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“What have you found, boy?” I said. “Huh? Is there something under there?”
I dug up wet leaves, rotting plants, even the hind legs of a discarded frog. And there, tucked away underneath it all, something small and hard. I got a good grip on it and pulled it free.
I smiled at seeing it, knowing I wasn’t crazy for coming out here, knowing my instincts were right all along.
“What is it?” Waev said. “What have you found?”
I raised it for him to see.
Caked in crud, with thick lumps hanging from it, was another one of Cleb’s spy toys.
Waev just stared at the piece of plastic.
He’d never fully believed my theory. I still had my doubts until this moment, but now we’d found Cleb’s toy out here in the middle of the forest—in a place it had no right to be—it meant I was right, and someone was leaving a trail for us to follow.
“You were right,” he said, taking his hat off. “They did come this way.”
The arjaths sniffed the ground and looked ready to take off in another direction.
Toward the next breadcrumb.
I climbed on Snorter’s back and gave him free rein. He weaved between the trees, leaping easily over fallen trunks, and paused only to check he was heading in the right direction. I was entirely absorbed with trying to stay in the saddle.
We found three more spy toys, one after the other. They seemed to have been dropped at regular intervals. The first figurine was a young boy who wore an astronaut’s backpack that allowed him to zip through space—very fitting, I thought—and another character that had the appearance more of a wizard than a spy. The most recent one was Titus, the arch-enemy.
I tucked them each in my pocket and looked forward to when I would get to hand them back to Cleb—after they’d been scrubbed clean.
I hopped in the saddle for Snorter to take me on to the next breadcrumb when he took a few steps forward and immediately stopped. It didn’t just happen to Snorter but Waev’s arjath too. They pawed at the ground in two different locations.
“What do you think it is?” I said. “Food?”
“Possibly,” Waev said.
We hopped off our mounts and dug at the locations the arjaths suggested. I found my breadcrumb. Another spy figurine. I raised it at the same time Waev raised his.
The arjaths were already digging at other locations too. I collected and tucked them in my pocket.
Now we were at a total loss.
I peered at my surroundings. In each direction, there was nothing but endless woodland as far as the eye could see.
“I don’t understand,” I said. “Where did they go?”
“Maybe they spilled from Bianca’s pocket,” Waev said.
I felt the blood drain from my face.
And what made them spill?
I swear, if he harmed so much as a hair on their head…
“Now what do we do?” I said.
I’d been growing excited at the speed we’d been closing on their location.
We could be close and we’d never know it. The arjaths brought us most of the way but without knowing which direction to head next, the kidnapper was as good as gone.
“Looks like we’re going to have to do this the old-fashioned way,” Waev said.
