She desperately hoped Caleb wouldn’t laugh at her and dismiss her story as a flight of fantasy. But he hadn’t seen the look on Bronwen’s face, or the deep agony in her eyes as she spoke of the loss the Tylwyth Teg, the Ellyllon, her people, had suffered.
He did seem to be thinking, and that was a good thing.
Finally, he spoke. “Well then. Many strange things have happened to us, haven’t they?” He managed a small grin. “Glowing books. Peculiar dogs…”
He smiled at Carrádog and ruffled his ears. “I cannot say I accept all this easily, Elinor, but I will not ignore it.” He smiled at her look of relief. If nothing else, that convinced him that she believed it all. “So what do we do now?”
She nodded. “Thank you, Caleb. For not throwing me out on my ear.” Standing, she held out her hand. “We must go and find the book.”
“Then let us by all means do so.”
He took her hand and relished the warmth that blossomed between their palms. It was rare for him to feel this…this intensely about anything or anyone, but she’d come into his life and turned everything upside down. And he wouldn’t have it any other way.
“I left it on that little table over there,” he nodded to the corner by the window.
“I see it.” Her hand trembled a little in his, and he squeezed it, reassuring her.
The volume looked the same, perfectly normal now, no ethereal glow, just a book on a flat surface in front of a window, with the sun shining outside.
Carrádog had padded along behind them, obviously intent upon being present for whatever might occur.
“All right then. Do we sit?” Caleb raised his eyebrows at Elinor.
“Yes, I think we should.”
They took their seats across from each other, and the dog sat himself down between them, his attention on the book.
“Caleb,” she whispered quietly. “Look at him. Carrádog. He knows….”
“That’s more than I do,” he grumbled. “What is going to happen, Elinor?”
“I have no idea. But I know where we have to start.” She opened the book and placed the paper beside it. “Now, there are instructions written on this paper, in the language of the elves. All we have to do is to work them out, and follow them, using the book.”
“Oh. Isthatall?”
She shot him a look that should have fried his boots.
“Sorry.”
“I have the translation from Bronwen. But it didn’t make a lot of sense. So I thought that between the two of us we could solve the puzzle and then do whatever it tells us to do.”
“Should I tell Deryn to postpone dinner?” He grinned at her. “This may take some time, you know.”
“Not unless you stop making a jest of this, Caleb. It’s most serious.”
“Sorry again.” He sighed. “Right…you say you managed to interpret the writings on the paper?”
“I did. The first Latin word isCelata, which means secrets.”
“If I may…I think it has more of a connotation toward concealing, or hiding?”
“Probably, yes. I did not study Latin, so I will accept that. However, in this context? The next bit is definitely a secret.”
“All right. Go ahead.”
“The Elvish text contains instructions in the form of a puzzle. It is up to us to solve that puzzle before anything else.”
“And you and Bronwen have done this part already?” Caleb mentally crossed his fingers, since he was not very good at puzzles.
