The Secret Songs of D.C. Silverenn

| 28

Emi and I spend the next hour driving around Cabbage Edge. We turn the location finder off on our phones, just in case that's how the mafia tracked us down, but we're still scared they might have a way of hacking into the traffic light cameras and spotting our license plate. So we're stuck riding around in the car indefinitely until the mafia are caught and captured.

At last, we pull into a crowded, mall parking lot. We can only stay for about twenty minutes before we'll have to pick up and move again, but we need to solve the final clue. Once parked, I open my tablet up to a split screen, one half displaying the Prelude, the other displaying the final piece. Thank goodness I took pictures of the clues and scores.

"You know," Emi says, "Silverenn's descendants technically have all the clues."

"Yeah, but now they don't have the scroll from the museum." I unfurl it. "It appears to be some sort of map. They probably won't get far without this. Every resource Silverenn gives us is vital to completing the hunt."

Emi frowns. "Wait a minute... there was a clue we missed." My fingers freeze, tightening over the sides of the map. "Remember? There was a picture of a necklace in the safe. We never were able to find it." Her face crumples, on the verge of tears. "What if we can't find the treasure because we don't have the necklace?"

My teeth grate against each other as I consider her words. "Well, we'll cross that bridge if we get there. Even if that's the case, we can still create a trap for the mafia to stumble into." I turn my attention to the clue page. "The last clue says 'Correct the name of many past. Known for wrong it shall be last.'"

On the other side of my screen, the last title reads "Crypted Keystone." Very apt considering all the mind games we've been through.

"I should've known the last clue would be hard." Emi flops backward, her head landing on the hearest. "Why can't something be easy for once?"

"Of course they're going to build in difficulty."

Her head turns in my direction, though her eyes focus out the window, at the blue SUV we're parked beside. "What name could Silverenn be referring to? The name of the piece?"

"Maybe."

"You're not helping."

"I'm keeping possibilities open."

A slight pause fills the car. I stare at the notes that decorate the page, though my mind doesn't process them.

"It's a shame you don't have your instrument," Emi says with a sigh. "You could get your daily practice in right now and give us a chance to hear the piece."

My brow furrows. "And why would I do that?"

"The name of the piece might not match what we hear."

It takes a moment for her words to register. "So, while the title is Crypted Keystone, the music won't sound like a Crypted Keystone." My frown deepens. "But what does a crypted keystone even sound like?"

Emi shrugs. "It doesn't matter either way since you don't have you instrument."

"No, wait. You could be onto something." I pull out my phone and search up a virtual piano. I tap out the first few measures, and deep, eerie notes fill the car. Silverenn's back to the blatant disregard of key signatures. It's like she threw in as many dissonant intervals as possible. I pause, squinting at the music and attempting to make out a series of double sharped notes.

"I think that's good for now," Emi says, cutting me off. "It definitely sounds like an encrypted keystone."

"So, if the title of the piece fits the song, that's not the name that needs correcting." I pause for a second. "But maybe if we rearrange the words in the piece's title, we'll uncover the map's location. We're 'correcting' the name of her piece by figuring out the name of the map's location."