***
Waiting on Leila as she attempted to see if she could find a trace of the grimoire had everyone on edge. Kevan looked around at the grim looking faces in front of her. She knew that every hour that passed without them finding a trace of the grimoire brought the king’s guard that much closer to finding them.
“We’ll find it,” she voiced, trying to sound more positive than she was really feeling.
“When Kevan? It’s been two days of searching, and so far nothing,” Ronan complained. “We can’t just keep flying around without a destination, because that’s a great way to get caught.”
“Do you have a better idea?” Kaitlyn defended her sister, and friend. “Cause if you do, we sure would like to hear it.”
“Hey, we’re on the same team here, so let’s not start fighting each other,” Wren butted in. “You said that she could sense it? If that’s true, then why can’t she right now?”
“Look, this isn’t an exact science,” Kevan defended Leila. “We are doing the best we can.”
“I’m sorry,” Leila whispered from behind them. “I know that it’s here in this area, I just can’t tell you more than that right at the moment. Unlike the other things in the repository, it doesn’t like to communicate. The best way to describe the sense that I get from it, is that it’s paranoid and protecting itself.”
“You talk like it a living thing?” Ronan questioned her.
“I guess in a way it is, at least to me it is,” she told him. “They speak to me, answer questions, demand attention, whine and complain. It’s like a child, and at times, completely exhausting.”
“So this grimoire doesn’t want to give you information about where it is?” Ronan asked.
“No, it doesn’t. Like I said, it’s protective and paranoid, but it also can’t tell me anymore than it has, because it doesn’t know any more than what we already know, that it is in a dark, warm place, surrounded by water,” Leila told him.
“Alright, so we know where it is, just not exactly where it is,” Kaitlyn indicated as she looked at Leila. “Nothing else?”
“I wish I could tell you more, but it’s like something is between us. I don’t know quite how to explain it to you,” Leila told her, feeling frustrated that she couldn’t pin down better what she was feeling. “You know what it reminds me of?”
“What?” Kaitlyn probed.
“Like when we first arrived at that field in Scotland.” That statement made them all come to attention.
“Before Joseph broke the spell?” Kevan queried, looking at Joseph shaking his head, telling her that there wasn’t any enchantment that he could sense.
“Sort of,” Leila stated. “More like before you did your thing, and thought you found that cave, remember?”
Kaitlyn suddenly got excited. “That’s it; he disguised the entrance to wherever he hid it.”
“Then why wouldn’t Joseph sense a spell?” Kevan pointed out.
“Maybe it’s not a spell,” Joseph spoke up.
“What do you mean?”
“It could be a natural entrance not easily spotted. You wouldn’t need a spell to disguise it then, and I wouldn’t be able to sense it, but it would be visible to the detector.”
“That means you’re up,” Kaitlyn informed her twin. “You’re the all-seeing, so do your thing and tell us what you can see.”
“Fine,” Kevan replied. Kevan closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and then opened her eyes, turning full circle to get a sense of how the land lay. Her next breath helped her slide into a trance, her vision shifted, all sounds of the outside disappeared, and her entire focus was on the landscape surrounding them. Things that her normal vision missed stood out now, drawing her attention, a panorama picture in her head, as she slid over every crag and chasm, until her eyes followed the lake, to the edge of the waterfall. There it was, shimmering behind the waterfall, beckoning to her, and then she was awake, fully alert.
“The waterfall, behind the waterfall, that’s where the entrance is.” She smiled in satisfaction.
“See,” Kaitlyn said, as she pulled on her backpack. She turned and looked at how far away the waterfall really was. “Any chance that we can get the dragons to pick us up, and drop us over there?” she asked.
“Why would we do that? It would just give our position away,” Ronan told her, as he picked up his pack. “It’s only a half day hike around the lake.”
“Half day,” Kaitlyn groaned, “What I wouldn’t give for a couple of ATVs,” she muttered under her breath, as they pushed off, heading towards the waterfall.