Chapter 4 - Captive
Seth froze within the covers of his bed. "What do you mean, she's missing?" he asked cautiously.
"She nowhere in the house!" said Mrs. Sorenson. "We've been looking up and down for her and found nothing!"
Seth snorted. "Are you serious?"
"You know her! She'd never take off like this without telling us!"
Seth immediately thought back to the incident from the previous summer in which Errol Fisk duped him and Kendra into helping him steal the statue of Olloch the Glutton, as they had not informed their parents about that after-dark ordeal.
"I have no idea why she'd go," said Seth. "I mean, it's not like we're keeping the magical world a secret from you and dad anymore. I can't imagine what she has to hide, and why she'd take off now."
Seth slipped out of his bed and walked over to the entrance to his room, standing next to his mother. "Where in the house have you guys checked?"
"Everywhere!" blurted Mrs. Sorenson. "Every floor, every room! And her cell phone isn't working!"
Dale suddenly scurried down the hallway, then stopped in front of Seth's room, where he turned to face Seth and Mrs. Sorenson. "Stan is calling an emergency meeting downstairs. Come on!"
Feeling as though his body were made of gelatin, Seth and his mother followed Dale downstairs to the living room, where Grandpa, Grandma, Warren and Mr. Sorenson had already gathered. Seth took a seat on the sofa next to Warren.
"All right," began Grandpa. "Everyone that's in the house appears to be here. I hate to say it, but we have reason to believe that Kendra has gone missing. Unfortunately, we haven't the slightest clue as to where she could be."
"We don't want to jump to conclusions," said Grandma, "but it's probably safe to assume that Lance or his mother, if not both of them, are responsible for this."
"What are you talking about" asked Seth. "Lance is my friend, and his mother is really nice!"
"I heard Errol Fisk was pretty nice at first," noted Dale. "Where did that lead to, again?"
"But this is different!" snapped Seth. "We saw Lance and his mother leave the house by themselves! I even heard them drive off!"
"We know, Seth," stated Grandpa. "And we were sure to remove their names from the register the moment they left, just to be safe."
"But there were instances in which Lance and Mrs. Springer were unsupervised while under this roof, correct?" asked Mr. Soreson.
"Well, yeah," said Seth. "Lance and I played hide-and-seek for a while. But that was all before dinner. And Kendra was at dinner."
"How long did you play hide-and-seek?" asked Grandma, displaying a worried look in her eye.
"Just two rounds. I didn't want to play, but Lance insisted. I only appealed to him so he'd get it out of his system."
"Where was Lance hiding while you were it?" asked Grandpa.
"At the bottom of the stairs leading to the dungeon. Don't worry, he didn't suspect what was going on behind that door."
"You'd be surprised," said Grandpa. "And what about when you hid?"
"He took his sweet time."
"How long was his sweet time?" asked Warren.
"About fifteen... minutes," said Seth confessedly. "He didn't really look in the right spot for me."
Grandpa frowned. "I think Lance was looking for something other than you. And he might have just found it." Grandpa then proceeded to hold up a small book. Though he'd only seen it a few times before in his life, Seth knew it all too well.
"The register?" asked Seth. "What makes you think Lance found it? You keep it locked in a hidden safe in your room. The register was there just now, wasn't it?"
"Yes," replied Grandma. We've looked it over and found no evidence that anybody other than Lance Springer or Margot Springer have been here.
"You don't suppose someone else with the exact same name could sneak onto the property if their name is already in the register, do you?" asked Mr. Sorenson.
"You mean, like, another individual who also happens to be named Lance Springer?" asked Warren.
"No, the register is special," began Grandpa. "It can read the thoughts of whomever writes in it. As such, it records the writer's interpretation of whatever name is written on its pages. Whenever a figure gets near Fablehaven's distractor spell, it senses their physical appearance and legal name. Should a legal name not be available, a solid description will do. If the name and appearance of the figure match up with a name in the book, it permits entry. For all others, it rejects them."
"You said name and appearance," stated Warren. "But you wrote down Mrs. Springer's name without knowing what she looks like."
"In that case, the detection factor ignores appearance. If the Society, or whomever, is behind this, they've likely done their homework."
A moment later, a green flash of light appeared in the room, revealing Clover. Her vibrant green hair, dress and shamrock-like wings strongly clashed against the current atmosphere.
"I'm sorry," she muttered, "but none of the fairies from the garden found any sign of Kendra at all. They've looked across the entire property, but found nothing. We'll keep searching, though."
"We've found no actual leads as to where Kendra went, or to how she got there,"said Grandpa. "I don't know what to do."
"Kendra," sighed Seth. "Where are you?"
Feeling both woozy and dreary, Kendra peered open her eyes. Had she not been able to see in the dark, she would not have been able to make much sense of her surroundings. Even so, Kendra felt like her head was spinning as she sat up.
Now sitting on an uncovered mattress on a floor, Kendra could see that she was in some sort of jail cell in a cold, dank room, her mattress being the only piece of furniture within it.
Immediately, Kendra bounced onto her feet and clenched her hands against the bars to her cell. They were fairly secure, with no viable way for her to break them under her strength alone. Looking beyond her cell, Kendra came to the conclusion that she was probably in a basement, as the room was littered with piles of boxes, old furniture, and a furnace.
"Hello?" asked Kendra, trying to see if someone else was in the room. But where was she? How did she get here? One minute, she had been at her desk working on her homework in her bedroom, the next, she was in this strange jail.
"Anybody?" she shouted, not knowing what to expect. She knew things were bad, but was hoping that at least someone would be courteous enough to explain things to her. But who could've done this? The Society of the Evening Star had been disbanded, hadn't it? True, many members were still at large, but they supposedly had no further motive.
Kendra reached into her pockets to try and locate her cell phone, but it was not there. Taking a moment to think, she figured that she had probably been frisked while she was still unconscious. A lot of good it would do her if she couldn't so much as even find the thing.
Kendra then heard a door creak open, and turned her attention over to the staircase at the far end of the room that led upstairs. She then noticed a small, bipedal figure, roughly the size of a small monkey, scurrying down the stairs, until it was obscured by all the clutter on the basement floor. Kendra listened as the creature's footsteps came closer and closer, until it appeared before the cell.
Looking down at the creature, it appeared to be almost troll-like. It had green skin, small teeth, long nails, and a smooth, bald head. It was nearly naked, save for a diaper-like garment covering its torso. The creature looked up at Kendra with both a scowl and a wicked smile.
"What's the meaning of this, waking me from my beauty rest?" asked the creature in an oily, high-pitched voice.
"I'm sorry," said Kendra. "But what's going on? Who are you?"
"I make the decisions around here," stated the creature. "But since I already know who you are, I'll introduce myself. It's not my real name, but you can call me Jake."
"Jake?" asked Kendra. "What are you?"
"Are you dumb? I'm a- wait, you see through my disguise don't ya? Well, I am a datchit. A so-called sub-species of golbins. Hmmph. I'm no sub-species, I'll say that much."
"Where am I?"
Jake pressed his claws together. "Why would I tell you? You're my prisoner! I don't have ta do a damn thing you say, now, do I?
"Please!" gasped Kendra. "I just want some assurance. It's the least you can do."
"Would you shuddap?" whined Jake. "I don't care how powerful you are. Without your stupid fairy friends, you're a weakling. I could take ya."
"What do you want with me?" asked Kendra.
"I'm tired. I'm in no mood for a conference. We'll check on you at sunrise. Now keep it down or I'll have to do something to ya."
Kendra watched as Jake scampered back behind the clutter and returned up the stairs, before slamming the door behind himself. As soon as Jake was gone, Kendra glanced at her watch, which displayed the time as being three-twenty-one.
Sadness overcame Kendra's emotions. She'd been in far more perilous situations than this before. But nevertheless, this whole ordeal was still too mysterious for her. She figured Jake, if he was in on this whole ordeal, knew enough about Kendra's identity, and that he was probably associated with the Society. But how did this happen? Jake implied that there were others with him, giving Kendra the impression that had not abducted her by himself.
Unable to sleep, Kendra waited out the following hours lounging around on her mattress, afraid to make any noise in case Jake were to come back prematurely. He didn't seem that strong, but Kendra had learned not to judge others by their size. Besides, if he was weak, what was to stop him from possibly shooting her with a gun, or something of that ilk? Not to kill, but to inflict pain.
Worrying about herself, her friends and family, Kendra wished that someone would show up to rescue her. She imagined that the others were all worried sick, not knowing what to do in order to find her.
At long last, sometime after daylight had started to pour in through a cellar window, the door at the top of the stairs opened up, grabbing Kendra's attention instantaneously. Jake made his way over to the cell, holding in his hands a glass of orange juice and a plate with two halves of a bagel, both of which had been slathered in cream cheese.
"Here's your grub," snorted Jake, passing the glass between the bars to Kendra's cell. Although she was wary about accepting food in this situation, Kendra had been dying of thirst. She grabbed the glass and chugged down the orange juice, which was admittedly very refreshing.
Jake then slid the plate with the bagel underneath the barred door, so that Kendra could reach down and grab it.
"Aren't ya gonna say thanks?" asked Jake, a sneer etched upon his brow.
"Uh, thanks," said Kendra, who was unsure whether or not she should so much as be grateful given the circumstances.
"The others are gonna be down here soon, so eat up."
Kendra was in no hurry to meet these so-called others, but complied to Jake's suggestion, and quickly finished her juice and bagel. She then handed the glass and plate back to Jake,who placed them off to the side. Before long, Kendra watched as two more figures trotted down the stairs, both of whom were human.
The two humans, a man and woman, both probably in their thirties, made their way over to where Jake was standing. Both of them seemed quite satisfied to see Kendra behind bars, and were admiring her as if she were a work of art.
"Good morning Kendra," said the woman confidently. She had a petite figure, short black hair, and piercing blue eyes.
"Who are you?" asked Kendra.
"We were waiting for you to pop the question," said the man. He was of average build and sported curly black hair. "My name is Matthew."
"And I'm Ashley," noted the woman. "Are you satisfied yet?"
"I do suppose an explanation is in order," said Matthew, looking at Ashley.
"You kidnapped me..." gasped Kendra. "I know it."
"You're right about that," said Jake.
"How?" asked Kendra.
"We were granted access to Fablehaven and used our magic to smuggle you out," said Ashley.
"We're expert sorcerers," said Matthew.
Ashley held her arms to her sides, and before Kendra's eyes, had transformed herself into a long, black, venomous snake, and was slithering between the bars into her cell. Kendra was terrified as Ashley coiled herself around Kendra's midsection, squeezing tightly.
"I'm a shape-shifter," said Ashley, as she uncoiled her body from Kendra's, slithered back through the bars and transformed back into a human.
"But, how did you kidnap me?"
"I guess there's no point in accomplishing something if you're unable to boast about it," said Matthew, stroking an eyebrow. "Does the name Lance Springer ring a bell?"
"Lance?" asked Kendra. "Him? He did this?"
"Hardly," noted Ashley. "But let's just say he works for us. The Society of the Evening Star. Perhaps you've heard of us?"
"What did Lance do?" blurted Kendra. "And how did you get past the register? It was upgraded to keep out anyone or anything deemed sentient enough, no matter how much they resisted it, due to a breach last summer."
"You're right," said Matthew. "We'd never have been able to bypass the barrier, so long as our names were not written down in the register. But our friend Lance was kind enough to go out of his way to seek out the register and add our names to it."
"No!" gasped Kendra, unable to believe what she was hearing.
"So we tagged along with Margot undetected when she came by to pick Lance up," said Ashley. We used our powers to infiltrate the house and tracked you down."
"They couldn't stop what they couldn't see," said Matthew, fading before Kendra's eyes. "And then I made you disappear."
Kendra felt something strange happen to her body, as she became all tingly. She was now standing outside the cage, to the side of Ashley, Matthew and Jake.
"By transporting you into the back of Margot's car," said Ashley, where I knocked you out with the tradional method of a cloth and chloroform. I guess it happened too fast for you to notice."
"When my grandparents see your names on the register, they'll get you!"
"Like that'll happen so fast," said Matthew. "For one thing, this house is not our actual home. And two, Lance wrote our names down using a little something called umite wax. Just because they can't read it doesn't mean it's not there."
"But what do you want with me?" asked Kendra.
"We have great plans for you," said Ashley. "You see, we know about the whole incident regarding the instruments of eternal power."
"And your true fairy potential," added Matthew.
"Not to mention the instruments themselves."
"And how they're being protected in the fairy kingdom."
"But why do you know all this?" asked Kendra.
Jake rubbed his scaly hands together, then peered at Kendra. "Are you familiar with grovelins?"
"Aren't they similar to you?" asked Kendra, trying to piece information together as she looked down at Jake.
"Oh puh-lease," said Jake. "Those little creeps? Hardly!"
"As Jake was saying," continued Ashley. "Navarog may have mentioned at one point that it was a grovelin that stowed away in Vanessa's backpack after your adventure at Pileus Palace."
Kendra shuddered. "That very grovelin was wrongly brought into Fablehaven, where it infiltrated the house and secretly destroyed the old register. "What about the grovelin?" she asked fiercely.
"That little grovelin witnessed everything," said Matthew. "Assembling the Omega Star, your fairy prime power, Navarog's fate. He wasn't able to recover the instruments on his own, so he left Fablehaven and sought out the Society of the Evening Star. Or rather, what remained of it."
"So this little grovelin, who earned himself the name Snitch," continued Ashley, "found his way to Oblivion."
"Who's Oblivion?" asked Kendra, having never heard the name before.
"A close accomplice of the Sphinx's," said Matthew. "Or at least he was, until you knights got your way with him."
"Keeps a low profile," noted Ashley.
"Real low. He never talks out loud and we've never even seen his face. His yes-man does all the speaking for him."
"And how do you guys factor in to all this?" asked Kendra.
"Oblivion recruited us not only to bring you to him, but to grant ourselves unwarranted access into Fablehaven," explained Matthew. "And what better way to test the breach by abducting you."
"And just what do you want with me? What makes you think I'd ever give in to your demands?"
"We're not going to waste our time merely convincing you to lend us your powers," said Ashley.
"We'd rather extract it by force," hinted Matthew.
"Much easier than negotiating with you and trying to earn your cooperation."
"Kendra, imagine yourself as a bottle of wine that just won't open. Nobody cares about the physical bottle, just the contents. And since unscrewing your cork isn't working for us, we're content with just cutting you open instead, if that's what it takes."
"We're going to let you out of your cage now," said Matthew. "We ask that you freshen yourself up."
"But, why?" asked Kendra cautiously.
"We've got an appointment with Oblivion, of course," said Ashley. "Wouldn't want to make a bad first impression with him, would you?"
"Your first, and last," laughed Matthew.