It was rapidly getting dark in the shaded enclave so the villains allowed their captives to sleep and didn’t push them to search till the next morning. They allowed them a little water and some fruit, but nothing that could be considered a real dinner.
The next morning, as soon as it was light, the
prisoners were woken by a gentle slap of the tail by Akadis. Since they judged
Hedegar the most able to find what they were looking for, his paws were untied.
The rest remained tied up and Loopel stood near them with a firebrand as
incentive for the hedgehog to cooperate. He replaced the brand ever-so-often as
the old ones burnt up; who knows where they’d found so much firewood to keep
the blaze burning?
The rascals wouldn’t say why they wanted the seed.
Since they’d always been part of the “committee” dedicated to finding the seed when
the time came, their sudden treachery and independent plans made no sense.
Hedegar gathered they were working for someone else who wanted the seed and had
been promised personal benefit should they hand it over.
Loopel and Akadis, allowed the hedgehog to confer with
his companions about where to search, but they could not make any discussions
for a plan of escape since every word they spoke could be overheard.
“Did you all sleep all right,” asked Hedegar before
the real discussion began.
“It’s the best night I’ve had in a while,” answered
Scaltard. The villians had consented to turn Scaltard back over the right way
up, if he promised to let them tie him by a foot to a nearby tree and not try
to run away.
“I was uncomfortable, but managed to get some rest,”
answered Vixel. Merkel the meerkat responded similarly.
Susan had had a terrible night. Her head pounded from
the fall and lack of sleep. She had lain awake all night. Tired and sore. She’d
played over and over in her head the events of the last days, including her
final conversation with David and wondered why in the worlds she had ever come
to this place.
Only a few days ago, she had felt full of hope and
purpose. The hunt had been going well, she was enjoying the companionship of
the other creatures, and especially David. She was thrilling in the reality of
a new adventure after so many years, and the pain of losing her family was
mellowing, if not fading.
Now here she was feeling alone – a stranger in a
foreign world. She didn’t belong with this group of conspirators, playing games
with strange talking creatures about ancient prophesies and the revival of a
long-extinct species of tree. Narnia was a homely land, reminiscent of England.
And though they had their troubles and dangerous adventures, there was
something real and comforting about it. And those had been family adventures
which she shared with her siblings. This was all so strange and foreign and
bizarre. And now David, her one source of stability and trust and comfort in
the past months, had turned out to be a stranger in his own way. Was he even
human? And what did he really want with the rings?
“So, where do you think we should look?” Hedegar was
asking. Susan broke off her reverie and tried to concentrate despite her
tiredness.
“Surely it’s somewhere in the vicinity of the spring,”
suggested Vixel, “‘You may rest and quench your thirst,’” she quoted.
“Indeed,” replied the hedgehog.
“I need a closer look at the spring,” he added then,
turning to the captors. Loopel gave a nod of assent.
Hedegar snuffled over to the spring, which was not
very far from the campfire. It consisted of s central fountain up from which
water continually bubbled into a small pool a few yards across. The water was
fresh and pure, but the continuous bubbling, disrupted the surface so you could
not see clearly to the bottom. Around the pool grew a sort of ground cover. A
number of differently shaped stones were dotted around the circumference.
Hedegar wondered where Bragold would have hidden
whatever it was the clue was leading them too. He supposed it would be in
another small chest. Could it have been dropped into the pool or buried into
the bank? The first clue, though hidden in the rear chamber of a cave, was not
hard to miss once you knew what you were looking for. He wondered if perhaps it
was not at the spring itself that the chest was hidden, but in some other cave
in the vicinity.
Making his way back to the captors, he asked if he
might explore the cliff face under the overhang, in case there was a cave of
some sort. The scoundrels assented and Akadis followed him to the cliff wall.
Though rough, the surface was soli all along. There were no crannies or holes
or anything else that might serve the entrance to the cave. They did however,
find a section on the cliff face that had faint illustrations painted on to it.
The pictures were stylised but seemed to tell a story.
To begin with, there was a grove of trees, and
numerous happy animals enjoying their shade. In the next, the trees had been
cut down, and there were fewer animals around looking less than happy. There
were some more pictures in this vein. Hedegar suspected it might be telling the
story of the loss of the breaknut trees. The pictures ended and next to is was
writing in the strange script that Susan had deciphered.
“What does it say?” asked Akadis.
“Well…um…I’m afraid my skill with the script isn’t
very good. We’d need Susan or perhaps Scaltard to read it.
They went to fetch Susan, whose legs were untied but
hands remained bound. She came to the place and read the words.
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