Page 55 of Enchanted

She shook her head.

“He thinks I cannot read. That you will be alone in trying to find Fiona and that you will fail.”

At the confidence in his gaze, a hope blossomed inside her. “And he has no knowledge of the fact that the women of the castle have been teaching me about fighting and strategy.” She moved her hand over her skirt and patted where her dagger was sheathed, only to feel nothing. “My dagger.”

Keiran brought his hand down to his scabbard, looking up sharply. “My sword is missing as well.” He frowned. “When I found you back at Dunvegan you were as still as a statue, and yet when Oberon brought me to you, you were perched on a rock in the middle of a churning sea. On the earthen plane, you were present and absent at the same time. And now I am here with you. Does that mean I am also here and back at Dunvegan as well?” he mused, talking out the situation before them.

“Is such a thing possible?” Rosalyn asked.

Keiran nodded. “In a dream state, aye.”

She drew a sharp breath. “Oberon mentioned that if I died in my dreams I would die in life. So, all of this is a dream?”

“A dream where there are deadly consequences if we fail.” Keiran’s gaze dropped to the map. “Let us look at what we are up against, shall we?”

The map had been fashioned on aged parchment, making it appear as though from ancient times. The inscribed coastline around Dunvegan was obvious to Keiran and would have been even before he could read. Around the geographical outline of the coastline, rivers, harbours, and forests, were colourful images of fairies.

“This is more a work of art than a directional tool,” Keiran said in frustration. There were no place names, no writing whatsoever. “If Oberon gave us this challenge because I could not read, then why not have words on the page?”

“Perhaps that is what he wants us to believe,” Rosalyn said, as she began to see certain patterns repeating in the design of the fairies. By folding the map in one place, she brought two of the patterns together. A letter started to form. Her heart soared. Perhaps they might outwit the trickster yet. “We must fold these images on the map.”

“Oberon would not make it that simple for us.”

Still, Keiran studied the map, and while he did, Rosalyn shifted her gaze to the hourglass Oberon had left behind. One-fourth of the sand had already drifted downward. “Time is slipping away.”

“Our worrying about that will not help us keep our wits about us,” Keiran said, then raised his gaze to hers. “I have an idea. Look at the compass rose on the map. It shows the four cardinal directions. Perhaps we try folding the parchment like that.”

Rosalyn began folding the paper, aligning her folds with the needle of the compass specifying true north as their landmark. When no words appeared, she frowned and unfolded the map. “What other landmarks on this map can we use?”

Keiran searched the area. “Orrick told me there are two waterfalls near here. Is there any indication of them on the map?”

“No, only rock formations,” she said with frustration. Fiona was counting on them to figure this out and protect her unborn baby.

Keiran tapped two fingers over the rock formation of Castle Ewen. “Fold the map with this as the landmark.”

“Look, letters start to appear!” Rosalyn frowned. “But they do not make any sense.”

“Try folding it again using an eight-point compass rose with the four cardinal directions and the four intercardinal directions,” Keiran suggested.

As she folded, her excitement grew. Letters started to form. They were written in a fashion that reminded her of old English scripts she had seen in some of the older books she had read from her brother’s library. They often had an initial letter at the beginning of the chapter that was bold and ornate. She could make out the letter L, then as she kept folding a V appeared, followed by an E, and finally an O. “Love.” Her shoulders slumped. “That is not much of a clue.”

Keiran frowned and reached for the map. He turned the folded parchment upside down and now the word read Pain.

“It is an ambigram. These words are so ornate, they can form two different things when looked at from two different directions.”

Rosalyn released a frustrated breath. “How does that help us?”

Keiran pointed to the map again. To the faint X that showed on not one, but two places a short distance from them. “I will speculate these represent two waterfalls. I would wager he has hidden her behind one of them.”

Rosalyn looked back at the hourglass. Time in the form of sand slipped through faster than she would have liked.

Striding to the hourglass, Keiran tried to set it on its side, to slow time for them, but the timepiece would not budge. “If we cannot stop time, then we will simply have to find her in the time allowed.”

“But, I mean, ‘pain?’ That word scares me, Keiran, for both of us.”

“Do not lose hope simply because one of the words Oberon used as a clue was pain. Aye, we have both had our fair share of disappointments in our lives, but we are not the same people we once were.” He pulled her close, holding on to her as if they had all the time in the world. That sizzle of heat she always experienced when they touched passed between them. “We will defeat Oberon if we stand together.”

She tipped her head back to look up at him. “We do this together.”