Chapter the 7th
“Who are you?” I asked the strange girl.
“Ralindera,” the girl replied.
“What are you doing here?”
“I am eating the food Cynthia is giving me to eat.”
“How did you get here? Who invited you?”
“I was designated by my tribe,” said the girl.
Now that I realized that her hair looked more like straw than the smooth flowing hair that Gwen has, I was amazed that I was so slow on the uptake. The girl’s nose was rather long and her cheek bones stuck out. Her dress had the style and material I had seen other elves wear and the cold look in her eyes was a dead giveaway. This elf-girl sure looked like she had made herself at home to judge by the way she sat at the dinner table, munching on a hamburger and drinking from a can of soda.
“She was sitting at my desk, playing computer games with Sherman when I got home,” Cynthia told me.
“The mother sent the little boy into the room and told me to take care of him,” said the girl. “I said I would and I did until Cynthia came to this place.”
“I think Mom thought she was me,” said Cynthia with a weary smile.
I thought that didn’t speak well for her powers of observation but then I’d just made the same mistake.
“So, you come in and find a total stranger in your room playing with our baby brother,” I said to Cynthia, “and you just sit down and play computer games with her and invite her to dinner!”
“Why not?” asked Cynthia, “I like Ralindera.”
“Ralindera is the kind of girl who thinks you can kidnap somebody’s sister and send in a substitute and it’s all right!” I continued. “And I suppose you think that when Mom and Dad come home and find out that Ralindera has taken Gwen’s place in our family, they’re just going to say ‘that’s nice,’ and adopt her as their daughter. I knew you were stupid, but I didn’t know you were that stupid!”
Cynthia started to cry. Sherman backed away from me and got the sniffles. He clutched Cynthia tight about the waist and looked at me like he thought I was the stranger who didn’t belong here.
“Do you want to find Gwen?” Ralindera asked.
“Of course I want to find her! She’s my sister!”
“We can go look for her,” Ralindera offered.
“Oh no you don’t! Marakel pulled that routine on me and he dumped me right into the clutches of a bunch of you guys. I’m not falling for that again!”
“Marakel was of the Meladimen,” said Ralindera. “You can’t trust them any further than the width of your finger nail. I was of the Meladimen. We always honor the trust put in us.”
A horrible thought hit me like a ton of bricks.
“Cynthia?” I asked. “Do you know if Margot has gotten back?”
“Not that I know of,” said Cynthia. “Her parents are awfully worried.
I rounded on Ralindera.
“Did you kidnap Margot, too, and send a substitute for her, you trustworthy gang of elves?!” I raged.
“I an not knowing,” said Ralindera. “It is possible that they kept the girl Margot and it is possible they designated Perlinda.”
I hated to think of the nasty surprise Margot’s parents were in for if my suspicion was right.
“I think we’d better check at the Rainers’ condo,” I said. “But I can’t leave you here alone with my defenseless siblings, Ralindera. You’ll just have to come with me.”
“Gwion, what’s going on?” Cynthia asked, desperately pulling on my arm.
“A bunch of elves have kidnaped Gwen and Margot and Kerry. That’s all,” I snapped to my little sister.
“You mean Ralindera is an elf?” Cynthia asked, pretty thrilled with the idea.
“Yes, Ralindera is an elf,” I replied. “Now you know that elves are devious creatures just like us who know how to mess with computers.”
“Does she help Santa at Christmas time?” Sherman asked his sister.
“I don’t think so,” I answered before Cynthia could say anything. “Come on, Ralindera!”
“She hasn’t finished her dinner,” said Cynthia.
“Neither have you,” I retorted. “And neither has Sherman.”
“Don’t you want some dinner?” Cynthia asked me.
“No, I’m not hungry. I just had a plateful at the elves’ house!”
“Was it good?” Cynthia asked.
“Yea, it was good. I’ll probably have elves’ calories in my blood the rest of my life.”
“You will,” said Ralindera.
I gave the elf girl a sharp look and then put on my sternest father-who-must-obeyed look for Cynthia’s benefit.
“Now, Cynthia, we need to get something straight. I don’t know when I’ll be back. I’ve now got three missing people to find, and one of them is our sister. This is the sort of thing that Mom and Dad won’t understand and the police won’t understand. And they don’t deserve to be told I popped in here. SO YOU WILL NOT TELL THEM ANYTHING ABOUT MY COMING HERE AND YOU WILL SAY NOTHING ABOUT RALINDERA. IS THAT CLEAR?”
Cynthia nodded her head as tears formed in her eyes.
“Thank you. That’s a good sister. You are the only one left to take care of Sherman unless Mom or Dad come home one of these years.”
“Gwion, are you coming back?” Sherman asked me, while safely hidden behind Cynthia.
“Maybe. I’m on a dangerous mission. Be a good boy while I’m gone.”
“Can I be a bad boy when you get back?” Sherman asked.
“Don’t push you’re luck, Kid. Some on, Ralindera!”
It isn’t every day that you get such a good chance to be bossy and I made the most of it. Ralindera looked kind of sullen, but she came when I called her. With one last wave at Cynthia and Sherman, I whisked the elf girl out of our home and made for the nearest elevator. It seems that it’s only when you need it most that the elevator takes forever. Then, once you get in, it takes forever to get to the floor you’re getting to. Ralindera stood silently, as still as a statue, just like Marakel. That gave me time to think. I didn’t really have a ground plan for what I’d do when I got to Margot’s place, and I was too upset to start thinking of one. I didn’t know Margot’s parents very well. The only times I’d ever seen them were at a couple of Margot’s birthday parties and the night we pretended we were kidnaped by the elves. They really know how to throw a fun party for a bunch of kids and they were so much cooler about the kidnaping than my own mom and dad. I had the feeling that if I ran into either of them, I’d find them easier to talk to than most grownups.
As soon as Ralindera and I got out of the elevator, we saw a security guard walking down the hall, fortunately with his back to us. I quickly put two and two together and came to the conclusion that with four kids missing from the same building, security had been cranked up a few notches. I promptly turned Ralindera the other way and walked towards the Rainer’s condo. I looked over my shoulder a couple of times and walked past Margot’s place on purpose until the guard had turned the corner, then came back and hit the doorknocker. It took us just long enough to get an answer that I started to wonder what I would do if there wasn’t an answer or, worse, a cop turned the corner and caught us in the hallway. Finally, the door opened and there was Mrs. Rainer. To say that she looked surprised would be an understatement. Her thick hair, frizzy like Margot’s, only added to the effect.
“My gracious! Gwion Williams!” she cried, opening the door wide with a flourish. “Come in! Bring your friend in, too.”
This was more of the welcome you’d think my parents would have given me if they were at home but, of course, they weren’t. Walking into the Rainers’ condo was almost like walking in a forest—they had so many house plants around and a light green carpet besides.
“You’re parents must be terribly relieved to see you,” said Mrs. Rainer once she’d closed the door.
“They’re not here, so they don’t know I’m back. Is Margot here?”
Mrs. Rainer’s face fell.
“I’m afraid not, she’s still missing. Seeing that you have—a new friend, I take it that Gwen is still missing, too,” said Mrs. Rainer.
I was puzzled by what she said until I got around enough potted plants to see Perlinda sitting in the living room, eating a sandwich. It was one thing for a little girl like Cynthia to make friends with a strange elf coming along. That a grown woman like Mrs. Rainer would do it was amazing. Perlinda looked at me and Ralindera but gave no indication she cared about our presence over one way or the other.
“What is your friend’s name?” Mrs. Rainer asked.
“My name is Ralindera,” said the girl, saving me from the embarrassment of having forgotten it already.
“Would you like some sandwiches and cookies?”
“Yes, we would,” I replied.
“Please sit down,” said Mrs. Rainer as she went over to the kitchen.
I sat down and looked at the two elf-girls uneasily.
“Were you designated in place of Margot?” I asked Perlinda.
“That is true,” she replied.
She was just as deadpan as Marakel, quite a contrast to the liveliness she showed when I talked to her in the elves’ house.
“How come you kept Gwen and Margot but not me?” I asked.
“The reason we did not find you worth keeping,” said Perlinda, “is because you do not have a soul inside you.”
“WHAT!?” I yelled.
“Gwion, what’s the matter?” Mrs. Rainer asked me from the kitchen counter.
“She said I don’t have a soul.”
Even though I didn’t much understand the word and the things Gwen said about souls after coming home from church sounded like mumbo-jumbo, I felt insulted over being told I didn’t have a soul.
“Oh Perlinda,” said Mrs. Rainer, “you must know that Gwion has to have a soul just like everybody else.”
“Gwion does not have a soul and I do not have a soul,” said Perlinda. “Only a few Lorakhienoi have souls. Santorall and I were going to take Gwion’s soul, but he did not have one.”
“But I’m sure Gwion has a soul!” Mrs. Rainer protested. “And I’m sure you have one, too. Why, even the worst of people have souls. Just as you get a body for free when you’re born, you get a soul for free, too.”
I was amazed at how much Mrs. Rainer was willing to stick up for me when she hardly knew me. My parents had never stuck up for me like that in all my life. Once Mrs. Rainer insisted I had a soul to start life with before I’d done anything to earn it, I was ready to go to hell and back to rescue Margot.
“What makes you think I don’t have a soul?” I asked Perlinda.
“The story you told us was not a story with a soul,” said Perlinda. “Another thing: we tried to take your soul from the photograph Kerry Blake took of you, but instead of a soul, we got a white destroyer.”
That made me shake like a jellyfish and I didn’t feel much like eating when Mrs. Rainer placed a tray filled with sandwiches and cookies and sodas on the coffee table.
“And you kept Kerry and Gwen and Margot because they have souls?” I asked.
“That is correct,” said Ralindera.
“And you took their souls because you don’t you have souls of your own?” I went on.
“That is correct,” said Perlinda.
“But how could you not have souls?” Mrs. Rainer asked them.
“We do not know why we do not have souls,” said Ralindera. “We only know we were told we do not have them.”
Looking at the two girls and remembering what Marakel was like, it seemed quite possible to me that these elves were right about not having souls.
“I can’t help but think that somebody sold all of you a bill of goods if they convinced you that you don’t have souls,” said Mrs. Rainer.
“What is that?” asked Perlinda. “This bill of goods.”
“She thinks somebody told you the wrong thing and got you to believe it,” I explained to the elf girls.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Rainer’s face took on a troubled look.
“Does this mean that the Lorakhienoi are trying to steal the soul of my daughter?” she asked.
“That is what they have done,” Ralindera answered.
I was all the more amazed that not only had Mrs. Rainer welcomed this elf-girl into her home, she had already started to pick up their language.
“I don’t see how you can steal a soul that is given by God and belongs to God,” said Mrs. Rainer.
She said those words pretty confidently, but she still looked awful worried about the possibility that they might have done just that. Since I didn’t believe in God the way my sister and Mrs. Rainer did, I didn’t think God had given me anything or owned anything. Even so, the thought that the horrible white cloud I saw in the elves’ forest might be my soul—or what was left of it—was the worst thought I’d had in my life. I took a bite out of my sandwich and sipped at my soda, surprised at how hungry I was after all.
“We will find Margot,” said Perlinda, “and we will find her soul.”
“Do you really mean to find her?” I asked suspiciously.
“We are meaning to find Margot,” Ralindera confirmed
“How are you going to do that?” I asked.
“We search your Internet and your books, looking for clues for how to find Margot,” Ralindera answered.
“Sounds great,” I said sarcastically. “I suppose you just do a search for ‘Margot’ and it tells you exactly where she is and we can go to that address and we’re all set.”
“We are looking for clues,” said Ralindera.
“I searched the Internet on my designated mother’s computer,” said Perlinda. “I have found no clues yet. I have read all the books here and they do not help. Some books that belong to Margot talk about us but they say what we already know or they say what is false.”
Behind all the house plants, I could see books all over this place. If Perlinda had really read them all already, then she could read faster than a speeding bullet.
“If you want a lot of books to look at,” said Mrs. Rainer, “I suggest you go to Parchment Place. I have a feeling that you are more likely to find what you want in old and rare books than in books people read every day and that is what Parchment Place has. I’m sure Ed Kirkpatrick will do everything he can to help you.”
The idea of having to read tons of books just to find out how to rescue Kerry and Margot and Gwen from the elves was enough to make me feel like going back to the elves and telling them to look for my soul and not stop looking until they found it.
“Reading books won’t get us anywhere,” I said. “Why do you want to do that, anyway?”
“We do not know what the Lorakhienoi are doing in trying to steal souls or if it can really be done,” said Perlinda. “That is why we need to have all the knowledge we can find.”
“Don’t you guys know enough of what you guys were doing to know what to do about it?” I asked.
“No,” Perlinda answered.
“Where is the house of books you are speaking of?” asked Ralindera.
“It’s just down the street,” I answered.
“It is true that Parchment Place is very close,” said Mrs. Rainer, “but there is a problem. With four children from this building missing already, the police have tripled their surveillance and they might make it hard for you girls to get away. They even did a door to door search through the whole building yesterday.”
I thought about the condo Marakel had taken and wondered if the cops found the strange computer in an otherwise empty place. I’d love to see the cops trying to figure out a computer like that. Or maybe they found Marakel there and they nabbed him. That’s just what he deserved for what he’d done to me and Gwen and Margot.
“Did they find anything?” I asked.
“Not that I know of,” said Mrs. Rainer, “but I heard a rumor that one of the policemen disappeared. I don’t think they want us to know that if it’s true because that is really scary.”
That gave me the amusing thought that maybe a cop walked into the computer image like we did and couldn’t get out of it. I kept that idea to myself, though.
“If you have a bow and arrow you can lend me,” said Ralindera, “I can shoot the guards.”
Mrs. Rainer chuckled. I was pretty sure, though, that Ralindera was not kidding like Mrs. Rainer probably thought she was. Judging by what I had seen of these elves, killing three or four cops wouldn’t mean much to them.
“I think that is a little drastic,” said Mrs. Rainer. “I suppose I could try passing you girls off as Margot’s cousins from out of town. The trouble with that, though, is that I don’t have you signed in and that could make things awkward.”
“Does this house of books have a computer?” asked Perlinda.
“It sure does,” I answered. “Mr. Kirkpatrick can look up all the used books in the world on it.”
“I think we can get to this house of books through my computer,” said Perlinda.
The unflappable Mrs. Rainer got flapped this time.
“How can you do that?” she asked.
“Marakel—the elf who got us caught by the other elves—took us from his computer into Kerry’s computer,” I explained, “so I guess it can be done.”
“Are we going now?” asked Perlinda.
“We might as well,” I said. “Sitting here and doing nothing won’t help.”
“Aren’t you going to tell your parents you got back?” Mrs. Rainer asked me.
“No,” I answered. “I don’t want them or the cops to know I’m back now ‘cause they won’t understand the stuff we’ve got to do. Besides, they were off doing their own things like they always do, so they don’t deserve to know.”
“I’m so sorry,” said Mrs. Rainer, and she really did look sorry, unlike my parents who never seemed to mean it when they said that. “You know, Gwion. Sometimes when people are feeling a lot of pain—and having a child missing is very painful—they cope by trying to do business as usual, or by going out to do things.”
“Then they’ve been in pain for years,” I said.
“Oh, I see.”
I braced myself for a lecture on how I shouldn’t put down my parents, but Mrs. Rainer didn’t do that. She just looked very sad about what I had said, and I think maybe she was sad that she didn’t know what to say to me. I’m not sure she approved of my attitude, but she didn’t assume I was wrong just because I’m a kid. I thought if I had a few more people in my life like her, I might think grownups aren’t hopeless after all.
“It will be hard for me to know where you are and not tell your parents,” said Mrs. Rainer, “but I see the problem with telling them now.”
Perlinda picked up a computer, much like Marakel’s, from off a table that I hadn’t even noticed upon coming in, and started to tap on the keys that looked something like acorns.
“What is the name of the house with books?” asked Perlinda.
“Parchment Place,” I answered.
Perlinda did some more typing, then punched a key that called up a holographic picture of the elves’ passageway like what Marakel did on his computer. Mrs. Rainer appeared startled and impressed.
“Your—computer technology is rather—impressive,” said Mrs. Rainer. “Are you—going into that?”
The elf-girls nodded.
“Do you think Mr. Kirkpatrick will mind if you hop out of his computer in the store?”
“Who knows?” I replied. “I think he’ll understand.”
I wasn’t so sure about that, but I wasn’t going to worry about it until we got to the store. The two elf girls walked straight into the passageway that the computer had opened up. I started to follow, but then realized that Perlinda hadn’t thanked Mrs. Rainer. Even I have better manners than that.
“Thanks a lot, Mrs. Rainer,” I said before I followed the girls into the passageway.
“You’re welcome!” she called back, waving me good-bye.
I thought I saw tears starting to come to her eyes so I hurried away. Seeing a lady like that cry would be embarrassing.
Having done through an elves’ computer tunnel before didn’t make it feel any less weird the second time. The space was small enough to make me feel like I was walking inside a live wire. I decided that the soft reddish light that looked like a sunset coming through could have been electricity connecting one computer to another. We passed two or three doors that looked like folder icons before the elf girls opened a door that opened on to the Forest of Windellynn. This time, the leaves of all the different colors had come out quite a bit since even my journey through there with Santorall, and that was just two or three hours ago.
“How come the leaves are coming out so fast?” I asked.
“It is our computer programing,” Perlinda replied.
“Gosh! You guys could make tons of money with your programs!”
“We already know how to make the Menarinen in the houses of money think we have much money,” said Ralindera smugly.
“This way,” said Perlinda as she turned to the left.
As I followed the elf girls, I thought I heard a rustling among the trees. When the girls didn’t seem to hear it, I decided it was probably nothing, but then the rustling suddenly got louder.
“Freeze!” yelled a man.
That got us turning round in a hurry. What I saw was a cop pointing a gun at us with a shaky hand, and his eyes wide with fear