The Magician's Tower by Shawn Thomas Odyssey Read Free Book Online

uncle, her father had been the best head inspector the Dark Street Police Department had ever known.
    Indeed, the magnifying glass was so special to Oona that she often felt like she was seeing through her father’s eyes when she used it to look for clues. Sometimes she got the feeling that he was there beside her, urging her on,forcing her to see what was really in front of her and not just what
appeared
to be there.
    Presently, she peered through the glass at the flyer. It took no more than several seconds to find the hidden clue.
    â€œAha!” She pointed at a set of numbers that had been cleverly disguised along the edge of the illustration of the tower. “Look, Deacon, do you see? The numbers.”
    Once her eyes made them out, the magnifying glass became unnecessary to read them.
    â€œI do indeed,” Deacon said. “But what do they mean?”
    Oona stared hard at the numbers. Running down the side of the tower illustration, from top to bottom, they read: 67, 2, 7, 10, 4, 1, 3, 2, 1.
    â€œA strange bunch of numbers,” Deacon observed.
    â€œStrange in what way?” Oona asked.
    â€œWell, I see no immediate pattern,” he said. “Except for the ‘three, two, one’ at the end.”
    â€œThe end, Deacon?” Oona asked. “And why are you assuming that the numbers run from top to bottom?”
    â€œWell, it only seems natural to read them from the top of the page down.”
    Oona considered this. While what Deacon had said made sense, Oona couldn’t help but feel as if there was something a little too obvious about it. It was a feeling she had, an intuition that she should look for some otherlogical way to read the numbers. A moment later, she had it. She felt a surge of excitement, and more than a pinch of pride at having figured it out so quickly.
    â€œReading the numbers top to bottom would be natural, yes,” she said. “And yet, look where the numbers are, Deacon. What are the numbers supposed to
be
in the illustration?”
    Deacon leaned closer, cocking his head to one side. “I don’t follow you. They simply look as if they are part of the tower.”
    Oona nodded. “Yes, Deacon. And it is my experience that the numbers in buildings run from the first floor, at the bottom, and go upward in sequence.”
    â€œAh, I see your point,” he said. “The numbers could easily be read from bottom to top. One, two, three, one, four, ten, seven, two, sixty-seven.”
    Oona stared up at the tower. She saw no indication of numbers anywhere.
    â€œPerhaps they are referring to the different floors of the tower,” Deacon said.
    Oona considered this, but shook her head. “No. The tower is tall, but nowhere near sixty-seven stories.”
    Deacon continued to stare up at the tower as Oona peered at the illustration. She read through the words of the announcement again, then returned to the numbers. The answer was in there somewhere.
    An idea came to her. She counted the sentences in the announcement.
    â€œLook, Deacon,” she said, holding the paper up. She flicked at it with her finger. “See this? See how the announcement is written in lines, like a poem? Each sentence, or part of a sentence, is given its own line.”
    â€œI do,” said Deacon. He hopped eagerly from one claw to the other.
    â€œThere are nine lines,” she said, and then ran her finger along the illustration of the tower. “And here we have nine numbers.”
    â€œIndeed,” Deacon said.
    Oona felt a slight tingling sensation just behind her eyes as she ran her finger up the row of numbers, and then back down the rows of sentences. She knew she was onto something.
    â€œI’ll bet that these nine numbers refer to the words in these nine sentences,” she said.
    Deacon began to shake his head, seeing the flaw in her theory. “But what about the number sixty-seven? None of the sentences have sixty-seven