Maybe they did.
Even more telling was the fact that Celeste had tried to cozy up to Owen earlier at the forge.Sure, Owen had said that Celeste had wanted some custom swords, but what if that had just been an excuse to get him alone? I didn’t know that I was right, but I wasn’t going to take a chance that I was wrong either. Not when Owen’s life was hanging in the balance.
So I quit looking for the giants and started searching for Celeste instead.
I went over to a group of people standing in front ofa jewelry booth. “Excuse me, have you seen Pirate Queen Celeste?”
I didn’t think a more ridiculous sentence had ever come out of my mouth. Then again, this had started out as a ridiculous day, although it had quickly turned into a bloody one—and would probably get bloodier still, before all was said and done.
Those folks shook their heads, so I moved on. I asked the same thing over and overagain of all the kids, teens, and adults who crossed my path, but they all kept shaking their headsno-no-no. Despite the throngs of people, no one remembered seeing Celeste recently or knew where she might have gone—
I spotted a flash of red out of the corner of my eye. I whirled around in that direction, and I saw Celeste disappearing behind one of the vendor booths about twenty feet away.
I glanced around, but I didn’t see Sophia, Finn, or Bria anywhere. I couldn’t wait for my friends. I had to act now or risk losing Celeste, so I headed after the pirate queen.
“Hey!”
“Watch it!”
“Rude much?”
A few people let out angry mutters as I shoved past them, but I didn’t dare slow down to apologize. The only thing that mattered was tracking Celeste back to Owen before it was too late.
I reached the booth where Celeste had disappeared, and I finally did slow down, creeping up to the corner and peering around the side. I didn’t see Celeste or any of the giants, but the booth was close to one of the hiking trails that led into the woods on the west side of the park.
I hadn’t seen any buildings or other structures during my earlier hike through the woods, but this trail was abouta quarter mile away from the one that I’d used. Either way, it was the most likely place for Celeste to have gone, so I stepped around the booth, jogged over to the trail, and plunged back into the trees.
I palmed a knife and moved quickly and quietly along the path. Every once in a while, I stopped to look and listen, but I didn’t see anyone on the trail ahead of me or hunkered down in the surroundingwoods, and the thick tangle of trees blocked out the clatter and commotion from the faire.
A couple of hundred feet into the woods, I came across another stone bridge that arched over the same creek that I’d seen before. I approached the bridge with caution, but Celeste wasn’t lying in wait underneath it to attack me like a troll, so I crossed it.
I was just about to step off the far side ofthe bridge when the phone in my pocket started buzzing.
I frowned, wondering why the device was buzzing instead of playing one of the ring tones that Silvio Sanchez, my personal assistant, had programmed into my phone. Silvio and I both loved movie music, and he’d downloaded a bunch of classic cinematic themes into my device.
Then I realized it wasn’t my phone—it was the phone I’d taken offLancelot.
The phone buzzed a moment longer, then fell silent. I pulled the device out of my pocket and stared at the screen. It was another message from the mysterious Black Rook.
Did you take care of the assassin?
More ominous bad-guy speak, asking if the giants had killed me yet.
I hesitated. I didn’t know if Lancelot and the Black Rook were using keywords or some other code, but it wouldbe more suspicious if there was no response, so I sent back a generic bad-guy answer.
It’s done.
I waited, holding my breath and hoping I’d made the right choice. The phone buzzed again a few seconds later with another message.
Good. Meet us at the barn to get your cut.
The barn? What barn?
Then I remembered the old barn I’d seen perched on the hill beyond the woods when we first arrivedat the park this morning. That must be where this trail led and where the kidnappers had taken Owen.
I switched the phone to silent, shoved it back into my pocket, and hurried along. A few hundred feet later, the path started climbing, and that old barn came into view through the trees.
As soon as I spotted the structure, I stepped off the trail and started moving from one tree to the next,steadily and silently making my way up the incline. I didn’t spot Celeste or any of the giants lurking in the woods, and no trip-wires littered the ground. Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy of the kidnappers not to leave a rear guard behind or at least a few rune booby traps buried in the leaves in case someone like me came creeping up behind them.
