He’d had the time piece for almost three years.  It was worth something.  No cheap trinket to be sure and so he treasured it, protected it, kept it near … and showed it off every chance he got.  It’s worth was only intensified by the miniature of the breathtaking beauty found on the inside of the lid.  Sometimes he would open it just to look at her, no interest in the time at all.  It was just time to see her again.  Blonde and blue-eyed, smiling to the one who gazed upon her with an ethereal loveliness that a common man could not find anywhere except were he lucky enough to be in possession of such valuable jewelry.

The day had started off chilled but had warmed considerably.  He sat on the edge of the well, gazing at the woman he had come to call Mon Reve in his mind.  A rider had come to pause at the well.  Somewhere outside the trance of admiring Mon Reve he heard the bucket brought up and the ladle scoop out water to drink.  Nothing registered beyond the blue of her eyes, there was no sound of drinking.

“Where did you find that?” 

The words didn’t mean anything to him, so mesmerized, as he always was, by Mon Reve’s smiling back at him. 

“I asked where you got that?” 

The splash of the bucket falling back into the depths of the well had him flipping the lid of the time piece closed.  Normally he would have flaunted his possession, but the tone of the stranger’s voice did not bode well and he fumbled and fidgeted to get it safely hidden away in his pocket.

His forearm was grabbed and thwarted his effort.

“This will be the last time I ask … Where. Did. You. Find. That?” 

He followed the hand that held him up over the lace-heavy cuff of shirt, then further up the expensive line of coat sleeve, jabot and then met the dark eyes of the man who held tight to prevent him from stowing away his treasure. 

He swallowed hard with the demand for answers he saw there in that gaze and his initial response was a stutter of words.  He cleared his throat.  “It’s mine. “

The smile that followed on the stranger’s lips was not one of pleasantries.   “That is not the answer to my question and I told you that would be the last time I asked.”  The stranger leaned toward him and collected the pocket watch, almost as if he expected no reluctance to have it handed over. 

 His grip tightened only for a second, he didn’t offer any resistance. 

“Please, My Lord.  I found it dangling from a tree branch, as if it were placed there for me to find.  Tis true, it was meant for me to find it and have it.”

The noble flicked open the lid with an easy motion of thumb and let out a soft gasp of breath when he saw the picture of the woman within.

“Is she not the most beautiful of ladies you have ever seen, My Lord?  She is Mon Reve.” 

The brown eyes moved to look up to him, the other palm cupping the lid and easing it closed with a reverence of familiarity.   “Your dream?”  He shook his head.  “You will show me where you found this.”

“I cannot leave my post at the well.”

“You will show me where you found this…and you will show me where…now.”  The man motioned with a sweep of hand to do as was bidden.

He started to decline once again, but instead, he looked longingly at the watch in the stranger’s grip, then up to the determined features.  A nod moved his head and he slid from his perch. 

“Twas by the standing stones, the fairy stones, in the woods off the Hambrith road.  Some say that’s where the girls disappeared to.  God be with them.”  He crossed himself  "The families, they each were talking with those three men what came up from Luneberg.”  He had a limp to his step since childhood, one leg shorter than the other by several inches.  “And was those three men what went looking for them girls there.” He shook his head with the air of regret that none had been able to find the missing girls.  Seven of them.  The perfect number.  “You think that belonged to one of those men?” 

The stranger didn’t say anything at first, guiding his mount behind him, their steps heading them in the direction of Hambrith road. 

“Mon Reve.  She is a beauty.  Not any man could leave such a vision behind to step through those stones.  Then again, not many what can step through the stones at all.  You think those three were able to step through?” 

They continued on, but this time the stranger spoke.  “At this particular moment what I think is …you will show me where these stones are.  And that is all.”

Not one half hour had passed since the most recent lass disappeared from tending the garden in the back of her house.  ‘As if the earth opened and swallowed her into it.  I looked and she was planting the potatoes, I looked again and she was …’ her mother sobbed quite loudly into the solid barrier of Vincent’s chest  while he stood as still as a statue looking out over the fields.

They had come north from Luneberg because of the family that had arrived at the castle gates, distraught with the disappearance of their daughter.  The sixth to be gone in such a manner that none had any clues as to their location.  Now, they stood with the mother of the seventh lass to go missing.  No closer to answers than the magistrates had been prior to them.

“Do you smell that, Griffon?”  Lazare tilted his head upward, the breeze blew back to them  and brought with it the scent of foul deeds, a faint odor of sulphur…of magic.  His head jerked to look over to his commander.  “We could still follow it, if we go now.  Before that rain approaching washes away the trail.” 

When Lazare spoke, the woman pulled herself away from Vincent’s begrudging support and looked over to that Kingsman.   “Aye, do you smell it still?   It was here when Madeline first went missing, strong then, stronger than now.  And I’ve heard it was so with the missing of  Hedrina, Marlene and the other four.” 

De Beauvais and Carno both kept their eyes on Karl as he scanned the distance.  The entire time they had been there to question the woman, he had said nothing, allowing Lazare and Vincent to inquire about the circumstances of this disappearance.

“It lingers on the breeze, My Liege.  But we will need to make haste if we mean to follow it.”  Lazare shifted his gaze to Vincent and their eyes met.

Vincent offered the slightest of shrugs before he added,   “Karl?”

Karl drew in a deep breath, filling that broad expanse of chest with air and then released it slowly. Even more slowly he turned his attention to the woman  “Since the magistrate and his men have been unable to present answers, we will do what we can to help.   Pray, do excuse us.”  A dip of head and shoulders sufficed as his bow of departure and he turned away to walk to their horses.

The two left behind looked to each other with  brows raised, but then uttered their own farewells and yes, they would definitely do all in  their power to bring her daughter back.  The woman was left to her hopes and fears as they caught up with their leader.

At first, nothing was said as they each took to horse, but Vincent pulled his mount around so he was facing opposite along Karl’s side.  “Speak it now, Karl. I prefer not going into the unknown with unspoken words between us.” 

Karl looked from Vincent to Lazare and then back to Vincent.   “Would that it could just be some demented soul that we could track down and set to justice.”  He drew in another deep breath.  “Magic and the supernatural.  Never a big fan of it.” 

Vincent nodded the once, a smile showing in the depths of his eyes alone.  “Aye, we’ve always known that, My Liege.”  He lifted from his saddle to reach out, thumping his King, his commander, his friend once on the shoulder.  

 “There are exceptions, as in all things.”  Karl smiled to Vincent then drew up his reins, tapping his heels to the horse’s side.  “Carno!  Allow that breeze of yours to lead us to what we seek.”  

Carno dipped his head to his King.  “Aye, My Liege.”  Then clicked his tongue,  setting his own horse in motion.