An hour later they were trying to figure out the riddle. Maya had written it down and made copies for each of them including Gupta who was sitting in on the planning session. Gupta still felt guilty for letting the children be taken no matter how many times Peter and Maya told him it wasn't his fault and that there was absolutely nothing they could have done. Gopal meanwhile was in the kitchen fixing everybody a snack for despite this situation they had to eat whether they felt like it or not for they needed to keep up their strength.
They each studied the riddle silently for a few minutes then Peter said as an idea occurred to him. "That last line is the most suggestive."
Peter read it aloud.
"We live where there are thorns in our sides."
"Roses have thorns and I think there is a street in an upper class neighborhood called Roseus Ave. Roseus is Latin for Rose. It's named after this really rich man who used to live there. He died a few years ago and his place has been empty ever since,"
"So you think this place was either rented or outright bought by this lady?" asked Sebastian.
"And you think that's where the children are being held?" added Margherita.
"It's possible," said Peter. "Anything else doesn't make half as much sense. It's not just that one house, almost every yard has rose buses. It's one of the reasons they called it Roseus Ave."
"Might I mention just because the warehouse held little danger that will probably not hold true for this place?" said Keighvin.
All the others nodded solemnly in agreement with Keighvin's statement.
"If I remember correctly," said Peter. "The house which is called "Rose House" is surrounded by woods on all four sides. There is a path that leads to the front door, but that is probably not the best approach."
"What about the woods? Is there a way to go through the woods and in the back way?" asked Keighvin.
"I don't know for sure," said Peter. "I've been through the neighborhood a time or two, but I've never actually stopped there. That particular neighborhood is way above my class. It's more Almsley's class then mine."
"I have a few acquaintances in that area, but no one I'd call a friend. I've only seen the place you mentioned from a distance, although I did meet William Rose once or twice before his death."
"Is there any way to verify that this is indeed the place we are looking for?" asked Marina.
"Maybe," said Almsley looking thoughtful, "Just maybe."
His friend looked like he might have an idea Peter noticed. "You have an idea twin?" he asked.
"Possibly, I have a friend whom I can send over to that neighborhood to ask a few discreet questions about that house and who moved there," Almsley replied.
"Can you trust this friend of yours?" asked Andrew.
"To a certain extent, but I wasn't planning on telling him the whole truth just part of it," Almsley said.
"Well, we haven't any better ideas so we might as well implement this one. Just make sure to tell your friend he only has a couple of hours at most. We need time to plan and get into position and all that."
"I know, I'll leave right now," said Almsley suiting his action to his words and leapt to his feet. He had to be as tired as any of them and yet he was out the door and gone in just a matter of seconds.
The others turned back and started to plan as much as they could until they got they got information they needed.
~~~Beyond Revenge~~~
No more than two hours later Almsley came back in the door
"That was fast twin," said Peter, looking more tired the Almsley had ever seen him. The missing children were wearing heavily on him as it was on them all.
"So what did you find out?" asked Thomas.
"Just that within the last year and a half, two women moved into that house. The neighbors told my man that strange things go on at that house ever since the woman moved in. Strange sounds and smells a lot of the time in the middle of the night. They also said that the women hardly ever go out in the daytime and when they do they both wear black from head to foot, including heavy veils to stop anybody from seeing their faces."
"So, sounds like the right place," said Margherita.
"So what is our plan of attack?" asked Sebastian.
They discussed it for a few minutes and then headed out the door for their children needed them.
~~~Beyond Revenge~~~
They got to the address in less than an hour and they still had an hour to the deadline
The then split into two different groups.
Peter, Maya, Marina and Andrew headed up the path to the front door. They needed to give the others time to get through the woods and come in the back way. They had had the hansoms stop more than a block from the house so they could come up on it hopefully unnoticed,
When they got there Peter tried the front door and found it unlocked,
"It's bound to be a trap," Peter whispered to his companions. "There is no way they leave the front door unlocked under normal circumstances."
Peter used his mind to see if there were any Undines inside the house. There had to be some kind of open water—like a lake, or a pond, or a fountain—for there to be water elementals.
There were one or two and they weren't happy.
:This is not a nice place to live,: said one.
:Be careful these women are pure evil: said the other.
:Thanks for the warning,: he told them. "Be careful I just talked to a couple of Water Elementals and they aren't happy."
The others nodded and took the warning to heart for unhappy elementals' was a very bad sign.
They entered the house and slowly started to move forward.
"Stop right there!" a harsh female voice ordered from the shadows at the top of the stairs.
All four stopped and Peter was the first to speak, "Where are our children?"
"Oh they are still alive—for now," said the voice. "But they might not remain that way for very much longer."
"Why are you doing this?" asked Maya. "What have we ever done to you?"
"What have you done?" the woman hissed stepping forward into the light. All of those present gasped for before them stood a dark skinned woman a Hindu Peter knew and a full Hindu at that.
"My name is Batti, I was Shivani's apprentice. I came with her when she decided to come to England to get revenge on you. When you killed her—you and your husband ruined my life. So I decided to get my revenge by killing your children in front of you."
"But what does that have to do with Andrew and me?" Marina demanded.
"It's not that wants revenge on you its Marion who was apprenticed to Arachne. It is she not I that wanted revenge on you for killing her mistress. We just decided to join forces is all. It's almost a pity you decided to come alone because not only will you never leave here neither will your children," this last was said with immense satisfaction and an evil cackle.
"But they didn't come alone," said a familiar but welcome voice. "My twin has never been that foolhardy ever since I've known him."
Almsley then stepped into the light his expression grim.
"One more Elemental Master?" cackled Batti. "Big deal, for you too will meet your death this night."
"I'm not the only backup they bring," said Almsley calmly.
The Tarrants, Thomas Buford and Keighvin also stepped into the light.
"So they didn't come alone again I say big deal. I have enough power to see you all die."
"Do you really think you can defeat eight Elemental masters and come out alive?" asked Sebastian.
"Eight furious Elemental Masters," Thomas added.
"It doesn't matter if we live, just so long as you don't," said a new voice coming to stand beside Batti. "So prepare to die all of you."
"I think you spoke to soon," said Peter making a few gestures and concentrating. Suddenly both women were encased in some kind of energy cage it came up and surrounded them in blue water energy.
The Hindu woman made a gesture and the cage of water disappeared.
"You'll have to do better than that if you want to imprison us," said Batti laughing insanely then before anyone could stop her she started to throw some kind of energy arrows at them. The arrows didn't look like much but when and if they hit they burned through shields and hit flesh where they burned the master until they were finally put out.
This time Andrew and Margherita before either of the other woman could do anything else both made gestures and concentrated in burring; their energy deep into the Earth to find tree roots and to make them grow at a rapid pace—much more rapid than normal.
Tree roots began to grow out of the ground at Batti's and Marion's feet forcing their way up through the hardwood floor to encase the women's hands and feet so they couldn't move anything below the neck.
Both women struggled but could not break free no matter how hard they tried.
"Where are the children?" Keighvin demanded advancing towards the two women with his sword drawn. Keighvin was wearing a human seeming for he might let his friends see know he wasn't human but they were honest and trustworthy and wouldn't tell anyone these women however were exactly the opposite. Villains in every sense of the word and he would prefer that they never find out he wasn't human.
"You'll never find them," the second woman laughed evilly.
"You'll have to kill us in order to get to them," the Batti added.
That told everybody in the rescue party two things. One: they were probably in the house somewhere and Two: they were more than likely still alive.
"Lady," said Andrew. "We do not kill without a better reason than this one."
Both women looked at Andrew in surprise
"Your mistresses were evil," Peter added. "Shivani tried to kill Maya just because she's half-Hindu and half-English. She killed Maya's father just because he married a Hindu. Her hatred of the English was so great that she tried to take revenge on a woman who had never done her any harm."
"And didn't even know existed," Maya added.
"And as for me," said Marina. "My Aunt Arachne hated me from the moment I was born. She hated my parents so much that she cursed an innocent infant. A curse that was supposed to, kill me before my eighteenth birthday.
"After that my parents decided to let the Tarrants raise me for they thought I would be safer away from my home. Thanks to my aunt she practically destroyed my mother's fragile soul with the loss of her one and only child and if that wasn't enough years later she did kill them both. She then stole the will that named the Tarrants as my guardians and tried to reactivate the curse. If that isn't evil I don't know what is. Now where is my daughter?!"
"You'll never find them," snarled Marion.
"Enough of this," said Keighvin calmly, knocking both ladies on the back of the head with the hilt of his sword.
"We need to search the house from top to bottom," said Peter immediately taking over.
"Report back in twenty minutes whether or not you find anything," Almsley added.
"Somebody probably needs to stay here to guard these two," said Keighvin. "I have no idea how long they'll be out. It could be minutes or hours."
"I'll stay," Thomas volunteered.
"Thanks," said Peter.
"Just find my little niece and we'll call it even," Thomas told him.
Peter nodded and headed upstairs to search.
~~~Beyond Revenge~~~
"Anything?" asked Marina twenty minutes later.
They all shook their heads sadly. "We've searched this house from top to bottom and not a soul did we find."
"But they must be here somewhere," Maya said, but with little hope in her voice.
"Have any of you checked to see if there's a root or wine cellar?" asked Peter. "A house this size is bound to have one."
The others shook their heads and all headed towards the kitchen for that was where the door to the cellar was usually located.
"Here it is," Keighvin was the first to shout. The others came forward to surround him and Keighvin broke the lock with the hilt of his sword. The entrance had been concealed behind some boxes that looked like they had been their forever unless you looked at the floor and saw there wasn't as much dust as there was in the rest of the kitchen—especially in the corners. That and faint scratches on the floor gave it away.
They all headed down the cellar steps carefully for it was dark. They tested each step carefully before putting their full weight on it. They finally reached the bottom and Peter reached up and pulled the chain for the single bare bulb in the ceiling. The light came on, but even with the light the cellar still seemed awfully dark. The light lit a small patch directly beneath the bulb but not much more.
Peter gestured and a little blue burning witchlight appeared over his shoulder. The others did the same and they all sent them into different corners of the room until the whole room was lit.
"Timmy, Lorena; Rylie can you hear me?" Peter called. "If you can answer me yell as loud as you can."
Suddenly they all fell silent as they heard a faint sound. Keighvin raised his hand and everyone stopped moving and stood absolutely still as Keighvin tried to track the sound. Sidhe ears were sharper than humans.
Peter shouted again when Keighvin signaled him to. "Timmy, Lorena, Rylie, keep yelling so we can track the sound."
The faint sounds began again and Keighvin's ears tracked the faint sound to one corner of the cellar. "The sound is coming from here," said Keighvin pointing at the dirt floor in the corner he had indicated.
Peter knelt and swiped at some of the dirt in that corner and almost immediately came across something that felt like wood not dirt. "I think there is a trap door here," said Peter. "They are probably being kept in what used to be a bomb shelter. Some of the older houses have them for when England is at war."
Peter found the handle and pulled. It wasn't locked because the ladder that had allowed somebody to climb up the side had been removed and the door was too high for the children to reach without that ladder.
"Timmy? Lorena? Rylie?" called Peter.
"Alanna!" called Andrew and Marina, both kneeling beside Peter.
"Momma," said a small voice. The voice was music to Marina's ears and she practically felt like crying tears of joy.
"Hold on we'll be down to get you in a few minutes," Maya promised also kneeling at the trap door. She like Marina also felt like shedding tears of joy but held them back with difficulty.
~~~Beyond Revenge~~~