Grip of the Shadow Plague

Dougan nodded. "You saw the artifact?" he asked Kendra.

"I saw it in use," she said. "I recharged it myself. The Sphinx came to Fablehaven and took it personally."

"If what you told us before was true, and the Sphinx is not leading the Knights, you’ll want to make sure the Captain knows about this," Warren said. "If you misled us, and the Sphinx is the Captain, make sure at least one of the other Lieutenants knows the details we’re sharing. No one person should have control over multiple artifacts."

"I understand the implications," Dougan said, voice steady.

"Implications are all we have," Warren said. "This is merely precautionary. We have no desire to wrongly accuse an innocent ally. Still, in case the Sphinx really is working for the other side, please don’t let our concerns get back to him. If he is a traitor, he has covered the secret well, and will stop at nothing to keep it from leaking."

"One way to protect yourselves against him would be to accuse him openly," Dougan said.

"Which we hesitate to do…" Warren began.

"Because if he is on our side, we desperately need him," Dougan finished. "Spreading false accusations about his disloyalty would provoke widespread distrust and dissension."

"And if as our true ally he is successfully concealing the artifacts, hopefully taking measures so no one person knows where multiple items are housed, we don’t want to frustrate his efforts. Dougan, we hope our suspicion is wrong. But I can’t ignore the smallest chance we may be right. The results would be devastating."

"Catastrophic," Dougan agreed. "Now I understand why you were asking about the Captain. I’ll keep a lid on this, and I’ll keep an eye open."

"That’s all we ask," Warren said. "I felt we could rely on you. Sorry to trouble you with this."

"Don’t apologize," Dougan said. "This is how the Knights police themselves. Nobody is above suspicion. Sharing your concerns with me was the correct choice. Anything else?" He studied both Warren and Kendra.

"Not that I can think of," Kendra said.

"For the record," Warren mentioned, "we know four of the five hidden preserves. This one, Fablehaven, Brazil, and Australia. We can’t come up with the fifth."

"Honestly, neither can we," Dougan said soberly. "Which is why we’re aggressively soliciting knowledge about the hidden preserves. For so long our policy was to leave those mysteries alone. Although the secret preserves were seldom discussed openly, most of us assumed that if we pooled our knowledge, all five would be known to the Knights collectively. Word is that you have been conducting some private research on the matter."

Standing up, Warren chuckled softly. "Apparently not as private as I supposed. The four preserves I named are all I’ve come up with, and I knew about them before I really started digging."

"I’ll delve into this matter of the Sphinx, and I’ll alert you of any significant findings. Let me know if you uncover any new information."

"Count on it," Warren said, leading Kendra out of the room.

Kendra awoke the following morning just after dawn. Beside her on the bed lay a Louis L’Amour hardcover borrowed from a bookshelf in the living room. She had ended up needing the companionship of the novel much less than she had expected. Before midnight, when she was only a third of the way through the western, her eyes had grown weary and she had rested her head on her pillow. That was the last thing she remembered.

Kendra placed the novel on her nightstand and switched off her reading light. She felt too perfectly rested to attempt any further sleep, so she put on her clothes. Would the others be up yet?

The hallway outside her room was quiet. She walked to the kitchen and found nobody. She had never been the first to awaken at the hacienda, and could not imagine that everyone had slept past dawn.

She opened the front door and found Gavin walking across the driveway. "Good morning," Kendra called.

"If you say so," he replied.

"What happened?"

"Javier is gone, along with the strongbox."

"What?"

"Check out the Jeep."

Kendra looked beyond Gavin at the Jeep parked in the driveway. Hal and Mara had used spare keys to retrieve the vehicle the previous evening. All four tires were flat. "He slashed the tires?"

"And they couldn’t find the pickup," Gavin said. "They’re all out searching for clues on motorcycles and horseback."

"So Javier was a spy?"

"L-l-l-looks that way. At least the artifact he took was a decoy. Still, Dougan acted really worried. Even though Javier had a questionable past back when he was selling his services to the highest bidder, he had proven himself extremely reliable in recent years. Dougan said if Javier was secretly working for the Society, anyone could be."

"What now?" Kendra wondered.

"We’ll still leave as planned. I was coming to grab some breakfast."

"Why didn’t anyone wake me up?" Kendra asked.

"Nobody specifically woke me up either," Gavin said. "They wanted to let us rest after yesterday. The revving motorcycles got me out of bed. M-m-my window looks out the front. Hungry?"

He walked into the hacienda and strode to the kitchen, taking milk from the fridge and cereal from the pantry. "I’ll have a bowl," Kendra said. "Want some orange juice? Toast?"

"Please."

While Kendra poured the juice and put bread into the toaster, Gavin set the table, placing the milk between the bowls of cereal and locating boysenberry preserves. Kendra buttered the toast and set it on the table, splashed milk onto her cereal, and started eating.

They were rinsing their bowls in the sink when Dougan entered the hacienda with swift strides. Warren followed at his heels.

"Any luck?" Gavin asked.

"We found the truck abandoned near the entrance to the preserve," Dougan reported bitterly. "He mutilated the tires. He must have had an accomplice waiting on the far side of the fence." "Will we still make it to the airport?" Kendra asked.

"Hal has spare tires." Dougan poured himself a glass of water. "We should still get away on schedule." He took a long drink. "After all that’s happened, it almost seems appropriate that we should end our stay here on another sour note. I won’t be surprised if the Knights of the Dawn are never permitted on the premises again."

"We seem to be the opposite of jackalope feet," Warren agreed. "On the bright side, at least we’re not about to confess to our evil employer that we ruined our legs and blew our cover in order to steal a phony artifact. I think old Javier might end up having the worst day of all of us." He clapped his hands together and rubbed them. "Time for some culinary therapy. What’s for breakfast?"