“I was too filled with my rage that day due to the freshness of the discovery,” the moon succubus admitted, and for the first time she seemed to think that she had made a mistake in not responding to the humans earlier.

“Can we go to the room where the moonstone previously was?” Lana asked the moon succubus.

The moon succubus seemed to ponder over it.

“And what good will that do to anyone?” she said. She obviously didn’t want humans entering her castle.

“Maybe we can find some more clues as to who really stole the moonstone?” I replied.

It was a moment before the moon succubus replied.

“Okay,” she said, “come along with me. I’ll show you the room.” She then turned to the tree people.

“Please do not fight. I will pull my magic out of the water that I have poisoned,” she told them. “I never meant to do any harm to the tree people.”

She turned at the spot and marched towards her castle. Lana, Danor and I followed at her wake.

The castle of the moon succubus was built exactly over the north pole of the moon. Yet, when the moon succubus ordered the massive door of the castle to open and we walked inside, the temperature was pleasantly warm and nothing like the cold outside.

We moved along the corridors of the ice castle. All the rooms and the doors were gigantic such that they allowed the giant moon succubus easy passage and good room to move about. The moon succubus’ tail moved right and left as she led us. I tried not to stare too much at it or at the taut cheeks on either sides of the base of the tail.

We finally reached what was probably the largest room in the entire castle. But it contained little compared to the other rooms. But the noteworthy feature of the room was the floor which consisted of snow. At the very centre of the room there was a pole made entirely of gemstone. At the top of the pole was a human hand also made of gemstone.

The moon succubus led us to the pole.

“This is where the moonstone previously was,” she said, pointing at the human hand, which had been carved out of gemstone as though it was holding something. There was just the slightest shudder in the succubus’ voice indicating how much she held the moonstone dear and how much she missed it.

I looked around the spot.

“You said of footprints,” I said, “where are they?”

The moon succubus pointed at a nook.

“There,” she said.

I moved over to the nook.

I saw that there indeed were foot prints on the snow.

But the foot prints were rather small, as though they belonged to a child.

So a child stole the moonstone? Now that had to be impossible, right? How the heck could a child have gotten past the ice demons? And why had the moon succubus failed to detect their presence inside the castle. I was sure that she at least had some kind of a system that informed her when some intruder got into the castle.

“Can you share with us the circumstances under which the moonstone was stolen?” I said, “Anything that happened that day that was odd or special except the missing moonstone?”

“We were having our yearly ritual,” the moon succubus replied, “the only time of the year when we are completely lost in the spiritual world. Alas, I made the mistake of thinking that nobody would dare steal the moonstone because we hold our yearly ritual on different days every time of the year. It is not possible for anybody to have guessed when we hold the ritual and when the castle is vulnerable, but they somehow did.”

Now that explained a few things.

I was about to turn from the spot of the foot prints when suddenly from the corner of my eye I saw what I thought was a peculiar kind of white rock. It piqued my attention and I bent down and took it in my hand. It was quite small really, but it was not a mere rock by any means.

It was a toy dragon. One made of mud painted white. I reckoned the moon succubus had failed to notice it earlier owning to its white colour.

However, the dragon only added to the theory that a child had somehow been involved in the stealing of the moonstone even though it seemed impossible. I didn’t tell about my finding to the moon succubus and instead quietly kept the toy inside my pocket. I marched back to where the others were standing.

“How far are the nearest human settlements?” I asked the moon succubus.

“A few miles,” the moon succubus replied.

***