“A bit much, but I’ll take it,” he said. “Come on, let’s get you back to the palace.”
We walked to the other side of the main street, where Nix and I had seen the suspicious men not long ago. It was getting late, but there were still lots of people buying and selling and stopping to chat. I heard a couple of them mention the coronation.
The coronation—right. And still no sign of my magic.
29
Lucas came topick me and Nix up the next day. “We have to go down to the docks,” he told us, without explaining why.
I hesitated. The ceremony was mere days away, and I was caught up trying to solve a series of murders. But it was fine, I assured myself. I’d get to the bottom of this, and then I’d go out to the gardens again and try to summon my power. Or maybe there’d be something in the book, a spell, that could solve my problem. And maybe Lucas knew something I didn’t.
We made our way back to the village, weaving through all the townspeople, following his lead. “Hold on!” I called when I noticed where we were going.
Nix turned and shrugged, but she kept following him, too. I ran to him. “Lucas, aren’t the docks the other way?”
“Wrong docks,” he replied.
We went past the edge of the main road and took a gravelly dirt street down a hill, into the southern edge of the Tikbalang Forest. “I don’t like this,” I whispered to Nix. We were getting farther and farther away from the center of town. Ancient trees reached over us, blocking out the light; their leaves crunched under our feet. We took a sharp left, into thicker brush, wherethere was no trail. I shivered—it was suddenly a lot colder. Large birds flew high overhead, their wings flapping in the leaves as they came to a stop on the branches above our heads. Somewhere, an owl hooted, and a large branch cracked. I got the feeling we were being watched. “How’s that danger meter doing?” I asked Lucas.
“You’re safe with me” was all he said.
Finally, in front of us, the trees opened up, revealing a glistening green river. Ships bearing flags from all four courts bobbed in the gentle waves. “What’s this?” I asked Lucas.
“It’s called Dwende Dock. But the kingdom doesn’t use it anymore, ever since the Royal Dock was built, which became the official port. So this is the one the smugglers use.”
“How do you know about it?”
“I told you. I do my homework.”
“That or you’ve done business with them.”
He ignored me.
The river flowed from the far west side of Lake Reyna, which was firmly in Tikbalang territory. That explained why it went undetected. Their court motto was “revelar nada”—reveal nothing.
Farther down, the water became choppier and more treacherous. “Is that a waterfall?” I asked.
Lucas nodded. “Talon Falls,” he said.
“And the smugglers travel over the falls, or what?”
“Yes, sometimes. They go beyond Talon Falls, where there’s a passage to the human realm that can only be opened with dark magic. You can’t see it because you’re not meant to.”
“Where in the human realm does it go? They just appear somewhere, or what?”
“The oceans are vast,” he explained. “They have ports of entry where no human ever goes. From there, they can travel freely.”
I couldn’t believe how much was going on right under our noses in the human world. “But what if they are seen? What then?” It had to happen sometimes. Yes, the oceans were huge, but they were also heavily trafficked.
He looked at me. “Then they disappear.”
“Who does? The smugglers?” I asked.
“No, the witnesses,” he replied, as if it were obvious.
“Like the Bermuda Triangle?” Nix blurted out. We looked at each other.
“If that’s a place where sailors disappear, then probably yes,” he said.
