Secret Breakers: The Power of Three Read Online Free PDF Page A

that key. But keep in mind the very good advice that was given to you before your arrival. Nothing you needed in the past can be forgotten. All the best puzzles rely on what we have already learnt but think we have forgotten. Good luck on your quest.
    JS Smithies.
    Clue number one : report to the guards .

    Brodie turned the note over. There was more to read.

    Oh, and by the way, to add to the excitement, there’s a catch. Fail to find the key before the alarm sounds on the stopwatch and the game is over … your adventure finished before it’s even begun. Good Luck!
    ‘They’re timing us,’ Brodie spluttered. She stared at the stopwatch display and the figures counting down. ‘We’ve got thirty minutes.’ Panic bubbled in her throat. ‘Half an hour to get inside, or we’re going home.’
    Hunter’s face had drained of colour. ‘OK. We shouldn’t panic. Let’s take things steady.’
    ‘Twenty-nine minutes, Hunter,’ Brodie groaned. ‘We don’t need to be calm. We need to be quick!’
    ‘OK. OK.’ He slipped the cord of his stopwatch around his neck. ‘Guards then. We need to find the guards.’
    Brodie knew she should remember something important. A piece of a story perhaps, but she couldn’t work out what it was. ‘Can’t see any guards,’ she said. ‘That’s the problem. I can’t see anyone at all!’
    ‘To be fair, you couldn’t see a unicycle careering towards you, so we can’t entirely trust your vision, can we?’
    Brodie peered in desperation at the entrance.
    There was no bell or knocker, just a door between two pillars. At the base of each was a stone animal. Both had the body of a lion but wings like an eagle and Brodie was pretty sure they were griffins, although one of them was looking a little worse for wear, its beak and forehead chipped and weathered. ‘There are no guards,’ Brodie said again. ‘Griffins are supposed to keep watch for treasure seekers but they didn’t stop us getting the watches, did they?’
    ‘Guards,’ Hunter blurted suddenly.
    ‘Excuse me?’
    ‘Guards.’
    ‘Where?’
    ‘There, you doughnut. The griffins. That’s what you’ve just said. They’re the guards. I reckon we have to report to these griffins.’
    It seemed too obvious to point out the griffins weren’t real, although now she remembered she had thought the statues looked like guards when she first arrived. Fact was though, they were really just lumps of stone, but Hunter seemed undeterred and began to inspect the statues like a doctor urgently checking over the body of an accident victim.
    ‘Here,’ he said, ‘there’s something under its feet.’
    Brodie knelt down beside him. ‘Is it the key? Have we done it already?’
    Hunter shook his head. Wedged between the talons of the most damaged griffin was a roll of paper. He eased it out and began to read the message aloud.

    Well done. I see you’ve made yourself acquainted with the guards. You’re doing well … although I hope you remember the clock is ticking.
    Brodie looked at her stopwatch. ‘Twenty-one minutes,’ she said. ‘What else does it say?’
    Hunter turned the paper over.

    Clue number two: You must demonstrate true northerly direction when riding the winged horse in the shadow of six o’clock.
    ‘So?’ Hunter re-rolled the message and tapped his knees with the paper. ‘What d’you think?’
    ‘I think we’ve got twenty minutes,’ she said.
    Hunter began to read the clue again. ‘Repetition,’ he said in explanation. ‘Helps the details sink in. It’s to do with numbers.’
    ‘Numbers?’ Brodie was totally confused.
    ‘Numbers,’ he said again. ‘They’re my thing. Like books are obviously yours,’ he said pointing back to her case. ‘Based on the fact you had twenty-four of the things packed in there. And as numbers are my thing we need to hone in on the use of the number six.’
    ‘Brilliant.’
    ‘Yes. Maybe brilliance is actually my thing.’ He read the clue again.
    It was on the third