Puzzle House is the third graphic novel of The Dragon Prince. It focuses on Claudia's and Soren's adventure through the mysterious, dark magic-equipped[3] abode of Viren's former mentor, Kpp'Ar: the abandoned[4] Puzzle House.[1]
Plot[]
Learning magic is no easy thing, even for young Claudia. Despite a bit of help from a book of spells created by Kpp'Ar, her father's former mentor, it is all she can do to keep things from blowing up in her face―often with spectacularly messy results.
But a spell book is not the only thing that Kpp'Ar left behind when he suddenly and mysteriously vanished. In his wake stands the Puzzle House, a bizarre tower full of magical traps, tricks, contraptions, and―what else―puzzles. Claudia is sure that the old mage left a gift for her and her brother, Soren, somewhere deep within its walls, and she is determined to find out exactly what it is. Can Claudia and Soren uncover all the mysteries hidden within the Puzzle House? Or will they discover a darkness that will change them forever?[2]
Summary[]
Claudia is in the entrance hall of Katolis's castle as she attempts to perform a plushifying spell on a table after reading it from Kpp'Ar's book. She speaks the spell's incantation and coats the table with the essence of a Fuzz-Fur Scorpion. However, the incorrect measurement of the essence results in an explosion of purple gunk that sticks the furniture to the walls.
Upon learning of the incident, Viren and Perran takes Claudia to the throne room and report her actions to King Atticus with Harrow and a pregnant Sarai listening from the other side. They also recount the other times Claudia caused mayhem in the castle due to her reckless dark magic training and that the staff have grown tired of such rashness. Atticus then chooses to settle the matter by having Claudia sit on the throne because it is the proper place for a person to answer questions. Claudia begins to express her passion for dark magic as Atticus explains that everything in the world has a proper place and that she should practice her skills somewhere more appropriate. When Claudia suggests that she might be able to practice in her father's chambers, Viren agrees and Atticus allows her and Perran to go. Viren then tells Claudia that she can have Kpp'Ar's book back after she gained more responsibility.
After leaving the throne room, Claudia decides to eavesdrop on the conversation between Viren and Atticus. Atticus learned that Viren had not been able to fully explore Kpp'Ar's abandoned Puzzle House and that the old mage had prepared a surprise for Soren and Claudia. Atticus then asks Viren if he was holding up after Soren's illness, Kpp'Ar's disappearance, and Lissa's abandonment all occurred in a short timespan. Viren simply replies that he is doing well enough and Atticus offers to help if something needs to be done. Claudia then meets up with Perran who plans to take her to the courtyard where she can practice dark magic with Soren and Callum. Before she can reach the courtyard, Claudia becomes excited about the surprise Kpp'Ar made for her and Soren, which leads her into running off to the courtyard ahead of Perran.
In the courtyard, Claudia briefly greets Callum before she whispers to Soren about the surprise Kpp'Ar had prepared for them inside his Puzzle House. Soren questions Claudia's idea of sneaking out from the castle in the middle of the night, but he reluctantly obliges since Claudia claims that Crownguard knights would never say no to an adventure.
As night falls, Claudia and Soren start their journey to the Puzzle House after sneaking through the castle undetected. Soren remains dubious about their adventure due to the weird twists in Kpp'Ar's surprises, but Claudia insists that it might be fun. Claudia and Soren eventually manage to reach the outskirts of the Puzzle House after a long walk before approaching its entranced. The nearby rustling trees unnerves Soren as Claudia figures out the required pattern to open the doors. While exploring the entrance hall, they discover one of the stair's newel caps has been decorated with unicorn imageries and a seemingly broken lantern that holds a riddle about hidden solutions. Soren then follows Claudia in walking up the stairs before noticing that the rustling tree outside of the house has somehow found its way inside.
Claudia and Soren are confused that a regular chamber had replaced the entrance to the tower stairs. Soren thinks that there was no surprise to begin with, but Claudia believes otherwise. Soren then tells Claudia that she had been more reckless in her dark magic training ever since Kpp'Ar's disappearance and Lissa's departure, with some of her actions left furniture turned into pieces. Claudia immediately realizes that they have been seeing a lot of unicorn imageries inside the Puzzle House and she accidentally activates a spinning passageway behind the fireplace after pulling a small unicorn statue that is actually a lever. Soren and Claudia then find themselves inside a dark chamber before she remembers the riddle on the lantern. Upon igniting the lantern, Claudia reveals a glowing path for her and Soren to walk on that leads to another door. Claudia and Soren soon enter another hallway before they start to speculate on what happened to Kpp'Ar. When Soren feels that Claudia is adding more things for them to do inside the Puzzle House, she argues about her need for answers and that Viren never did anything to help her ever since Kpp'Ar's disappearance.
When Claudia places her foot on a nearby stair tread that might lead to the tower, she triggers a trap that causes her and Soren to end up outside of the Puzzle House. Soren's attempt of persuading Claudia to return to the castle fails when she comes up with an idea while re-entering the house. As they review what they see, Claudia chooses to lightly pull one of the suits of armor's spears before she steps on the stair tread again. However, they instead fall into a trapdoor that sends them outside for the second time. Claudia and Soren decide to try again by pulling the two spears at the same time, only for them to fall through the same trapdoor again. Soren is becoming fed up by the puzzles and opts to climb the tower with his bare hands due to the opened window. Right after he reached the tower's window, the sight of a Banther statue startles Soren and causes him to lose his grip. Claudia swiftly uses the plushifying spell to successfully soften a boulder for Soren to land on. The experience causes Soren to lose hope before he unintentionally unlocks a puzzle hidden in the tower's base. Upon pressing one of the switches, a stairway forms around the tower, allowing both Claudia and Soren to simply walk up to the window.
Inside the tower, Claudia and Soren discovers that Kpp'Ar had constructed a carousel with statues of different magical creatures as its seats. Claudia then discovers in one of Kpp'Ar's notes that the horn of the unicorn statue is a lever that activates the carousel and leads them to a different room with a single door. The excited Soren chooses to stay and solve the mystery of the Puzzle House with Claudia since true adventurers never give up. On the other side of the door, they find themselves before multiple vibrant-colored passages and use the lantern to guide them in walking towards the one that is not brimming with deadly traps. Claudia and Soren continue walking down the correct passage that leads them to a ruined laboratory. They ponder on the cause of the mess before a noise draws them to the passage with a unicorn imagery on the top. As they reach and open the door on the far end of the passage, they are confronted by the sight of a chained Stone Giant. The terrified Claudia and Soren flee from the Puzzle House as the sun is about to rise on Katolis.
After returning to the Katolis castle, Claudia spends the morning reading about giants inside the library. She questions on what Kpp'Ar was doing with a captured giant when Callum walks in. The frustrated Claudia vents about how nothing is making any sense to her, and Callum empathizes by talking about the passing of his father, Damian. Callum confesses that he did not want to think about his father, but his mother encouraged him to grieve so that the good memories can stay forever and that being sad is normal. Claudia then realizes that the captured giant is sad and runs off to meet Soren. Soren does not want to return to the Puzzle House because he is afraid that the giant will eat them and make Claudia promise to not sneak out again.
By sundown, Claudia decides to sneak back to the Puzzle House and meet with the Stone Giant alone. Although Claudia is intimidated at first, she is relieved that the giant does not want to eat her. The giant reveals that he is a prisoner of the Puzzle House and that he did not eat Kpp'Ar. Claudia says that she is curious about Kpp'Ar's disappearance since the old mage was kind to her and Soren before becoming slowly angry about his abandonment and his recent obsession with unicorns. The giant then states that Kpp'Ar captured and asked him many questions. However, an argument with another human caused Kpp'Ar to have a change of heart and planned to free the giant soon, though he disappeared before he could do such thing. Claudia revealed her desire in freeing the giant so he could reunite with his family and the giant was able to tell that she saw sadness in him. It is then when Claudia begins to rant about the tragedies she experienced recently until she breaks down in tears. The giant then comforts Claudia by telling her that she will find a way out from her troubles. As Claudia examines the collar around the giant's neck, he tells her that he was guarding a map inside a box that could only be seen by those with a pure heart. The giant believes that Kpp'Ar's inability to see the map broke him since what he was looking for is hidden in plain sight, which then inspires Claudia to use the lantern in revealing snake imageries around the collar. Claudia performs the spell required to unlock the collar, which frees the giant from his captivity. The giant opens the exit of the Puzzle House as Claudia intends to return the map to him. However, the giant chooses to have Claudia keep the map due to her compassion. Claudia worries that she is going to mess up and cannot see the map, but the giant assures her that she is good since she sees him as a person instead of a monster. The giant then introduces his name as Kruha and looks forward to meeting her again someday before he departs for his home.
On the next day, Viren visits Claudia in her room and returns Kpp'Ar's book to her under the condition that she will practice dark magic in his chambers. Claudia and Viren apologize to one another about their recent misunderstandings before they share a loving hug. As Viren is about to meet Soren elsewhere, he notices the box that Claudia secretly received from Kruha, only to find it containing a blank yet very high-quality paper instead of a map. Viren decides to leave it with Claudia as he promises to teach her more advanced magic when the time comes. Claudia notices that the map appears blank to her as well before it glows and reveals images of a river, a bridge, a tree, and a unicorn.
Trivia[]
- The original title of the novel upon its first announcement was "The Puzzle House". The first word was eventually removed from the title for official release.
- Soren's quote about giants eating humans by grinding up their bones and baking them into bread is a reference to the rhyme said by the giant in "Jack and the Beanstalk".
References[]
| Books | ||||||||||||
| Novels | Book One: Moon • Book Two: Sky • Book Three: Sun | |||||||||||
| Graphic Novels | Through the Moon • Bloodmoon Huntress • Puzzle House • Dreamer's Nightmare | |||||||||||
| Others | Callum's Spellbook • The Art of The Dragon Prince | |||||||||||