Page 90 of Barbi and the Villain

“Right,” he mutters, his eyes narrowed at me.

I force my smile to be wider, happier.

“What’s next then? Where are we going?”

A pensive look descends on his face as he releases a deep breath.

“I have a clue. But I have yet to figure out what it means.”

“So what’s the clue? Maybe I can help.”

He gives me a pointed look that says as if. But he shares it anyway.

“All I got is a riddle, but I cannot seem to solve it. It goes as follows: the vinerelle will lead the way east of the Gyral Mountains. We are in the Gyral Mountains. But I do not know what vinerelle is supposed to mean,” he adds in a gruff voice.

I stare at him in wonder.

“You don’t?” I ask in surprise. “How long did you say you have been in Akkaya?”

“Some thousand years,” he grumbles.

“And you don’t know? How can you not know?” I squeak.

He narrows his eyes at me.

“What are you talking about?”

“Give me a piece of paper and something to write with,” I tell him.

He doesn’t move as he regards me skeptically.

“Come on! Do it!”

Shaking his head at me, he disappears for a second before he returns with a piece of paper and a pencil. He hands them to me and I get to work.

My drawing skills might not be the best, but they get the job done.

“Here,” I say as I thrust the paper in front of him. “This is a vinerelle. I can’t believe you would not know this, Nykander. It’s the ancient emblem of Akkaya.”

On the paper, I drew a white and pink flower with a long, thorny stem. Not only do the thorns hurt anyone who dares to pluck it from its home, but the petals are poisonous to everyone, human or mage alike. The books had spoken at length about its history. Because it was such a wild and untamable flower, it had been left unbothered. No one dared touch it, so it had grown in an odd pattern across Akkaya—almost as if it had a mind of its own. The vinerelle is so important in the history of Akkaya that a special edition of the hardbacks had been commissioned with an illustrated vinerelle on the cover. I, of course, own all of them. I had to pay a pretty penny for them, considering only a limited number of sets were printed.

“No, it is not. There is no such thing as the ancient emblem of Akkaya.” He immediately dismisses my drawing.

“Yes, it is! You’ve lived here for so long and you don’t know this? It’s like the heart of Akkaya! While every other flower and plant has been used in spells and rituals throughout the years, the vinerelle alone has been left unbothered.”

He tilts his head, regarding me with a raised brow.

“And how would you know that? You have been here for a few days only.”

“Because… Erm…” How do I explain where my knowledge of Akkaya comes from? Especially since most of it has proven to be rather…false. “In my world, there is a series of books revolving around Akkaya. I know everything by heart and I’m telling you, the vinerelle is a flower. This flower.” I point to the piece of paper.

Maybe I shouldn’t be so overly confident considering this might very well be another false piece of information. But my gut tells me it’s not. This is it. This is his damn clue.

He doesn’t speak as he considers my words.

“A book series centered around Akkaya?”

“It’s how I know about Damien and Jocelyn, and Kuma and the other mages. It’s how I know about everything here. Well, almost everything. But I swear the books are real, and this is vinerelle.”

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