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THE BUGGY RIDE BACK to the Raven’s Burrow Mountain Tours was cramped between the four of them. A few times Mothy had to hang on to Wolflock in order to keep the dark haired boy from falling off the side. Wolflock showed no signs of displeasure at the journey. On the contrary, he had to keep swallowing back the smile that tried to creep onto his face. Not only was he going to get what they needed to ascend the mountain, but he was also going to solve a new puzzle.
Wolflock hid his excitement mostly because whenever Mothy caught a glimpse of him, his eyes flashed a warning brown. He could tell his friend didn’t like him seeming pleased while a child was missing.
Theod stopped outside the gate, and Wolflock noticed that most of the properties closest to the mountain had green yards. The Vuori’s had two ancient, knobbly trees on either side of their front path, with posters outlining the rules of hiking up the mountain.
“What is the schedule for the mountaineers? When did the last ones leave and how frequently do they depart?” Wolflock asked as they stepped onto the porch. Mothy checked over their luggage, but none of it appeared to be tampered with.
“Can I just pop these inside, Ms Vuori?”
“Huh? Yes. Now, listen. You said you’d help first before I organised your venture up the mountain.” She frowned as she unlocked the front door.
“That’s not what I meant. When did the last expeditions leave and when are they expected to return? Could Lija have left with them?”
“No. That’s not possible. We have one team that goes up the mountain to the university and the other goes around in a loop to show the best views in Shiriling. The one to the university takes a week round trip and the loop takes three weeks. The university trip is waiting to leave in the next few days, and the round trip is due back this afternoon before sunset.”
Wolflock nodded, taking that mental thread from his web. The four of them entered the old house and Wolflock thought it looked like a museum. The entrance hall held the flight of stairs leading up to the second story. The ancient, worn carpet looked like it used to be red but had faded to a pale brown. The mid-sized paintings lining the walls captured moments between the generations that lived here, as did the furniture. Centuries old side tables mixed with modern coat racks told him a possible motive for kidnapping Lija could have been generational wealth, given the only people currently in town were well known unless they were travelling to the university. It also told him that the Vuori’s were practical people who weren’t phased by fashion.
Ms Vuori led them to the parlour to the right of the entrance hall, and Wolflock admired the seats of intricately embroidered velvet. In the middle of the room stood a stone table with an unused hookah. The whole room seemed out of place compared to the exterior and entranceway.
“You help a lot of traders from Uluken go up to the University, don’t you, Ms Vuori?” Wolflock asked as she scribbled a note for the guide returning this evening.
“Aye. They all want to get up there to sell to the University. Most reliable deals they can get. I keep everything in this room to make them comfortable while we discuss prices and procedures. But why do you ask?”
“Can you tell me anything else about your daughter? Did she help you with these guests?” Wolflock ignored her question. Had the girl run off with a merchant or taken something to them that they’d left behind?
Ms Vuori’s pointed nose twitched as if she were about to cry again. “She’s still alive but I know she’s in some kind of trouble.” She looked as human as an elf, and less so with her features creased from being distraught. Everything about her looked sharper and more predatory than regular humans.
“Forgive me, ma’am, but how do you know that? Perhaps she is tending to your merchant customers somewhere?”
“We haven’t had any through since early Autumn. I can tell because I have a connection to those in my bloodline. I can tell she is unharmed, but her fear is my fear, and I can feel her trying to be brave. I feel sick.” Ms Vuori wept into her hands.
Wolflock looked at Mothy and Officer Tand, who shrugged, looking uncomfortable.
“You’ll have to forgive me, again. Is there something magically gifted about your race?”
Ms Vuori stopped crying and wiped her face with a sigh. “You’re not from Mystentine. I forget that other countries don’t have Antrum. Most people around here know the history of the Antrum. We’re called under elves as slang for those that remember it. I suppose there really aren’t many of us left. I only know of a handful in Shiriling and the ones remaining all came here after the Last King destroyed us.”
The boys stayed silent and let her continue.
“The Antrum were a powerful race that was nearly wiped out by the Evil King. I’m not going to go into my history, but, I will say that we see better in the dark, we’re always magically inclined, and we can somewhat sense and control our descendants through a form of ancient blood magic. Only the strongest and most ruthless can control others against their will through blood magic. I only use mine to make sure Lija is safe. Some days, it’s more of a torment than a gift.” She began weeping again. Mothy knelt next to her, patting her back.
“I’ll need to see her room. Where is it?”
Ms Vuori pressed her lips tightly together and nodded, gathering herself before she took them through the hall and upstairs. The large house had many bedrooms and craft rooms. Lija’s room overlooked one of the streams coming down from the mountain at the back of the house. The room itself was unlike any children’s room Wolflock had seen.
Except his own.
Hand drawn pictures pinned to the walls were joined by decorated strings. Some strings had little paper stars, while others had kitten faces. Dates, times, names, and other details accompanied the brightly coloured drawings. Lija recorded things meticulously.
Many of the pictures showed her and her friends in front of red brick buildings with strings of graffiti at shoulder height. Some of the circled children had purple faces and then had no other pictures of them after that date. Another few pictures were the children burying purple bags outside the city walls. Wolflock had a sneaking suspicion he knew where this was going. Ten missing children, and, finally, a picture showing one child blowing a purple cloud into another child’s face as they did a strange chicken impression.
Lija found people using Lady Mind Master to abduct children. They found a store of it and buried it. Smart girl.
“I tell her to clean her room up, but she just loves this stringy mess,” Ms Vuori inhaled sharply.
“It’s a perfect chaos, isn’t it?” Wolflock mumbled to himself.
Lija’s clothes and shoes were strewn around the floor in piles, but Wolflock could see the piles were for different occasions. One pile for outdoor activities, one for formal occasions, one for business, and another with black clothes and no shoes, only thick black socks. Was Lija participating in nefarious nighttime activities?
Half-finished cups of water sat wherever Lija had worked for any duration. Even with the mess, it was evident that there hadn’t been an altercation in the room. He found a pink lolly stuck to a sleeve, and then a small bag of them behind a cup at her desk. Her desk was a small, whitewashed writing desk with three lockable drawers.
Wolflock scoffed. The draws themselves were locked but the keys were left in the keyholes. A rookie mistake that Wolflock remembered teaching Myna about when he’d read her letters to a boy who had tried to express an interest in her. She obliviously broke his heart and didn’t realise until Wolflock read her responses back to her. At dinner. In front of their father.
Various papers covered her desk, along with more rough drawings, letters back and forth from friends at school and receipts for her aunt’s medicine from a Vӓxtadlare Apothecary.
“Boring, boring, boring,” Wolflock muttered, then turned his attention to the drawers. Letters addressed to Lija from her father.
As Wolflock flipped through them, he noted the dates. They corresponded daily up until yesterday. They weren’t in order and some of the sweeter ones had been brought to the front, most likely to be read over and over. At the bottom of each page was a strange scrawling picture that changed from letter to letter. Sometimes it was repeated, but it looked like someone had tried to write a sentence and draw an image at the same time.
Wolflock squinted. He’d seen this somewhere before. Where had it been? It was so familiar.
“Did she have many friends?” Mothy asked as Wolflock stared at the letters from Lija’s father. Officer Tand stepped over the clothes and looked at the papers with Wolflock.
“Oh yes. Everyone loves Lija. She’s bright and friendly and welcoming to anyone she meets. Even the kids who cause trouble, you know? I think they were all fascinated by her being an Antrum. Some people choose our services just to ask us questions about our heritage. She takes it all with a good nature, though.”
“Could she be staying at a friend’s house?” Mothy asked.
“I went and saw them all this morning and spread the word through town but none of her school friends had seen her. I came home looking for any sign of where she could have gone. I couldn’t bear to touch her room though,” Ms Vuori choked. “What if I never see my baby again? What if this is the only memory I have of her now?” Ms Vuori wept again and Mothy hugged her. “If only that useless Corlman would take this seriously!”
Corl...
“Her father is from Corl?” Wolflock’s eyes shot to Ms Vuori.
She nodded in confusion.
He quickly grabbed the pencil from the desk and began scribbling above the odd drawings on the father’s letters.
“Hah! It’s Corlesian! Pictographic code, but it’s definitely Corlesian! M... E... E...” he breathed as he began to see what they said. It was as if someone had removed a veil from his mind. “Meet me at my work at mid-morning for pie... Meet me at my work at sunrise for breakfast... I have a surprise for you. Meet me at my work at dusk... They’re all in code! She was meeting her father in secret every day for the last month at his work or nearby. Where does he work?”
Wolflock’s heart skipped at his puzzle solving genius.
“In the non-perishables warehouses by the back of the district. Do you think she may be there?”
“Well, it’s the only consistent meeting place. It’s a clue and we need to examine it thoroughly.” His pen scratched rapidly as he deciphered the messages. “I can see here that she would meet him whenever he had a night shift. We need to see these warehouses. That’s where she’s been sneaking off to most nights. That’s where the majority of these pictures depict. If she wasn’t there to see her father, she was there helping the children that lurked around there. Now, what I want to know is why were so many troubled children lurking around the warehouses, and why do you look so shocked that she was seeing her father, Ms Vuori?”