Chapter 3 -- Who Dunnit?

Lady Sandrilene fa Toren paced restlessly inside Discipline cottage. It had been nearly two weeks after the disappearance of her beloved teacher, Dedicate Lark, and they still had no idea who had taken her and where. Outside, the clock chimmed midnight.

Daja Kisubo, another student at Discipline, crept downstairs. "Sandry?" she whispered sleepily. Only moonlight illuminated the cottage, but Daja had heard her friend's impatient movements from her room upstairs.

"Daja! You startled me!" Sandry whispered.

"What are you doing up? It's late."

"I can't sleep. Could you?"

"You haven't slept well in weeks," Daja said. "You should go to bed and at least try to sleep."

"I can't do that. Whenever I even close my eyes, all I can think about is Lark. I have the most horrible feeling that something awful is happening to her." Sandry's voice choked up. "I couldn't stand it if she --"

"Shhh," Daja said. "It's all right, Sandry. Everything will be fine. Niko will be here by tomorrow, and you know that he'll figure out who kidnapped Lark."

Sandry nodded slightly. It had been terrible luck that Niko had been so far away -- not even doing anything important -- when this all had happened.

Just then there was a knock at the door. Excited that it might be Niko, Sandry hurried over and swung it open.

"Niko!" she cried happily, not bothering to keep her voice down. She threw her arms around him. "I'm so glad you're here." Sandry buried her face in his shirt and began to cry.

Tris, hearing her teacher's arrival, came down the stairs. Briar too poked his head out of his room and then came out to greet Niko. Lastly, yawning, Rosethorn emerged from her room.

"Hello Niko," she said, blinking sleepily. "You're here."

"Hello Rosethorn," he said.

Sandry, still by his side, pulled on his sleeve to get his attention. "Can we go to Summersea now?" she asked eagerly. "Or do you already know where she is?"

Niko yawned. "I would love to get started immediately, Sandry, but I'm exhausted. I have been traveling since before dawn yesterday."

"But Niko," Sandry begged.

"It can wait until morning," Rosethorn said firmly. "Now lets all get to sleep. In case you haven't noticed, it's the middle of the night."

Tris, Daja, and Briar headed towards their rooms, but Sandry stayed put.

"Go to bed," Niko said. "It's probably best that we wait until morning anyway. Then we won't have to work in the dark."

Sandry shook her head. "I can't sleep at all," she admitted.

Overhearing her, Rosethorn walked into her workroom and then emerged with a bottle of thick syrup. She poured a little of it into a cup and handed it to Sandry. "Drink," she directed. "It'll help you sleep."

Sandry accepted it and stared at the small pool of thick red liquid, wondering if it would be enough to banish the worries that kept her awake.

Rosethorn said, "It's very strong."

Sandry gulped the drink quickly. She tried to walk back to her room, but only made it about two steps before the sleeping potion took hold of her and put her straight to sleep. The last thing she remembered before falling completely unconscious what Niko laughing and saying, "I think that was a little too strong."

When Sandry awoke, sunlight was pouring into her bedroom. Birds chirped outside her window in the fresh spring air. For the first time in weeks, Sandry felt fully alert and refreshed. She quickly threw on her clothes and hurried to the kitchen. She found the rest of the house already there finishing breakfast.

"Good morning," Niko said. "Did you sleep well?"

"Yes," Sandry said. "Thank you Rosethorn. A good night's sleep was exactly what I needed."

"You're welcome," Rosethorn said.

"So what's the plan for today?" Daja asked. "Are we all going into Summersea?"

"Actually," Niko said. "I thought that it would be best if only Tris and I went this morning. I'm going to need her for a past-viewing spell. From what Moonstream has written me, there are almost no clues there, so I'll have to concentrate." He rose from the table. "If you're done, Tris, we can get going now." She nodded, and the two of them hurried off to Summersea.

They rode in a cart to the marketplace full of various tools that Niko thought might help unravel the mystery. Duke Vedris has closed off the portion of the marketplace that Lark had been in until the investigation could be concluded. The first thing that Niko did once they had arrived was closely examine the area for any dropped coins, threads, papers, or any other clues. Then, he, with Tris' help, began the past-viewing spell.

By afternoon, he and Tris had been working for hours with little luck. Whoever the kidnappers were, they had been very careful not to leave any hints as to their identity. All Niko knew was that they were both wearing simple, dark clothes with only one unusual mark. On either arm they bore a circle surrounding a black dot with a white circle in the center of it, like a washer. The only other thing that he noticed was a faint silver glow of magic that distinctly formed a trail out of town.

"But until we know where it leads, I don't think we should follow it," Niko finished summerizing the day's work to the charges and Rosethorn in Discipline.

Daja looked quite thoughtful. "What did the insignia look like, again? Could you draw it?" she asked.

Tris grabbed a slate and carefully copied the mark and handed it to her.

"It looks so familiar," Daja mused. "I'm almost positive that I've seen it before -- stamped on something."

Briar peered over her shoulder. "It looks like an eye," he declared.

"What a weird symbol," Sandry said, peering over Daja's other shoulder. "I wonder what it means."

"Cat dirt," Daja said, borrowing Sandry's expression. "All I can remember is that it was stamped on a bottle of Aterrias fire."

Niko and Rosethorn exchanged a look.

"What?" Sandry asked.

"Well," Niko began slowly. "If Daja is correct, and I think that she is, there is only one place in the world that makes that kind of liquor."

"But that's good, isn't it?" Briar asked. "Then you know where Lark is."

"Yes," Rosethorn said slowly, "But I wish she weren't there. The Anorran Empire is quite an enigma."

"The Anorran Empire?" Briar asked. "I've never heard of it. Where's that?"

"It's very isolated, far to the north and east of here, especially north. Its people have very little interaction with the world outside its own borders, so no one really knows anything about them," Rosethorn said.

"It's also called Anorra," Niko said. "And they call themselves the Northern Plains. The mages there have knowledge that the mages of Lightsbridge and Winding Circle would die to get."

"I wonder what they'd want with Lark," Briar commented.

"Who knows?" Niko asked rhetorically.

"Does it matter?" Sandry asked. "We know where she is now, so we can rescue Lark. Right?" Sandry asked.

"Of course," Rosethorn said. "We'll just need to take probably a day to prepare for such a long journey. Don't worry," she said briskley. "We won't give up yet."

But Niko said nothing.