“From what we could see, yes,” answered Arconn, glancing at Alex.

“It’s more than what we found,” said Alex, leaning against his staff and gazing back toward the woods. “The feelings of unease, our troubled thoughts, even the feeling of being watched—they all seemed so strong when we were near the village.”

“And now they are gone,” Arconn added.

Alex turned to Kat. “Do you feel anything strange? A presence, perhaps?”

“There is something,” Kat began and paused. “There is something here that does not wish to be found.”

“Something?” Thrang asked. “What do you mean?”

“It is confusing,” said Kat, rubbing her head. “I can’t seem to focus on what it is. Whenever my thoughts get near, it moves away.”

“How long have you known that something was here?” Alex asked.

“Not long,” said Kat. “After you left to look for a path, I started to worry. But the feeling didn’t seem to be my own. My thoughts wandered for a time, and I felt confused, even lost.”

“I don’t like this at all,” Thrang said, looking around at each of the members of the company. “But there’s nothing we can do about it, so we’ll just have to carry on.”

“Carefully,” Arconn added.

“Yes, carefully,” Thrang repeated.

It was still early in the day so Thrang decided they should follow the path through the woods back to the deserted village. If their feelings of unease increased, they would return to the beach and make camp for the night. If the feelings were not there or not very strong, they would explore the village.

Alex was not excited about returning to the village, but he knew Thrang was right. All that they could do was carry on. They set out for the stone path that Alex and Arconn had found, but Alex lagged a little behind the rest of the company, trying to sort out his feelings. His uneasiness reminded him of something, but he couldn’t remember what it was.

As they walked back through the trees, Alex concentrated on his feelings and thoughts. He wanted to know exactly when the uneasy feeling started or when his thoughts became confused. This time, however, there was no uneasy feeling. In fact, there was nothing at all. The sun was bright and warm, and the walk along the path was pleasant. Alex began to wonder why he’d felt uneasy before; there seemed to be nothing to trouble his thoughts now. But the fact that he didn’t have the same feelings now bothered him.

“Is this as far as you came?” Thrang asked when they reached the edge of the trees and looked down at the dwarf village.

“We thought it best to continue as a group,” answered Arconn. “Though now that we are all here, I don’t feel troubled at all.”

“Neither do I,” Alex added, walking up from behind. “It’s as if our earlier feelings did not exist.”

“Kat,” Thrang began, looking hopefully toward her. “Do you still sense something?”

“Nothing,” said Kat, closing her eyes. “There is nothing here, or at least, nothing that I can sense.”

“Then we’ll continue to the village,” said Thrang, sounding relieved. “Perhaps we can find some clues there that will tell us what happened to Albrek’s people.”

“Clearly none of them remain here,” Barnabus said. “The village is deserted.”

“But where could they have gone?” Thrain questioned, looking from face to face for an answer.

“They could have gone anywhere,” said Thrang, trying to sound hopeful. “Thraxon is a large land, after all, and just because they didn’t return to Benorg doesn’t mean they didn’t go someplace else.”

“It’s been a long time, and they’ve sent no word to their old home,” Nellus said, his eyes fixed on the village.

“That doesn’t prove anything,” said Thrang, starting to walk toward the village. “We won’t find out anything if we don’t go and look.”

Alex followed Thrang as soon as he moved forward, but the others hesitated for a second. Thrang pretended not to notice, but Alex saw the troubled look on his friend’s face. Alex understood the company’s concerns because he had many of the same concerns himself, but he also understood Thrang’s determination. They had to find out what had happened here, and the only way to do that was to search the village for clues.

The walk from the trees to the village was a short one, but every ten or twelve yards along the path there was another bag—sometimes more than one—containing some kind of treasure. The scattered treasure was troubling because none of them could think of a reason for why it was there. Thrang muttered to himself as they walked. Alex stopped looking for the bags in order to focus his attention on his own feelings, but they remained neutral and he had no reason to think they would change.

“It doesn’t make sense,” said Thrang, stopping to pick up yet another bag. “Dwarfs don’t throw their treasure away.”

“What if they were pursued?” Barnabus asked. “If something was chasing them, they might have thrown these things away to lighten their load.”

“That is a possibility,” Thrang allowed. “But I don’t know what would have scared a village full of dwarfs into throwing their wealth away.”

“I don’t suppose there are many things that would pursue a village full of dwarfs,” Nellus added. “Dwarfs, as a rule, do not scare easily. If they were running, something terrible must have made them run.”

“Perhaps they had run out of food and were forced to leave the island,” suggested Arconn. “I don’t suppose they could grow much here.”

“No, not this far north,” said Thrang, continuing along the path. “If they were short on supplies and winter was coming, they might abandon their treasure. Of course, they’d try to come back later to claim it.”

“I don’t think they’d throw it along the path,” Kat commented. “They would have hidden it somewhere—somewhere they believed was safe.”

Alex listened to all the ideas but didn’t comment. He thought the idea of dwarfs being pursued was the most likely explanation, but he couldn’t think of anything that would chase the dwarfs away and leave their treasure lying on the ground. Even dwarfs fleeing from a host of goblins would have been an ordered escape, and besides, goblins wouldn’t have left treasure behind. It was a mystery he couldn’t solve, and that troubled him more than anything else that had happened that day.

When they reached the outskirts of the village, they paused, looking at the long rows of empty houses.

“Let’s split up and search the houses,” said Thrang. “Alex, you go with Kat and Barnabus. Search the house on the left. The rest of us will search this one on the right. If anyone runs into trouble, call out.”

Alex nodded and moved toward the house on the left with Kat and Barnabus. It was obvious the run-down house had been abandoned for a very long time. They had some trouble opening the house’s heavy wooden door because the hinges had almost rusted shut.

“I’m surprised the door is still so solid when the hinges have rusted it closed,” Barnabus said.

“The wood has a binding spell on it,” said Alex, looking at the door. “Dwarfs are known for the binding spells they can put on wood to make it almost as hard as stone.”

“You’d think they’d rustproof the hinges as well,” said Kat with a slight smile.

Kat’s smile made Alex smile as well, and he felt better than he had all day. He let his mind relax as they began looking around the ancient house, but he wasn’t sure what they were looking for. He knew, and he was certain Thrang also knew, that the dwarfs would not have left their records in one of these houses. They would have built an underground chamber, or at least a special stone building to keep their records safe.

“Not much here,” said Barnabus after several minutes of wandering around the house. “Nothing of value, and the furniture has all but turned to dust.”

“Wait. There is something,” Kat said, staring at a blank wall.

“A hidden room?” said Alex, walking toward the wall. “I suppose the owner of the house would need someplace to keep his treasure.”