Mother Lode

by E. Rose Sabin

  Rale accompanied Bryte and Teddy to the kitchen, making it difficult for them to speak further about escaping. When Rale opened the oven door, letting heat escape, and along with it the tantalizing odor of beef roast, Teddy muttered, “Sadist!”

  Bryte grinned. She’d heard him again. She must have exceptional hearing. He did too, a gift from the coyote. Could she possibly be a shape-changer also? He had to find out, but without giving his own shape-changing ability away if she wasn’t.

  To test her hearing, he walked away from the stove, fanning himself as though his only intention was to get out of the direct heat. Facing the wall he whispered, “When I turn around, nod if you can hear me.” He turned and walked to the sink full of pots needing to be scrubbed, casting a glance in her direction.

  She met his gaze and nodded her head. When Rale gave them a suspicious glare, she said, “Hey, you scrub those pots. My fingers are still stiff from peeling potatoes all afternoon, so I’ll mop the floor.”

  “Hurry it up, both of you,” Rale said. “I’m hungry, and I can’t eat until you’re both safely locked in your rooms.”

  Teddy scowled and said, “I’m hungry, too, and you’ll get real food and you know there won’t even be any leftovers for us.”

  “Yeah, that’s tough,” Rale said, grinning. “Just remember, you’d be in there eating if you hadn’t pulled that running away stunt this morning.”

  “Well, I came back, didn’t I?” Teddy asked while he scrubbed a pan. “And what about her?” He nodded toward Bryte. “Isn’t her fault you brought her here so late in the day.”

  Rale whipped out “Mamie” and moved quick as a snake to press the blade against Teddy’s throat. “Don’t get smart with me, boy.”

  Teddy froze, not even daring to breathe until Rale moved the knife, saying, “Besides, we brought this little lady to a place she can live in, din’t we?”

  Teddy didn’t bother to answer, just got back to work on the pots. Bryte also said nothing but busied herself mopping the floor.

  Rale leaned against the worktable that they’d cleared of dirty pots and pans and watched them work, a smirk on his face that Teddy longed to wipe off. Thinking of all the things he’d like to do or see done to Rale, he poured his anger instead into scouring burned potatoes off the bottom of pans.

  He was startled out of that reverie by Bryte’s soft voice saying, “Can you hear me like I can hear you?”

  “I can,” he said, lifting a soapy hand to hide his mouth as he spoke so low he knew Rale wouldn’t hear him. “How come you can hear so well?”

  “It’s a gift I’ve had all my life,” she answered. “I didn’t even know it was special until a few months ago. Same with you?”

  She didn’t say anything about shape changing, so he forbore to mention it. “Yes, but I’ve known it was special for years.”

  “How’d you escape from here? Can you do it again?”

  “I can’t do it the same way, but I’ll find another way. The hard part will be to get you out too.”

  Her mop clattered against the bucket and water sloshed on the floor. Teddy cast a quick glance at Rale and saw that he was watching Bryte and frowning.

  “Careful, don’t make Rale mad,” Teddy warned. “He’s crazy.”

  She didn’t try to speak for a while. Teddy had almost finished his task. Then he heard her say aloud, “There. I’ve cleaned all the floor except right in front of the sink where Teddy is. I can’t mop that place while Teddy’s there. Guess I should help dry the pots and put them away, but he’ll have to help me find where they go. When we finish, I’ll mop that area.”

  “Don’t waste time talking about it,” Rale ordered. “Just do it.”

  She put aside the mop and bucket and came to stand by Teddy. “What do I use to dry the pots with?” she asked.

  He showed her a pile of clean rags. “Use these,” he said, picking up a couple for his own use.

  Standing beside him, rags in her hand, she grabbed one of the pans and rubbed it dry. “Where do I put it?”

  “In there.” He pointed to a cabinet. “Hurry. Mother Cooper will be coming in any time now.”

  She took the pan to the indicated cabinet, opened it, and put the pan inside, using that task to speak while her back was turned to Rale. Her voice reached him along with the clatter of the pan against other pots. “Don’t worry about getting me out,” she said. “I need you to get out and tell my friend where I am and show her where this place is.”

  She came back, dried another pan, and returned to the cabinet to put it away. And again her voice came to him. “My friend is Lina Mueller. She’s staying in the Marquez Pride Hotel. She’ll be worried about me. Can you do that?”

  The kitchen door opened and Mother Cooper came in, yelling, “Aren’t you two done yet? Whatcha been doing? Wasting time chitchatting? I’ve sent all the other chil’ren back to the wards.”

  “The bottom of the pans had a lot of burnt stuff on ’em,” Teddy said. “I had a hard time getting it off.”

  Bryte wisely said nothing, just grabbed the last pan and carried it to the cabinet while she dried it. She bent way down and stuck her head into the cabinet to put the pan inside. From within the cabinet her soft voice reached his ears. “Just do what I told you. Don’t forget.”

  “I tried to do the best job I could,” Teddy told Mother Cooper. “I always try to do what people tell me.”

  “Huh! That’s a laugh,” Rale spoke up. “You’re a trouble maker, I say.”

  “You can see I been working hard,” Teddy declared. “Do we get to eat anything?”

  “There wasn’t nothing left over,” Mother Cooper said. “Sorry about that.”

  “Figured there wouldn’t be,” Teddy said, his disappointment not entirely feigned.

  “Rale, take him to the boys’ ward and lock him in,” Mother Cooper ordered. “I’ll take care of the girl.”

  “I still have to mop right in front of the sink,” Bryte said. “I’ll do it real quick.” She grabbed the mop. As Rale escorted him to the door, Teddy heard her whisper, “Don’t fail me. Find Lina.”

  He couldn’t risk answering with Rale right at his side. A quick nod of his head was all he could manage before Rale shoved him from the room.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  SHAPE-SHIFTING

  Ignoring Rale’s jibes, Teddy formulated a plan on the way to the locked room he shared with the other boys. He only hoped he’d have the strength to pull it off, hungry and tired as he was. The hour was not late, but when they reached the boys’ ward, none of the other boys were stirring. He knew too well how hard they’d had to work in the mine all day, and with nothing to eat but boiled potatoes, they’d no doubt filled up as best they could on that sorry meal and lost no time getting into bed and falling into an exhausted sleep.

  The work Teddy had been assigned since his return was far less fatiguing than breaking rock and digging through the pieces for possible gem-bearing stones. He went directly to his bed, took off his shoes, and lay down. He heard Rale leave, locking the door behind him. Teddy waited a while longer, then rose, crept to the door, and listened for any sound on the other side. Hearing none and reassured by the sounds of deep breathing and an occasional snore in this room, he now just had to be very, very quiet.

  At the end of the aisle between the rows of cots, the long room’s only window let in a little air, a bit of starlight, and, not being screened, a lot of insects. The boys’ captors had no fear of anyone escaping through it. Not only high enough that it would not easily be reached, it was too narrow for even the skinniest boy to go through.

  Too narrow for a boy, but not for a coyote. Teddy rose quietly and slipped on his shoes. He tiptoed to the opposite end of the room from that window, and there he shifted to his animal form.

  The coyote tensed, then shot forward like an arrow from an archer’s bow, gathering speed until, about two-thirds of the way through the room, he leaped, aiming at the lighter rectangle that was the open window.

&
nbsp; His body passed through, but his hind legs caught on the sill and forced him to squirm free. His claws scrabbled for purchase on the outside wall. Someone in the room shouted, “What’s that?”

  With a mighty effort, the coyote pulled himself up and over the sill and dropped to the ground, where he hesitated only a few moments before dashing away from the house. The boy who’d waked and shouted would probably be thought to have been having a nightmare. Who would believe he had seen the legs and tail of a coyote disappearing through the window and vanishing into the darkness?

  When the dinner hour arrived, Lina passed from being annoyed with Bryte to worrying about her. She’d already made discreet inquiries, but only one shopkeeper remembered seeing a girl who fit Bryte’s description. She’d left the shop, walked down the street, and seemingly disappeared. No one at the hotel had seen her, and Lina saw no evidence that she had even gone to their room. Nothing of hers had been unpacked; her clothes were still in her valise.

  The hotel restaurant was open for supper, and Lina was hungry. She stood in the hotel lobby considering whether to eat first and then hunt for Bryte or to hunt and hope she found the errant girl before the restaurant closed. As she struggled with that decision, a disheveled and dirty urchin entered the hotel lobby and looked around. His condition surely precluded his being a child whose parents were guests in the hotel.

  A beggar? Possibly, but he did not stretch out his hand in an appeal for coins. The desk clerk left his post and hurried toward the boy, no doubt intending to evict him. The boy moved forward so that when the desk clerk reached him, Lina stood quite near them.

  “Excuse me, sir,” the boy said. “I’m sorry to come in here looking like this, but I’m on an important errand. Can you tell me where I could find Lina Mueller? I think she’s a guest here.”

  “I don’t give out information about guests, and you need to leave.” The clerk grabbed the boy’s arm.

  Lina stepped forward. “I’m Lina Mueller. Do you have a message for me from Bryte?”

  The boy’s eyes widened. His sigh of relief told Lina she’d guessed correctly even before he nodded. “Yes, ma’am,” he said, “but I have to give it to you in private.”

  Lina turned and addressed the desk clerk: “Can I have my meal sent up to my room?”

  “It can be arranged for a small fee,” he said, frowning his disapproval.

  Teddy’s stomach picked that auspicious moment to growl loudly. Lina turned back to him. “Have you eaten?”

  “No, ma’am, not since a bit of breakfast early this morning.”

  Lina pulled two silver triums from a small purse clipped to her belt. Handing them to the desk clerk, she said, “This should cover the cost of two meals plus delivery to my room.”

  The sight of the coins she placed in his hand erased his frown. “I believe it will be sufficient. What would you like to have sent?”

  Not pointing out that the sum she’d given him she knew to be more than sufficient, she said, “For me, a steak, very rare, and a small loaf of bread will suffice. And you, boy, what would you like?”

  “I don’t know. Something with meat and vegetables and bread and—”

  “The restaurant serves a fine goat meat stew with potatoes, carrots, onions, and herbs,” the desk clerk suggested.

  Teddy gulped. “All that in one meal?”

  Giving Teddy a measuring look, Lina said, “Have a good-sized portion of the stew sent up along with another loaf of bread with butter.”

  The desk clerk hurried off to the restaurant to place the order, and Lina guided Teddy upstairs to her room. “You’ll need to wash up before the food arrives,” she said. “But give me Bryte’s message first. Is she in immediate danger?”

  “Not immediate, no, but she does need to be rescued. Even though she said she could take care of herself, I don’t think she knows what she’s gotten herself into.”

  “You can tell me while we eat. Now wash up.” She pointed him to the washroom, and he went in.

  Teddy scrubbed several days’ accumulation of dirt from his hands. He looked longingly at the metal tub, thinking how good a bath would feel, but getting his hands, arms, and face clean would have to suffice. That took quite a bit of time, his mouth watering all the while in anticipation of the first real meal he’d had since being taken captive by the gem miners. He would have caught and eaten something while in his coyote form, had he not seen Bryte’s capture before he’d had a chance to hunt.

  The washroom was off the hall just down a bit from Miss Mueller’s room. He heard the knock on the room door that heralded the arrival of their meals. Hurriedly he completed his wash and dried off. Surveying himself in the mirror, he decided he’d gotten most of the grime off and looked a bit more presentable. He could do nothing about the sorry state of his clothing.

  He left the washroom and reached the door just as the serving boy was leaving. He brushed past him, entered the open door and stopped just inside the room to stare at the table laden with dishes.

  “Well, come in and close the door behind you.” Lina had already taken her seat at the table. “You act like you haven’t seen food before.”

  “I haven’t seen food like that for a long time.”

  “Then come, sit down, and enjoy it.”

  He pulled the door closed and hurried to the seat that had been placed at the table for him. Lina had not yet picked up her knife and fork. He grabbed his fork, speared a piece of meat, and popped it into his mouth. Lina unfolded the cloth napkin beside her plate, spread it on her lap, picked up her knife and fork, and cut into her steak, all the while eyeing him disapprovingly.

  “This stew is real good,” he said, talking through a mouthful of food.

  “I’m pleased that you’re enjoying it, but your table manners are atrocious,” she observed as she raised a bite of red, bloody meat to her mouth.

  “Sorry,” he said, continuing to shovel food into his mouth. “At Mother Cooper’s you gotta eat fast or somebody’ll grab your food. And there’s never much of it to start with.”

  “I assure you that you will have that stew entirely to yourself, and that bread and the pats of butter on the plate beside the bowl of stew are all yours. So you can slow down a bit and savor the food.”

  “I figgered you wanted to hear about Bryte right away.” He tore a piece of bread from the loaf and crammed it into his mouth.

  “I can wait until you finish your dinner,” she replied. “We’ll devote ourselves to enjoying our meal before you give me your report.”

  He shrugged. How had Bryte come to associate with this strange woman? Her lack of concern about Bryte puzzled him, but of course he had not yet told her what Bryte faced when she worked in the mine.

  He forced himself to slow down and eat slowly, savoring every tasty mouthful and trying not to talk while he ate. It had been a long time since he’d been reminded of table manners. Not since his mother had died. That thought brought a lump to his throat. He’d been much younger, but his mother, in her gentle way, had taught him to be polite. He’d forgotten her lessons even before having to contend for every bite at Mother Cooper’s table, where no one observed table manners.

  While he ate, he watched how Miss Mueller managed her knife and fork, cutting small bites from her steak and raising them carefully to her mouth, blotting her lips with her napkin between bites to remove any trace of blood left there from the very rare meat. He tried to imitate her table manners, though he regarded much about her as odd, such as that she ate only meat and bread, when she could have enjoyed a salad and servings of vegetables with it. After he told her about Bryte, he hoped she’d answer some of his questions, but he rather suspected she would not.

  He used the last of his bread to swab the inside of his bowl, soaking up every last bit of gravy. After he’d consumed that final bite and set down his fork and spoon, Lina broke the silence in which they’d eaten, saying, “Now, tell me about Bryte.”

  Before starting his tale, Teddy poured a glass of wat
er from the carafe on the table and drank most of the glassful. She waited, drilling him with her eyes.

  Finally he began. He told her about having witnessed her going so trustingly with Rale and Cooper, though he did not mention that he’d been in his coyote form at that time. He explained that, knowing where they were taking her, he’d returned after escaping from the place that morning, intending to rescue her at the earliest opportunity.

  Lina frowned. “If she went willingly, she must have had a good reason.”

  “I figgered she believed them when they said they were taking her to a good home where she’d be treated well. That’s what they tell all the children they take there.”

  Lina shook her head. “Bryte had no need of a ‘good home.’ She probably understood they were up to no good and wanted to find out what they were really after.”

  “Guess so, but she put on a good act for ’em.”

  “She’s clever. She’s had a lot of practice at deceiving people,” Miss Mueller said with a smile.

  “Maybe, but she couldn’t have known how dangerous Rale and Cooper are, or what they wanted her for.”

  “And what is that?” Miss Mueller asked, arching her eyebrows.

  “They’re gem miners. They have a mine in the hills not far from here, and they get orphan kids by promising them a good home, and then they make them work like slaves in the mine. It’s hot, hard work, and they beat us if we don’t work hard enough to please ’em. They make the older boys use pickaxes to pry ore out of gem-bearing veins. We dump the ore into buckets that the youngest boys take to the girls. They sort through the stones, looking for ones with gemstones, mostly opals, but sometimes they find sapphires and rubies and even flambyans.”

  At the mention of those gems, Miss Mueller’s eyes widened. “Those are valuable jewels, especially the flambyans.”

  “Yes, when they’re cut and polished, but they don’t look like much when they’re stuck in the rocks we dig out. The girls have a hard time picking them out of the rubble. Even the flambyans don’t shine until they’re cut and polished. I’d guess a lot of gems get missed, but if one of their guards, like Emmy Cooper, spots a girl that misses a lot, the girl gets beat with a whip. If the girls don’t find as much as usual that day, she whips ’em all.”