Maija nodded and followed her sister back down to the main level. Passing through a double-wide door, they went outside onto the deck over the cliff. Maija was impressed with the size and girth of logs used in the deck’s construction. It felt solid, even after years of neglect.
“Their dragons landed right here,” Natalia said, spreading her arms wide and looking to each side of the deck. “Mother and Father would climb off and the dragons would fly off to their nests.” She smiled, remembering the events fondly, “Then Mother and Father would bring their gear into the tack room,” she pointed to a small shed built on the edge of the deck separate from the main house.
When Maija saw the tack room, she was hit with the surge of energy again and immediately transported. In a swirl of melting colors, she was pulled into a memory long forgotten. On the deck in front of her, she saw herself following her father as he walked toward the tack room. He opened the door and let her inside. Maija suddenly felt herself being pulled back to reality. She snapped out of the vision with a burst of light. She then motioned to the shed and asked Natalia, “Can we go in there? I think I’m remembering something.”
Natalia nodded, but Maija was already walking quickly toward the door. With something of a lunge, she pushed open the overgrown door as they had done on the main house. The small room revealed a space that felt foreign to her, yet somehow familiar. She eyed the large saddles explicitly designed for her parents’ dragons. Draped over long wooden planks protruding from the wall, saddle blankets hung alongside the leather saddles. Long leather straps made for a riding purpose she shouldn’t recall were slung from metal racks bolted to the walls. Along the length of an entire wall of the shed, swords, axes and delicately carved bows hung from hooks reinforcing the dangerous military duty dragonriders were forced to serve during the terror of Merglan and Killdoor. Folded neatly on a bench rested several suits of thick, leather-plated armor designed specifically for dragonriding. Helmets sat on the bench at their side. Long metal tools she’d never seen before leaned against one of the corners near the door. Maija drank in the uniqueness of the space trying to remember why this room seemed more familiar than the others.
Suddenly she recognized it. “This is where my memory is from!” she exclaimed excitedly.
Natalia furrowed her brow and said, “I thought you didn’t remember anything from your childhood, at least until coming here?”
“There was one moment that’s never left me,” she said her eyebrows peaked. “It was Father, I think. He was standing right there,” she pointed to the middle of the tack room. “He was doing some kind of magic,” Maija was cut off by another memory rushing at her. She continued, “He was showing me something. Something he hid. Hidden here with his magic.”
“What was he hiding?” Natalia asked.
“I don’t remember,” Maija said, “but it was,” she took several steps forward, searching the floor before pointing, “right there.”
“I don’t see anything,” Natalia said, looking at the wooden floorboards spanning the shed.
“It was under the floor,” Maija said. “He hid it with magic so other magicians trying to find it wouldn’t be able to. It’s hidden from sight and from magical sensing.
“Hand me that tool,” Maija said continued, pointing to strange metal tools in the corner by the door.
Natalia turned, gripping the metal bar shaped in a slopping J hook. She handed it to her sister. Maija placed the pointy end snuggly into the tight crack between the floorboards. Prying forcefully, the wooden plank lifted out from its tight fit. Natalia helped her pull apart the floor, prying up additional boards until there was a gap large enough to stick their heads in and see into the space under the floor.
Maija fell to all fours, plunging her head into the gap, looking around, side to side in the darkness. After several seconds, her eyes adjusted and she could begin to distinguish shapes in the darkened area between the floor and the ground.
“Can you see anything?” Natalia asked.
Maija couldn’t see anything obvious to her right and left, but she still needed to search the area in front of her. She rotated her body so her head could bend in the direction it needed to see up under the floor.
“Yes,” she said, her voice muffled through the floorboards. Pulling her head out of the hole, she reached her arm down through the gap to feel for the darkened rectangular shape she’d seen. As she felt around, she said to her sister who stared at her in disbelief, “I saw something just here.” Her arm was through the floor stopping at her shoulder as she searched for the item she had seen. Her eyes widened when her hand bumped into the item. She carefully wrapped her hand around it, gripping it tightly. Not allowing her grasp to loosen she pulled her arm out of the hole in the floor.
Holding the item in front of her, she looked at the wooden box clasped tightly in her hand. She placed it carefully on the floor so Natalia could examine it with her. The wood was dark in color, unlike any tree she’d seen before. The box bore no design. It was simple, sanded smooth, so smooth it felt slick, like polished stone. The sharp, crisp edges of the rectangular box ended abruptly, cut neatly at right angles. The dark wood was held together by a small hinge, locked with a simple locket.
Natalia picked it up off the floor, examining it carefully and asked, “I wonder what’s in there? It isn’t anything too large, clearly because of its size.”
“Maybe it’s a powerful weapon,” Maija speculated.
“How are we going to open it? I can only guess that it’s been protected, and spellbound. That means it won’t break if we attempted to smash it. Besides, I think we should keep it intact. It has some sentimental value to us,” Natalia said tilting her head as she held the box up to eye level.
Maija’s face brightened, “I know where the key is!” She bolted up off the floor and ran back out onto the deck. At the cliffside edge of the deck, she laid down on her stomach, her arms dangling over the side of the overhang. She swallowed hard when she saw the open space between where she lay and the valley floor far below. She quickly realized there wasn’t anything stopping her body from sliding over the edge and falling to her death. Regaining her composure, determined to find the key, she tilted her head to peer along the underside of the decking to see a nail tacked halfway into one of the columns supporting the deck. She looked closer and saw that the nail held a small key hanging an arm’s length away. Maija reached out, teetering over the edge.
Natalia shouted, “Maija!” as she saw her sister’s legs angle up off the floor slightly. Maija snatched the key from the nail and planted her other hand firmly on the deck, pulling her legs back down to the floor of the deck. She struggled slightly in backing herself up onto the deck’s surface again.
Natalia rushed to Maija’s side to help her, but Maija slid the center of her body mass back behind the edge of the deck. She rolled inward, lifting the key up to show her sister. Smiling, she said, “I remembered where he hid it.”
“I would’ve never thought to look there,” Natalia said, panting with relief in seeing that her sister didn’t fall over the edge of the cliff after all.
Together they rushed back to the small box in the tack room. Maija held the locket in her hands. She took a deep breath, glancing at her sister before she inserted the key into the slot. The key stopped as soon as it entered, and for a moment she was dumbfounded.
Feeling like a fool, she noticed the key was turned backward and tried it again. This time it slid into place with ease. She turned the key, and the locket sprung open. Sliding it out from the hinged latch, Maija lifted the lid. To their surprise, nestled inside was a thin leather-bound book with several loose papers sticking out.
Maija looked at her sister with a slight frown, “That’s not what I was expecting,” she said clearly disappointed.
“Well, should we open it and find out what it is first?” Natalia asked. She reached in and pulled out the book.
The cover was blank. It was bound by a thin black leather cover and was about an inch thick. Natalia opened it to the first page. A small piece of parchment was pinned to the top of the first page and in what she recognized as her father’s writing were the words:
Merglan’s Journal
Maija read these words at the same time as Natalia. They gave one another an exasperated look. Turning back to the book, they looked in awe at each as they flipped through. The book contained pages filled with writing and drawings.
“We should show this to Anders and Ivan,” Maija said.
Natalia nodded. Quickly, they closed up their parents’ house and the tack room and then ran as fast as they could down a winding trail in the woods and along the cliff to the valley below where Anders and Ivan were training.
Chapter 27
A Homecoming to Remember
Thomas and Kirsten stopped in their tracks, jaws gaping wide. The black and gold banners fluttered in the breeze from either side of each post at the end of the dock, clearly on display. The length of cloth bore Merglan’s face silhouetted by a golden dragon, wings spread upward at a forty-five-degree angle. Thomas and Kirsten scanned the surrounding buildings and, to their surprise, the banners adorned each building as well. Somehow, Grandwood had been compromised. Either the people were forced to place the banners, or they had been duped into supporting the evil mastermind. Whichever the case, Kirsten and Thomas had a mind to change it. After the ordeal of being captured, imprisoned and enslaved, there was no way they were going to walk right back into the hands of their captor, the one also responsible for their father’s death.
“What’s with the banners?” Britt asked. She could tell by the look on their faces that something was off.
Thomas turned to her, “Do you know whose banners these are?”
Britt stepped closer and squinted, examining the details more closely. She shook her head, “It’s not Southland’s, the elves or the dwarfs. Does Westland have a new army?”
Both Thomas and Kirsten looked at her as though she was going to sprout wings and fly away. Her eyes darted back and forth between them, realizing she’d somehow offended them. A bit defensively, she said, “What? Did I say something wrong?”
Max and Bo finished lashing the shuttle boat to the dock. “So, is it good to be back?” Max asked walking in sync with his brother to Kirsten and Thomas. Bo halted upon noticing the banners and slammed his arm across his brother’s chest, stopping him mid-stride.
Max looked first at Bo’s arm barring him from proceeding and then at his brother, “What gives?”
Freeing Max, Bo balled his fist and pointed to the banner.
“Yeah, look at all of these banners hanging around town. Wait, those weren’t here the last time we were here for the Grandwood Games.” Max brushed his hand through his hair, searching for an explanation. “I bet the people found some kind of protection and they’ve hung the banners to ward off any more attackers.”
Bo, Kirsten and Thomas all looked at him in the same way they’d gawked at Britt, as though he’d just spoken ill of them. Max glanced to Britt who shook her head slightly and shrugged.
“What did I say?” he asked, as Britt had.
“That’s no protection, it’s much worse. That’s Merglan,” Kirsten said through clenched teeth.
Max and Britt’s eyes widened realizing what this meant.
Kirsten furrowed her brow as she stared at the banner that hung from a post midway down the dock. Blinded by rage, she stormed down the wooden walkway. Reaching the banner, Kirsten gripped it midway up the cloth and yanked as hard as she could, pulling at the material. The thick fabric tore but didn’t rip entirely as she’d intended. She tugged on it again, but the material wouldn’t give way. Her actions caught the attention of others on ferryboats that were just landing at the dock.
