“Indeed, sis, we need all the help we can,” continued Ulius. “Don’t you see it? The one who did the kidnapping and most of the bad stuff was not Alienor. There is another person involved, one with access to very advanced technology. And I can tell you his name. It’s Sem.”

All jaws dropped.

“Err…” started Vellantina.

“Kid, Sem is dead,” said Sirinn. We found his hand, remember?”

“Yes, Sirinn. But he was guilty. He wanted the amulet, but Alienor fought back and killed him.”

“Err… Alienor said something strange, in the end,” said Vellantina. “You don’t understand. I’m i... maybe innocent?”

“Yes, she was innocent, partially. Think! Who was the blandest one, the most inconspicuous? It’s like in the novels, the less likely suspect is always the killer. All the garbage about sentient Realms and I’m a diplomat is just nonsense. The conclusion is this: Sem tricked us all.”

“And that’s my brother going crazy again, for you!” sighed Estella.

“Good joke, I’m happy you feel better,” Sirinn replied softly, kissing her ear. “We should search for that artifact. If it’s so powerful, must have survived the explosion.”

It was Ejsa’s idea too.

“I have to stay with Alienor, but why don’t you check the explosion site for that amulet?”

The walk up the meadow was beautiful, the sun of the early evening warm and generous. Estella and Sirinn held hands. Ulius tried to take Vella’s hand too, but he got a slap on his wrist instead.

Only when they did a slow turn, following the mountain shape, did they realize the damage's extent, nothing but ashes and soot in an oblong eight shape made of two irregular ovals, each one over fifty yards in length. The small patch of grass on which Alienor and Vella had landed was the only living thing there.

“Let’s split the area into squares and search,” proposed Vellantina.

“Not before I do my investigating!” asked Ulius.

“Please, tie him up!” ordered Estella.

“Not my boss!” replied Vella, annoyed. “I see no harm in letting him play a little. You have ten minutes!”

“Yeeeey!”

From his backpack, he extracted first a giant magnifying glass. Then he dug his hands back into the sack, up to his elbows, frowning and searching, mumbling where it is, where it is until finally, he found what he was searching for, a deerstalker cap he put on.

“I thought Frey’r threw all useless stuff!” said Sirinn.

“He did not find the secret pocket!” explained Ulius, gloating.

“He’s a curse I have to bear!” sighed Estella.

They went and sat on the grass, watching the clouds in the sky, letting him running all around, investigating things with his magnifying glass, and exclaiming oh’s and ah’ every minute. It was a peaceful feeling, despite the fight scene, and they almost fell asleep.

“Can we search now, Ulius?” asked Vellantina after the ten minutes were up.

“The amulet is not here,” he replied. “Come, I will tell you the real story!”

“You come; we’re good where we are!” she ordered, her hands under her neck.

He sighed but obliged. He sat near them and began to recount.

“Once upon a time, there was a young queen called Alienor, who needed a solution for her people. Learning a few secrets from her father, she accessed a mysterious Archive, searching for help. There, somebody noticed her and they talked. He, or maybe them, plural, proposed a deal: We will give you a powerful army and knowledge on how to get back on the Realm, for a very small price. An amulet. Santiago Quevedo’s amulet. We can only guess how powerful that is, but it’s safe to assume it is mighty. Somehow, they send her the army, compressed in that stasis capsule, but she reneges on her word. Furious, they make another plan. Sending an agent to our planet. Sem. He pretends he’s just a bookseller and befriends us. In time, I think he wanted to gain access to our library or our father’s memory, as Alienor did with Fits, to find the amulet’s location. Then, something unexpected happens. We find his report. In the heat of events, he kidnaps us to the Beauhemians planet and comes too.”

They had risen on their buttocks, now, listening to him.

“I think afterward he had to improvise, but he did it brilliantly. He sold us a fake story, his mission, he pitted us, somehow, against Alienor, he kept us all the time on our toes. When we arrived back on the Realm, it wasn’t Frey’r’s push, he tripped on purpose, and the control device was destroyed. No more army for Alienor, but neither for us. Then, when the blimp was spotted, he realized why she was here; she aimed for the amulet. She was planning that from the beginning, setting the mountain to arrive in the vicinity and all. When we approached the camp, he was in the machine; most likely, he incapacitated Khit’s on the way, thus the bump on his head. We’ll find out when he wakes up. He stuns the camp's defenders, and when he sees the amulet at Alienor’s neck, he chases her...”

Talking, he began to move toward the burnt place, and they followed, like hypnotized.

“He fires a fireball at Alienor, she fires back. He’s wounded but survives. Yes, he’s alive, you’ll see. Alienor and Vella, though, are unconscious and at his mercy. He gets out of the transporter, goes to Alienor, wants to kill her but has no weapon. Sem takes Vella’s gun. He shoots: BAM!, but only grazes her cheek; I found the bullet in the ground, by the way. Then BAM! again, hit’s her shoulder, he’s a bad shot, so he goes near and BAM! In the chest from very close, merely inches. And still doesn’t do it right. Maybe because he was wounded. There were gunpowder residues on her clothes; I checked it discreetly when they brought her back, for the sake of science.”

Goodness! thought Estella. That’s so creepy! Hope no one saw him.

“He goes back, wanting to kill you too, takes the position, clicks click click, the gun is empty. Furious, he throws it at your head, and thanks Providence, misses again. There’s an indentation in the grass where the gun hit. Then he goes back to Alienor, takes the amulet, and leaves. Tracks are going north, and drops of blood. That’s where I stopped, so I propose we follow him together.”

They obliged and followed in his steps. Estella was upset.

“He has a point!” she mumbled.

“And that’s bad?” asked Vellantina.

“Yes, of course! I’m supposed to see the truth and he to ramble pointlessly!”

“He developed a brain, I suppose. Works even without magic.”

The princess shook her by the shoulders.

“VELLA!” she shouted, but in a low voice. “He’s a prick! Don’t indulge him, because there are fifty-fifty chances that you’ll like him enough to become an item! I dread the thought of nephews resembling both of you!”

“Back on the other planet, you said you liked the idea...”

“It was a joke! Don’t even think about it!”

“Eh, of course, I don’t. He’s just a kid.”

In less than a hundred yards, they stopped near a stone mountain wall. It kept going forever to the right and left and was over two hundred yards in height.

“Well, little brother?” asked Estella, with hope in her voice. The hope he was wrong.

“There were indeed tracks and blood on the path,” Sirinn crushed her wishful thinking.

Ulius looked around frantically.

“Strange! The tracks stop at the wall, and there is no blood on it. He didn’t climb up. Not an option anyway, with one hand. So, either a blimp took him with a rope, or there is a secret door here somewhere.”

He tried to feel the stone, for a mechanism, but his hands went through the rock like through air.

“An illusion!” he exclaimed loudly. “A hideout.”

“Damn, they’ve found me, I have to hurry!” they heard from behind the wall.

In less than a second, they all jumped forward. Ulius hit his elbow and swore, but the passage was big enough for all of them together. Afterward, a chamber opened, and at its end, ten yards from them, was Sem. His stump enveloped in rags, he was tracing signs in a big tray full of sand with his other hand, a tray made of gold, that sat on a rock pedestal.

“The amulet!” shouted Estella, showing the object he was using.

But the spy had already finished his work. A three yards diameter sphere had appeared in his back, very soap-bubble-like, a magic tunnel. Dragging his hand through the sand, Sem turned back in the same motion and entered the bubble.

“GET HIM!” shouted Ulius, pushing his powers forward. “I’ll keep it open as much as I can! Three, two, one.”

All safe him ran forward. After one, the tunnel was gone.

“Aouch! That hurt! ”

Vella was raising from the stone floor, rubbing a knee. Estella and Sirinn were gone.

“Why are you still here?” he asked, panicking. “Did you miss the tunnel?”

“What do you think?” she replied with bitterness. They were in front of me, and I couldn't rush past them. What do we do now, Ulius?”

“I don’t know,” he replied trembling. “I do not know.”

“Do you understand anything about this!”

He approached the sand tray and looked at it.

“No. He erased all, all safe one word, written in the old characters. Arch. It says, Arch… What are we going to do?... I’m so scared!”

“I am too, Ulius. But we have to be strong. I’ll stay here to guard the place; you go back to the camp and tell Ejlsa to wake up Alienor as soon as possible. We need information.”

Walking alone in some wild mountains was not something he had done before, but his face toughened with determination.

“Ulius, I forgot something. Before you go…”

She kissed him.