“I don’t know who I am,” the scion observed mournfully.
The librarian darted him a wry glance. “In more ways than you can possibly imagine.” He gave a comforting smile. “I suppose it just takes time. You’ll figure it out. I’m sorry if I’m being a beast this morning. I got two hours’ sleep last night, woke up with the mother of all hangovers and I’m still caffeine-deprived.” He lifted a tiny cup of dark brown liquid to his lips. “This is my third, and it won’t be my last.”
Daniel noticed an identical cup sitting on the table between them. Chris slid it toward him.
“I ordered you a shot too. It’s time to broaden your horizons.”
Daniel peered into the little cup. “What is it?” he asked warily.
“Espresso. Try it.”
“Caffeine?” Daniel asked in shock. “My father forbids—” He cut himself off when he noticed Chris rolling his eyes.
“Really? We’re going to have this conversation again after the Great Ale Debate last month?”
“Alright,” the scion agreed hesitantly.
“Don’t sip it. Just swallow it in one gulp,” Chris advised.
Daniel did as instructed and immediately wished he hadn’t. He coughed and spluttered. “Good God in heaven! It tastes like dirt! Very bitter dirt!”
A few other patrons turned to stare at him.
In a lower voice, he asked, “How can you stand to drink that?”
Chris laughed. “Sorry. I couldn’t resist making you down it straight. Consider that as payback for waking me up so early. Or if you prefer, call it a sadistic hazing ritual to initiate you into the mysterious Saturday morning customs of the urban Fallen. You can doctor espresso up with cream and sugar to make it taste better. It’s not about the taste anyway. It’s about what it does to amp up your brain cells. Nothing beats it for problem-solving.”
“This substance is supposed to help my thought process?” Daniel asked, unconvinced.
“Wait for the buzz. You’ll see.” Abruptly changing the subject, Chris asked, “So is this your first visit to Boystown?”
“Boys Town?” Daniel enunciated the name carefully.
“One word—Boystown,” Chris corrected. “That’s the name of this neighborhood.”
The scion felt puzzled. “Why on earth is it called that?”
The librarian gave a cryptic smile. “Because a lot of boys live here.”
“That makes sense.” Daniel nodded. “I did see an unusual number of good-looking, well-dressed young men in this neighborhood.”
Chris’s gaze narrowed. “You noticed that, did you?”
“I was struck by how they seem to take care of their appearance. Nobody was wearing the sloppy attire I’ve observed in men elsewhere. This is just the sort of place I’d like to live myself if I ever had the chance.”
“Out of the mouths of babes,” the librarian observed softly. Then he seemed to catch himself and switched topics yet again. “Now what’s this urgent problem you’ve got?”
“Oh, yes.” Daniel reached for the laptop which he’d placed on the floor next to his chair. As it powered up, he rifled through his folder of notes. “Yesterday evening I was reviewing my translation file and realized I’d made a terrible error.”
“Define terrible.”
Daniel leaned over the small table so as not to be overheard. He needn’t have bothered. The agitated rumble of conversation from the caffeine-soaked patrons of the coffeehouse drowned out every other sound. “I mistranslated a line of the clue. Originally, I thought it read: ‘The stones behind, on an island tower she alights to drink.’ But it wasn’t ‘the stones behind.’ It was actually ‘the sands behind.’”
Chris shrugged. “Stones, sands, what’s the difference?”
“It makes all the difference in the world. Don’t you see?” Daniel noticed he was talking more quickly than usual and his heart seemed to be beating a bit faster. He also felt an unusual sense of mental clarity. Could this be the buzz Chris had mentioned? What an exhilarating sensation. Perhaps coffee wasn’t so bad after all. “If the stones are behind, then we would be searching in Africa and Arabia. If the sands are behind...” He trailed off.
For the first time that morning, Chris sat up straight in his chair. “Well, color me surprised. That does put a whole new spin on things!”
“You see it now, don’t you?” Daniel asked excitedly.
“I sure do. We haven’t been searching far enough east.”
“It seems to me that the first geographical area east of Napata which wouldn’t be a desert is India. Is that correct?”
Chris nodded. “Why don’t you pull up a map and we’ll take a look.”
Daniel complied. His monitor displayed a map of Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, and India.
Chris leaned over to study it. “So, if we were to draw a straight line...” He traced the latitude directly east from Napata. “Once you cross the Indian Ocean, Mumbai would be the first landfall.”
“The rest of the clue says the dove alights on an island tower which would mean the location can’t be very far inland. Let me run a search on islands in the vicinity of Mumbai.”
Chris watched as the results popped up onscreen. “The whole damn city is built on a bunch of islands. Let’s see if we can’t narrow that down a bit.”
The two men took turns refining search results for another half hour with only limited success.
Finally, Chris shook his head. “This is getting us nowhere. We’ll have to pick up the trail at the library on Monday. I can pull all the reference books we have on ancient Mumbai and narrow down possible island locations that way.”
“Very well,” Daniel conceded. “At least we’ve made some progress this morning.”
“Hang on a minute.” Chris was squinting at the computer monitor intently. He typed in another search string and flipped back to the map of the area. “I just had a thought. Do you have a copy of the riddle that led you to Napata in the first place?”
“Yes, I should have it with me.” Daniel spent several minutes combing through his notes. “Ah, here it is.” He handed the page to Chris.
The librarian read the riddle aloud. “One dove flies
