by M. L. Forman
“A sign?” Alex asked.
“A strange place for a sign.”
Alex looked at the empty beach around them before turning his attention to the trees. He noticed that some of the taller trees were scarred on the side facing the beach, and looked as if they had been burned at one time. He moved forward to take a closer look at the burned trees, Arconn walking beside him.
“Strange,” Alex commented.
“Very strange,” Arconn agreed. “Some of these burn marks look like letters or runes, but it is impossible to tell for sure.”
“Let’s continue,” said Alex, returning the gem to Arconn. “Maybe we can find an answer to this riddle.”
Arconn placed the gem in his pocket as they continued walking along the edge of the beach, their eyes scanning the ground in front of them. If the egg-sized sapphire had indeed been meant as a sign, then there might be others. After walking several hundred yards, they both stopped at the same time. They were standing close to the trees, and without noticing it, they had walked into a grove hidden from the beach. Trees grew almost all the way around them, and to their right, between the pine trees, was an unmistakable stone path.
“Odd that this path should be hidden from view,” Arconn said.
“Maybe the dwarfs didn’t want just anybody finding the path to their homes,” Alex suggested.
“Or perhaps the trees have grown since the dwarfs left.”
They were both silent for a moment.
“I feel uneasy,” said Arconn.
“So do I,” said Alex. He knew there was no reason for him to be nervous, yet the feeling was there all the same. “I don’t know why, but something about this island doesn’t feel right.”
“Should we call the others?”
“Let’s look along the path a bit first,” said Alex, stepping forward.
Alex and Arconn walked along the stone path through the trees. They hadn’t gone very far when they spotted a fair-sized bag lying on the path. Alex bent down and picked up the bag, which seemed unusually full. He looked at Arconn, and then back to the bag in his hands. Slowly he untied the knots that held the bag shut and was amazed by what the bag contained.
“Nobody would drop these,” Alex said, holding the bag open so Arconn could see the hundreds of small gems inside. “A single sapphire, maybe—but this?”
“The puzzle is a hard one,” said Arconn, gazing along the path. “I feel uncertain about this place. I feel like we are being watched, but I know there is no one near.”
“I feel it too,” Alex agreed. “Let’s go a little farther, just to see if the trees start to thin. Then we’ll go back and get the others. Maybe Kat can help solve this puzzle for us.”
Arconn nodded his agreement. Alex walked slowly beside his friend, pondering his own feelings. He had felt strangely alone as he watched the Seeker sail away but not at all uneasy. Now he felt both alone and uneasy, and he didn’t like it.
There was something wrong here on the Isle of Bones, and Alex wasn’t sure he wanted to know what it was. In the back of his mind, however, was a longing he didn’t understand, a strange desire to be here and to find the answers to questions he couldn’t remember. It was confusing, and he struggled with his thoughts, trying to keep things clear in his mind.
They walked for about a half a mile, picking up three more bags all containing riches of some kind as they went. With each bag they picked up, Alex’s uneasiness grew, and he began to wish they had never come here. Finally, the trees around them started to thin out, and they reached the edge of a small valley. They could see several stone houses in the distance, though they looked like they’d been empty for a long time. Alex reminded himself that Albrek had been there nearly two thousand years before.
“Let’s return to the others,” said Arconn, a sad note in his voice. “Thrang will want to know what we’ve found, and I would feel better if we were all together.”
Alex agreed that it would be best to continue the search as a group, and he hurried back along the path with Arconn. When they reached the beach, Alex’s feelings of unease were almost gone.
“I feel much calmer here,” Alex said as the two of them walked back toward the rowboat and their friends.
“Yes,” said Arconn. “It is as if a great worry has been lifted from my mind. It reminds me of something from the distant past, but I can’t remember what.”
“What do you think it means?” Alex questioned.
“I wish I knew,” was Arconn’s only reply.
The others were all interested in what Alex and Arconn had found. Thrang seemed troubled when they showed him the bags of treasure they had found along the path. He looked at the four bags, scowling at the items and stroking his beard in thought.
“Not things you’d drop carelessly,” Thrang said at last.
“Or throw away without good reason,” Nellus added.
“We were thinking the same thing,” said Arconn.
“And the village looked deserted?” Thrang questioned, his scowl remaining.
“From what we could see, yes,” answered Arconn, glancing at Alex.
“It’s more than what we found,” said Alex, leaning against his staff and gazing back toward the woods. “The feelings of unease, our troubled thoughts, even the feeling of being watched—they all seemed so strong when we were near the village.”
“And now they are gone,” Arconn added.
Alex turned to Kat. “Do you feel anything strange? A presence, perhaps?”
“There is something,” Kat began and paused. “There is something here that does not wish to be found.”
“Something?” Thrang asked. “What do you mean?”
“It is confusing,” said Kat, rubbing her head. “I can’t seem to focus on what it is. Whenever my thoughts get near, it moves away.”
“How long have you known that something was here?” Alex asked.
“Not long,” said Kat. “After you left to look for a path, I started to worry. But the feeling didn’t seem to be my own. My thoughts wandered for a time, and I felt confused, even lost.”
“I don’t like this at all,” Thrang said, looking around at each of the members of the company. “But there’s nothing we can do about it, so we’ll just have to carry on.”
“Carefully,” Arconn added.
“Yes, carefully,” Thrang repeated.
It was still early in the day so Thrang decided they should follow the path through the woods back to the deserted village. If their feelings of unease increased, they would return to the beach and make camp for the night. If the feelings were not there or not very strong, they would explore the village.
Alex was not excited about returning to the village, but he knew Thrang was right. All that they could do was carry on. They set out for the stone path that Alex and Arconn had found, but Alex lagged a little behind the rest of the company, trying to sort out his feelings. His uneasiness reminded him of something, but he couldn’t remember what it was.
As they walked back through the trees, Alex concentrated on his feelings and thoughts. He wanted to know exactly when the uneasy feeling started or when his thoughts became confused. This time, however, there was no uneasy feeling. In fact, there was nothing at all. The sun was bright and warm, and the walk along the path was pleasant. Alex began to wonder why he’d felt uneasy before; there seemed to be nothing to trouble his thoughts now. But the fact that he didn’t have the same feelings now bothered him.
“Is this as far as you came?” Thrang asked when they reached the edge of the trees and looked down at the dwarf village.
“We thought it best to continue as a group,” answered Arconn. “Though now that we are all here, I don’t feel troubled at all.”
“Neither do I,” Alex added, walking up from behind. “It’s as if our earlier feelings did not exist.”
“Kat,” Thrang began, looking hopefully toward her. “Do you still sense something?”
“Nothing,” said Kat, closing her eyes. “There
is nothing here, or at least, nothing that I can sense.”
“Then we’ll continue to the village,” said Thrang, sounding relieved. “Perhaps we can find some clues there that will tell us what happened to Albrek’s people.”
“Clearly none of them remain here,” Barnabus said. “The village is deserted.”
“But where could they have gone?” Thrain questioned, looking from face to face for an answer.
“They could have gone anywhere,” said Thrang, trying to sound hopeful. “Thraxon is a large land, after all, and just because they didn’t return to Benorg doesn’t mean they didn’t go someplace else.”
“It’s been a long time, and they’ve sent no word to their old home,” Nellus said, his eyes fixed on the village.
“That doesn’t prove anything,” said Thrang, starting to walk toward the village. “We won’t find out anything if we don’t go and look.”
Alex followed Thrang as soon as he moved forward, but the others hesitated for a second. Thrang pretended not to notice, but Alex saw the troubled look on his friend’s face. Alex understood the company’s concerns because he had many of the same concerns himself, but he also understood Thrang’s determination. They had to find out what had happened here, and the only way to do that was to search the village for clues.
The walk from the trees to the village was a short one, but every ten or twelve yards along the path there was another bag—sometimes more than one—containing some kind of treasure. The scattered treasure was troubling because none of them could think of a reason for why it was there. Thrang muttered to himself as they walked. Alex stopped looking for the bags in order to focus his attention on his own feelings, but they remained neutral and he had no reason to think they would change.
“It doesn’t make sense,” said Thrang, stopping to pick up yet another bag. “Dwarfs don’t throw their treasure away.”
“What if they were pursued?” Barnabus asked. “If something was chasing them, they might have thrown these things away to lighten their load.”
“That is a possibility,” Thrang allowed. “But I don’t know what would have scared a village full of dwarfs into throwing their wealth away.”
“I don’t suppose there are many things that would pursue a village full of dwarfs,” Nellus added. “Dwarfs, as a rule, do not scare easily. If they were running, something terrible must have made them run.”
“Perhaps they had run out of food and were forced to leave the island,” suggested Arconn. “I don’t suppose they could grow much here.”
“No, not this far north,” said Thrang, continuing along the path. “If they were short on supplies and winter was coming, they might abandon their treasure. Of course, they’d try to come back later to claim it.”
“I don’t think they’d throw it along the path,” Kat commented. “They would have hidden it somewhere—somewhere they believed was safe.”
Alex listened to all the ideas but didn’t comment. He thought the idea of dwarfs being pursued was the most likely explanation, but he couldn’t think of anything that would chase the dwarfs away and leave their treasure lying on the ground. Even dwarfs fleeing from a host of goblins would have been an ordered escape, and besides, goblins wouldn’t have left treasure behind. It was a mystery he couldn’t solve, and that troubled him more than anything else that had happened that day.
When they reached the outskirts of the village, they paused, looking at the long rows of empty houses.
“Let’s split up and search the houses,” said Thrang. “Alex, you go with Kat and Barnabus. Search the house on the left. The rest of us will search this one on the right. If anyone runs into trouble, call out.”
Alex nodded and moved toward the house on the left with Kat and Barnabus. It was obvious the run-down house had been abandoned for a very long time. They had some trouble opening the house’s heavy wooden door because the hinges had almost rusted shut.
“I’m surprised the door is still so solid when the hinges have rusted it closed,” Barnabus said.
“The wood has a binding spell on it,” said Alex, looking at the door. “Dwarfs are known for the binding spells they can put on wood to make it almost as hard as stone.”
“You’d think they’d rustproof the hinges as well,” said Kat with a slight smile.
Kat’s smile made Alex smile as well, and he felt better than he had all day. He let his mind relax as they began looking around the ancient house, but he wasn’t sure what they were looking for. He knew, and he was certain Thrang also knew, that the dwarfs would not have left their records in one of these houses. They would have built an underground chamber, or at least a special stone building to keep their records safe.
“Not much here,” said Barnabus after several minutes of wandering around the house. “Nothing of value, and the furniture has all but turned to dust.”
“Wait. There is something,” Kat said, staring at a blank wall.
“A hidden room?” said Alex, walking toward the wall. “I suppose the owner of the house would need someplace to keep his treasure.”
“It is well hidden,” said Kat. “I can’t see it, but I know it is there.”
Alex looked at the wall for several seconds and then reached out to tap it with his staff. For a moment nothing happened, and then the outline of a door appeared on the wall.
“Lucky we brought a wizard along.” Barnabus laughed.
“Lucky we have a seer to find hidden doors,” said Alex.
“Finding the door is not difficult, but getting it open might be,” said Kat.
It took Alex three tries to open the door. Behind the door was a small room filled with piles of treasure that looked as if they had been searched through in a hurry. To Alex, it looked like the owner of the room had been in a terrible rush to find something, and then left quickly without straightening up. Barnabus and Kat both seemed happy with the discovery, even if Alex was troubled. Absentmindedly he picked up a golden necklace. Why? That was the only thing he could think of. Why would the dwarfs leave all of this behind?
“We should get the others,” said Barnabus after several minutes.
“Yes,” Alex agreed, returning the necklace to a nearby shelf. “Thrang will want to know what we’ve found.”
“I sense you are troubled by this,” Kat murmured.
“I can’t find a reason for it,” Alex answered, turning to go. “No one leaves their wealth and their home for no reason.”
The others followed Alex out of the house. Nellus and Arconn were waiting for them in the street, but they were alone.
“Where are Thrang and Thrain?” Kat asked, looking up and down the street.
“They believe they’ve found a hidden room,” said Arconn. “They’re trying to find a way to open the door.”
“They’ll have a hard time with it,” said Alex. “We found one as well, and it was guarded better than I expected.”
“I would guess that all the houses have hidden rooms,” Arconn said thoughtfully.
“And I would guess that Thrang will want us to open them all,” said Alex.
Alex found Thrang and Thrain inside a house, standing next to a blank wall and looking unhappy. Thrang knew only a few opening spells, but he had tried them all. Alex explained about the hidden room they had found in the other house and smiled when Thrang insisted on trying one more ancient dwarf spell. Thrang stood still for a moment, deep in thought. He took a step back and spoke the words, but nothing happened.
“I suppose you’ll have to do it, then,” said Thrang, looking at Alex hopefully.
Alex bowed slightly and touched the wall with his staff. Once again the outline of a door appeared, and this time Alex was able to open it on his first try. Thrang and Thrain both hurried into the small treasure room as Alex watched from the doorway.
“Did the room in the other house hold this much treasure?” Thrang questioned.
“About,” said Alex with a shrug.
“I suppose we’ve added to our wealth
, then,” Thrang said with a laugh.
“That is true, but the real question remains,” said Alex, turning away from the room.
“What question is that?” Thrang called after him.
“Why?” said Alex, walking out of the house.
Chapter Thirteen
Salinor
Why what?” Thrang questioned, following Alex out of the house and into the road.
“Why has all this been left?” said Alex. “Why are there no dwarfs here? Why do we feel troubled and then not troubled? There is something wrong here, and I want to know what it is.”
“Yes,” said Thrang, nodding his head. “I agree that none of this makes any kind of sense. I suppose we should look for the colony’s records and leave the treasure hunting for later.”
“That would seem the wisest course,” said Arconn.
“Yes, well,” Thrang said, looking down the stone-paved street, “I suppose we’ll have to move farther into town. It’s customary for the archives to be built near the center of the settlement, unless the dwarfs built most of the city underground.”
“It looks like most of this city is aboveground,” Nellus said.
“Kat, if you sense anything—anything at all—please say so at once,” Alex said to the seer.
“Whatever I sensed before has either left or hidden itself very well,” said Kat, sounding both relieved and unhappy at the same time.
Alex could not explain it, not even to himself, but he knew there was something on the island, and even if Kat could not sense it, it was still there. Whatever it was, Alex couldn’t do anything about it, not unless it wished to reveal itself to him, so he settled on the next best thing—finding the records of the city and whatever answers they might hold.
“Come on, then,” said Thrang, starting off down the road that led to the center of the deserted town.
Alex and the others followed, looking from side to side as they went. They didn’t bother picking up the small bags anymore; there would be time for treasure hunting after they’d found out what had happened to the dwarfs.
Fortunately the village was fairly small, with only about sixty stone houses. Each of the houses had an area of open land around it, which seemed odd for a dwarf colony, or at least it did to Alex.