Muko Part II: Muko and the Path

By Greg Materna

The Citadel of Aivirai is a fantasy world of towers, lakes, bridges, walkways and symbolical trees. In its heart is a school called the Queen of Science Academy, for children of extraordinary mathematical ability. They sleep in dormitories, eat at communal tables, wear colour-coded uniforms, and attend classes taught by mathematical geniuses of past eras. It's a magical place where maths is central to every part of their lives.
The children have no idea how they arrived in Aivirai. Their only recollections of the past come through dreams. They don't understand the concept of parents, or family. The teachers maintain their distance, and discipline is kept by older pupils who appear and disappear at will. Only the eccentric Librarian is reputedly willing to listen to their problems in between ferociously protecting the books which she none-the-less stamps on every page.
The children are introduced to mathematical puzzles in class and given others to solve out of class, but for one boy, Muko, this isn't enough. He overhears two teachers talking about a mysterious but immensely important riddle, and such is his thirst for adventure that he wishes to be the first to solve it.
He forms a small team with three other children and becomes their leader. Amartia, the least sociable of them, is the mathematical genius behind much of their progress. Paidia and Gelio, close friends and comical sparring partners, also bring their intelligence to bear at crucial moments.
The children's quest begins with picking the brains of the delightfully absent-minded Professor Hedgehog, then tricking Pythagoras into getting them past the Librarian's strict access restrictions to seek out an ancient volume. A series of complex mathematical hurdles later, they find themselves in peril of their lives.
What have our four friends let themselves in for? Will they prevail against the machinations of strange artefacts and sinister mountain caverns? Solving the many riddles will add an extra dimension of enjoyment to reading the book, but it is also a magical adventure story accessible to any youngster with or without a mathematical bent.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Greg Materna
• Release date: Aug 15, 2020

Book preview

Author: Greg Materna

Text elaboration: Damaris West

Front cover & maze: Patt Ramenta

Pictures: Agata Szczęsna

All Rights Reserved © 2019 Greg Materna

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed Attention: Permissions Coordinator, at the address below:

[e-mail]

Legends of Aivirai

MUKO

and the Path

part II

Chapter 8

Beep …. beep … beep …. Is a set of complex numbers … beep …. beep … diverge …. beep … beep …. beep …. iterated … beep …. beep …. beep … 'z' equals zero …. sequence …. beep …. beep …. bounded … beep … beep …

The four friends were uncomfortably aware how narrow the tunnel was. With arms not even fully stretched out, they could touch both sides at the same time. The ceiling was high enough to allow them to stand upright, but that was because they were children; there were places where an adult would have been forced to stoop.

They advanced cautiously, feeling their way over the uneven floor. The tunnel had been roughly hewn through the mountain, but there were strange things about it which made it seem more than just a passage from one place to another. To start with, there were those numbers carved in the walls, which appeared to shine with their own light, pulsating gently to the rhythm of some unknown power source.

The numbers shining out from the rock walls would have shown them the way and prevented them from being engulfed by the darkness, but the main illumination came from multiple torches burning in wrought iron sconces at intervals along the passage. Since the torches were real flames, they created a flickering effect, and this was combined with bizarre leaping shadows here and there where a torch had burned low.

Muko led the way. He had styled himself their leader now, and Paidia and Gelio, who were full of trepidation, were happy for him to forge ahead in front of them. Even Amartia, although she wasn't afraid, was content to walk behind the brave Muko and recognise his role in the group.

They walked in silence, not daring to speak because it was such an alien, threatening environment. All that could be heard were their tentative footfalls, the hissing and occasional spluttering of the torches, and the faint, rather alarming sound of rushing water. The passage wasn't straight. It had bends in it, and after a couple of these it opened out into a large chamber.

Muko was the first to pop out into the huge space and the others heard his gasp of amazement.

As usual, Paidia was the one to verbalise what they all saw. Look! There's a rubik cube on that pedestal!

You don't say, Gelio teased her softly.

There was indeed a multi-coloured cube sitting on the top of a stone pillar close to where they had just come in.

Muko took a few steps towards the centre of the chamber, then he froze and turned back to the others. Keep back! he hissed.

He had spotted that the floor of the chamber was interrupted by a gash in the rock. Now, craning forward, he could see that it descended into an abyss full of a roiling mist that effectively concealed its depth. Almost at the same moment, he noticed that there was a rock bridge across the abyss. It was flanked by a large number of unlit torches on both sides and beyond it he could just discern a mammoth cube which appeared to be floating on a cushion of mist. It wasn't a rubik cube; rather it had what appeared to be labyrinths drawn on its sides.

These were the things which struck Muko at first glance, and he stopped in his tracks to observe and take it all in. Amartia came up quietly to stand beside him. They looked at each other and each of them understood, without saying anything, that there was a problem. The bridge across the abyss didn't lead to a tunnel entrance but instead seemed to end in a gap – a gap of about the right size to have been occupied by the large cube which could have been moved from there to its present position. In fact everything looked to be in flux. The cube itself not only floated on a layer of mist but was in constant, bodily rotation.

When Muko had heard the sound of water as they approached the chamber, he'd privately dreaded that the passage might become flooded – maybe even be subject to flash flooding. He was relieved to see that the origin of the noise was a torrent gushing from a narrow fissure in the rock wall. From