Mother Lode

by E. Rose Sabin

  “Still, it sounds like the boys’ work is harder than the girls’.”

  “Well, Miss Mueller, it is in some ways, but where we get blisters on our hands from the picks and axes and sore shoulder and arm muscles from digging out the ore, the girls get cuts, pretty deep ones sometimes, when they wash the rocks, and they get backaches from bending over the water trough all day. So I guess it evens out.”

  “Hmm, maybe. And call me Lina. Bryte always has. And if I know Bryte, she’ll sneak out a few gemstones for herself.”

  “I don’t think so, uh, Lina.” It felt awkward to call this woman, young though she was, by her first name. “We get strip searched before we leave the mine. Two of the women guards, Cooper’s wife, her name’s Emmy, and Mora Todd, search the girls, and Rale and another guy named Warvine search the boys, while Cooper and a guy named Dody Tiller look on. And …” his face reddened and he hesitated before adding, “Believe me, they search everywhere.”

  Lina clearly grasped his meaning. Her eyes narrowed and her lips drew into a straight line, then relaxed as she said, “They may get a surprise if they try that on Bryte.”

  Teddy shook his head. “The guards are armed. Rale carries a big knife he calls Mamie, and Tiller has a gun. So does one of the lady guards. Her name’s Zilla; she’s Warvine’s wife. Two of the women guards have whips. Emmy Cooper’s one; she’s always lookin’ for a reason to use the big whip she carries. The other one, Berta, doesn’t use hers as much, but if you get her mad, she can hit harder than Emmy. If they find a gemstone somebody tried to sneak out, Emmy and Berta whip the girl or fellow so bad they nearly die. A couple of boys and one girl that I know of have died after a bad whipping.”

  “Bryte has a defense they won’t expect,” Lina said.

  “So you aren’t gonna even try to rescue her?”

  “I didn’t say that.” Lina skewered him with a glare. “I’ll tell you what I plan after you tell me how you escaped from that place.”

  “Well …” he hesitated. How much did he dare tell her? “I escaped from the house, not the mine.”

  “That doesn’t answer my question,” Lina snapped.

  He tried again. “I got out through a window, one high up so I had to jump for it.”

  “And only you could do this? None of the other boys? Or girls?”

  He sighed, seeing she wasn’t going to let it go until she got an answer that satisfied her. “I guess not,” he said lamely. “It’s not an easy window to get through.”

  “But you got through.” Her voice dripped skepticism.

  He nodded, not trusting himself to speak.

  “No one saw you or tried to stop you?”

  “The other boys were all asleep. I had to work late in the kitchen, so by the time I got to the room, they’d all gone to bed. After working in the mines all day, you fall asleep as soon as you hit the bed.”

  “So you jumped through an open, unscreened window while everyone else was sleeping.”

  “Yes, that’s what I did.” He stated it flatly, knowing full well it wouldn’t satisfy her.

  “How many boys were sleeping in that room?”

  “Seven.”

  “And before they went to sleep, before you arrived and performed this marvelous feat while they slept, none of them was capable of thinking, “There’s an open window. I can get out of here.”

  “Well, I hadn’t been working in the mine all day like they had, so I was more alert. They were too tired to think about it, I guess.”

  “Weren’t you not working in the mine like the others because you’d escaped earlier in the day and had gone back to rescue Bryte? Did you get out through the window the first time too?”

  He made himself sit still, though her questions had him squirming inwardly. “No,” he admitted. “I ran while something distracted everybody. While we, uh, all the boys, uh, had gone to the latrine.”

  “And there were no guards there? And no one else ran, just you?”

  “There were four guards, but they were distracted, like I said.”

  “So twice in one day you, and you alone, escaped, and after the first escape you went back, sure that you could escape again, which you did.” She pounced on his words like a cat on a mouse. “Stop skirting the truth. You did something that the other boys can’t do. Tell me what it is.”

  “Ah, well, I don’t think you’d believe me.”

  “Nonsense. I can guess part of it. You shape-changed. But into what?”

  His mouth fell open and he felt the blood drain from his face. How did she know? He’d never told anyone. He’d kept the secret for years—ever since he first discovered his strange ability.

  “I see I’m right,” she observed, watching him.

  “H-how’d you guess?” he stammered.

  “First tell me, what do you change to? Not a cat, I’m certain. A bird?”

  He shook his head.

  “Then what?”

  “A coyote.” He whispered the words she had pulled out of him as a cat might drag a mouse from its hole by its tail.

  “Ah, yes. That makes sense. Coyotes are clever creatures, quite resourceful. And now you want to know how I guessed your secret. The first part of the answer is that I can sense when someone is gifted.”

  He found his voice enough to ask, “What’s that mean?”

  “Gifted people are people who can do things normal people can’t. I didn’t know what your special ability was, but I guessed it might be shape-shifting.”

  “How’d you guess that?”

  “Easy. I’ll show you.” She stood and moved away from the table covered by their empty dishes.

  He watched her closely, but in the blink of an eye the space where she’d stood now held a large, black, catlike animal. He hadn’t seen the transition, if there’d been one. The creature stretched and snarled, and he began to tremble. Even if he changed, his coyote would be no match for this fearsome beast.

  And then Lina stood before him again, and again he’d missed any transition. “So,” she said, “you see why I could guess your secret.”

  “I-I didn’t know there was anybody like me.”

  “I’m not like you. I shift to a panther, not a coyote.”

  “A panther! So that’s what that was.” A sudden idea struck him. “Is Bryte a shape-changer too? She has real good hearing like me, but I never thought …”

  Lina laughed. “No, Bryte can’t shape-shift. But her exceptional hearing is one of her gifts, the first one I found out about. It’s not the only one she has, though. She’s really a remarkable girl.”

  “Is that why you aren’t worried about her?”

  “Oh, I am worried about her,” Lina said. “She has resources. She isn’t helpless. But she can’t stop a bullet any more than you or I could, no matter what form we’re in. We need a plan.”

  She reclaimed her seat across the table from him and resumed her questioning. “How do these people get away with enslaving these children? Why haven’t you gone to the peacekeepers about it?”

  “It wouldn’t do any good. They pay off the peacekeepers. The gems we mine for ’em bring in lots of money, and they sure don’t spend much of it on us. See, they don’t call us ‘slaves.’ They say they’re providing a home to homeless orphans. Some home! They feed us just enough to keep us alive and able to work, and we have to sleep on narrow, hard cots in a room that’s hot and smelly.”

  “All right, then we’ll have to stop them ourselves.” She stated it as though she considered it no more difficult than climbing a fence or jumping over a stile. “Where do they get all these orphans?”

  “Most of ’em come from Northwoods Province. They’ve had an epidemic of mountain fever up there, and lots of people died. Guess it left a lot of orphans. Then in Northpoint on the other side of the country they had terrible fires and lots of people died in those. So Vee Cooper and his mother and Rale advertised that they could find homes and families for those orphans that didn’t have any other place to go , and sure enough
, people in those provinces loaded the orphans onto trains and sent ’em here. Cooper and Rale meet the trains and collect the orphans to take to Mother Cooper’s.”

  “So is that how you came to be stuck there?”

  That was the question Teddy had hoped she wouldn’t ask. He didn’t want to talk about it. He yawned and let his eyes droop shut for a moment, then said, “I’m real tired. I need to find me a place to sleep tonight.”

  “You can sleep here,” Lina offered. “In Bryte’s bed, since she won’t be using it.”

  “Oh, thanks! I’m really tired. I’ll just—”

  “You’ll do nothing until you answer my question,” Lina snapped. In a softer voice she added, “It’s the last one, at least for tonight. Just tell me how you got caught in this trap. Are you an orphan?”

  He nodded. “My folks had a farm at the base of a hill not far from here. We had a bad rainstorm one day while I was in school here in town, and when I got back home I found that a landslide had covered our house. My mother and father both died. Guess they didn’t get any warning before most of the hillside fell on top of them.” He paused and wiped away a furtive tear before continuing. “I went to live with my uncle, but my uncle’s wife didn’t want me there, and when she heard that Mother Cooper and her son were taking in orphans, she arranged for them to come get me while my uncle was away at work. Cooper and Rale carted me off to Mother Cooper’s just like they did Bryte this morning. I guess that’s why I felt sorry for her and went back to try to rescue her.”

  “That’s a sad story,” Lina commented in a flat tone exuding no sympathy. “Now that I know more, I’m going to go out while you get ready for bed. I mean to prowl around a bit in my panther form, but I won’t be long. And I’ll send someone up to collect these dishes and pour you a bath. You washed up before eating, but you need to be a lot cleaner before you get into that bed.”

  He made a face, but Lina ignored his protest that he was too tired to take a bath, saying, “You can sleep late tomorrow.”

  Brooking no further protests, she picked up the room key and gave him strict orders to lock the door behind her and open it only for the hotel serving man. “Oh, and here.” She drew two copper coins from her pocket and held them out to Teddy. “Give these to the serving man when he finishes his work.”

  She deposited the coins into Teddy’s hand and left, locking the door behind her.

  Teddy regarded the two midi coppers, thinking that Lina was being overly generous and wondering whether he dared keep one of the coins for himself. No, he decided. Lina might find out, and he would not want her angry with him.

  The serving man came only a short while after Lina left. He entered, carrying two buckets of hot water to fill the metal tub that stood in an alcove in the corner of the room. He went about his work with quick efficiency, pouring the hot water into the tub, then placing the towels and washcloths he carried over one arm onto the shelf in the alcove above the tub. He also set a large bar of soap on the shelf.

  That duty discharged, he went to the table, stacked the dishes, and prepared to carry table and stacked dishes from the room. He turned and regarded Teddy. “Will that be all, young sir?”

  Teddy had never been called “young sir” before, and at first was too taken aback to respond. “Y-yes, that’s all,” he stammered.

  The man looked closely at Teddy and his brow wrinkled. “Say, you aren’t the boy the peacekeepers are looking for, are you? A boy that went missing from Mother Cooper’s place earlier this evening?”

  Teddy froze. “N-no. ’Course not,” he managed to say, knowing he did not sound at all convincing.

  “Hmm. You do fit the description I heard.” The man turned to leave.

  Belatedly Teddy remembered the two coins clutched in his hand. The man had passed through the door but hadn’t yet closed it when Teddy called, “Wait, sir. Just a minute. I need to give you these.”

  He hurried to the door and thrust both coins into the man’s hand. “Thank you for taking care of everything.”

  The man smiled then. “No, I reckon you can’t be the missing boy,” he said. “He wouldn’t have had any coins on him, now would he?” Apparently not expecting an answer, he closed the door, and Teddy heard his footsteps receding down the hall.

  He felt grateful now for Lina’s generosity. It may have saved his life. If he’d been forcibly returned to Mother Cooper’s, two escapes in one day would have earned him such a beating that he very likely would not have survived it.

  If only the man could be trusted not to report him!

  CHAPTER FIVE

  A DAY IN THE MINE

  Bryte took a seat at the breakfast table and regarded with distaste the runny scrambled eggs, a mixture all too obviously more water than eggs. Her empty stomach forced her to eat the portion she succeeded in scooping onto her plate before the girl next to her grabbed the platter from her. She snagged a hunk of bread before that plate could be yanked away from her, and dipped it into the watery mess so as to get as much nourishment as she could eke out of the scant meal in the short time their captors gave them to consume it.

  No wonder that the meal was eaten in silence. No one had enough energy for conversation, and even if they did have, if they’d taken time to talk, they couldn’t clean their plates before being made to rise and head for the mine or other duties.

  While she ate, Bryte did look around at her companions. They ranged in age from appearing two or three years older than her age of thirteen downward to as young as four or five years. All bore bruises and cuts and wore ragged clothing. Their hair went uncombed and unwashed, hanging in long, greasy locks. Their eyes had a dull and hopeless look.

  Is that what I’ll look like if I don’t get out of here tonight or tomorrow? She felt less confident of her ability to escape than she had when she first involved herself in this mess. But the boy Teddy had escaped. She knew this because the guards had whispered together as they stood behind the children, watching them eat. None of the other children could have heard, but her sharp ears picked up their words.

  “That bratty boy did it again. How we don’t know,” Cooper told a guard whose name Bryte hadn’t heard.

  Rale chimed in with, “I do know I ain’t goin’ after him again. Let him go, I say. He’s more trouble than he’s worth. Won’t matter none if he goes to the peacekeepers to report us. They’re all paid off.”

  So. That explained how this place operated without attracting the attention of the peacekeepers. But what about the townspeople? Didn’t any of them wonder what happened to the children who were brought here and never seen again? Bryte couldn’t understand how the children’s plight escaped all notice.

  Teddy’s successful escape meant that Lina must know by now where Bryte was and what was going on here. She could count on Lina’s help even if no other aid materialized. But Lina wouldn’t come storming in to Mother Cooper’s. She’d wait to see what Bryte planned.

  Do I even have a plan? She needed to see what went on in the mine. She couldn’t form a plan until she knew more about the operation there. She already knew that Cooper and Rale were not the only guards. Two others, a man and a woman, kept watch over the children as they ate and then would escort them to the mine, where there would probably be others. She needed to learn how many and who they were.

  “Time to go!” Rale called out.

  The children scrambled to their feet and pushed their chairs in to the table. The boys formed a queue, lined up according to age, with the oldest in the front. Accompanied by Rale, Cooper, and the male guard, the line of boys marched like young soldiers through the kitchen and out a door that Mother Cooper unlocked. Bryte listened as they tramped off into the distance.

  “Vee, you and Rale best keep a closer watch on those boys,” Mother Cooper called to her son. “If another ’un gets loose, I’ll see you pay for it.”

  Mother Cooper seemed to be the head of this operation. Interesting. Even the hard-bitten Rale took orders from her, as did her son—Vee?
What kind of name was that?

  Mother Cooper grabbed Bryte by the arm. “No lollygagging, new girl. You girls’ll clear off the table and sweep the crumbs off the floor. This table needs scrubbin’ and the dishes got to be washed before you all head for the mine.”

  The girls rushed to whisk dishes off the table. One of the older girls came back from the kitchen and thrust a wet rag into Bryte’s hand. “Scrub the table down,” she said. “Then come into the kitchen and help with the dishes. We don’t have much time, and we won’t get to relieve ourselves till the boys get done at the latrine.”

  Bryte didn’t like the sound of that, but she did as she was told. Faster than she would have thought possible the work was done, and the girls formed a queue just as the boys had. Mother Cooper shoved Bryte into the girls’ line behind the only girl who looked a lot older than Bryte, although another, directly behind her, looked to be about her same age and the girl behind that one, the one who’d ordered her to scrub the table, she’d guessed to be older, judging solely by her height and her tough appearance.

  One female guard took a position at the head of the line of girls, while a second woman, who must have come into the house while the girls worked in the kitchen, took up a position beside the line of girls. Tall and string-bean thin, she carried a whip and glared at them as they marched through the hall and out a rear door, daring them to cause any trouble. They hadn’t gone far before a loud crack of the whip and a young girl’s wail caused Bryte to turn. A little girl stood slightly off the path, cradling her arm, which bore a vivid red welt.

  “Eyes front! Keep moving!” the woman leading them sang out. The injured girl ran to resume her place, and the line moved on.

  Bryte smelled the latrine before she saw it—nothing more than a long, narrow ditch over which boards were placed, allowing the girls to straddle the space between them and relieve themselves into the noxious brew beneath them. To Bryte’s embarrassment this had to be accomplished quickly and without any privacy, the guards watching closely and herding the girls back into line as soon as they stepped off the boards. A water pump at the far end of the latrine allowed the girls the chance for a quick hand wash. All too soon their march resumed.