14

The search for the Evergreen Star began after breakfast.

Coalridge sent the staff to attics and cellars. You, Wesley Snow, and David Snowell took the rooms near the great hall; Kasparsnow joined you at the fireplaces.

In a small study off the corridor, Wesley stirred the ashes in the grate and drew out a half-burnt scrap of paper. Only a few words remained, scattered and broken.

“…phrase… not in one place…”

The hand looked very like Kasparsnow’s.

He frowned at it for a moment, folded it once, and slipped it into his pocket.

In the passage outside, a brass hook on the wall stood empty.

“There should be a spare key there,” Snowell said. “Side door to the Star Chamber corridor.”

No one could say when it had last been seen.

Near one of the tall windows you noticed a faint glint on the latch, as if someone had opened it with a hand that carried a trace of glass or metal. Outside, the snow on the terrace lay smooth and unmarked.

At the far end of the corridor stood a heavy door. Set into the wall beside its handle was a square brass plate, polished by use. On it a tiny chessboard had been engraved, only four squares by four, and only two pairs of king and queen.

Kasparsnow touched the plate and the pieces shifted slightly, as if running on hidden rails.

“It is an old lock,” he said. “The pieces rotate 180 degrees before the door will open. All within those sixteen squares. No checks are allowed, and not even the queens are allowed to attack each other.”

The door did not look as if it meant to open for anyone until someone had found the right way to turn the whole position round.

The goal of the puzzle is for the pieces to rotate 180 degrees in 10 moves. The rules are as follows:

• All moves must stay within the highlighted 4x4 area on the board (a1-d4).
• Neither King may ever be put in check.
• No Queen is ever attacked.
• White starts, and after Black's 10th move, you should have reached this rotated position: