Read The Threshold Child for Free Online Page B

never was stationary. Luckily, the archers were still fairly
inexperienced and also a good distance away, giving her a split second longer
to move out of the way.
    Arrows whizzed past her ominously. As soon as she was high enough,
she leaped to the second rope. Adesina had just enough momentum to get her
hands around the rope. She knew she would have to swing harder to reach the
next one safely.
    Adesina soon discovered that each rope was further away than the
last. Each one took a little more time and strength to reach, all the while
dodging the arrows that flew past. In spite of this, she landed on the platform
as gracefully as if she had been doing nothing more than a dance. One last
arrow shot in her direction, which she dodged with an expression of contempt.
    The platform led out of the open area and into a small room. As
soon as she entered, the door slammed shut behind her. It was completely dark,
and Adesina was not equipped with anything to produce light. The soft sound of
falling sand led her to the right side of the room. She searched the wall with
her sensitive fingertips, finally coming across the shape of an hourglass.
    She was being timed.
    Adesina’s mind kicked into high gear. Based on the size of the
hourglass, she only had about ten minutes to solve this problem.
    Before the door had closed behind her she had seen that there was
a door on the opposite side. She made her way over there and began examining
the door by touch. There were a number of knobs on the door of various shapes
and sizes. Some had carvings in them, others had bumps in different patterns,
and some were smooth. Some of the knobs turned with a soft clicking noise,
others had notches that allowed them to be pulled out to different lengths, and
some were set in a slot and could be moved to different positions.
    As Adesina began experimenting with the different knobs, she
discovered that certain knobs would lock into place according to how she
positioned other knobs. She also found that some knobs would lock some in place
while releasing others that had previously been locked. Adesina turned the
puzzle over in her mind, looking for patterns and trying out various sequences.
She also listened carefully for the sand in the hourglass, using the tone of
the falling sand to judge how much time she had left.
    Six minutes.
    There were so many knobs, and several that refused to lock into
place no matter what Adesina did. She knew what she had to do to solve the
puzzle, and her mind raced over the fastest way to find the correct series of
motions.
    Four minutes.
    Some of the knobs could only be locked in place by a single one of
the others, but the movement of any other knob would unlock them again.
    Two minutes.
    Almost there. Adesina was fairly certain she knew the sequence
needed to lock all of the knobs in place.
    One minute.
    The last knob locked into place and the door swung open. Adesina
took a deep breath to slow her heart rate. That had been much closer than she
liked. A Shi was usually given more time for a puzzle of that complexity, which
was probably why Kendan had given her less.
    It took Adesina’s eyes a moment to adjust to the light before she
stepped out to the last section of the obstacle course. The door from which she
emerged was obscured from the rest of the open area. In the center of that
arena stood a pedestal, on which rested a small wooden chest. Patrolling around
the chest were four guards.
    Adesina ducked out of sight and mulled over the problem. She only
had two unused darts in her belt. That left two more to be neutralized without
being harmed. Adesina muttered darkly under her breath as she peered around the
corner to check the guards’ positions. After marking the two on which she felt
it would be the most advantageous to use her darts, she took a steadying breath
and moved into action. The darts flashed out of her hand, flying straight and
true. Adesina launched herself from her hiding spot, sprinting across