“Losses?” Maria asked. “The villagers aren’t lost. I know for a fact they’re still in there, waiting to be freed.” Maria snatched the box from the table. Gelbus and the rest of them jumped at her aggression. She was sick of hearing the things she couldn’t do for now. All her life, people counted her out. But she’d proven them wrong, hadn’t she? She had defeated a resurrected Arachnid, she had tamed a Rogue Dragon and helped vanquish the Dragon Tongue, she had survived the Trials of Antenele; she had done the impossible. And there was more impossible out there for her to conquer—the saving of the villagers included. “It’s gonna be me who gets them out.”
“Very well, Maria Apple,” Gelbus said, “but you will be hard pressed to do so without the Jewel.”
“The Jewel?”
He stuck out his hand near the music box and asked, “May I?”
Reluctantly, she gave it to him. The rest watched with intensity; Gramps hadn’t been this invested in anything since a Friday cliffhanger on Days of Our Lives last month.
Gelbus flipped the box over. On the bottom was nothing but smooth, polished wood. Or so it seemed…
Gelbus took one small hand and knocked three times. Golden lines appeared where his knuckles had rapped, as if a light bulb had been turned on inside.
“I’ll never get used to this magic thing,” Tabby said.
“I’ve been magic my whole, long life,” Frieda said, “and I’m still not used to it. Accepting it…now that’s a different story.”
Gelbus swiped the wood inside of the glowing lines with his thumb, and a secret compartment opened. It was lined with what looked like red velvet, but it was empty.
“There,” Gelbus said, moving the music box around the table so everyone could get a look. Even Sherlock’s curiosity had been piqued.
Is there bacon in it? I mean…lettuce?
“The Jewel of Deception belongs there. Only with the jewel will the music box work.”
In her excitement, Maria had jumped out of her seat, knocking her knees against the underside of the table. Everyone startled at the loud noise in the quiet, empty ice cream store. Joe had moaned over on the sugar bags, but had continued snoozing.
Magic must’ve really gotten to him, Maria thought absently. It was just a passing thought for the idea of actually getting answers was more prominent in Maria’s mind. She never thought the day would come, but she was so close to getting the villagers out of the world in between and keeping her promise to Duke that she could almost taste it.
“What happened to it?” Maria asked.
“That, Maria, is not an easy answer. There have been many rumors over the centuries about what has happened to the Jewel. It was rumored, and this is probably the most reasonable explanation,” the Gnome said, “that it is still stuck in the Blood Tree.”
“The one the Widow has?” Maria asked.
“Then that means she has the Jewel,” Gramps said. “Which would explain why she is so adamant about claiming the music box herself.”
“No, no, no, that doesn’t make sense,” Claire said.
The others ignored her as they thought out the possibilities of how to get the Jewel back.
“Hello?” Claire yelled over their thinking.
“What?” Tabby snapped.
Now they all quieted. “If Maria’s mom put the villagers in there, she must’ve known she could get them out. And if the box doesn’t work without the Jewel of Reception or whatever—”
“Deception,” Tabby corrected.
“Shush, you know what I meant—”
“Two moons! She’s right!” Salem said. “For once…”
Claire stuck her tongue out and blew raspberries in the wizard’s direction. Sherlock tried to mimic the act without much success. He went back to sniffing around the toppings.
Excitement rippled throughout all the wanderers. Everyone babbled about the possibilities of the Jewel once more—everyone except Gramps and Maria.
This went on for a long moment, until Agnes turned to Gramps and asked what he thought of all of it. Gramps remained quiet for another long moment. There was a haze in his eyes, one of remembrance.
“Gramps?” Maria asked.
“I know exactly where it is,” he said. “Or, rather where it should be.”
“Where?” Maria was up again. She eyed the small chest, thinking perhaps it was in there. She pointed to it. Gramps shook his head solemnly.
“I wish it were that easy.” Now he stood up, too. “I have not been entirely truthful to you, Maria.”
“What do you mean?”
“After the Great Spider War and the sacking of Dominion, I had returned to Oriceran. It was stupid of me to do so, but I couldn’t let my only daughter rot in that tomb. No, she deserved more than that,” Gramps said.
“What did you do?” Maria found her eyes filling with tears.
“I gave her a proper burial somewhere she could rest peacefully. And around her neck was the necklace she always wore: a gold chain with a small red jewel set in the pendant. The closest thing I could use to describe it is a ruby, like the ring Tabby wears on her finger.” Gramps pointed to Tabby’s hand.
Gelbus’s eyes widened. “Yes, that looks exactly like the Jewel of Deception. How did I miss that?”
Tabby, blushing, said, “Oh, this isn’t a real ruby so I don’t flaunt it. But my grandma gave it to me, so it means a lot.”
“I think it’s beautiful,” Frieda said.
“We have to get the Jewel back,” Maria said determinedly, with dread twisting through her stomach.
It looks like I’ll be seeing you sooner than I planned, Mom, she thought. Just not the way I pictured.
“I know,” Gramps said. If he was upset or reluctant to go back to his daughter’s grave, he didn’t show it. He was a soldier through and through; a wizard who worried about duty, honor, and family first and foremost, no matter what. Maria, as much as it might hurt to think of the mother she never truly knew, respected Gramps’s demeanor. If it meant saving those villagers, she would do anything. “We will get it back—if it is still there, that
