage.

It was a garden. Not just any garden, but perhaps the most beautiful garden Wild had ever seen. Exotic flowers wound up trellises; vegetables seeming to burst with color grew from the ground; everything was lush and green and gorgeous.

There was so much greenery that it was practically a maze. Almost immediately, Wild lost the others.

Somehow, she found the center. A marble statue of Fortuna stood in the center, recognizable from the coin she held in one hand, engraved with a star, and the cornucopia she held in the other. And inside the cornucopia, to Wild’s delight and relief, was a first-aid kit.

Wild grabbed the first-aid kit, grinning. They could fix up Verde and Celine now!

Suddenly, a shot rang out.

Wild froze. Then, she spun on her heel and immediately ran towards the source of the sound. When she got there, the others had already found the body.

“No,” Moon mumbled, staring at the ground dully. “No, no, no.”

“How?” Pangolin whispered, her eyes wide with genuine fear.

Hawk lay on the ground, a hole straight through her chest. Three things had spilled out of her grasp. Her lighter. A bottle, in which was a miniature ship. And a calling-card with familiar handwriting.

“Why?” Ash asked in horror. “Why would anyone kill her?”

Wild kneeled down and picked up the calling card. “Because,” she said grimly, “she found our next clue.”

~ - ~

No puzzle! Expect a puzzle in the next one though. Two murder attempts already, one successful!

Also, how did Hawk guess me so quickly? I suppose my identity has been revealed. Now you know who truly owns the palace ;3