Link peeked through the slats of the wooden barrel that his green-clad form was crouched inside, watching Marty's father, King Seehal, as he waited for someone. Clearly agitated, Seehal was pacing in circles around the main room. He looked like Marty, down to the golden crown with the royal peridot of Datillo embellished in its highest spike. His eyes were two were a soft shade of honeyed caramel, giving him an outer calmness which didn't fit the current situation.
A door set in the wall behind Seehal opened slowly, and the mysterious messenger who could have been none other than the one Nalinda had seen came out. Silver armour was clasped all over his torso and down his legs; set in the breastplate was a single bright sapphire, shining for all it was worth. His cape, a dark midnight blue, swept the floor as he came in, flowing and dark. As for his head, Nalinda had been right; his spiky black hair was an unruly tangle, capped by a leather helmet. But his eyes were the weirdest – a kind of bluish colour, bright and pale at the same time, flickering, wavering beams of light that pierced through the slight darkness of the room.
"It's time," the mysterious messenger said, rubbing the sapphire on the breastplate of his armour. "He's been kidnapped. Fate works in its own ways, Seehal."
"I know, Fahel, but why? Why me? It's not fair at all..." Seehal broke off, running a hand through his praline hair and succeeding only in rumpling it up. "My own son and his friends..."
Both men went back into the room where Fahel had been before. They both walked slowly, without talking, so that no more information about the mysterious kidnapping victim could be extracted.
Maureen looked at her friends, her eyes glowing. "You thinking what I'm thinking?"
