She had dozed off, having some odd dream about her village when Ash's eyes snapped open and she jolted upwards, waking Braxton and Zeus curled around her. Sudden realization rocked Ash like a slap in the face, her heart pounding with the thoughts coursing through her mind.
“We’ve been going about this all wrong,” she breathed, her mouth hanging open in dumb shock.
Don’t just sit here thinking about it! Go!
Ash launched herself forward, practically falling off the bed in her haste to get downstairs. Pounding down the staircase, she crossed into the main room towards the book case, grabbing a crystal globe sitting in its stand beside a number of books. Turning it over in her hands, fog began to swirl as she poured energy into it, not wasting any time to explain her actions.
“You calling someone?” Kai muttered as his head popped out from the kitchen where the bar was, Kyli right behind him,“I saw her do it once with one of those crystals.”
Her eyes closed, focusing on the face of the person she wanted to talk to. It was a two-way communication system, only being able to contact others with the globe, but the energy spending was minimal and it could cross seas as long as each person had a sister orb.
The fog settled as a face appeared, many wrinkles set on a tired face, dark eyes looking up at her bored.
“Don’t tell me,” Dr. Hall sighed, “Another one of your friends is pregnant.”
“Uh no,” Ash frowned, “Hello to you too Arthur.”
He waved at the orb, “What is it Ashlin? You caught me just before I retired for the night.”
“I’m sorry, this couldn’t wait,” she spoke quickly, holding the orb up to eye level, “Reyn and Nya are in trouble. Someone’s taken them.”
“What?” Dr. Hall looked alarmed, “Where’s Elijah?”
“MIA,” she replied, “He went looking for them and we still haven’t gotten any word back. But Arthur please listen. Someone knew about Reyn and Nya, where they were –for that matter that they existed.”
“Elijah has many enemies, as you’ve told me and the village. She was safe here, but now she’s out in the open. We cannot provide assistance here Ashlin.”
“Yeah, I don’t need assistance. We are trying to find
who took them for a week now Arthur, and there has been no leads. I finally figured out why tonight. We’ve been going tracking down people who hate or know Eli, anyone connected to him.”
“And?”
“And none of them would know about Reyn or Nya,” she sighed, “Both of them have been in hiding for a year, and before that Reyn wasn’t exactly a native around here.”
She could see he was catching on, his fingers pinching the bridge of his nose, “The only people who knew about them lived here, in our village. Are you actually accusing someone here of kidnapping a mother and her daughter?”
“No,” Ash shook her head, “I’m accusing someone of ratting them out. Someone there must have been paid off for information, or worse went looking for the highest bidder. I want to know who, and I want to know who they gave the information to.”
The room had gone eerily quiet, but Ash’s focus was solely on her crystal orb, “Please Arthur. They’re lives are at risk the longer we cannot find them. It’ll take me three days to get there, three more days of those girl’s missing.”
He sighed, resigning, “Call me back tomorrow night. No earlier than eight pm.”
“Thank you.”
Breaking the connection, she returned the orb to the bookshelf, letting a shiver crawl down her spine.
I took them to that village to be safe. If someone did that to Reyn and Nya…
