Chapter 4.3
After a moment of hesitation, I rummaged my pockets for the front door key, and let ourselves in. We'd only been gone about ten days, but it felt like a lifetime. I looked down the hall into the kitchen, I'm not sure what I was expecting but everything was too still. It felt like any sound would be consumed within the vacuum of the house. In the next moment, I found myself sinking into the folds of our sofa, exhausted. I closed my eyes and dozed. I think Tommy went straight to the kitchen, yet again only thinking of his stomach like a half-starved animal, but I couldn't blame him, I could imagine he spent half his life half-starved. I think Theo went upstairs to change, because the next thing I knew she was gently shaking my shoulder, wearing fresh clothes that I vaguely recognised as Allianas, "I was thinking we should start looking for clues… We can wait a bit longer if you need to."
"I'm okay." But I don't think I really was. I forced myself out of the sofa and led them to the study. It was dusty inside and it smelt faintly of old books, which of course surrounded the walls from floor to ceiling on two walls.
"Do you know what we're looking for?"
"Not really." I reluctantly admitted, "but if Sean had any incline of what was about to happen, he would have left something for us to find." I searched his desk, while Theo eyed the books on the shelves. I know he would have left something. Maybe? As I rummaged through the desk draws and searched the papers on his desk for clues, I started to think that I'd made a mistake and maybe we should have just ran away.
The only thing that seemed out of place was a sheet of paper on his desk, weighted down by a brass compass I didn't recognise. The words written on the sheet didn't make sense: ESOR ENILNEVE
"who's Evenline Rose?" Tommy asked, appearing opposite with a half-eaten apple in hand.
"She's a character in a book I read when I was younger. Why do you ask?"
"Well, that's what the note says." He pointed.
I looked at the note for a second time and realised it was her name spelt backwards. "Look for a book called 'The Dark Mysteries of the Evenline Twins'. I think we could find a code."
"Do you really think he would have left such an elaborate code to tell you where to go? He probably didn't even know Garlantia was going to invade. No-one did. Why would he even leave a note?"
"He was just like that. He loved giving us puzzles even if it had no application. Besides, it wasn't really a secret that Garlantia was up to something."
"If you say so." She struggled and half-heartedly started searching the shelves.
"What was the story about?" Tommy asked, curiously.
"There were twin girls, but one got stuck in a mirror. They used to write messages to each other and tried to solve mysteries. Only the messages would be in reverse because of the mirror."
"There! Here, I've found it!" She reaches up on her tiptoes and slides it out of the shelf with the tip of her fingers. She turns it over in her hands, "What now?" she asks. As she flips through the pages, something flutters to the floor, and Tommy grapples to catch it before it hits the floor. He studies the sliver of paper.
"It's just a bunch of letters." He shrugs, turning it over and examining it at different angles.
"It's probably a cipher." I explain as he hands it over, with a confused expression.
"But what's the code? We don't have time for you to work it out from scratch. You told me that sometimes that took weeks!" Theo complained impatiently. "Why does your dad have to be so damn cryptic?!"
I had to agree, at times his obscurity was exasperating. "Give me the book."
"There's nothing else in there." She defended, vexed, but handed it over anyway. I flicked through the pages and noticed that some of the early page numbers were underlined. I scrambled for a spare piece of paper, then wrote them down in order: 5, 8, 12, 13. Then I went about decoding it like a date shift cypher. Ziztwynfm gnwagafb didn't make any sense. Maybe I was seeing patterns where there were none? But the message on the desk clearly led us to the book, so why?
"What if the code is written backwards like in a mirror?" Tommy suggested.
"That's it!" With the new cypher, it read: Redbourne Crescent.
"Where is that? I've never heard of it."
Tommy shrugs, but I'm sure I've heard it before. "Look at the map. I'm sure I've heard it before." Then we all crowded around the map pinned to the far wall of the study. First the regions and districts, then the street names.
"It's not here." Theo declared, and after twenty minutes of searching the map, I had to agree. I sighed, I sunk into the desk chair. "What do we do now?"
"I don't know." I admitted. There had to be something- some sort of trick or explanation. I knew I heard that name before, but where? I heard it a long time ago, not long after I first came to Reaga… probably in one of Sean's lessons… "What if it doesn't exist anymore?" I leapt up suddenly, startling Theo and started to frantically search the shelves again.
"What do you mean?"
"A hundred and fifty years ago there was a disease outbreak and whole villages were wiped out or abandoned. That's why it isn't on any modern maps!"
She studied over my shoulder, then suddenly slammed her finger on the page "Here!" in tiny, faded writing was Redbourne, a small village surrounded by forest on the edge of Vastan. We returned to the large map and using the landmarks that matched and the district borders we found the rough area where it should have been. "That looks quite far." She commented.
"…About thirty miles." I agreed, a bit troubled. If we could drive it would take less than an hour but walking it would take over a day, maybe more if we had to stop in between.
Theo glanced at me with a concerned look, "can you do it?" she asked gently.
I nodded, "I'll have to." I answered, I travelled almost the same distance with a bullet wound and without sleep, I should be fine.
"Well, now we know where we're going, we should get some food, then sleep." She announced. As an afterthought, I slipped Sean's compass into my pocket before following her to the kitchen.