“That’s not possible,” he said, finally managing to form most of a complete sentence. “No one else knew…Sarah…you’re the only other person who knew where I buried the book. You must have moved it, right? You probably knew the army was coming for it and hid it somewhere else, just to make sure there would be no chance of anyone else stumbling across it, right?”

The boy’s face looked desperate almost to the point of madness. Despite that, Sarah couldn’t bring herself to lie.

“They brought me straight to the dungeon. I was blindfolded, and didn’t get a chance to come back here. I’ve got no idea where the book is.”

Kay rolled his eyes and gave a moan so loud that it startled even Dax. The bookless boy threw himself on the ground and sat with his head in his hands.

“The one thing my father asked me never to do was to let the spellbook fall into the wrong hands. There are secrets too powerful; if someone learns enough magic from it, they could rule Greystone Valley. In Baelan’s hands, he’ll probably do more than that. He’ll end up destroying this whole place, all so he can find some other world to conquer.”

“There’s no guarantee that will happen,” said Sarah, trying to bolster the young wizard’s confidence. His sadness was spreading, and Dax had already joined him by slumping onto the ground. “Baelan’s a warlord, not a wizard. If even you couldn’t decipher the spells in the book, what makes you think he can?”

“Because he’s not an idiot like I am.” Kay punched the ground, and then winced as he hurt his hand. “Anyone can figure out those stupid writings. You could just by looking at them, and you’re not even from around here. The only person who’s ever had trouble with that book was me. Baelan will probably figure things out just as quickly as you did. Then he’ll open up Castle Greystone, and there’s nothing I can do about it. if I was smart, I never would have buried the book in the first place. I wouldn’t have needed to run after a stupid stick. Now I’ve got no staff, no hat, and no spellbook. What kind of wizard is that?”

Sarah tried to respond, but another thought came across her mind. Without the spellbook, she probably didn’t have much of a chance to get back home. She too sat on the ground and bowed her head. She thought about her mom, and about her friends. Greystone Valley wasn't boring, but it wasn't home, either.

Much to Sarah's surprise, Dax was the one who finally spoke up with words of encouragement.

“I hate to say this, since it will probably just give you both false hope, but I don’t think Baelan has the book.”

Sarah looked up at the ground. The old man was lying on his back, watching the darkening sky. “What do you mean? Who else would have it?”

“Yeah,” added Kay, “he was the only one looking for it, and the only people who saw it hidden was us. Who else but the people who hid it or the people who were looking for it could possibly have it?”

“Oh, don’t get me wrong. The people who might have it are just as obnoxious and worrisome as Baelan. But there are others who might have come across the book.”

“But no one else was looking for it,” said Kay. “At least, no one else that I know about.”

“Just because you aren’t looking for something doesn’t mean you won’t find it.”

“But who accidentally flips over a rock and digs underground?” asked Sarah. As strange as the folk of the valley had been up until this point, they all seemed to operate with at least some logic – well, most of them did, at least.

“Someone whose job it is to find lost things and make them disappear. If you ask me, they’re all obnoxious little buggers, though.”

“Who are?” asked Sarah.

Dax pointed one thin finger toward the sky. “They are.”

The sun had set by then. Only a little light was left in the sky, leaving the world in the bluish-black realm of twilight. But something else was there, too. As Sarah followed Dax’s finger, she saw the flickering of silver sparks in the sky. They seemed like small lightning bolts at first. When Sarah focused her eyes on them, though, she saw that they were just large fireflies, drifting through the night sky and sending off signal lights from their bulbs.

“What would fireflies want with a spellbook? I don’t even think they can read the cover, let alone turn any of the pages.”

By now, Kay had joined Dax in watching the blinking glow of the insects. The sadness had faded from his face a little bit, and he watched the display with growing curiosity. “They’re not fireflies,” he whispered. “Look closer.”

Sarah squinted at the creatures, looking hard enough so she could even see the six buggy legs and antennae of one of the creatures that flew too close to her. The lights were certainly pretty, but she didn’t see anything else that was particularly special about the insects.

“They’re just bugs,” she whispered back. “If they weren’t glowing all pretty like, we’d probably be swatting at them.”

“No, no, you’re looking at it the wrong way,” said Kay. “Try not looking at them.”

“But you just told me to look closer.”

“Try just glancing at them. Look out the corner of your eyes, or don’t look directly at them at all. Don’t watch; notice.”

“Now you’re making less sense than usual.” Despite her protest, Sarah tried to follow the boy’s instructions. She unfocused her eyes, and watched the shadows of the rocks and trees instead of the fireflies themselves. That was when she noticed something strange.

The fireflies weren’t insects at all, but were actually small people. They were slender people, whose limbs were no thicker than toothpicks and who could have fit in the palm of Sarah’s hand. But when she looked directly at them, their appearance changed, and they seemed to be bugs again.

“Do you see now?” asked Kay.

“Sort of. Either that, or my eyes are playing tricks on me.”

“Oh, these people love their tricks,” said Dax. The old man sat cross-legged, looking at the dirt rather than the small flying creatures around them. “They like to think they’re more clever than everyone else, just because they’re six inches tall and know how to fly.”

“What are they?”

“They’re fey, of course,” answered Kay. When Sarah looked at him with a blank expression, he began to rattle off other names for the creatures. “Fairies, nixies, pixies, sprites, grigs, brownies, elves, redcaps—”

“I get the idea. I just didn’t expect to see them here. I guess I should have, though.” Thinking over the other things that had happened to her today, she realized how foolish it was for her to dismiss anything as impossible right now.

“They’re special creatures—some of the only beings who know all the ways in and out of Greystone Valley,” explained Kay.” They find their way into just about every world, even if people don’t believe in them. When you see something move out of the corner of your eye and you’re not sure what it is, it’s usually them.”

“They like making mischief,” added Dax. “They’ll steal socks from you when you wash your clothes, or move things around when you’re looking for them. I suppose they get their laughs from my misery, just like everyone else does.”

“So they might have taken the spellbook?” asked Sarah.

“It seems like something they would do,” responded the old man. “There aren’t many footprints or hoof marks on the ground near here, so it doesn’t seem likely that Baelan sent his forces in to investigate yet. He was probably planning on torturing the information out of you. So that leaves just these little buggers…not that they’ll be much help, either.”

“Well, let’s find out,” said Sarah. Turning toward the fey, she blurted out, “Excuse me, could any of you help us? We’re trying to find a book that was hidden around here. Hello? Are you listening?”

The creatures gave a startled buzz and darted away as soon as Sarah started talking. Out of the corner of her eye, she thought she saw one of the fey stick its tongue out at her. Naturally, when she looked directly at the creature, she saw nothing but an insect flitting away into the night.

“They won’t listen to you, of course,” said Dax. “They won’t talk to anyone who doesn’t speak their language, usually.”

“Don’t you have them where you come from?” asked Kay.

“Of course not,” replied Sarah. “Well, I mean, we have stories and fairy tales about them, but only little kids actually believe in them.”

“That’s the way it is everywhere,” said the boy. “As far as I can tell from my father’s writings, the fey are the one creatures that exist everywhere, inside and outside of Greystone Valley. But not even people in the valley believe in them.”

“Then why do you?”

“Um…hello,” Kay gestured at his oversized purple robes. “I’m a wizard, or at least I will be once I get my spellbook back. It would be pretty hypocritical of me to believe in my own magic but to automatically assume the fey aren’t real.”

Sarah shrugged her shoulders, conceding the point. “That’s all well and good, but if we can’t talk to them, we’re no better off than we were before. The spellbook is as good as lost.”

“Again, it’s probably giving you both more false hope than is good for you, but I might know someone who can help,” said Dax. “That is, if you can tolerate her. She’s something of an annoyance sometimes.”

“That’s great,” said Sarah, eagerly jumping to her feet. “How do we find her?”

The old man sighed. “Why do I get the feeling I shouldn’t have brought this up? Well, if you’re really eager o meet her, we’ll probably have to wait until morning. She doesn’t like the dark, and usually isn’t up at night. We should head back to the village and get ourselves some rest. We’ll find my associate first thing in the morning. That is, if she hasn’t already skipped town.”