Mother Lode

by E. Rose Sabin

  The other peacekeepers rallied and while two hurried to aid Thrall, a third took aim at the shalkor. Teddy-coyote released Thrall’s ankle and darted toward that peacekeeper, but Gretta reached him first. Coming up behind him, she reached around, grabbed his arms, and pulled them back toward her, at the same time aiming a kick at the back of his knee. Oni joined in, leaping at the arm holding the weapon and forcing it downward. As he tried to shake off the girls, Conlin ran in and gave him a hard kick in the stomach. He doubled over, and Conlin yanked the pistol from him and hit him over the head with it.

  Teddy wasn’t needed there. He looked around, saw Rale writhing on the floor, blood streaming over his face and out of his nose, most of which Cara-bird had nipped off. Master and Mistress Wilcom were struggling with one of the peacekeepers who’d gone to help Thrall. Mistress Metheny had left the kitchen to gather and herd the younger children into the dining room, where she was shielding them from the battle. Dr. Metheny had given Melusine into her care as well, and was tending to Erle, whose shirt was streaked with blood. Had he been hit by the bullet Thrall had fired? Or—

  The remaining peacekeeper had his pistol out, cocked. Ready to fire, or had he already fired it and Teddy had missed the sound in all the confusion?

  And where was Cara-bird?

  Teddy shifted back to his human form so that he could see from a greater height. He spotted Cara, who, having shed her bird form, stood next to Nia and wore a very smug grin. She’d reclaimed her doll.

  Nia looked bemused and worried, probably unsure of what to do with her amazingly gifted little sister.

  Emmy Cooper, armed with Rale’s knife, headed for Nia and Cara. Rale must have dropped the knife trying to fend off the shalkor, and in all the confusion Emmy had the presence of mind to go after it.

  “I’ll kill the witch child and her useless sister,” Emmy shrieked.

  Rale struggled to his feet. Wiping the blood from his eyes, he headed toward Emmy, maybe to reclaim his knife or perhaps to aid her in her quest for vengeance.

  Nia screamed and thrust Cara behind her. Even in his coyote form, Teddy couldn’t reach Nia before Emmy did.

  Nia’s scream brought Bryte a chill of terror and impelled her into motion. She hurtled toward Nia. Light, she willed. Now!

  The light came! A blinding brilliance flooded the room. She’d never before put forth such a glow. Unable to see her quarry, Emmy slashed out blindly. Thank the Power-Giver, Nia had bent down to hover over Cara. Had she not, she would surely have been decapitated. As it was, the knife found an unintended victim. Rale, having reached out toward Emmy, collapsed back onto the floor, clutching his arm. His hand lay on the floor, severed by his own knife.

  To disarm the crazed Emmy, Bryte grabbed up a straight chair and held it in front of her, its legs toward Emmy. With a thunk the knife sank into one of those legs, nearly unbalancing Bryte. Unable to see what she’d struck, Emmy tried to dislodge the knife and continue her rampage. Bryte twisted the chair, wresting the knife from Emmy and then shoving the chair forward in hope of pinioning Emmy between its legs. Emmy grabbed hold of the legs and shoved back. Bryte resisted, but the woman was stronger. Aware that so long as her light didn’t fade, she alone could see, Bryte pushed back on the chair as hard as she could, abruptly let it go, and jumped to the side. That sudden release unbalanced Emmy. The chair crashed to the floor, Emmy toppling down over it. She floundered there, kicking her legs in an attempt to right herself. One of those kicks slammed her leg against the chair leg from which the knife protruded. Her leg and the knife blade collided before her struggles knocked the knife free. Bryte darted in and grabbed the knife, barely avoiding the kicking legs and getting spattered with blood from the gash the knife had left on Emmy’s calf.

  Knife in hand, she backed away and went to Nia. “Emmy’s down,” she told her friend. “You and Cara are safe.”

  “But I can’t see,” Cara wailed. “And I can’t find Sara.”

  Bryte looked around. The doll lay on the floor nearby. She picked it up and placed it in Cara’s hand. “Here she is, safe and so are you,” she told Cara. “I’m going to guide you into the dining room where you’ll be with Mistress Metheny and the younger children. And Cara, you were spectacular as a bird!”

  “I was a big bird, wasn’t I?” The little girl beamed, hugging Sara. “Being a bird is almost good as being a panther.”

  “Better, I think,” Bryte said. “We won’t tell Miss Lina that, though.” She steered Nia and Cara into the dining room. “Here are Nia and Cara,” she announced. “I’m leaving them with you, Mistress Metheny.”

  “If only I could see them. Is everyone safe there? the doctor’s wife asked, opening her eyes and having to squeeze them shut again. “Will we be able to see soon?”.

  “My light should fade shortly. I need to do what I can before it does.” Bryte hurried to the doctor, grasped his hand. and placed the hilt of the bloody knife into it. “Rale’s knife,” she whispered before hurrying back into the living room.

  Dodging friend and foe as they groped for familiar objects or allies, she made her way to the single peacekeeper still armed and standing, blinking in confusion. Blinded, he wouldn’t see her. Right hand extended, palm outward and fingers together, she chopped down on the wrist of the hand that held the pistol, at the same time grabbing for the pistol with her left hand. Her fingers closed around the barrel and she yanked it from him. Bryte’s light faded with her flush of victory.

  A moment later the front door burst open and two peacekeepers along with miners Zilla and Webb Warvine rushed inside. Instead of her light rekindling as Bryte hoped, it faded away entirely.

  For a brief moment, the new arrivals gazed around, stunned as they took in the scene. Thrall and two peacekeepers sprawled on the floor, unconscious. Blood flowed from Rale’s face and from his handless arm, and he lay in a faint, possibly dying. Emmy Cooper muttered to herself while struggling to her feet, blood streaming from the gash on her leg.

  One of the two peacekeepers went to Thrall and stooped down beside him, feeling his neck for a pulse. The other aimed his pistol at the Wilcoms, apparently assuming they were the most dangerous because they were the only adults in the room. “You! Get over against the wall!” he ordered.

  Bryte slipped behind the peacekeeper she’d disarmed and jabbed the barrel of the pistol into his back. “Don’t move,” she ordered in a low voice.

  Belatedly aware of the arrival of allies, Emmy Cooper shouted, “Kill ’em! Kill ’em all!”

  Zilla hurried to Rale, while her husband, Webb, started toward the standing peacekeeper. He halted when Bryte shouted, “Stop! I have his gun and I’ll kill him if you come closer.”

  The ploy might have succeeded, but at that moment Mistress Metheny screamed, “They’re breaking down the back door!”

  Mora Todd—the Toad—and the remaining male miner, with two other peacekeepers, crashed into the kitchen, shoved through the children in the dining room, pushed Dr. Metheny aside, and stomped into the sitting room. That the two peacekeepers were the ones forced to dig through the mound was clear from the stench of death they brought with them.

  The miner aimed his shotgun at Bryte. “You shoot that pistol and you’re dead, girl.” Without taking his piercing gaze off Bryte, he told the peacekeeper she’d threatened to turn around and grab the gun from her hand.

  With a sinking heart Bryte relinquished the pistol to the smirking peacekeeper.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  LATE COMERS

  “Tell that doctor to get in here and tend to Rale’s arm afore he bleeds out,” Zilla shouted.

  “Which one’s the doctor?” the other peacekeeper asked, looking around.

  “I am.” Dr. Metheny rose from a kneeling position beside Erle, who was sitting up, supported by Fedrek and Fyodor, one on either side of him. “I have a patient—an injured child.”

  “Get in here. Take care of Rale. Never mind the boy.”

  The doctor walked to where Rale lay
and gazed down on him, frowning. “He’s lost a lot of blood. To save him I’ll need to give him a transfusion.”

  Zilla glared up at him. “Never mind the doctor talk. You let him die and you’ll die along with him.”

  “What happened to Officer Thrall?” the peacekeeper asked, interposing himself between Zilla and the doctor. “He needs care. And judging by what I’m seeing here, many of you need to be taken to the Correction Facility.”

  “You shouldn’t judge before knowing the facts.” Dr. Metheny spoke with professional firmness. Pointing at Rale, he continued, “That man threatened to kill a child. He held a knife to her throat. Your Officer Thrall did nothing to intervene. In fact, he looked the other way. Now you barge in here and threaten us with drawn guns. Judging by what I’m seeing, you and the other officers are highly biased and willing to support child abusers and killers in return for payment. The gem miners have been overly generous with the town’s peacekeeping force.”

  Bryte disliked being referred to as a child, but in this case it would be wise to play along. Left weaponless, it was the only tool she had. And the doctor’s words had given her an idea. She had blood on her fingers from handling Rale’s knife. She wiped her fingers across her throat where Rale’s blade had touched it.

  “They call us killers?” Zilla shrilled at the peacekeepers. “Look around. See who the killers are. Your squad leader is lying there unconscious or dead, and so is one of his men. Look at Jad Rale, our mining supervisor. He’s bleeding to death and no one’s doing anything. And there’s Emmy Cooper, who came here looking for her missing husband and to get these people out of her house, and she’s got a big gash in her leg, and no one is helping her.” As she spoke, she swung around to point accusingly at each of the fallen.

  Dr. Metheny responded with icy calm. “As a doctor I will not deny care to anyone who needs it. I’ll do what I can for Master Rale and for Mistress Cooper, if she’ll let me get near her. I believe your squad leader and the other officer have only been knocked unconscious and will regain consciousness shortly.”

  “Well then, tend to Rale and Emmy,” Zilla insisted, giving the doctor a hard shove toward Rale.

  “Madam, I will do so with the permission of the Peace Officers who have their weapons trained on me and my companions. I will not work under threat of being fired upon.”

  Zilla whirled around to confront the Peace Officer. “Are you going to let him talk to you like that? Look at Rale! They cut off his hand!”

  Time for Bryte to get into the act. She stepped up to the peacekeeper. Using her little girl voice, she said, “We didn’t do that to him. I thought he was gonna cut my head off.” She pointed to her neck. “Somebody knocked him away from me or he would’ve. I was too scared to see who saved me, but Emmy grabbed his knife and went all crazy and just slashed out any-old-where.”

  “That’s right, sir,” Teddy put in, catching on immediately. “Rale was gonna kill Bryte, and something landed on his head and startled him so he dropped the knife, and Emmy Cooper picked it up and just started slashing all around with it and cut off Rale’s hand.”

  “’Cause I couldn’t see nothin’,’ Emmy piped up, still seated on the floor holding her bleeding leg. She pointed at Bryte. “She did somethin’, made some kind of bright light come on that blinded me an’ everybody else in the room.”

  “How could she do that?” The peacekeeper looked around. “I don’t’ see any lamp or other kind of light that would do that.”

  “Girl’s a witch, that’s how. And so’s the boy.” She pointed a shaking finger at Teddy. “And their fancy friend that got taken away to Correction. They shoulda took those two as well.”

  “You’re saying she just made the light?” Frowning, the peacekeeper shook his head.

  “Told you she went crazy,” Bryte said, pouting and still using her little girl voice.

  While this discussion was going on, Dr. Metheny went to Rale and bent down to place his fingers on Rale’s neck. Straightening, he said, “This man is dying. The only thing that can save him is a blood transfusion. I have equipment in my medical kit, but I’d need a volunteer and I’d have to test the blood to be sure it’s safe.”

  “He’s stalling,” Zilla accused. “He wants Rale to die. And I’ve seen that witch girl make light once before.”

  “She’s lying,” Petrus yelled, face red with anger. “They’ll say anything just to keep us all as their slaves.”

  “I am not stalling, madam,” the doctor declared, ignoring Petrus’s outburst. “Would you volunteer to donate blood?”

  Webb, her husband, stepped up beside Zilla. “No, she won’t. Get one of your people to do it. And get these troublemakers locked up somewhere.”

  “We aren’t the troublemakers,” Gretta chimed in. “Rale and Emmy were the troublemakers.”

  “That’s right,” Oni said. “They just want us to go back to working in the mines. And we won’t go. We—”

  The Toad marched to Oni and slapped her face. “You’ll do as you’re told,” the woman snapped.

  “You don’t own us,” Conlin contributed, ducking as she aimed a blow at him. “See,” he yelled. “They just wanna beat us and hurt us, an’, an’ Doctor Metheny, is Erle okay? They shot him,” he added for the peacekeepers’ benefit.

  The doctor looked up from where he’d bent to tend to Emmy’s leg. “Yes, he’ll be fine, Conlin. It was only a flesh wound. He was lucky.”

  “He won’t be so lucky next time,” Emmy got out between gritted teeth.

  Groaning, Thrall opened his eyes and raised his hand to his head where a lump had formed. The other peacekeeper who’d been knocked out was also stirring.

  They were running out of time. Bryte edged nearer Teddy and said in a whisper so low that only he could hear, “When they aren’t looking, slip into the dining room and get everybody out the back door. Nobody’s left outside. They can get away while we keep them busy in here.” She trusted him to sort out the pronouns and understand. He nodded.

  She walked to Dr. Metheny. “Am I okay?” She pointed to her neck, hoping the blood was visible. “He cut me a little bit.” Holding her other hand where only he could see it, she crossed her fingers.

  “Why, so he did!” Dr. Metheny exclaimed, placing his own bloody fingers on her throat. “The brute!” He looked up at the peacekeepers. “You can see the child isn’t lying. The children are telling you the truth.”

  Thrall sat up. “They knocked me out.” He groaned. “They’re beasts.”

  “You were gonna let Rale kill Bryte,” Gretta accused.

  “I’m the one that hit him on the head,” Oni said. “Go ahead and arrest me. I’d rather be in your Correction place than stay here and get beat and starved.”

  “They use big whips on us, and you don’t even care,” Conlin put in, glaring at the peacekeepers.

  “We use firm discipline when necessary, that’s all,” said the Toad.

  “I’ve seen and treated the wounds from those whips,” Dr. Metheny spoke up. “That’s not ‘firm discipline.’ It’s torture, plain and simple.”

  One of the peacekeepers helped Thrall to his feet. He straightened his jacket and glared at the doctor. “We came here to support Mistress Cooper’s claim of ownership of this house and custody of the orphans entrusted to her mother’s and husband’s care. We did not come to discuss the care of the orphans. That is up to the Coopers. They have legal custody, regardless of your ridiculous claim. If they wish to relinquish custody of the most troublesome of their charges, that is up to them.”

  Dr. Metheny bristled. “My claim, sir, is based on medical law. It is not ridiculous.”

  Bryte heard the sound of a motorcycle riding up to the house. It She faked loud coughs to cover up the sound. “My throat hurts,” she yelled and continued to cough. By this time, Dr. Metheny had treated and bandaged Emmy Cooper’s leg. He hurried to Bryte.

  The front door opened and Beck and Bo came in. Thrall and his men turned toward them.

&nbs
p; “Heard you might be having a bit of trouble here,” Beck said. “We came to offer our help.”

  “Good. You can place those boys in custody.” Thrall pointed to Petrus and Conlin. “Charge them with assault on a peacekeeper. And those two girls.” He indicated Gretta and Oni. “They say they’d rather go to the Correction Facility than stay here. We’ll oblige them and see how they like it.”

  “Well, we came here riding double on my motorcycle,” Beck said. “You’ll have to let us use a department motorcar to take them to town.”

  “Kirsky and Horning took one to take in the woman who turns into a cat. She’s charged with assault on the hotel clerk. We can’t let you take the other, but they should be bringing that one back soon.”

  Almost as if on cue, Bryte clearly heard the sound of a car arriving. No one else seemed to have heard.

  “Wait,” the Toad said. “Those older children are our best workers. We need them. We’ll keep ’em in line.”

  “I say take ’em all,” Emmy spoke up. “We’ll send for some more. I don’t doubt there’s plenty more orphans needing a home.”

  “The only time this has been a home has been since Dr. and Mistress Metheny and Master and Mistress Wilcom, and Miss Lina got us away from you,” Conlin said.

  “These children have not had a home here,” Dr. Metheny declared. “They’ve been used as slave labor.”

  “Take that thing!” Emmy pointed at Bryte, her hate-filled eyes reminding Bryte of a demon from the Dire Realms. “And that boy that keeps running off.” She paused and looked around. “Say, where’s he got to now?”

  “Probably went in with the other children,” Dr. Metheny said. “I told my wife to take them into the kitchen so they wouldn’t be frightened by all the shouting or hit by a stray bullet as poor Erle was, though thankfully that bullet only grazed his arm.