Chapter Nine: Solving Riddles

Ethan sat on the edge of Giles' bed, gently stroking the Faerie's long hair. He wore a wistful expression as he gazed down at the unconscious man. The Scoobies had managed to get their watcher home with no mishaps. They'd even managed to kill more vampires on the way out of the building, always a plus in their minds. Once home, Giles' strength had given out and he had fainted. Buffy had put him to bed while Willow and Tara had brewed a healing salve that Ethan had given them a recipe for. Ethan himself had worked some minor healing spells to take care of the worst of his old mate's injuries. When finished, the salve had been rubbed onto the scratches and burns that were left. Now the group were all ranged around Giles' bedroom, waiting for him to wake up and give an explanation.

Willow, Tara, and, surprisingly, Spike, were looking over the prophecy they'd brought back with them, trying to figure out what it meant. Ethan didn't really listen to them talking it over; he concentrated his attention on Ripper.

"Okay, look at the first three lines," Willow explained. She quoted, "'Beside the deep waters of calming, where the winter wind never blows cold, the barriers between worlds will be weakened.' That's why that vampire is here. It means Sunnydale. Deep waters of calming,' that's the Pacific ocean. I mean, it's pretty much just a translation of the name. Then, where the winter wind never blows cold,' that's a pretty good description of Southern California. The third line's the kicker though. the barriers between worlds will be weakened.' That's the Hellmouth! I mean, that's all it really is, a place to cross from one dimension to another, and the safeguards in place to keep that from happening, well, they're totally weaker here than the rest of the world. Otherwise, demons would probably be overrunning earth by now."

Spike nodded, not being sarcastic for once. "Right then, we've got the place. Well, the next line's easy. A demon wearing mortal guise.' Got to be a vampire. We're demons, but we're in human bodies. We even look human most of the time."

"Yeah, until you do that creepy grr thing with the ridges and the glow in the dark eyes. Hey! Like cats! And cats have fangs. Think you're related?" Xander blinked as everyone stared at him. "What? It's a legitimate question."

Spike rolled his eyes, "Rather be a cat than a human, mate, if you're the example I've got to go by." He looked down over Willow's shoulder again, reading the paper she held. "'The band of shielding that prevents all blows to the wearer.' Well, that's a bit of a riddle, innit?"

Buffy snorted, "Like we haven't come across magical jewelry before. You had one yourself, that Ring of Whatever. If you could walk in the sun while wearing that thing, I bet this, it sounds like a bracelet or something, makes someone invincible. Not a good thing for a vamp to find. I bet I wouldn't be able to stake him at all, he'd really be immortal. We have to stop this baddie from getting this band thing."

"Great," Xander groaned. "So we know this magical bracelet is in Sunnydale and this new vamp is looking for it. So how do we stop him? We've got to find it first, right? How do we do that? What do the last lines mean?"

Tara glanced at the paper and read, "' There the key to the band will be living, the young lordling, the studious rebel, who might prevent or aid the band's loss.' T-the key? S-someone who knows where it is?"

"So who is it?" Buffy practically vibrated with impatience.

"Well, it says the young lordling, the studious rebel.' I don't know about the second part, but young lordling would indicate a noble, right? Like in kingdoms, a prince or duke or something." Willow looked rather put out that she hadn't figured out the meaning of the entire riddle by now.

"Nobles?" Xander scoffed, "This is America! We don't have princes or anything."

Spike laughed, "Bloody hell, whelp! You don't think that matters do you? You got people coming here from all over, right? Some not even from this world, this being the Hellmouth and all. I mean, you got three blokes from England sitting right in front of you!" He cast his gaze to the prone figure on the bed. "Well, at least two from England, not sure where Faeries come from."

Buffy jumped in, ignoring his last comment, "Okay, so whoever it is who has the bracelet, or at least knows where it is, he's a noble of some kind. Isn't there anything else that can help us?"

"W-well, we do have t-the original." Everyone looked at Tara, who ducked her head and let her hair fall in front of her face, hiding her. "I-I mean, we've been reading the translation, right? W-what about the original version?"

Willow grinned and quickly kissed Tara's cheek, causing a blush to appear on the other girl's cheek. "That's it! Look," she indicated the top version of the prophecy, the one in the original language. "That's why the vamp kidnapped Giles. It wasn't just because Giles could help him figure out the meaning of this, it's because he's mentioned in the prophecy itself!" She stabbed her finger on the line and read, the foreign words coming haltingly to her tongue as she sounded them out. "'prin hosp'in kel swin rupert giles.'"

"You do realize that you are completely mangling my native language."

The dry comment, said in a hoarse voice that was a little worse for wear, shocked them all and they turned to the bed to see Giles lying there with open eyes and a very small smile quirking his lips. Ethan was also smiling, they noticed, but withtenderness?

Xander was the first to find his voice, "G-Man! You're awake!"

"I've told you not to call me that, Xander," Giles said with a sigh of long-suffering that was mostly show. It made everyone feel better that he was apparently well enough to joke. He levered himself, with Ethan's help, into a sitting position, leaning against the headboard of his bed.

"Now, I believe you were discussing a prophecy and the fact that my name appears in it." He paused as they all nodded. "It's simple enough to explain. I'm the key to the bracelet's whereabouts, I'm the lordling."