Chapter 17 #2
There was nothing else alive in the warehouse. When she circled back to Girard, it was to find him crouching down outside the open door of the cage, speaking to the children in a soft, soothing voice. He glanced over his shoulder at Hallie.
“They won’t come out,” he said. “I’ve told them we’ll take them back to their parents, but they won’t move.” He straightened to his feet and took a step back. Hallie could see a reflection of her own fury on his face. “Will you try?”
She nodded and crouched down just outside the cage, leaving the doorway clear, but positioning herself so that they could all see her. Perhaps taking a cue from her, Girard took another step back, giving the children more room.
“I’m Hallie. This is Girard. The Conclave sent us to find out what’s been going on here,” she said.
A shading of the truth, perhaps, but it was what she wanted to do.
“We met Sylvie and Donall and the others a little while ago. They’re in the meeting hall in the town centre,” she said, aiming for a calm, reassuring tone.
The more she spoke, the easier it became as it wasn’t about her, it was about the frightened children.
“They’ve really missed you, and they want to see you again.
Girard and I both promised that we’d take you back to them. ”
“Nicholas told us not to move,” the older boy said. His voice was trembling, and he was staring at her with an expression torn between childhood fear and the instinct to protect and guard the younger ones clinging to him.
“Xander, isn’t it? You and Nixie here have done a great job looking after the little ones,” Hallie said, naming the oldest girl, warmth in her voice. “But Nicholas isn’t the boss of you.”
The unexpected slang made him laugh, as Hallie had hoped it might. He relaxed a fraction and looked at the girl. Nixie. She looked so like her mother, Sylvie, at that moment that Hallie’s heart constricted. There was no way a thirteen year old girl should look that old or that wise.
“Come on,” Hallie said. “We’ll take you to your parents.”
“What then?” Nixie asked, on the cusp of moving. She sounded like a mix of both Donall and Sylvie just then. There was still suspicion in her face and voice. Hallie approved. Being wary was smart.
“Well, that’s up to all of you,” Hallie said.
“From what I saw, I think your parents and the others might want to go back to Reunion.” Even as she spoke, the memory of the mass of burned creatures rose up.
That morning she would have said it was no place for a child.
Now, having seen where the children had been kept, it seemed a far better option.
And they would be with people who cared for them.
Who let them use colour and their imaginations to create fanciful and vivid drawings.
“Yes,” Nixie said, fierceness in her face. “That’s our home now. Mum said. So did Dad.”
“That’s right,” Xander agreed, fear giving way to determination.
“Donall and Sylvie said it’s going to be ours.
Away from the stinking hochlen and Nicholas and all the others.
” Then he blushed, hot colour rising up his face, and looked at Girard.
“I’m sorry,” he blurted out. “I didn’t mean anything by that. ”
“It’s alright,” Girard answered, managing to sound amused. “It’s far from the worst thing I’ve been called.”
“Oh, really?” one of the younger children asked, looking up at Girard with open curiosity. “What’s the worst thing?”
Girard laughed and held out his hand. The child - a girl, Hallie thought, although it was hard to tell under the baggy clothes and with the knitted cap that covered almost her entire head - crawled out of the cage and put her hand into Girard’s.
That movement seemed to release the others and they all came tumbling out of the cage, scrambling to their feet.
“Well, let’s see,” Girard said. “I don’t think this is the worst thing, but my sister used to call me Groan.” Having met Girard’s sister once, Hallie had no difficulty in believing that.
“That’s not very nice,” the child holding his hand said solemnly. “I like Girard better.”
“So do I,” Girard answered with the same seriousness. He cast a glance over the rest of the group. “Ready to go?”
“Yes,” Nixie and Xander said together.
Hallie went ahead of the group to the warehouse door and took a peek out, making sure there was no one else in sight, before she opened the door wide enough to let everyone through.
Walking back through the dark streets, Hallie found herself watching every shadow, and wanting to jump at every movement, convinced that Nicholas or his gunners would appear at some point and demand that the children be taken back to that awful cage.
She should have asked the Reunion adults if the gunners patrolled the streets at night, or if there was a curfew in effect.
She wasn’t used to being nervous out and about after dark.
But then, she was normally out for a purpose, as a hunter on the trail of a fugitive.
Feeling that she was the prey was uncomfortable, all her senses on high alert.
She tried not to let her worry show, but some of it must have communicated to the children as they, too, were staring at every shadow.
She saw them twitch and flinch at every movement that they caught.
The swing of an unlatched gate. The ripple of a sheet or blanket left to air overnight on an outside washing line.
The changing shadows as the clouds overhead and the moonlight shifted.
Drawing a long, deep breath in, Hallie consciously lowered her shoulders and relaxed her pace, trying to appear confident.
At least outwardly. It helped her to pretend, even when she knew it was false, and it also seemed to help the children as they crowded in closer to her, one of them taking her hand, small fingers cold.
Hallie wanted to gather all of them up, warm them through and promise them that nothing bad would ever happen to them.
Not ever again. She couldn’t force herself to say the words, though.
It wasn’t a promise she could make. Not here.
And perhaps not anywhere. But she returned the clasp on her hand and kept walking.
They made it most of the way back to the town hall when Hallie caught the faint sounds of other people out and about in the night.
She made a low sound, alerting Girard. He didn’t question her, just quickly and silently moved the children to one side of the street they were walking along.
There was a low building with the upper level overhanging the ground floor, providing a pool of pitch darkness just big enough for them all to hide in, if they would huddle together.
The children seemed to understand when Hallie and Girard gently pressed on small shoulders, urging them closer together.
As they settled into the shadows, Hallie trying not to breathe too loudly, heavy footsteps came towards them.
At least two men, not bothering to be quiet in their walk through the settlement.
Gunners, Hallie guessed. Close enough now that the children could hear them, from the way the small bodies next to her stiffened up and pressed even closer to her.
The gunners were still out of sight. The shadows were deep, but Hallie didn’t want to take the risk of being seen.
She might have risked it if she was on her own, or if it was her and Girard.
But she didn’t want to risk more harm to the children.
Can you help keep us hidden, or show me how?
- Hallie asked the zauber. The artefact had been quiet since their encounter with the warrimel, drained of its powers, and Hallie felt guilty asking more of it after it had saved her and Girard’s lives.
But she had five children pressing around her who also needed saving.
The zauber stirred, stretched, and seemed to blink.
Very much like a cat. Despite the sense of it rising from slumber, as soon as it identified the danger approaching them, its magic stirred and a trace of warmth slid over Hallie’s skin along with unspoken impressions.
Instructions, Hallie realised after a moment.
She tried her best to follow them. Something about holding in and pushing out at the same time.
She tried to be gentle with what she was doing, still not all that familiar with using her magic.
The spill of magic was not a moment too soon as the gunners came into view.
Two men, both of them looking burly and menacing in the dark, the faint moonlight gleaming off the metal barrels of their guns.
They were walking at a casual pace, looking about them, and not talking.
On patrol, Hallie guessed. But from the way they were walking at least an arm’s length apart and not looking at each other, she guessed that neither of them were happy with the assignment, or each other.
As they drew closer, Hallie saw that they were both young, barely out of their teenage years if she had to guess, and she thought that one of them was the young man who’d escorted her and Girard to Nicholas’ house.
If that was right, she wondered how long he’d been on duty for - or whether the gunners were having to do extra duty to cover for the ones she and Girard had injured at Nicholas’ house.
She was going to have to keep wondering, though, as she wasn’t about to step out of the shadows and ask them.
Whatever the zauber had done, whether Hallie had helped or not, the gunners kept walking past Hallie and the others, with barely a glance in their direction.
Hallie could feel the child pressed against her left side trembling and gently squeezed the thin shoulder, wishing she could speak, voice some reassurance. The touch would have to be enough.