by Kay L. Ling
Let’s wait a moment before we go inside.
After a couple minutes, when there was no sign of Kaff, Elias dropped the invisibility and said, “Let’s go!”
Tyla took Elias’s hand and they stepped forward, disappearing into the tree. Parcune said to Lana and Jules, “We’re next,” and held out a hand to each of them. They were inside the tree an instant later.
Lana sighed with relief. There was the cage, and S was inside. “Hey S, have you missed me?”
S waved her feelers. “You! What are you doing here?”
“We came to rescue you. Show a little gratitude.”
“Rescue, bah! Who is with you?”
“All your friends,” Lana told her cheerfully. “Elias, Tyla, Parcune, and Jules.”
Jules and Elias lifted the cage, and Parcune and Tyla flanked them. “Back in a minute,” Tyla said to Lana, and the group disappeared.
Most kidnapping victims were happy to see their rescuers, Lana thought, amused by S’s reaction.
Tyla returned a minute later, laughing. “She has no idea how we found her, and she’s demanding we put her back in this tree. Too bad she doesn’t have a say in the matter.” Tyla held out her hand. “We’ll go straight to the carts.”
They Walked With the Wind, emerging from a tree near the maraku carts wherei Ben and Tina Ann were waiting. Elias and Jules had put S’s cage in the back of Parcune’s cart, and now that they had more light, Elias was examining the irate beetle. “Are you all right? No missing legs or antennae?”
“Your concern is touching,” S said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
“So, is that a yes? Or was Kaff rough with you?” Lana asked.
“I was glad to be free of the dolts you left in charge of me. Unlike them, this fellow is quite enterprising . . . for a gnome. You would do well to listen to him.”
“Is that so,” Lana said. “Other than beetlenapping you, what has he done that’s so enterprising?”
S ignored the question and said in a taunting voice, “He told me about the mission to the Amulet barrier. Too bad it was not successful.”
Jules didn’t take the bait. “If you ask me, we accomplished quite a bit.”
S crawled closer to the bars, feelers flicking. “You found some hidden gems, including the Focal Gem. But they did you no good. You could not cross the barrier.”
Elias said, “Since Kaff is so superior, and we should listen to him, tell us his solution?”
Apparently, isolation had made S talkative. “He believes you will need dark powers to break through the barrier. And I agree.”
“Of course you do,” Jules muttered.
Elias folded his arms. “So, he came to you—the authority on dark powers.”
“You will not teach him so who else could he turn to? Few gnomes would merit my attention, but this fellow is quite clever.”
“I don’t get it,” Lana cut in. “Why would you help Kaff?”
“You seem to forget that I have been imprisoned in the Amulet as well as the gnomes.”
Lana made a disgusted noise. “You’ve been here over two hundred years. It doesn’t look like you’ve tried too hard to get home.”
Jules said, “When everyone served her, it wasn’t so bad, but it’s not much fun anymore.”
“You think she’d have it any better over there?” Lana laughed. “I don’t think so. Not after what she’s done. Woodspirits would be ashamed of her, gnomes would hate her, and in her new form everyone would laugh at her. She’s better off here, and I still say she never made more than a halfhearted attempt to get home.”
“Believe what you like,” S said. “In the days when I tried to get through the barrier, I had not discovered alamaria. It could make a difference. After all, it allowed me to use the portal to your Amulet after being blocked for so many years.”
Lana looked at the restraining collar still encircling S’s neck and felt a surge of anger. “Then you should have gone to the barrier and tried to get through instead of pursuing your ambition to conquer my world. You missed your chance, and now you’re in a cage.”
“Alamaria was a better discovery for us than for her,” Jules said, laughing.
“It certainly was,” Elias agreed. “S is right in one regard. Alamaria may play a role in breaking through the barrier.”
“We think we have a solution, and dark powers aren’t the answer,” Jules told her. “So you and Kaff have been wasting your time.”
“Guess he won’t need Dark gems anymore,” Lana said.
“Kaff stole them from under Elias’s nose,” S’s said gleefully. “I told you he is enterprising.”
“There’s nothing enterprising about being a thief,” Elias growled. “I’ve warded my cave against vermin, and that is all that should have been necessary.” He turned to the group. “We’ll take S back to Shadowglade. No one will expect to find her there, and this time, I’ll set wards for two-legged vermin.”
“Should someone watch for Kaff to come back?” Tyla asked.
“I doubt he’ll return right away. I’ll come back as soon as possible. If you like, you can come with me and we’ll wait inside the tree.”
Tyla’s face lit at the prospect. “Oh, yes! I’d love to.”
“Am I invited?” Lana asked. “I’ve always wanted to go on a stakeout.”
“Don’t leave me out,” Jules said. “I wouldn’t miss this for the world.”
“Count me in, if you can use a slow old gnome,” Parcune said.
Elias smiled. “Kaff probably won’t return until morning. Waiting will be rather dull. And since he could arrive at any time, we’ll need to be invisible and remain quiet.”
“I’ll round up bedrolls and snacks,” Lana said.
Jules said, “We can sleep in shifts and take turns watching.”
Elias laughed at their enthusiasm. “You’re all welcome to join us. Once Kaff comes in and discovers S gone, Tyla and I will follow him.”
Lana said, “When you find him, I hope you put him in the dungeon. A few months behind bars would do him good.”
S said in a horrified tone, “He was seeking a way to cross the barrier. Why does that merit punishment?”
“Because he stole Dark gems and teamed up with our sworn enemy,” Jules said. “If that doesn’t merit punishment, I don’t know what does.”
“You are as foolish and weak as the gnomes. No doubt they will be trapped here forever.”
Lana remembered S’s spell book saying gnomes were foolish and weak. The book had clearly gotten its misguided opinions from S, but now it was shedding her influence. “If anyone is foolish and weak, it’s you. In case you haven’t noticed, you’re in a cage. You’re the one trapped here forever.”
“Miserable gnome lovers,” S grumbled.
Chapter 20
When the cart reached Shadowglade, Elias turned the cage and himself invisible. It was Lana’s job to distract the guards while the others smuggled the cage inside. Lana got out of the cart, palms damp with nervous anticipation.
The guards listened with rapt attention as Lana related Elias’s attempt to find S through gem powers. She had just started to describe their search of the Fair Lands Amulet when the others came in. According to plan, Jules was first, then the gnomes, then Elias who was levitating the cage, and finally the breghlin who made sure to leaving a safe distance so they didn’t bump into him. S had been warned not to say a word and wisely remained silent.
Lana watched the procession from the corner of her eye, and when the group had safely passed, she brought her story to a close, excused herself, and hurried to catch up with them.
Tyla went to the kitchen to get snacks, Parcune headed off to find bedrolls, and Elias, still invisible, told Lana and Jules, I’ll put S in the sitting room off my bedroom.
Lana supposed that was a safe place. His suite was at the end of a first-floor passageway, so even if S talked to herself all day long, no one would hear.
Once inside the suite, there was no fur
ther need for invisibility. Elias and the cage became visible. He set the cage on the floor in a corner of his sitting room, and said, “I could sound-shield the room, but I don’t think that will be necessary.”
With the door closed between the bedroom and sitting room, it was even less likely anyone could hear her.
“I never thought you and I would be roommates, S,” Elias said with a twinkle in his eye. “I warn you I snore. It’s one of my many annoying habits, according to your former spell book.”
S turned her back to him. Mentioning her spell book always annoyed her.
Jules said, “A lot has changed since you were here. Breghlin females share a dorm room. Sometimes Lana spends the night with them. We opened two offices, run by breghlin and gnomes, and they’re handing out supplies from your storehouses.”
Lana jumped in. “We turned empty rooms into guest rooms. We get a lot of visitors. You can’t imagine the number of clan leaders we’ve hosted, and more show up every week.” She dropped her voice to a confidential tone. “We use your former suite for wild parties.”
“My suite!” S fumed, breaking her silence.
Lana winked at Jules.
“That’s right,” Jules said. “That woven cocoon-thing that hangs from your ceiling is a real hit with the gnomes. Last weekend, some of them were swinging from it after having a few drinks.”
Lana clapped a hand over her mouth to smother her laughter.
Elias said, “We dug up your poisonous garden . . . and planted strath.”
“You didn’t,” S said weakly.
“Lana brought Fair Lands flowers,” he went on, “and breghlin made several lovely flowerbeds out front.”
“They’re excellent gardeners. Who knew?” Lana said, finally regaining her composure.
“I suppose we should be running along now,” Elias said. “Make yourself at home, S, and I’ll be back later to keep you company.” He shooed Lana and Jules from the room and shut the sitting room door. “I almost feel sorry for her,” he whispered.
“I don’t,” Lana said, grinning.
Elias turned invisible, warded the suite, and then they all went outside to find Parcune and Tyla who should be outside by now, loading supplies onto the cart.
“How did it go?” Parcune asked. He and Tyla were sitting on the back of the cart, their legs hanging over the edge. They had loaded food, bedrolls, and a small keg of fialazza.
“Fine,” Lana said. “S is safely stashed away.”
“Wishing she were still in solitary confinement,” Elias added with a chuckle.
They returned to Kaff’s tree, and Tyla went inside to make sure he hadn’t returned before carrying in supplies. Jules and Elias laid the bedrolls along one wall, Lana and Tyla set up snacks and drinks, then Elias used a gem to enclose them in a protective ward so no one outside the ward could see or hear them. They all sat on their bedrolls with goblets of fialazza.
“To the ABI—Ahmonell Bureau of Investigation,” Lana said, lifting her goblet.
“Another bureau?” Jules teased.
“Yes, and you’re all official members.”
The group laughed and took a sip.
“Gnomes have never needed a crime-solving agency,” Elias said. “Clans are closely-knit societies, and when you’re forced to live in hiding, it’s necessary to get along.”
“Yes,” Parcune agreed. “The elders have banished offenders, but none in my lifetime. Kaff may be the first.”
“Banished? He’ll be an outcast?” Jules asked.
“Yes. And no other clan will take him.”
“The breghlin might,” Jules said thoughtfully, “but knowing Kaff, he’d sooner die than live with them.”
Lana said, “Most gnomes would feel that way.” She almost felt sorry for Kaff.
“It’s hard to believe Kaff would study dark powers, even for what he thinks is a worthy cause,” Tyla said. “If he keeps this up, he’ll get deformities—witnesses—and then he won’t be able to enter trees at all.”
“The minute the team got home, he went off to find his own solution. He didn’t give anyone time to work on the problem. Why was he in such a hurry?” Lana asked.
“He wants to be a hero,” Parcune said. “He’s hoping to find the answer on his own and get all the credit.”
“I think you’re right,” Elias said. “Kaff made no important contributions during our trip, and that has to bother him. Humans and breghlin found the relics, and you discovered the gems inside.”
“So you’re the hero, Parcune,” Lana said, smiling at him.
“Me a hero? Bah,” he mumbled into his cup.
“You are,” she insisted. “And Kaff is trying to one-up you.”
“Quite likely,” Elias agreed. “Parcune has done more for the gnomes than Kaff, and Kaff resents that.”
Tyla helped herself to meat and cheese and passed the plate to Parcune. “I was talking to Tina Ann, and she told me how Kaff treated you. She said if she were you, she would have knocked out his teeth and made them into a necklace.”
Parcune gave a snort of laughter. “That sounds like Tina Ann!”
Tyla grinned. “I admire her. She doesn’t let anyone push her around.”
The group ate, drank, and talked until they began to nod off. Lana rubbed her eyes, finding it increasingly difficult to stay awake. “Who’s on first watch?”
“We’ll need one gnome on every watch so I can follow Kaff by Walking With the Wind if need be,” Elias said.
“I can stay awake for a while,” Parcune said.
Jules said, “So can I.”
“Very well. First watch will be Parcune, Jules, and me.”
Lana fell asleep almost immediately, and when Elias woke her to take the second watch with Tyla, she felt reasonably rested. It was four o’clock according to her reliable mechanical watch. She had to shake Tyla two or three times. Tyla finally opened her eyes and stretched with a groan.
“Just give me a minute and I’ll be fine,” Tyla promised groggily.
Lana looked down the row of bedrolls. Jules and Parcune were on the opposite end, and Elias was next to her. Elias looked dead tired.
“I’m not very sleepy,” he said, in spite of his eyes drooping shut. “A brief cat nap should do.” He fell asleep within seconds and started snoring.
He wasn’t kidding about the stakeout being tedious. Lana caught herself nodding off a few times, and Tyla was having the same problem. They took turns nudging each other awake.
Around six o’clock, Kaff appeared.
Lana’s mouth dropped open.
He had come with three other gnomes, a female and two males. One had to be his younger brother. The resemblance was unmistakable. They were talking and laughing and making so much noise, Lana didn’t need to wake anyone.
Parcune and Jules were instantly on their feet. Elias got up, cursing under his breath.
“She’s teaching me things Elias won’t,” Kaff said proudly, “And you can bet I’ll—” His eyes widened and he looked about frantically.
“So where is she?” asked the female, a black-haired gnome around Kaff’s age.
“Is this a joke?” the older male demanded.
“You didn’t really steal S,” said Kaff’s brother, looking disgusted. “This was all a joke, and I’m not laughing.”
“She was here!” Kaff insisted. He whirled around, looking increasingly panicky. “Someone must have taken her!”
“But you’re the only one who knows where she is,” the female said, frowning. “Wait, who else did you tell?”
“Just you three, I swear!”
“If you really did take her, it was a dumb idea,” said Kaff’s brother.
“You want to cross the barrier, don’t you?” Kaff snapped.
“Well, yeah. But how does taking S help?”
Kaff threw up his hands in disgust, and the sleeves of his green robe slid back. “Don’t be dense. Dark powers are the answer.”
Lana gaped at the two breghli
n-like bumps on Kaff’s forearm.
“Change of plans. We reveal our presence,” Elias said, looking horrified. “Don’t let any of them get away.” He stepped forward, dissolving the ward, and grabbed the unsuspecting Kaff from behind. The rest of the team pounced on the others.
“You idiot!” the female screamed at Kaff. She tried to jerk free from Tyla, but Tyla only tightened her grasp.
“Even if you Walk With the Wind, you can’t get away from me,” Tyla told her.
Jules was holding Kaff’s brother, who started to sob.
“Don’t be a baby,” Kaff sneered.
“How could you do this?” Elias demanded furiously.
“S is gone, and you obviously got her back, so let us go. We’re done here. It’s over.”
“Over?” Elias said, eyes blazing. He wrenched Kaff around to face him. “To the contrary, your troubles have just begun. I’m taking you to your Uncle Raenihel, who will arrange for a nice long chat with your parents and the elders.”
Chapter 21
Lana and Jules went back to Shadowglade while Elias, Parcune, and Tyla took Kaff and his friends to Raenihel’s Tree Home.
“I wouldn’t want to be Kaff right now,” Lana said, as she and Jules climbed out of the cart.
“His friends may get off with a stern lecture, but he’ll be in custody until the elders convene.”
“We don’t have to keep Kaff’s arrest a secret, do we?”
“No. That’s not a secret, but we can’t say where S is.”
Breghlin came to take the cart back to the barn, and Jules filled them in on everything that had happened, and told them S had been moved to a safe place. After repeating the story to the door guards, he and Lana went to the library.
Arenia was sitting on a couch, an open spell book on the low table in front of her. She looked up. “Where’s Tyla? Is everything all right? Did you find S?”
“Tyla’s fine and S has been tucked away,” Lana said. She and Jules sat down across from Arenia, and Lana told the story again. “So now Tyla is with Parcune and Elias, and they’re delivering Kaff and his friends to Raenihel.”