Chapter 7: Quest And Request
Slowly, so as not to disturb the air around them or the grass beneath them, Joe and Tallin approached the entrance to the Elf Centre, unseen and unheard. Erin had given them the gift of invisibility or Veiling
Apparently this had something to do with changing their wavelength but Joe hadn't really taken it in. He was no scientist. He just knew that others couldn't see him now unless they were on the same wavelength, which seemed fairly unlikely. How he was able to see them, however, remained a mystery. They'd tried to explain it but it was way beyond his understanding. Also, Joe had once again been reduced to the same size as his new friend.
They opened the door and crept down the stairs once more, along the passageway to the Chamber of Mourning, as Tallin had called it. They passed a few elves on the way but none had appeared to notice them and now they stood looking down at the body of Moghdran.
"Ok,” whispered Joe, "I guess this is it."
He started to pass Erin's crystal over the body, a few inches above it as Erin had explained before they left. As he did so it kept changing colour from the clear pale blue it was to start with to pink, violet, mauve, green and red. He nodded to the elf to make a note of these colour changes and where they occurred. He then placed the crystal on the gnome's forehead and watched carefully.
A picture began to appear in it. A picture, not of goblins, but of an elf. A very angry looking elf. The face got larger and larger as if he were approaching the viewer, then suddenly disappeared.
Joe looked at Tallin, who looked back at him, wide eyed. "That's..." he started to say, then suddenly fell silent, as someone opened the door and came into the room, whereupon Joe swiftly pocketed the crystal before it could be seen. It had been explained to him that anything placed within the clothing of the invisible person could also not be seen.
It was the Elf Inspector. He walked across to the body and tutted to himself. "Now why couldn'tcha have done whatcha were told?" he said quietly. "All this unpleasantness could have been avoided if you'd just followed instructions."
Unobserved, the two detectives raised their eyebrows.
When the Inspector had left the room, Joe and Tallin silently crept out of the chamber, their work done. Before leaving the centre, however, they went into the adjacent chamber where they had caught the inspector in an apparently compromising situation. The room was empty so they had a quick look round but found nothing of any use until Joe spotted something shiny on the floor, just underneath a small table, as if it had been kicked there accidentally. He bent and picked it up.
"What's this?" he asked the elf, handing him the object.
"Ah, to be sure, that's a button, a brass button. But hang on a minute, it's not just any old button. Let's see now - this has come from someone quite important. Oh yes. Someone pretty high up. It looks like you were right Joe."
"Now hold on just a minute there bud. This could have been there some time. We don't know it has anything to do with this case, do we?"
The elf's face, which up to now had been quite animated, fell. "Ah, you're right. But no, wait!" His little face lit up once more. "Didn't they clean the place only two days ago? And not many people have been in here. Not the kind of people who'd be dropping a button the likes of this one."
Joe took the button again and examined it carefully. It had a raised pattern on it reminding him of old military buttons he'd seen.
"We need to see this better. Do you have a magnifying glass?"
"A what?"
"You know, a lens that magnifies things. Helps you see the detail. That could be a crest or coat of arms on there. It might tell us who it belongs to,"
"Ah why didn'tcha say so straight off? Here, watch!"
The elf put the button on the palm of one hand and stared hard at it. To Joe's amazement it started to grow. "Say when," said Tallin.
"When!" said Joe, as the button became as large as the elf's hand and the details of the pattern could be much more easily seen.
They both peered at it carefully.
"Well I never. Wouldja believe that now?"
Joe looked up. "Believe what?" he asked.
"This is the crest belongin' to someone very important. Oh yes, Very important indeed."
"Are you going to share that bit of information or just keep me in suspense?"
Tallin passed his other hand over the button and shrank it back to its original size.
"Ah, sorry," he said, "but walls have ears, as they say. Come on, let's get back and we'll discuss it properly over a nice cup of tea. Whatcha say?"
So, silent and unseen, the two made their way back to Erin's house to deliberate on the latest findings.
*****
Back at Erin's house, Joe and Tallin sat in the library after a welcome lunch provided by the indomitable Bridget. Joe had decided that the woman never slept at all. Whatever time he went into that kitchen, there she was.
The book “Faerie Folk of Consequence” lay open before the two detectives now and Tallin was pointing out a crest which matched the one on the button Joe had found in the Elf Centre.
"Will you look at that now!" he cried. "Isn't it what you've been sayin' all along?”
Joe nodded in agreement. He had indeed been suggesting that this case involved corruption in high places and this appeared to confirm it. The crest belonged to one of the most important elf families around. The Florendels. They were known throughout the kingdom for running the annual games at Lugnasadh, the Celtic summer festival, and not a word of scandal had ever been heard about these bulwarks of elven society.
Hardly surprising, thought Joe, if they get up to things like this. I mean, bumping people off to hide the evidence and blaming the goblins seems like a real cushy number.
He looked at Tallin and cleared his throat. "Are you thinkin’ what I'm thinkin’?" he asked.
The elf stared back. "Ah it pains me to say it, but yes. I think you could be right."
"So, what do we do now? We have to interpret those other findings too, of course, the crystal thing."
"Ah yes, that, to be sure. Well, we need Erin for that, but of course we can't tell her too much, can we now?"
"Guess not. Is she around? This needs to be done pretty fast the way I figure it."
"Oh yes, this year's games will be soon upon us and if there's mischief afoot concernin' them, it needs sorting and quickly. Let's find Erin and see if she's busy."
They went first to Bridget and asked if she knew where Erin might be but she had no idea. "Try the garden," she said, stirring assiduously at something in a large pan on the stove. "You never know."
Out in the garden the sun was shining from a cloudless sky for once and all was still and calm; the very picture of tranquility. Once again Joe thought about how unlikely this whole situation was. They looked around but couldn't see Erin anywhere so back into the kitchen they went.
"No?" asked Bridget. "Ah well. Try the study."
The approached the study door and knocked.
"Yes, hello?" they heard. "Come in, please."
"Beggin' your pardon, ma'am, but we need to be talkin' to you," said the elf.
"It's about this here crystal," added Joe.
"Oh yes, yes of course," Erin replied. "Well sit yourselves down and let's see what you found."
Tallin took a tiny notepad from the pocket in his tiny jacket and started to read out to Erin what the crystal had revealed, while she sat looking thoughtful. Her beautiful face became more and more clouded as he went on, her brows drawing together in a worried frown.
"This is not good," she kept saying to herself. "Not good at all."
When the elf had finished he closed the notebook and put it back into his pocket, then gestured for Joe to lift him onto a chair and waited for Erin to speak.
Joe had been sitting quietly on one of the leather seated chairs throughout and now cleared his throat before saying, "Well? What can we learn from that?"
"What we can learn is simple in one way," said Erin, "but not in another. The picture you saw in the crystal was the last thing the gnome saw and it appears to have been an elf approaching him angrily. I'm sure you worked that out for yourselves though. What you couldn't know is the cause of death. "
She paused here and watched as her companions leaned a little closer to her, fascinated by her every word.
"Yes, yes, go on, go on!" the elf almost squeaked in excitement.
Erin sighed. "It appears he died of natural causes."
The two men sat bolt upright again, astonished. If that was true, why all the fuss? Why the need for an elaborate cover-up?
"But," she went on, "there is something very odd."
Once again they held their respective breaths and leaned in.
"He was showing traces of a most peculiar substance. One I haven't come across before."
"Could that be some sort of drug?" asked Joe. "Performance enhancing, or maybe the opposite?"
Erin gave him a puzzled look but didn't enquire as to the reason for his question. "What you need to do is get hold of someone who knows about these things," she said. "It's something I have no knowledge of at all. I'd suggest that now is the time to go and see the Druid. What they don't know about drugs and suchlike isn't worth the knowing."
"The Druid. Any particular Druid? Or is there just the one?" asked Joe, who still wasn't sure how these things worked.
"Oh, there are a few, but just the one locally and he'd be your man," Tallin replied. "To be sure. We’ll need to be taking him a little something, a gift, to repay him for his services."
“What sort of gift?” Joe enquired.
“Oh don’t you be worrying yourself about that. I know full well you have nothing. I shall provide something, have no fear now.”
Joe thanked Erin for all her assistance and, helping the elf down from his seat left her to get on with what she'd been doing. He couldn't help wondering why Tallin was so keen on them seeing this Druid, and taking him a "gift". Perhaps he was on commission.
As they left the study Tallin looked up. "I'm hurt, Joe. I really am. Fancy thinkin' a thing like that."
Feeling a little guilty, Joe apologised and asked Tallin if it would take long to get to where they would find the Druid.
"Ah no, we'll be there in no time. No time at all," the little chap replied. "Sure, aren't we going the quick way."
He stood before the detective and twirled himself around whilst reciting a little verse:
By paths unknown and ways unseen
by sky of blue and woodland green
by mountain, river, stream and lake
transport us now for Dagda's sake
to the Druid, to his lair
that we might find some answers there.
Suddenly Joe felt a rushing wind tugging at him and he was lifted bodily into the air, hurled around for while as if in some sort of mist, then just as suddenly deposited on the ground.
Picking himself up he looked around for Tallin. He was standing just a few feet away, giggling.
"Sure and isn't that the most fun thing you've ever done," he chortled.
Joe would have liked to agree, but on reflection thought it probably wasn't, so he just smiled.
He noticed, which wasn't difficult, that they were standing in a very old wood. It was fairly dark with just shafts of light breaking through the canopy above. There was little to be heard, an occasional bird twittered sporadically, the odd rustle was heard in the undergrowth, but that was all. It was almost eerily quiet. Joe hardly liked to break the near silence, but had to.
"So, er, where now?" he whispered.
"Follow me, this way," replied the elf though in less hushed tones, and set off between ancient trees, adorned with moss and lichens. Joe was once more bemused by the way the elf always knew where he was going; all this woodland looked the same to him. Eventually they came to a small cave in a cliff face; surrounded as it was by shrubbery and trees it was to see the entrance at all.
"Is that it?" asked Joe.
"Oh yes, indeed."
"Listen, how do I address this Druid. What do I call him?"
"Now, about that, I should warn you," said Tallin, "Don't speak at all. Keep a respectful silence unless he asks you a question direct, and then just give the answer with your head bowed. They don't like to be watched you know."
"They don't, huh?"
"No, they don't. Are you back to the repeatin' again? D'ye know how irritatin' that is? Come on, follow me."
Joe, who was his normal size at the present time, followed the little elf into the cave. It was dark inside, but it was just possible to see that the walls were damp and glistening. The ground too was damp, soft earth underfoot so that their footsteps made no sound as they progressed.
A little way in he saw, through the gloom, a fire on the ground. Behind it a man in a dark hooded robe was sitting cross legged and rocking back and forth muttering to himself quietly.
"It's himself," whispered Tallin. "Now, just stay behind me and you'll be all right."
Slowly he approached the fire and before reaching it, cleared his throat. "May we enter your presence, old one?" he said then.
Joe watched surreptitiously, his head bowed, and saw the old one's head raise slightly, though the rocking continued. From the little Joe could see he certainly appeared old. A long white beard flowed down his front and his face was wizened like an apple that had been kept in a dry attic for a long time.
With a grunt the Druid stopped his rocking and peered at the elf. Then he peered up at Joe. Then back down at the elf. "What is it you require, son of elvenfolk? And who is this human you bring?" he said in a clear but quiet voice.
"If it please you, old one, this is a friend of Erin Halfelven. We seek the answer to some evil deed that has befallen the gnome Moghdran."
"Hmm." replied the old man, then appeared to be ruminating on this for a time as nothing more was said.
Joe, who wondered whether the old guy was searching his memory banks or had fallen asleep, gave Tallin a nudge eventually and gave him a questioning look, but was given an answering look that plainly said "Behave yourself and wait."
After some time the Druid held out a hand. "Show me what you've got" he said.
Tallin held out a hand to Joe who handed him the crystal and the elf walked around the fire and passed it on to the fount of all knowledge sitting before them, along with a small leather pouch. Joe assumed that this must be the gift Tallin had spoken of, and he was correct in that assumption.
Another wait ensued while the old man took a handful of some powder from the pouch and threw it into the flames, took a drink of some brew from a wooden goblet beside him, and went into a kind of trance. Smoke began to billow throughout the cave and it was all Joe could do to keep from choking. This was worse than the jazz cellar he sometimes went to back home. He was just wondering if it would be against the rules to leave for a breath of fresh air when the old one spoke.
"Yes," he said. "It's as you thought. The powder found in the gnome was indeed intended to make the heart strong and the body invincible. The spirits have shown me this. Go now and wreak vengeance on those who would defile the sacred games of Lugnasadh. Let all the children of the Goddess know that this will not be tolerated. The evil doers must be stopped."
This was not said angrily or forcefully but certainly sounded as though no opposition would be tolerated.
With that the Druid handed back the crystal, bowed his head and went back to his rocking, tucking the pouch with the remains of the special powder into his clothing, presumably for use on another occasion. Joe had no idea what it might be and thought that really he didn’t want to know. All this was well beyond his understanding and that’s was ok by him.
The audience was clearly over, so Tallin led the way out of the cave silently and back through the wood. On reaching the little clearing they'd landed in he turned to Joe. "Well now we know, don’t we?" he said. "But what can we do about it? It's just the two of us against one of the most important families in the kingdom!"
His face began to pucker up and Joe could see the little chap was about to cry so he got down on his knees, and reached out to him as he would to a little child. "Come on," he said as he gave him a gentle hug, "We'll find a way, I know we will. We have to, don't we?"
Tallin sniffed and nodded. "I suppose you're right, Joe. I suppose you're right. Himself said we had to, so we must. And if he said we must, then we can, and there's an end of it."
"There you go," said Joe, attempting to sound cheeerful, but in truth his heart was in his boots.