Page 140 of The Dawn

“Aye, the whole series when I was young. Ye ken I went tae the book store in the middle o’the night for the release party o’ the last book.”

“Me too! Aren’t we meant to be?”

“Aye, though I think everyone in the world went tae the release party.”

“True.” I flipped through the pages carefully, because it seemed like it was fragile and noticed there was a gap in the middle, as if there were a bookmark between the pages. I priedmy finger inside and flipped it open on the counter. There were two very old pieces of folded paper.

They were once white with pale blue lines, a torn edge, as if they came from a spiral notebook, but yellowed with age.

“This is so mysterious! I wonder what they say!” I picked them up and began to unfold them.

Liam said, “Och, I hope they say somethin’ good and no’ just a utility bill..” He looked around at the ceiling and the room. “Speaking of, what do ye think the utility bill is on this place?”

I pressed the paper open. “I have no idea, it’s gotta cost a fortune.”

He sipped from his wine. “Thankfully m’cousins pay it, I think.”

I nodded. “Yes they do...” I read the papers.

Then I read them again.

Liam popped a peanut in his mouth. “What’s it say, Woodshee?”

I raised my brow. “You sure you’re ready?”

“Aye, lay it on me.”

I read, “It says, ‘I, Lochinvar Campbell, and Ash, are here in Balloch Castle in the year 1683 October the Saturday before the…’ this is hard to tell, it looks like drivers but crossed out to say ‘drovers arrive at creeve to sell cattle. Our vessel stopped working. There are drones here. Attacking us. Our vessel doesn’t work’”

His brow drew down. “That is an odd thing...”

I put that first paper to the side and read the second, “‘Dear Lady Mairead, I hope you are well. We are with Madame Beaty and Madame Sophie and our bairns and we are stuck at Balloch Castle in the year 1710 on May 28. Our vessels are not working, they were working yesterday, but now they do not work. We also think there are men around who are working for Asgall and are…’ it looks like it says spying on us, but then it is changedto ‘They are keeping track of us. We were planning to take a load of weapons and goods to Magnus in 1291 but we can’t.Very sincerely yours,’ it’s signed, ‘Master James Cook’ and ‘Colonel Quentin’.”

Liam said, “Och nae, what does it mean?”

“I don’t want to sound crazy, but it sounds like time travelers are stuck here in the palace somewhere.” I looked around and whispered, “Have I been drinking too much?”

“Ye only had a sip of wine, Woodshee, and time travel is no’real. Tis just a prank, likely.”

I flipped the paper over and read the other side out loud, “But check this out. ‘For Lady Mairead’s eyes only.’” I said, “This warning might bother me, but this ishistorical,right? Who cares,except, it’s a modern book, maybe they need someone to find it and get the message to her— except you told me Lady Mairead is a historical person, right? She is long gone.”

“Aye, but could be a namesake, ye ken.”

“Yeah, right, true, but get this, ‘the Kingdom of Riaghalbane,’ where the heck is that? Then it says, ‘If this letter is found, please direct it to Lady Mairead on the secure crypto chain: bc1pw508d2…’ and so on, blah blah blah.” I put the paper down on the other. “This iswild, what should we do?”

“We hae tae send it tae Lady Mairead on the alphabet blockchain.”

I raised my brow. “Like… take the letter at face value and send it to a person named Lady Mairead? Like, ‘Hey Lady Mairead, we are Liam and Blakely, we are from the U S of A and we are living in a Scottish castle now because of some cousins who gave it to us to caretake and while we were snooping around, barefoot in the middle of the night, not understanding protocol and decorum, we found a book and some messages, they sound like a hoax, or like a murder-mystery game, but wedecided to go ahead and bother you with it because we’re not sure how to behave.’ Like that?”

Liam popped another peanut in his mouth. “Exactlylike that.”

I laughed. “Okay, let’s send it to Lady Mairead.” I got out my laptop and keyed in the wifi code.

He said, “Ye ken how tae send an encrypted message on the blockchain?”

I laughed. “Don’t you?”

“Nae, while the other rugby players were becomin’ crypto boys I was wonderin’ if I would bother with getting a cell phone.”

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