“Let’s go see the room that they took Lizzie from,” Cassie said. “I’m not nearly as good as Joe is with this sort of thing, but I might be able to pick up a trace of where they’ve taken her.”

Except when we went back to Lizzie and Siobhan’s room, the only thing Cassie could confirm was that bogans had been there. The other members of the Knotted Cord joined us before we could leave the room and I made introductions.

“What about the cards?” I asked.

“It’s hard when I don’t know the person I’m laying them out for.”

“Can’t you use that mind-meld thing the fairy woman did?” Con asked.

Cassie raised her eyebrows.

“Mother Crone was scrying earlier,” I explained. “You know how she can tap into your memories by taking your hand?”

Cassie nodded. “It’s a good trick, but not one I ever mastered. You probably need fairy blood to be able to pull off that sort of thing. But maybe if you’ve got something of hers that she was particularly fond of, a favourite shirt or—”

“Her fiddle,” Siobhan and I said at the same time.

“Normally she wouldn’t go anywhere without it,” Siobhan added, “and she played it every day.”

“That might work.”

Siobhan got Lizzie’s fiddle case from the corner of the room and took it over to her bed. Sitting down, she put the case on her lap and opened the clasps.

“Is it okay if I touch it?” she asked. “I mean, it won’t throw off whatever you’re going to do, will it?”

“No, it’ll be fine,” Cassie told her.

She took the fiddle from Siobhan and sat cross-legged on the floor. Closing her eyes, she put the fiddle on her lap and rested her hands lightly on its wooden top. Siobhan, Andy, and Con watched wide-eyed and expectant, and I had to smile. I don’t know what they had in mind, but some vision wasn’t going to suddenly appear in the air before us. Although to be fair, this was all so new for them, they could be forgiven for thinking that anything really might happen.

But all Cassie was doing was getting a vibe off the instrument, making a connection between herself and its owner. After a few moments she handed the fiddle back to Siobhan and pulled a pack of cards out of her pocket that were held together with a rubber band.