Mother Lode

by E. Rose Sabin

  “Never mind.” Bryte grabbed her pail off the cart and emptied the stones into one of her pockets, then scooped up the stones in a second pail and put them into her second pocket. “Come on, Nia.”

  “I can’t see.”

  Bryte grasped Nia’s arm. “Don’t be afraid. Take my hand,” Bryte ordered. “Close your eyes. I’ll lead you. We’ll get your sister.”

  Still surrounded in brilliant white light, Bryte took Nia firmly by the hand and led her forward. The girls she passed either closed their eyes or looked down at the ground. When Bryte neared the place by the cave entrance where the two youngest and smallest girls were stationed, she saw the littlest girl huddling naked beside a bundle of clothes. Small and painfully thin, the girl looked much younger than six. Berta Leed stood over the child with her whip raised, blinded by Bryte’s rage light before she could strike the weeping girl’s bloody back again.

  The scene stoked Bryte’s fury, making her glow brighter still. Leed’s eyes squeezed shut. Bryte yanked the whip from the woman and easily dodged her groping hands. Holding the whip in one hand, with the other she turned Nia toward the child. “Is that your sister?”

  Nia opened her eyes, squinting, and dropped to her knees. Gathering the bleeding child into her arms, she cried, “Oh, my poor little Cara.” She grabbed the ragged dress, underpants, and sandals beside the little girl, and was getting them on her when a shot rang out.

  A bullet ricocheted against the cavern walls. A girl screamed. No time to look around to see whether the misdirected bullet hit someone. Bryte might have only moments before her light faded. She pulled Nia to her feet, Cara in her sister’s arms, still only partially dressed.

  “Come on, we’re getting out of here,” Bryte said. “You’ll have to carry your sister, but I’ll do my best to support you and help you bear her weight.”

  Thankfully, Nia, though blinded, followed Bryte’s instructions, speaking softly and reassuringly to her sister until the girl calmed a bit. Bryte put an arm around Nia’s shoulders and helped her along as she resumed her slow advance toward the cave entrance, fortunately only a scant distance away. Bryte expected a guard to stop them at any moment.

  Cara squirmed in Nia’s arms, and Nia staggered. “Cara, hold still,” she begged.

  “I can’t see anything. Let me down,” the little girl said. “I want to get outside so maybe I can see.”

  “So do we,” Nia assured her.

  “If she can walk, let her. We can move faster,” Bryte said. “I don’t know how much longer I can keep glowing like this.”

  Nia somehow managed to get the sandals onto her sister’s feet. She set her sister down but kept a firm hand on her arm.

  Bryte’s rage light remained strong, and its brilliance, besides blinding all those around her, filled both captors and captives with fear, so that she and her two charges exited the cave with no one moving to stop them.

  Once outside, her light remained bright and they progressed a short distance away from the mine. Then, though, a sudden squall brought an unexpected downpour. Bryte’s light dimmed and with it her hope of escape. With the sun already low on the horizon, the dark clouds made it difficult to see.

  With Nia and Cara depending on her, Bryte couldn’t race away as she normally would have. She had to move slowly, supporting Nia and helping her guide Cara along. She still carried the whip she’d snatched from Berta Leed, but that would be of little use against Zilla’s gun and perhaps those of other guards as well. No place nearby offered any sort of concealment.

  Bryte stumbled over a rock almost falling. “Where did this rain come from?” she wondered aloud. “I can hardly see where I’m going.”

  Nia’s steps slowed. “We’ll never get away,” she moaned.

  CHAPTER SIX

  FROM PERIL TO PERIL

  Lina walked into her hotel room, kicked off her shoes, and sank down onto the bed, angry and frustrated. She’d prowled through the city all day, going into shop after shop that carried magical and occult paraphernalia, but not one had a power net. Not only that: not a single one of the shopkeepers she’d spoken to seemed to have any idea what a power net was. They all claimed never to have heard of such a thing and acted as though she was making up her description of one simply to annoy them. Had she been given false information when she’d been told to go to Marquez to find a power net? Her informant had impressed her as being reliable. Yet why would the shopkeepers lie? If they had one, they’d want to sell it, and they seemed sincere about their ignorance of the magical device.

  She hadn’t gone the length of every street in Marquez, though her body felt as though she had. She could rest a bit before Teddy returned. His decision to spy on the miners in his coyote form relieved her of his presence throughout the day, though she doubted he’d accomplish much. If the children were all in the mine, there would be little for him to see or learn. He could hardly sneak into the mine, even as a coyote. If he tried it, he’d likely be shot, but she was certain he wasn’t foolish enough to try.

  She closed her eyes and might have drifted off for a few moments, but a knock at the door roused her. She got up, opened the door, and let Teddy in, unsurprised to see him. “Learn anything?” she asked, dispensing with pleasantries.

  “Not much,” he admitted. “Bryte’s in the mine with all the others, I do know that much. I traced her scent there.”

  Lina walked to the window and gazed out. “It’s getting late. When do they leave the mine?”

  “Just a little before sunset.”

  “I want to be there before they leave. Do we have time to make it?”

  He scratched his head. “We do if we go in our animal forms. We’ll have to hurry, though.”

  She put on her shoes. “Let’s go, then. We can’t change here. We’ll have to find a place where no one will see us.”

  “Coyotes are common in these parts. I just ducked into an alley this morning and changed when nobody was around. Then I ran through town and across the fields without attracting attention. Coyotes are common, but a panther, now, people will notice.”

  “Let me worry about that. Let’s go.” Lina headed for the door, and Teddy followed.

  They left the hotel and hurried down the street until Teddy paused and pointed to a narrow alley. “That’s where I changed,” he said.

  “Fine. I’ll change there too. You’ll have to lead me to the mine, since I don’t know where it is. Don’t worry about people spotting my panther. I know how to keep to shadows. Just don’t get too far ahead. We’ll run once we’re clear of the city.”

  Teddy-coyote’s pride in his running speed waned when he discovered that Lina-panther could keep up with him easily. She kept drawing abreast of him as they ran through fields of grain that hid them from human eyes. Only the need to have him guide her to their destination prevented her from outrunning him.

  Running alongside a panther larger and stronger than he made him a bit nervous. In coyote form he retained much of the coyote’s wariness and cunning. He had to fight to override the animal instinct warning him to flee in the face of danger.

  They reached the mine shortly before sunset. Approaching cautiously, they heard shouts and a shot from within. They retreated to a shadowy spot where they could observe the mine entrance without being seen. Teddy noted how nearly invisible the panther became, crouched against a dark boulder.

  Then his attention swerved to focus on the mine entrance where a bright light emerged and moved slowly away from the cave. Could it be the guards carrying torches? But in that case where were the children? Had they come too late? Had the children already returned to Mother Cooper’s? No, because then the guards would have been with them. Besides, the light was too bright to come from torches.

  As he puzzled over the peculiar phenomenon, the light faded with a sudden rainfall that seemed to come from nowhere. He was barely able to make out figures walking in its midst. Only when the rainsquall ended as abruptly as it had begun did he recognize one of the figures as B
ryte. Another girl walked haltingly beside Bryte, who partially supported her with one arm and in the other held the whip he had too often seen in the hands of Cooper’s wife or Berta Leed. A small girl walked with them, her hand clasping that of the girl Bryte helped along. As they walked farther from the entrance and closer to where coyote and panther hid, Teddy recognized the older girl as Nia, whom he had taken special note of because of the way she tried to protect her young sister and fretted when her efforts failed. This time it seemed they had succeeded.

  Lina-panther leaped from hiding and padded toward the girls. Nia let out a yelp of fear. Almost as if in response to that cry, the obscuring rain stopped as suddenly as it had begun. Nia’s terrified gaze focused on the large black cat leaping toward them.

  Nia cried out, but Bryte grinned. Her voice easily reached Teddy’s ears. “Don’t be scared, Nia,” she said, dropping Nia’s arm. She ran toward the panther. Nia stooped to shield her sister from what she clearly perceived as a new danger. But when the panther reached them, the young child leaned away from her sister and reached out her hand to stroke it.

  Crying out, “No!” Nia tried to pull her sister back, but the child resisted.

  “It’s all right, Nia,” Bryte said. “The panther won’t hurt Cara.” And to Lina-Panther she said, “Lina, you’d better change. You’re frightening Nia.”

  As Teddy watched from his hidingplace, Lina did change, frightening poor Nia even more and startling the little sister. Lina patted the child’s head, saying, “Smart girl. You knew I was not just a wild panther, didn’t you?”

  Turning to Bryte, she said, “Let me have that whip. Guards are coming.”

  Bryte handed Lina the whip. “Thanks for being here.”

  “Just get the little one and her sister out of my way,” Lina said, stepping around Bryte. Teddy remained in his coyote form and waited to see what would happen.

  §

  Lina strode toward the mine entrance.

  “Get out of the way, girl,” a female guard called out, brandishing a pistol. “Those children are coming with us. They’re orphans in our charge.”

  “Doesn’t look to me like you’ve taken very good care of them. The little girl and her sister look starved. And this other girl is my cousin and definitely not an orphan. Her father is a high official of the national government in Tirbat.” Lina figured that would give them a bit of a scare.

  “That so?” the guard scoffed. “Then why’d she claim to be an orphan? She came to us of her own free will.”

  “She wanted to see what you were up to, so she could report back to her father,” Lina said. “Now I’d advise you to put that gun down and let us go on our way.”

  Instead the woman raised her hand, aiming the gun at Lina. Using her talent for unerring aim, Lina flicked out the whip, lashing the woman’s hand with a force that made her drop the gun.

  “Get her!” she yelled to a male guard who had moved forward to a position behind her. She bent to retrieve her gun.

  The lash struck across the woman’s back, even as Lina moved closer to the guards and the straggly line of children behind them. She repeated the trick with the whip, this time aiming for and striking the gun from the male guard’s hand.

  He turned then, cradling his injured hand, and helped the second male guard and the uninjured female guard herd their charges back into the mine.

  Lina started after them, but Teddy changed back to his human form and joined her and Bryte. “Don’t try to follow them into the mine. They’ll take them deeper into the cave and set a trap for you,” he advised.

  “I can see in the dark,” Lina insisted.

  “Not in the pitch black of the cave,” Teddy said, putting a hand on her arm. “They’ll probably take the orphans back beyond the part of the cave where the torches are if they we’re coming in after them.”

  She shook off his arm, but Bryte spoke up. “Look, I’d like to see you get all the guards and free all the children, but if you do, what will you do with them? Here are Nia and Cara, and they need care. Nia’s been starving herself to give Cara her portion of food. And Cara’s back is still bleeding from being whipped. So is It’s good you got that whip away from Emmy. She loves to use it on everybody. Nia got it too.”

  “So did you,” Nia said. “You took strikes meant for me. Did you think I didn’t notice?”

  “See,” Teddy said. “You better take care of these girls like you took care of me. They need help right now. Besides, a lot of the children could have escaped while you had Emmy down and then Cooper, but they didn’t even try.”

  “They were too scared and confused,” Nia declared.

  “Maybe so, but they lost their chance for today,” Teddy said. To Lina he added,“It’s a long walk back into town, and Nia and Cara can’t move fast. We’d better get started.”

  Lina would have objected further, but Cara started to cry. “Where’s the kitty?” she whined. “I wanna pet her some more. She makes my hurt better.”

  Lina smiled, pleased by the little girl’s unexpected liking for the “kitty.” The smile turned to a frown as the reality of their situation struck her. What was she to do with these waifs? She couldn’t take them all up to her hotel room. Where would they sleep? The room was too small for five people. She’d have to rent another room for Nia and Cara. But what about Teddy? He’d slept in Bryte’s bed last night, but she’d have to find other arrangements for him tonight. Another room she’d have to rent.

  “Lina,” Bryte said hesitantly, “it will be dark soon. I think Teddy’s right. We need to get back to town. It’s not safe to stay here. And we’re soaking wet from that weird rain shower. At least it rinsed some of the dirt off us, but once the sun’s set, it will cool off fast and we’ll be chilled.”

  Lina nodded. They were right. She did the one thing she could do—she picked up the gun that one of the guards had dropped. She didn’t see the second gun; one of the guards must have retrieved it. “Here, hold these.” She handed the whip and the gun to Teddy, telling him to handle the gun with care. Then she picked up Cara and led the way across the field, Teddy and Bryte both helping Nia along.

  “Let me know if you hear anyone following us,” Lina cautioned Bryte and Teddy. Though she heard nothing, their acute hearing would pick up sounds of pursuit before she did. Interesting that Teddy’s shape-changing ability came with acute hearing, while hers instead gave her more acute vision even at night.

  Bryte could barely drag one foot in front of the other by the time they straggled into the hotel. Fortunately, they had not been followed, though they had kept moving at a steady pace, not stopping to rest. Bryte and Teddy had borne between them almost all of Nia’s weight, while Lina carried Cara. Nia’s head drooped; her shoulders sagged. She seemed to fall in and out of consciousness.

  Hot, tired, and dirty, they presented quite a spectacle when they entered the hotel. The few guests sitting in the hotel lobby stared at them with disapproving frowns. Under normal circumstances Bryte would have reacted to that disapproval, but in her present state she couldn’t care what anyone thought of her.

  The desk clerk looked up, gave a horrified gasp, and came around his desk to confront Lina. “Here, you can’t bring those ragamuffins into this hotel. This is a respectable establishment.”

  Lina glared back at him. “These children have been through a lot today. They need food and sleep, and I intend to see that they get it.”

  “They won’t get it here. These look like some of the orphans from Mother Cooper’s place. That’s where they need to be, not here.”

  Nia let out a loud shout: “No, we won’t go back.” At that every eye turned toward her.

  “See, now, you’re upsetting the hotel guests,” the clerk said. “You have to leave right now.”

  “I have paid for a room in this hotel, and I will not leave. I will rent two additional rooms and care for these children here,” Lina declared. “If you wish, I will pay for them in advance as I did my own room.”

&n
bsp; “I don’t want your money,” the clerk snapped. “I want you and these filthy urchins out of this hotel. I’ll refund your room payment, but you won’t stay here another night.”

  Exhausted as she was, Bryte couldn’t let the “filthy urchins” insult pass. Too bad they hadn’t kept the bullwhip that they’d stashed in a hiding place rather than carry into town. “Look,” she said, “Lina Mueller is the daughter of a friend of a member of the ruling Triumvirate, and my father is a high government official with an office on the sixth tier of Tirbat. You can’t treat us this way. I’ll report you to my father.”

  The clerk regarded her with disdain. “And my mother is a high priestess of Dora,” he said. “See, anyone can spin lies and claim important relatives.”

  Bryte tried to think of a clever retort, but Lina spoke up first. “You think she’s lying? Well, I’ll tell you something else you won’t believe. I have powers you can’t imagine. I’ll prove it by demonstrating one of them so you’ll learn not to judge people by their outer appearance.” With that, she set Cara down and changed to her panther form.

  Screams sounded around her, but Bryte focused on the large black cat. It crouched and pounced, its powerful paws landing hard on the clerk’s shoulders and toppling him to the floor, the panther landing on top of him, its mouth open, its powerful jaws around the man’s throat as though ready to crush it. The man’s face paled, his eyes bugged, his mouth opened, but no sound emerged.

  The panther opened its mouth, leaving light streaks of blood on his neck. It stepped off him and transformed back to Lina. She leaned over the man lying on the floor. “Now, I believe, sir, that you were about to rent me two more rooms for tonight.”

  He sat up and nodded dumbly, still trembling as he rubbed his neck.

  “Good. I’d like a room adjoining the one I have and another nearby, and we’ll need baths poured and food sent up. I hope you have more of that goat stew I ordered last night. We’ll need enough for four generous portions, and I’ll have another very rare steak. And plenty of rolls and butter. I’ll expect prompt service.”