Endless scrolls were scattered around the tables and my ladies-in-waiting were scattered around them. We all were reading, trying to find something even remotely close to it but nothing.
I had hoped for something that would bring us a little bit closer to the matter at hand but I had received nothing. I had read every scroll that could tell us about any animal or a future calamity but I found nothing.
Now, my hope was the Nostradamus.
Someone knocked on it and Dorothy went ahead to open it. "It's the guard sent for Nostradamus, your highness."
I nodded and we all straightened ourselves.
"Your Highness," he bent his knee. "I bring bad news to you."
"Is he not available?" Where could he go?
He shook his head, his eyes still down. "He is. . . gone, your highness. Vanished, the neighbors say. No one has seen him for the last month or two."
That made me tenser. "Just gone like that? How could no one see him?"
