Chapter 38 #2
“Listen, Taliesin. There are seven kidnapped children at your parent’s farm. We rescued them from the Conclave’s labs. We think the only safe way to find their families is through this rebel group. Whoever they are.”
“Shit,” he mutters. “Fuck.”
Taliesin glances around. “I’ve got five minutes before the guards come out for me.” He looks me dead in the eye. “And I will kill you if my parents get hurt by any of this.”
“Fair enough. Now tell me what we need.”
He looks heavenward for a moment, then nods. “Fine. You have to leave a string of numbers, written in yellow chalk, on the east wall of the old glass factory. Do that then wait inside. Someone will come, it could be hours, could be days.”
“And the numbers?”
I repeat what he tells me several times until I know I have them memorized.
“But how the fuck are you going to get out of here? I don’t even get how you got in.”
“Don’t worry about me,” I reply, giving him a grin. “Watch your own back. I’ll give your love to Opal and Gareth.”
With that I shift, twisting my body so I can watch Taliesin Bevan’s mouth drop open. As I soar upwards, I see his small figure staring up after me, and can almost taste his desperate desire for freedom.
When I return to the farm, the sun is midway up the sky but still filtered through a thick haze of Ashgrave smog.
I’m vibrating with exhaustion, and my ribs ache.
But I have the secret code going through my brain on repeat. I cannot forget this shit. Just one digit wrong and we’re instantly dead.
Alexis is waiting for me on the porch. “Success?”
“Yes.” I sway on my feet. “Please write down this fucking code before my brain gives out.” Once I’ve passed on the information, I have nothing left. Going to the front room, I reassure the Bevans their son is just fine, then collapse onto an armchair.
Closing my eyes, I think about all the bruises on Taliesin’s young face and the desperation in his eyes.
Thank fuck I’m not incarcerated in that hell hole.
???
The smell of frying bacon wakes me up, along with the sound of cartoons on the TV. Opening my eyes, I realize small children surround me.
One is even cozied up against my legs.
“You should see your face,” Theo laughs. “You’d probably look less freaked waking up in a viper nest.”
She’s not wrong.
But even I can see there has been a shift in the kids. They’re actively engaged with cartoons and sandwiches. “What time is it?”
“Six. Time for us to go.”
Within the hour, three of us—Alexis, Theo, and I—are standing outside the old Anther-glass factory. It’s a ruin of rusted girders and shattered panes.
Theo fought like a tigress to be on this trip. Naturally, all of us, me included, wanted to have her stay safe at the farm.
That didn’t happen.
She looked at us one at a time, chin jutted out in determination. “I’m the one Amirene tasked with this…undertaking. I want to talk to the rebels. I want to look their leader in the eye and be convinced they’ll do the right thing by these children.”
We hadn't argued after that.
Taking a piece of yellow chalk from my pocket, I start to mark the east wall. The string of numbers goes on for fourteen digits.
Fuck, I hope this works.
"Now we wait inside," I sigh.
Alexis nods to a heavy metal door hanging on one hinge. The interior is a vast, freezing cavern of dust and broken glass.
When we reach the middle of the space, Theo opens a mental link.
—Max? Dono—
—Here, Sparkles, and ready to hellhound—
—I’m notched and ready, Tee. I can see you all—
Having those two as back up is reassuring. We’re here unarmed, as instructed by Taliesin.
After twenty minutes, Max gives us a heads up. —We’ve got incoming—
I don’t hear any vehicles, but a few minutes later I can sense other people are in the vicinity. The dragon under my skin lets me know he’s ready to come out if necessary.
Then a figure slips into the room.
Male, broad-chested, ratty beard, dirty ballcap, and scarred hands.
A brawler.
“Who the fuck are you?” He growls. “How did you get that number, it’s not yours.”
Alexis immediately speaks up. “If numbers are assigned, then you know exactly who we got it from. I’m hoping you trust him enough to hear us out.”
The man spits. “We don’t trust anyone, especially southern fuckers like you all.” He spits again, then takes a pace closer.
Five more men step out of the shadows.
“I say we kill you both, apart from the little girlie, she can come back with me to be…interrogated.”
In unison, Feniks and I form a wall in front of Theo. My lip curls in a sneer. “They’re too uneducated for us to have any kind of dialogue,” I say to Theo and Feniks. “I thought this operation might have some vision, or at least a modicum of brains.”
The burly dude scowls and cracks his knuckles. “I’m going to cut the tongue out of your silver-spooned mouth, you fuck.”
His hand whips out a long blade.
—Donovan—
The next second, the knife is shot out of his hand by a perfectly placed arrow.
“What the fuck. Shoot them!”
All around us men point guns, as the professor and I throw up magical shields.
“STOP!”
The authority in the voice has all the rebels freezing.
A tall woman, wrapped in a ripped work coat walks into the space. She has one hand raised. “Where is your archer? My men swept the whole area.”
Theo pushes herself from between us. “The rest of the team are in position but will not fire on any of you unless warranted. I’m hoping that we can talk. It’s important.”
“You’re just a school girl, and not even from Havengard, judging by the accent, how could you have anything to say that I’d want to hear?”
Calmly, Theo puts one hand on my arm and one on Fenik’s. “Are you comfortable talking in front of your people, or shall we go somewhere more private?”
—You are going nowhere alone with that woman— I snap angrily into her brain.
—He’s right, pulu—
—She won’t hurt me. She’s intrigued—
“Give me five minutes,” Theodora continues. “You’ll want to hear what we have to say.”
The rebel leader narrows her eyes. “About?”
Feniks and I exchange a look. This isn’t a good idea. These people are not to be trusted.
—Guys, let me handle this…I’m tuned in to her thoughts—
—And?—
—She’s open to listening—
“Let me ask you a question,” Theo says. “Have you had any local children go missing, especially ones from low-spark families?”
Behind us comes a crashing sound, then a small man with tired eyes and long black hair strides forward. “What do you know? What!”
“Wait, brother. Stand down,” the woman says, the concern in her voice obvious.
“Like fuck I will.” Suddenly a gun is in his hand and he’s aiming it at Theo. “Tell me what you know, bitch.”
No one has to prompt Donovan. Another golden arrow takes out his pistol, and maybe the tip of the man’s finger as well. He drops to the floor, swearing and groaning.
Not flinching, the leader-woman snaps her fingers. “Take him out back.” Turning to Theodora, she sighs. “His son disappeared a few weeks ago, so I won’t apologize for his behavior. I hope for your sake you really know something about these kidnappings, otherwise you’ll find leaving here…difficult.”
Instead of answering, Theo takes out her phone and clicks on a photo of our rescuees—huddled under blankets and eating sandwiches.
The woman pales. “Where is this? When?”
“We rescued them from a Conclave facility yesterday. They are safe, but need to be reunited with their families.”
The woman’s gaze has not left the cell screen. She traces a finger over the image then looks up, slightly glassy eyed. “Any others?”
“These were the only ones at the facility we raided.”
“We will take them immediately. These children belong to our community, tell me where they are.”
We’d already decided to keep Gareth and Opal out of this.
“No. We’ll bring them to you,” I tell her, speaking up for the first time. “They can be here within the hour, if you promise to guarantee their safety and our safe exit from this shithole.”
Theodora and the leader are staring each other down. After several beats, Theodora nods. —They’ll protect the kids with their lives…this is good. Max. Get to the farm. Bring the kids back here in the van…now—
—On it, Sparkles—
The woman takes a breath then gets back to business. “There are more kids missing than this handful. What else do you know?”
Theodora is about to answer when another figure steps down the rusted mezzanine above, boots clanging on the metal stairs. This one is younger, her hair a faded red, and wearing a down jacket that’s losing feathers.
And she’s vibrating with rage. “I know him.” She points a trembling finger at my face. “I’ve seen him on TV. That’s Cosmo Drakeward, the son of the Conclave leader.”
The men who had lowered their guns snap them back up.
The burly brawler from before laughs, a jagged, ugly sound. “The Drakeward prince in our backyard?”
Red-hair jumps the rest of the way down, her eyes glinting with a mix of hate and greed. “We’ll hold him, think of the leverage. We could trade him for our kids in Quo.”
She lunges toward me, but the leader steps into her path, her arm out like a steel bar. "Back off, sister."
“Are you kidding?" the red-head snarls. “He’s evil, and he’s an opportunity.”
“And yet," the leader says, her voice low and dangerous, "he is standing here with an offering of something infinitely precious.”
Theo doesn't wait for the argument to settle. “Our friends will bring the children here, but if anyone so much as looks at Cosmo as a 'trade-in' again, there will be no future help from us.”
“What’s she talking about?” the redhead asks, her hand still hovering over her holster. “Help with what?”
“I said fucking stand down!” the leader yells. “What else do you know about our missing children?”
Feniks lights up a cigarette and tells her of the name Ludo had overheard, Regan Grieves.
“Grieves?” She looks pained. “I think that must be Doyle Grieves’s son. He was a fucking piece of shit. In the human trafficking trade. He and his son moved south years ago. Chased out of Ashgrave. Anything else?”
“Not yet, but we’re working on it. I won’t rest until we free every child.”
The woman hums. “You have anyone with tech skills? I can give you a key to an online forum with a message board for information sharing.”
“Yes. We can do that.”
The next forty-five minutes is spent with our two groups cagily dodging questions and giving non-answers. Unbound circle around us, we are vastly outnumbered. I keep at Theodora’s back. We may be handing over the children to the correct people, but that doesn’t mean they trust us or vice versa.
“They’re nearly here,” Theodora announces suddenly, walking to the wide doors. Yellow headlights come into view and make their way towards us.
The van swings into the site, and Max opens the driver’s door as soon as it pulls to a halt. “All good?” he asks, eyes scanning the sea of angry men and women, looking like he might hellhound any moment.
Feniks nods. “We are all keeping calm, so take a breath.”
I walk to the back and pull open the tailgate. Willow is squatted among the pile of children. “Oh. look kids, here’s our favorite dragon-boy,” she chirps.
One by one, the kids peek out from the blankets. The tallest boy gets on to his knees, looking protectively over the smaller ones.
Suddenly the man with the long black hair—the one whose gun, and finger, Donovan shot—pushes past us. "Mika? Mika!"
The boy’s head jerks up, and he climbs forward, launching himself into the man's arms. “Papa, Papa.” The reunion makes even my cynical eyes a little moist.
The leader's hardened face finally cracks. She turns to Theo. “Thank you.”
Alexis wraps his arm around Theodora protectively. “The Conclave is going to be on the hunt, so keep them hidden. Keep them safe."
“We know how to hide," the woman says, as her rebels start unloading the cargo. She looks from Theodora, Alexis, Max, Willow and then to me. “We’ll find their families, and care for any who are alone. You have my word.”
After another moment, she puts a hand on her chest. “I’m Bea, leader of the Unbound Resistance. Thank you.” Her eyes slide in my direction. “Though I never thought I’d see the day when I was grateful for a Drakeward.”
I nod.
“Yeah, I can imagine. These are strange times indeed.”