Mother Lode

by E. Rose Sabin

  With the peacekeepers gone, Bryte let herself reveal the weakness she felt and the extent to which she was supporting Lina. “Using power the way we have been leaves us drained,” she told the Methenys and the tourist couple. “Lina needs food and rest, and so do I.”

  Dr. Metheny and his wife offered to accompany Lina and Bryte to their room to care for Cara and Nia. “I’ll tend to your wounds, too,” the doctor told Bryte.

  “We’ll see that you get what you need,” Mistress Metheny said, aiming a meaningful look at the desk clerk. “We’ll round up volunteers to keep guard through the night, in case the peacekeepers try to return. The very idea of those men allowing children to be treated so badly!”

  “I intend to lodge a complaint with the provincial authorities,” Dr. Metheny declared. “We’ll see that this mistreatment is stopped.”

  The older woman with the cane approached, her younger companion matching her steps to her elder’s halting ones. The silver-haired woman stopped, beckoned to Bryte, and pushed her companion forward. The young woman spoke. “My mother and I are residents of Marquez and come often to eat in the hotel restaurant. We are horrified by what we have heard and witnessed here. We had no idea this sort of thing was going on in our community. We are not without some influence here, and we will alert our friends and neighbors about this evil. In the meantime, my mother wants you to have this.” She grabbed Bryte’s hand and pressed into it a small velvet bag closed with a drawstring. “Use it to help those poor orphans.”

  Bryte could feel within the bag the shapes of a considerable number of coins. Taken aback by the generous gift, she stammered her thanks. The mother shook her head. “It is the least we can do,” she declared as she turned to leave.

  “Keep up your good work,” the daughter said and joined her mother in heading for the front door.

  Before Bryte could call out her thanks, the tourist couple stepped forward, hand in hand. “My wife and I also want to help. Though we are only visitors here, we are deeply disturbed by what you’ve revealed and will extend our planned stay here to join forces with you. We are Jada and Herrol Wilcom, at your service. And at yours, Dr. Metheny.” The man extended his hand to the doctor, who shook it with a smile.

  Mistress Wilcom hugged the doctor’s wife. “I’ve been regretting coming here,” she confided. “But no more. Now I believe we were meant to come to help these children.”

  Bryte welcomed all the offers of assistance, but she had a strong feeling that putting the gem miners out of business and rescuing the rest of the children would be far more difficult and dangerous than these people believed.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  FLIGHT AND PURSUIT

  Teddy awoke from the best sleep he’d had in a longer time than he could remember. He stretched but didn’t want to rise, didn’t want to leave the cocooning covers, the comfort of lying on a soft mattress, a soft pillow beneath his head.

  It was the aroma that had awakened him—the smell of sausage, the subtler scent of eggs and warm bread. He slipped out of bed and headed for the source of the wonderful scents, suddenly hungry despite having for the second time gone to bed with a full stomach the previous night. He suspected that it would take some time for the novelty wore off, after so long a time of suffering from constant hunger. He dressed in the only clothes he had. Though they’d been laundered yesterday, to him they still smelled of sweat and of the dust of the mine. Nevertheless, he put them on over his clean body, now scrubbed free of the dirt that had spattered it and clung to it as he’d wielded the pickaxe and dug with his hands to extract the gem-bearing ore.

  The clothes, despite their cleaning, brought back all the horrors of being imprisoned in Mother Cooper’s place, of the abuses heaped on him and on the other unfortunate boys and girls trapped in that cruel place. Had he really escaped, or was this just a brief, joyous interlude that would end in more torture, more pain-filled days and sleepless nights spent plotting a way to outwit his captors? He couldn’t endure going back to that.

  He left the room that had been his alone, marvel of marvels, providing him a second night of rest and comfort even greater than the first. Following his nose, he knocked on the door of the room across the hall from his. A smiling Bryte, dressed in clean clothes and looking refreshed and carefully groomed, opened it and greeted him with “Good morning, sleepy-head,” Seeing her thus made him so ashamed of his shabby clothes that he became tongue-tied when he tried to respond.

  “Uh, is there, um, can I—”

  “Come in,” she said, taking hold of his arm and drawing him inside. “You’re not too late for breakfast, if that’s what you’re wondering.”

  He nodded, feeling bashful and even more ashamed by the sight of Nia and Cara sitting at a table dressed in clean clothes someone must have found for them and eating from plates heaped with eggs, sausages, slices of apples and apricots, and more—more than his eyes could take in.

  They waved at him and beckoned him to the table, but he hesitated, suddenly recalling that his hair, had not seen a comb in some time. Nia’s warm, welcoming smile only made him feel more unworthy.

  Cara got up from her place and came to him. Taking his hand, she tugged him toward the table, saying, “Look, Teddy. We gots real food. Miss Lina says we can eat all we want.”

  That statement brought a smile to Teddy’s lips, and he allowed the little girl to lead him to a chair. “Where is Miss Lina?” he asked as he seated himself at the place they’d evidently set for him.

  Nia passed him a platter of eggs and sausages as she answered, “She went to Doctor and Mistress Metheny’s room to talk to them.”

  Bryte slipped into the remaining chair. The plate on the table before her showed that she’d already eaten, though she did help herself to a slice of apple before passing him the platter of fruit. “She’s making plans, and she’s hoping the Methenys will be willing to help. She means to find a way to free all the children.”

  Teddy’s eyes widened. He set down his fork. “How does she think she can do that? The peacekeepers will support the miners, not us.” He thought of the account they’d given of chasing the Peace Officers from the hotel with the help of other hotel guests, including the doctor who’d come back with them to treat the lash cuts on Nia’s back and care for little Cara. He and his wife, though furious on learning of the way Mother Cooper and her sadistic son treated their orphaned wards, were only travelers making a brief stop in Marquez. Even if they lodged a complaint with the city officials, what influence would that have? The officials, like the peacekeepers, received generous bribes from the miners and while they might make empty promises to appease the visitors, were not likely to institute real changes.

  “She’ll find a way,” Bryte assured him, but something in her eyes revealed a doubt that belied her words. She’d seen firsthand the men and women who guarded the mine and the weapons they wielded. Yes, she’d succeeded in getting Nia and Cara safely out of their clutches, but all the rest of the orphans? Teddy saw no way they could manage that, even with Lina’s special powers and Bryte’s gift of blinding light.

  They’d admitted to having used every bit of their strength and having utterly exhausted their special powers to keep Nia and Cara and themselves safe and out of the peacekeepers’ clutches yesterday. A good meal last night, a long sleep, and a hearty breakfast this morning would restore their powers, but how much could they do before again reaching their limit?

  And he, how much of a help could he be? The ability to change into his coyote form, even with the acute sense of hearing and smell that it brought, would be of little help against armed men and women. Now aware of their special powers, the miners would have a defense prepared. They weren’t stupid. Teddy had taken chances, plenty of them, to get himself free, as well as to help Bryte and Nia and Cara. But joining an attack on those savage miners in an effort to free all the orphans? He didn’t have the courage for that.

  The cheerfulness with which he’d greeted the morning vanished. He pushed aw
ay his plate without finishing. “I’m going out,” he said, rising. “I don’t know when or whether I’ll be back.”

  Bryte scowled. “You’re leaving? You won’t help us?”

  He shrugged and headed for the door.

  “Teddy, you can’t go,” Nia called after him.

  He didn’t stop, not even when Cara added a plaintive call of, “Teddy. We need you.”

  It wasn’t his fight, he told himself. He’d done all he could. It was enough. They’d be better off without him anyway. He’d just be in the way. Coyotes were loners. That’s just the way it was.

  Lina left the Methenys’ room with a good feeling about how things were going. The doctor and his wife had already helped a great deal, and they promised to be of further help. They had connections with powerful people, as did she, and for that matter, as did she and Bryte. They could alert higher authorities to the injustice being perpetrated against innocent orphans and help spread the word about the miners’ exploitation of children. Not that Lina intended to wait for authorities to act against the miners. She fully intended to take matters into her own hands. But the backing of the Methenys and the Wilcoms would strengthen her position. They would fight the miners through official channels; she would fight them in quite another way. Cutting through bureaucratic red tape took time. The orphans didn’t have a lot of time. Teddy had told her how sickly some were and how he knew of more than a few who had died from the beatings and near starvation they were forced to endure, their numbers being replenished by a fresh trainload of youngsters hoping for a new and better life, only to be cruelly disillusioned, their dreams turned to dust as they slaved in the mines.

  She had outlined a plan to the Methenys and the Wilcoms, and they had commended her for her willingness to attempt such a brave scheme. Now she had to confer with Bryte and Teddy. They would be her lieutenants in the assault on the miners. Nia and Cara would remain behind, in the care of the Methenys, who were more than willing to accept that charge and protect the sisters from further harm.

  She entered the room she’d shared with Bryte and this morning turned into a breakfast room for the girls and Teddy. Her gaze took in the table with the nearly empty platters and the girls, Nia and Cara clean and neat in the dresses she and Mistress Metheny had found for them, Bryte wore one of her better dresses, with its capacious pockets that Bryte insisted on making a feature of her wardrobe. She took in Bryte’s frown and Nia’s distressed look.

  “What’s wrong? And where’s Teddy? Don’t tell me he isn’t up yet?”

  “He’s gone,” Bryte said with a disgusted snarl. “He took off a few minutes ago. I don’t know where he went, but he said he might not be back. I think he’s scared of being caught by the Coopers again.”

  “What? After I took him in and fed him and— That ingrate! I was counting on his help.”

  “I think that’s what he was afraid of,” Bryte said. “He’s scared of the Coopers and their people.”

  “He has good reason to be,” Nia stated quietly.

  “That’s no excuse,” Lina snapped.

  Cara started to cry. Nia put her arms around her little sister. “It’s all right, Cara. We aren’t going back there. And wherever he is, Teddy’s safe too.”

  “I like Teddy,” Cara declared between sobs.

  “Yes, so do I,” Nia said. “He was good to us and helped us all he could. I guess he just thought he couldn’t do any more.”

  “Well, he was wrong,” Lina said. “I’m going to find him and tell him so. He’s not going to get away so easily.” She flounced from the room.

  He’d shape-change as soon as it was safe to do so. He could travel faster and farther on four legs than on two. Well, so could a panther. And it shouldn’t be hard for a panther to track down a coyote.

  The coyote raced across the rocky ground, putting distance between himself and the town of Marquez. He took a deliberately erratic route, though always heading in a general direction opposite to the gem mines. He slowed only when he caught the scent of a rabbit. He’d eaten too little breakfast in his human form, and a rabbit would make a tasty meal. He’d surely gone far enough to have eluded any followers.

  He sniffed the dry air, headed slowly in the direction indicated by the strength of the scent, lowered himself close to the ground and crept stealthily toward the still unseen prey. The wind direction was in his favor, bringing the rabbit scent to him and keeping his scent from the rabbit.

  There, among the rocks, the tip of an ear. The coyote froze, muscles tensed, ready to pounce. The rabbit lifted its head. The coyote sprang, caught the rabbit in mid-bound. It was a young rabbit, insufficiently wary, terrified now, quivering in the grip of the coyote’s mouth, waiting for the crunch of those terrible teeth to bring its end.

  A heavy body landed on the coyote’s back, powerful paws pressed down on him. His mouth opened, dropping its prey. Snarling, he turned his head and snapped at the huge black feline that had pounced on him just as he had pounced on the rabbit.

  He’d been careless, concentrating on the prospect of a meal instead of watching for pursuit. The panther growled a warning. He knew what it wanted, weighed his chance of escape, and decided that while he might be faster, might even have the advantage of being on familiar terrain, the panther would not abandon its pursuit. Better to yield now, and in his other form watch for a later opportunity to slip away. He lowered his head and flattened his ears in submission.

  The panther stood and regarded him, waiting. The coyote rose to his feet and regretfully watched the rabbit dart away, blood welling from where his teeth had punctured its skin. Those wounds would make it more cautious in the future.

  The coyote rose up on his hind legs and morphed into human form. When the boy stood before her, the panther, too, transformed to a woman. Her hand shot out and grasped his shoulder, her fingers digging into his flesh.

  Teddy flinched beneath Lina’s painful grasp. “You’re hurting me,” he said.

  “I never took you for a coward. Seems I was wrong.”

  Her words hurt far more than her fingers. “I’m not a coward,” he mumbled, unable to meet her gaze.

  “Then why were you running away?” Her other hand grabbed his chin, forcing his face upward. “Don’t tell me you were just out for a morning run.”

  He’d been about to claim just that. He squirmed, unable to think of anything to say. She remained silent, regarding him with a stern, unforgiving look. Finally, he said, “There are too few of us to go against a bunch of armed men and women. You can’t just bust in to Mother Cooper’s. That place is a fortress.”

  “Yet you got out of it. Twice.” Her lip curled. “Some fortress.”

  “In my coyote form I got away. I took a big chance. I could have been shot and killed—just like they can shoot a panther.”

  “I don’t intend to go in panther form or have you go as a coyote,” Lina snapped.

  “So we can get shot even easier?” He tried to match her defiant tone, but a tremor in his voice betrayed him.

  “I’m going to do all I can to avoid getting any of us shot. Based on what you’ve told me and on Bryte’s experiences, the armed guards will be in the mine during the day. I’m not planning to go to the mine. I intend to pay a visit to Mother Cooper.”

  Teddy scowled. “That’s dumb. She won’t let you in.”

  “We’ll see about that. Now, let’s not waste any more time.” Lina removed her hand from his chin but kept her grip on his shoulder. “Are you with us? Or are you still determined to be a deserter?”

  “I figgered I’d done enough, helping get Nia and Cara out of there.” He still couldn’t meet her gaze.

  “Bryte did that; you didn’t.”

  “I found you and told you what Bryte was doing and led you to the mine.” It was a weak defense, he knew. “I went back with you to help Bryte,” he added in a futile attempt to convince Lina. He didn’t even convince himself.

  “So now you’re satisfied. You’ve done enough.” Her ha
nd dropped away from his shoulder. “Go on, then. Keep patting yourself on the back and telling yourself what a hero you’ve been. Save your own skin and forget about everybody else.”

  He hung his head and mumbled, “I know I’m not a hero.”

  “So which is it, run or return?”

  His foot inscribed a circle in the sand. His stomach felt like he’d swallowed a boulder. Lina turned away and headed back toward town. He watched her walk away, not looking back.

  He gulped, wet his lips with his tongue. The words didn’t come easily, but he got them out. “Wait,” he called. “I’ll go back with you.”

  “Hurry, then.” She marched on, neither turning nor changing her pace.

  Lina smiled to hear his rapidly approaching footsteps. She waited until he drew up beside her before saying, “If we change we can make it back in time for lunch.”

  She said nothing more, just took her panther form. No doubt Teddy hoped for some word of praise or at least of reconciliation, but she wouldn’t give him that. Not yet. Let him stew awhile. He’d be more eager to prove himself. She didn’t want him reckless, but she did want him able to overcome his fear.

  When they returned to the hotel, she and Teddy both required a good lunch to regain strength expended in their transformations to and from their animal forms. They had lunch brought to their rooms. As always, Lina’s lunch consisted of a very rare steak. Bryte joined her while she ate. She put a handful of rocks down beside the plate. “You might as well have these. I put them into my pockets while we escaped yesterday. They may contain gemstones. I have no idea whether they’re worth anything, and I wouldn’t know how to find out, but I thought you might.”

  Lina looked at the collection and shrugged. “We’ll need to find a jeweler who knows raw gems to look at them. I’ll keep them in a safe place until we can do that.” She returned to attacking the bloody steak, amused that Bryte had, even in the midst of crisis, gotten away with a goodly handful of gem-bearing stones. She doubted that the gems, uncut, unpolished, still embedded in rock, would have much value, but she would have them checked. Bryte deserved to know their worth, if any, but that would have to wait until they could find a trustworthy gem merchant.