Peony Hyde

****P******eony Hyde** was kidnapped in an attempt to get her parents to leave the house, but was rescued by the members of the Thief Knot. First, however, they rescued Fake Peony, then realized that it had not been the real girl. The real Peony Hyde was eventually found.

## Biography

### *The Thief Knot*

Emmett Syebuck (a customs agent) came to the home of Marzana Hakelbarend, to request the help of Marzana's parents, Barbara and Peter Hakelbarend, in investigating citizens of the Liberty of Gammerbund. Emmett explained that a girl called Peony Hyde had been kidnapped on her way home from a camp at her school Watermill Elementary, and a ransom note had been delivered to her parents. Peony was the daughter of Winston Hyde, who was running for mayor, and the police suspected that this was related, perhaps someone trying to sabotage Mr. Hyde's campaign. Emmett did not think the kidnappers had brought Peony into the Liberty, as that was very complicated. The ransom note had been made from words cut from the book Peony was reading, the most recent volume of *The Sidledywry Knot.* Peony had previously walked home with her best friend, Hank, but he had stopped hanging out with her, and so she was alone that day. Marzana wondered why there was a ransom that Peony's father couldn't pay, if everyone knew he couldn't pay it. Marzana's parents agreed to track down the suspects.

After reading *The Sidledywry Knot* herself, Marzana felt very bad for Peony, who was reading a book about a team of friends, feeling that Peony must have been very lonely. Marzana wondered if Peony Hyde was in the Liberty. She assembled a group of other kids, the Thief Knot, and they began to investigate the kidnapping. Nialla Giddis, after seeing the ransom note, felt sure that something was off about it, and Peony had left a message, but she could not find it. A substitute teacher, Mr. Otterwill, was teaching at Marzana's school, and he had been a teacher and Peony's school and a supervisor at camp. The Thief Knot found out that the teacher Mr. Otterwill was substituting for was missing, and went to Mrs. Agravin's apartment to see what they could find. There, they found a girl tied to a chair, and when untied, she assured them that she was Peony. They comforted her, and soon she was taken away by the (amazed) police and returned to her parents, who left Nagspeake with her for a vacation.

Marzana realized that the girl they had rescued had not been Peony Hyde. The group reconvened, and decided that the purpose of the kidnapping had been to get the Hydes out of their house, which was built over the old hub of the Belowground Transit System. The girl they had rescued had been a disguised Tasha Cormorant, who was with the afraid Hydes now. Nialla and Ciro then figured out that Peony had indeed left a message, saying she was in the dark with teacups, somewhere where animals were loud and there was a chemical smell. They then went to Mergenthaler Street Station and confronted Moth and Christopher Fletchwood, the other kidnappers. Reinforcements arrived in the form of Marzana's parents, Emmett Syebuck, and Emmett's friend from Criminal Investigation, Thad. They brought the news that, though Tasha Cormorant had escaped, thanks to the message Nialla and Ciro had discovered, Peony had been found. She had been in the abandoned amusement park, and had been untied and left with food by someone who had apparently heard that the game was up. Peony had begun to exit the *Alice in Wonderland* ride, though it would have taken her a long time to get home had she not been found.

## Personality and traits

Peony Hyde is very smart, so much so that she put together a hidden message in the ransom note to tell anyone who saw it where she was.