“I refuse to believe that,” I said. “They wouldn’t put a poison here that we couldn’t somehow cure.”

“Chekov’s poison?” Morgan said. I’d told her about what Jane had said about the first batch of statues and she thought it was hilarious at the time. The look on her face told me she didn’t think it was so funny now that Jane and the others' lives hung in the balance.

“Everyone look for something that might be an antidote.”

We all began to scour the room, hunting for anything that looked remotely helpful.

I started by evaluating the Minotaur because I thought he was the one who had most likely poisoned them. The dead guy between the pillars probably wasn’t the culprit, considering he had the same blue tongue and had probably died from the same poison.

Minotaur’s Corpse

Items:

Minotaur’s Horns

Red Mana Crystal

Vial of Hydra Blood

Golden Fleece

Minotaur's Axe This massive axe was once the weapon of choice for the dreaded Minotaur of Daedalus’s labyrinth. You’d better be strong if you hope to use it. Powers:

It’s For Chopping People, Not Trees - Deals extra damage when used against a humanoid

Wayne offered to dig out the mana crystal and remove the Minotaur’s horns, and even though nobody wanted to use the axe I put it in my inventory anyway, thinking it was probably worth something to someone. Morgan, resident poison expert, took the vial and tucked it safely away in her inventory. I was a bit disappointed to find that the fabled Golden Fleece had no powers of its own, but was only useful as a crafting ingredient. And for relaxing on by a warm fire, I suppose.

Next up was the dead guy and the hunk of metal he was chained to.

Daedalus’ Corpse

Items:

Poisoned Blue Tongue

Lump of Adamantium

Just as I figured. What about these things on the pedestals?

Daedalus’ Notebook This was the treasured notebook of Daedalus, creator and master of the labyrinth. Its many pages are covered with his scribbled notes. No matter how many pages are filled, there will always be more blank ones to write on. Powers:

[Hidden]

Chocolate-Dipped Golden Apple This delectable fruit is from a special tree in the garden of the Hesperides, and has been dipped in chocolate. Powers:

The Chocolate Makes It Go Down Easy - Universal antidote

Bingo.

“I’ve got it!” I shouted, grabbing the apple. It was cool and firm and as soon as I touched it I had the overwhelming urge to bite into it. I resisted, though, my desire to cure my friends overpowering the enchantment on the fruit.

I pulled out a knife and carefully carved five small chunks from it. I didn’t know if it was important but I didn’t want to take any risks so I made sure each piece had chocolate on it. We put one into the mouth of each poisoned person, and within seconds we could tell it was working. The blue began to quickly fade from their tongues, then one by one they opened their eyes as they regained consciousness. There was some powerful healing in that apple, because not only did they wake up right away, but I could also see their health bars refilling rapidly.

A collective breath of relief went around the room, but not too deep of a breath. Daedalus’s stench was still a force to be reckoned with. Byron clutched Nina tightly in his arms, and I gave them as much time like that as I could before clearing my throat.

“Um, Nina? I'm really glad you're okay now, but...could you please heal Sigrid?”

Byron let go of her and she rushed to Sigrid’s side and began using her power. The immediate crisis now over, I took a more leisurely approach to evaluating the rest of the room while the rest of the captured group recovered and got caught up on recent events.

I started with the museum area.

Wax Wings These wax wings were worn by Icarus when he flew too close to the sun. They’re melted now, and cannot be used to fly.

White Mana Crystal Mana crystal from Sirius the Light Dragon.

Puzzle Shell This spiral shell has a string threaded through it.

Wooden Cow This large acacia wood cow has a secret door in the side as well as other strategically-placed openings.

“Okay, now that we know this dead guy here is Daedalus I understand the wings,” said Sigrid. “Icarus, right? Everybody knows that story. But what’s with the wooden cow?”

Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

“Do you really want to know?” Arthur said with a wry smile.

“Now I have to know,” she said.

“That cow there is the Minotaur’s mommy.”

“What?”

“The story goes that King Minas was supposed to sacrifice a prized bull to the god Poseidon, but couldn’t bring himself to do it. This pissed Poseidon off.”

“Is it just me or do all these Greek myths start with someone pissing off a god?” Sigrid said.

“Not all of them,” Arthur said.

“Just most of them,” Morgan added with a laugh.

“So Poseidon cursed Minas’ queen, making her fall in love with her husband’s cherished bull,” Arthur said.

“What a prick,” Sigrid said.

“Who? Poseidon or the King?”

Sigrid shrugged. “Uh, both, I guess. So she loves a bull. Weird, sure, but so what? I've done fetish nights, I've seen weirder.”

"You have?" Morgan said, looking equal parts impressed and alarmed.

“So, the Queen convinced Daedalus to build this wooden cow," Arthur said, plowing forward. "See how it has a door in the side? Just big enough to climb inside.”

Sigrid’s sky blue eyes grew wide. “You don’t mean...she didn’t...”

“Oh yes. She climbed inside and, well, that’s how the Minotaur was conceived.”

“Half human, half bovine,” Morgan said, “and all icky.”

“I have nothing to say to that,” Sigrid said.

I already knew the story of the wooden bull, and listened with amusement while trying to look at the notebook. I was more interested in it than anything else in the room. While Daedalus had been dying from the poison, he had chosen to reach for this notebook rather than the only thing that could have cured him.

What was so important about it that he'd choose this book over life?

Unfortunately, I found that I couldn’t budge it from the pedestal, no matter how hard I tried. I couldn’t even open it. It’s like all the pages had been superglued together, and the whole thing superglued to the pedestal. Others noticed me struggling with it and came to help. Chika was all better now, so she tried to use her super strength to lift it. She failed. I had a hard time looking at her, all I could see was her Doppelganger double and how it had looked when I tortured it into leading us here, but I managed to find a supportive smile to give to her. We tried prying it off with the Minotaur’s axe. Nope. We tried all kinds of things in an effort to get the notebook, but nothing worked.

We were missing something.

I took another look around the room, searching for a clue. Puzzles like this in roleplaying games were the original escape rooms, and I’d played through lots. There were always clues, the real trick was to recognize them for what they were. After finding nothing, I started to get worried. It was entirely possible that the clue to solving this was somewhere else in the labyrinth, and we’d missed it when we’d coerced the Doppelgangers into skipping past most of the maze and heading straight to the end. Assuming this was the end.

I went back to Daedalus’s corpse. I hadn’t fully examined it before. I didn’t want to get too close because, you know, the stench. I’d only used All Shall Be Revealed from a safe distance. This time I took a deep breath and got closer. I knew there wasn’t an object on his body that was the key, I would’ve seen it in my evaluation. It would have to be something else. Maybe the smell was a clue? Then I noticed his hands.

He’d been reaching toward the notebook when he died. One hand was stretched out, fingers spread, grasping, but the other was in an odd position. The middle two fingers were bent down. I grimaced and reached out, carefully lifting his hand and turning it over. Both fingers weren’t just bent, they were being held down by the thumb, with the pinky and index fingers extended.

I knew that hand sign. That was the horns. Did this mean something? Did it have something to do with the Minotaur’s horns?

“Hey Wayne, can I see those Minotaur horns?”

I put a horn on the notebook. Nope. I tried wedging a horn under it. Nada.

“Here, let me,” Wayne said. He took the horn and started bashing the notebook with it. Nothing happened, of course.

That must not be it.

Kay raised her hand making the sign. “Isn’t the horns what heavy metal fans use? Maybe we need to sing some Black Sabbath or something.” She wrinkled her nose and stuck out her tongue while giving us the sign of the horns.

“Don’t look at me,” Jane said when I looked at her. “I can’t do Ozzy.”

I sighed.

Why’d I have to go and learn the Music skill?

I took a deep breath.

“Generals gathered in their masses,” I sang. Everyone turned to look at me, again with a strange look. This time it was a distinctly different strange look from the one before, but still one I couldn’t decipher. I closed my eyes and kept going. “Just like witches at black masses. Evil minds that plot destruction, sorcerer of death's construction...”

As the last note petered out I opened one eye to peek, but still nothing had happened to the notebook.

“Oh come on,” Sam said, “don’t stop now. I want to hear the oh Lord yeah part.”

Andy kicked the lump of metal Daedalus was chained to. “I didn’t think this guy was a fan of heavy metal, considering this is what helped kill him.”

Kay couldn’t hold back her laughter anymore. “I can’t believe you actually tried that dumb idea. I was joking!”

“There are no such things as dumb ideas,” I said.

“You’re wrong there,” Jane said, laughing along with Kay. “It was a really dumb idea.”

“I know, right?” Kay said, wiping tears from her eyes.

There were tears in the corners of Jane’s green eyes too as they looked at me, but that only made them shine even brighter. “You really gave it your all, though, didn’t you?” She was laughing, but there was no mockery.

Kay put her hand on my shoulder. “Ozzy would be proud, dude.”

“Who’s Ozzy?” Chika said.

Kay suddenly stopped laughing. “Not cool, Chika.”

“What?” the teenage girl said. “I’m serious. Do you mean, like, an Australian?”

“Oh dear,” Sam said.

“This could take a while,” Kay sighed, and she and Sam led Chika off to one side for a music history crash course.

“It all starts back with the Memphis Blues...” Sam began.

“Any more ideas?” Wayne said.

I had one more idea myself. I made the sign with my hand, index and pinky fingers extended with the middle two held down by my thumb, and placed it on top of the notebook.

Then I almost fainted.