“I still think he’s making it up,” Tenerife interjected, his lean face reflecting more than a little doubt. “You are, aren’t you, you little water mite?”
“No, it’s true—all of it!” The boy looked seriously offended. “How could I make up something like that? Oh, I forgot. At the house, when that ghost thing appeared looking like Mistral, it said something about Elfstones and that she had them hidden and that Phryne should come and get them. I think that was why we went to the Ashenell, although it might just have been because Phryne wanted to find her grandmother. She was really worried about her.”
“So Phryne disappeared?” Panterra pressed. “She vanished just like that? Didn’t say or do anything?”
The boy nodded. “She was right there in front of me one moment, walking under the arch, and then she was gone. I looked all over. I even walked under the arch like she did. Nothing happened. I waited all day for her to come back, and she didn’t. So I came here.”
Tasha reached out and ruffled his hair. “You did the right thing. Too bad we don’t know more about where she’s disappeared to, though. Then we would know where to start looking.”
“The Ashenell,” Prue said at once. “That’s where.”
“Then why didn’t Xac find her?” Tenerife asked in confusion. “He said he was there all day and didn’t see her again.”
“Not in the Ashenell. Below the Ashenell. She’s gone down into the lower regions, just as Kirisin and Simralin Belloruus did all those years ago. She’s gone down there to meet with Mistral. Don’t you know the story?”
Blank looks greeted her question, even from Panterra, who had no idea what she was talking about. She gave them an exasperated look.
“All right, then—listen. Five hundred years ago, the Elfstones were in the possession of the dead, specifically Pancea Rolt Gotrin, an Elven sorceress long dead but very powerful even so. Her shade met with Kirisin and struck a bargain with him. If she gave him the blue Elfstones, the ones they called the seeking-Stones, he would agree to do what he could to persuade the Elven living to seek out and make use of the magic they had lost or forgotten since the days of Faerie. That was how the Elfstones ended up in the hands of the Belloruus family over the years. Mistral must have had them last and told Phryne about them.”
“And then sent her underground beneath the Ashenell burial grounds to retrieve them?” Tenerife demanded, clearly disbelieving the whole thing. He shook his head.
“Why would she drag her granddaughter down there? Why not just come back up and give them to her? What would Mistral Belloruus be doing down there, anyway? How would she even find the way?”
“The way was hidden before, but Kirisin found it,” Prue persisted. She gave Tenerife a withering look. “Why is it that I know all this and you don’t? No wonder the dead kept the Elfstones from the living for so long! The living don’t even know their own history!”
“Calm down,” Tasha hushed her, giving Pan a quick look. “We don’t want to fight among ourselves. We just want to find a way to help Phryne.”
“The Elfstones are a very powerful magic, aren’t they?” Prue asked pointedly. “If they were to come into Phryne’s possession, it could make a huge difference in what happens to her. Doesn’t it make sense that she would take a chance on being able to recover them? Wouldn’t she at least go looking if her grandmother asked her to?”
Both Orullians nodded somewhat reluctantly. “She would,” Tasha said. “She’s stubborn that way. She would be seeking a way to get back at Isoeld Severine and avenge her father’s murder. It begins to look more and more as if the assassin was telling the truth about the Queen. But how do we get to Phryne to find out?”
“I can show you where she disappeared!” Xac Wen announced, looking eager to depart immediately. “You just have to come with me!”
Panterra looked at the brothers. “Tasha and Tenerife have to stay here. They won’t be allowed to leave just yet. But Prue and I can come with you. Maybe we can do something to help find her.”
“Because you’re really Elves, even though you don’t look it?” the boy deadpanned.
Pan cocked an eyebrow. “Careful, now.”
“All right,” Tasha agreed. “You take little sister and go with Xac. And you, squirrel boy, take them where they need to go and make certain nothing happens to them. You didn’t do so well with Phryne, so let’s do better with our Tracker friends.”
“That wasn’t my fault!” the boy exclaimed in dismay. He turned to Pan and Prue. “It wasn’t!”
“No, Xac, it wasn’t,” Prue agreed, reaching out to touch his cheek. “It was just something that happened, and assigning blame for it doesn’t help anyone. I should know. Will you take us?”
The boy glanced at the other three as if to make certain of his footing, and then he gave her a firm nod. “I will take you anywhere you want to go, Prue Liss. And I will make sure that nothing bad happens to you.”