“A minion stole your keys!?” Kip squeaked. Zeke stomped through the forest while Kip perched on his shoulder and tightly held to the minotaur’s horn. They had left Azami’s neck of the swamp and were speeding toward the Merciless Maze.

They both arrived at the bridge over Lethal Lake. A stone archway that was fixed with ‘Warning: Troll’ signs all over it guarded a retractable bridge, currently unretracted, or as Zeke liked to say, ‘tracted.’

Zeke slowed down near the bridge, Kip asked why they weren’t going and Zeke said, “Just waiting for-”

A hairy troll popped out, his top set of arms held a sword and shield, the bottom set was holding his hands in a stop motion. The minotaur stopped immediately.

“Hello, Kip!” The troll said cheerily, then under his breath said, “Hello Zeke.”

“I forgot the password.”

The troll’s face lightened and he stuck his finger in the air, in his nebbish voice he said, “If you have forgotten the password then you must answer my riddles!”

“I remember the password, Byron,” Kip said, “It was ‘password.’”

“Correct!”

“Wonderful!” Kip said, now please let us through. We’re in a total hurry.”

“No. You are correct in that it was ‘password.’ The Dark Lord changed it before he left.”

“You saw him before he left?!” Kip asked, “Did he tell you where he was going?”

“Did he tell you to tell us the password?” Zeke asked.

“No to both! Now, do you want to hear my riddle?”

“Byron,” Kip said, “We need to secure the keys to the labyrinth. It’s being held by someone easily defeatable and if an intruder get’s access, they won’t have access to the labyrinth, they’ll have the master keys for other floors too. That will not be good.”

“Kip, I sympathize but I need a password. It is imperative that we keep these safety measures in place. An intruder could have taken your shape,” Then the troll looked at Zeke, “Or could have hypnotized you. Taken control of your mind as easily as a child’s. A child who’s not very smart. No, I say. You must solve the riddle. Even the Dark Lord himself would need to solve the riddle to get through to here. Is that understood?”

Zeke whispered to Kip on his shoulder, “A grenade would help right about now.”

“You’d like to hear a riddle?” The troll perked up.

“Is it ‘password1?’” Kip asked.

The troll’s smile faded, “No.”

“‘password2’?” Zeke asked.

“Is it password3?” Kipa asked.

“You’ll never get it like that.”

“Maybe it’s something the dark lord loves. His pet, Cerburex?”

““Reminds me, I have to feed him now. Guess that’s my responsibility,” Kip mumbled to himself, “Rexy?”

“No.”

“Rexy1?” Zeke asked.

“Rexy2?” Kip asked.

“You both will never get it. Not at all. You might have a better chance at a riddle.”

“Okay fine!” Kip said, “Please, Byron. A riddle.”

“I can kill him with my axe,” Zeke said.

The troll stuck up his sword and shield, then his bottom arms took out two knives, “I’d dare you to try.”

“Normal, or Double Dog?” Zeke asked, reaching for his great axe.”

“Stop! Stop, there will be no fighting. Fine…”

The troll smiled, his bottom right arm replaced his axe in his holster and retrieved a scroll from his vest. Byron unfurled it, and his bottom left arm took out his monocle, attaching it to his eye. He cleared his throat.

“I don’t have eyes,

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

But once I did see.

I once had thoughts,

Now white and empty."

“A skull,” Kip said.

“Not that one!” The troll interjected, “I was just reading that to warm up.”

“Is it ‘password’ but the ‘s’s are ‘z’s?” Zeke asked.

“Shut up. Ahh! Here’s a good one. It’ll take you a while to solve.”

Kip slapped his face, “You’re supposed to be trying to help us get through.”

“You’ll get it. You’ll get it. Ahem.

What is it that given one,

you’ll have either two or none?”

Kip let out a big sigh and turned to Zeke, “Do you know this?”

Zeke started to shake his head, his steed-like horns brushed Kip off Zeke's shoulder. Kip held onto Zeke's shoulder for dear life.

“Woah!” Kip said as he landed back on the shoulder.

“Come on,” Troll said, “You’ve got this. Think about it.”

“What is it that given one…” Kip silently thought to himself, “What is it that, given one… Hmmm. Eggs?”

“Eggs?” The troll said with an inscrutable face, “You think the answer is eggs?”

“Well, normally you eat two eggs in one sitting. Sometimes… the egg has two yolks?” Kip asked.

“Kip, please,” The troll said, “I’m trying to help here. But… eggs?”

“Kip’s nervous because he’s going to be killed,” Zeke said.

“Really think about it. When given one, you either have two or none. Your choice of words is up to you. I’m sure of all the answers, you’ll make an excellent choice.”

“I feel like you’re trying to imply something,” Kip said. Then looking down at Zeke he asked, “Please tell me you have something.”

“Is it… password with a capital ‘P?’” Zeke asked.

The troll let out a sigh, looking at Zeke for several seconds before saying, “Yes, that’s exactly right. You are welcome to walk through. Unless you’d like to answer my riddle?”

Kip did a little jig out of giddiness as Zeke stomped past the troll onto the bridge.

Byron yelled to Kip on his way back, “Congratulations on the promotion, Kip!”

Zeke and Kip both ran through the wooden bridge right up the labyrinth's South entrance. They passed under the statue of a bull’s head and immediately encountered a fork. The wall between the two paths had two windows, boarded by wood.

“Not the twins,” Kip muttered.

The two wooden doors opened. Two trolls with large noses and floppy ears like a bunny. They wore peaked caps and while one had a big bushy mustache, the other had an equally bushy mustache. The two trolls were identical in every way.

“Hey, guys,” Kip said, “Any chance you could just tell us the right way?”

“One of us tells nothing but lies!” The one on the right said.

“The other tells nothing but truths.” The one on the left said.

“I always forget the answer to this,” Zeke said.

“How often have you fallen into the magma vat?” Kip asked.

“Fully fallen in? Never. But there have been… close calls. Lots,” The minotaur lost his faraway look and said, “I think it’s on the right.”

“It changes randomly, Zeke,” then to the two trolls, Kip asked, “Which way would the other tell me to go?”

And to this, the left one said, “Right.”

“Then we go left.” Kip pushed the horn’s of the minotaur so his head was facing left. Zeke stared absentmindedly but started to walk anyway and said, “Why would we go left?” He asked, “What if it was the one telling me the truth?”

“I’ll explain it along the way.”

Zeke walked left and as they exited, one of the twins shouted, “Congratulations on the promotion, Kip! I think you’ll do a splendid job!”

“And I think you’ll do a rather poor job!” Said the other twin.

Kip thanked them and tried not to think about who was which troll too much, lest he start to regret getting complimented. The minotaur and kobold trounced through the labyrinth. Kip would pull Zeke’s horn to and fro, left and right.

“It was a clockwork named Sprocket. He’s a pyramid with a wheel on his head. He said the nastiest stuff about you, Kip. I tried to defend you but some of the stuff he said was true!”

“Thank you for trying, I suppose,” Kip said, “Do you know where he is?”

“I do. Take me to my boss room!”

“Do you not know where it is?” Kip asked.

“No even a little. I’m shocked I make it back to my room every night.”

“Wait… how long ago did you lose your key?” Kip asked.

“Uhh, about an hour after your promotion was announced. Then, I went to find you but… I couldn’t find my way out of the maze.”

“That was a day and a half ago, Zeke… Your boss room is this way.”

Kip knew every inch of that labyrinth. His brothers once dropped him off in the middle of it when he was too young. He cried and whined and walked all around, constantly stumbling his way back to the same spot as before. It wasn’t until a helpful giant man-eating spider found him that he was delivered safely to his mother again.

Kip led Zeke through the maze, careful of deadends, wrong ways and most importantly, set traps. Zeke’s clumsiness caused him to set off a dart trap but the darts were rebuffed by Zeke’s tough hide. When they finally got to the boss’ room they saw what could only be described as a reverie of the new clockwork king. The automatons were faced toward the center of the room. Every automaton followed the beat perfectly, half of the automatons would drop with their arms up and after a beat stand up with their arms down. The other half would be doing the same thing but in the reverse. They were all a perfect distance from each other, and acting as a cohesive unit, worshipping their new king at the center of the room. Much too big for a single clockwork, Sprocket, the pyramid clockwork with a gear running through his head, sat on Zeke's throne, staring over his kingdom of order.

“Sprocket!” Kip screamed over the crowd as best he could, but Sprocket did not pay attention, he was too busy ruminating over the dazzling display of his subjects.

“Please, Sprocket!” Kip jumped off onto the floor. Everyone’s internal mechanism hummed at the same time, creating a kind of dazing buzz inside the room like a bug in your ear that you could not swat away.

“SPROCKET!” Kip yelled loud enough. Sprocket lifted his hand and like… clockwork, everybody stopped and faced in the same direction. Toward Zeke and Kip.

“Sprocket!” Kip said, “Give Zeke back his keys.”

“We are the guardians of the labyrinth.” Sprocket siad.

“That’s right,” Kip replied.

“The guardians of order!” Sprocket continued, “Now that there is no order, it is up to us to reestablish. We must reorganize. There will be… a restructuring.”

“It’s a hostile takeover,” Zeke whispered, “We get a few of these every couple of years. Normally the Dark Lord shuts it down and well… that’s you.”

“Okay,” Kip said, “So what do I have to do?”

“Easy. Reestablish order.”

“And that means…”

“Kill him.”