Mother Lode

by E. Rose Sabin

  But Thrall looked around apparently taking note of who’d come in while he was unconscious. “Who’s guarding the back door?” he demanded.

  The miner who’d come in with Mora Todd strode into the dining room and through it to open the kitchen door. “They’re gone!” he bellowed.

  Webb Warvine headed after him. “Me and Pranze’ll get ’em,” he yelled. “They couldn’t have gotten far.” He and the other miner slammed out of the house.

  Good, the odds were a bit better with them gone. They got better when Thrall sent one of the peacekeepers after them.

  “Ladies,” Thrall addressed Zilla, Emmy, and the Toad, “I can see that things descended into chaos while I was unconscious. Let me remind you that my men and I are here to support your cause, and to enable you to claim what is rightfully yours.” The last statement was directed to Emmy Cooper, who puffed up with pride. Thrall continued, “However, my men and I are in charge. You are not to take matters into your own hands. Allow us to handle the situation.”

  Now Emmy and Zilla both scowled. “Doesn’t seem to me you was doing much of a job of it,” Zilla said. “Nobody’ll help Rale. You’re all just letting him die.”

  “Thrall’s no help to any of us,” Emmy agreed. “Those orphans and their handlers coulda got the upper hand if you and Webb Warvine and Mora Todd and Stoke Pranze hadn’t come in. You ask me, the peacekeepers aren’t earning their pay.”

  “I take that as an admission that you pay them to support you,” Dr. Metheny observed. “And none of you offered your blood to save Rale. Now I’m afraid it’s too late to save him.”

  “They pay those whose greed overrides the vows they took when they became Peace Officers,” Bo Puckley said. Bryte noted that he and Beck had separated and moved to opposite sides of the front of the sitting room. As Bo spoke, he and Beck drew their weapons. “Beck and I’ve seen what goes on here, and we won’t allow you to put the orphans back into the hands of these sadists. If Rale dies, he’s only getting what he deserves.”

  Thrall’s face purpled. “You are not in charge here!” he thundered. “Put those guns down or be guilty of insubordination and insurrection.”

  “Call it what you want, it’s better than being guilty of enslaving children,” Bo declared, glancing at his partner. “Right Beck?”

  “You won’t get away with this. You’re outnumbered.” Thrall looked around at his men. “Get them!”

  Beck surveyed the five peacekeepers, three of them gathered together, helping the one who’d been unconscious to his feet. He still seemed dazed. The fifth peacekeeper stood alone not far from Bryte. He had his hand on his gun, ready to draw it from his holster. Bryte edged a bit nearer, gauging her chances of grabbing the gun from him. Abruptly he stepped forward. “I’m with Beck and Bo,” he said. “I’ve seen enough. I don’t like what’s been happening here.” He drew his gun and aimed it at Thrall. “I don’t want to use this. What I want is for us to protect these children instead of forcing them back to work in the mines.”

  “Traitor!” Thrall spat.

  Bryte couldn’t hide the delight that overwhelmed her in seeing that not only were Bo and Beck still on their side but they had one at least one other peacekeeper, and a couple of the others seemed to be wavering.

  Her gaze was fixed on those peacekeepers as she willed them to join Bo and Beck, when Emmy screeched, “This is all the witch girl’s fault,” and launched herself at Bryte. Before Bryte could react, Emmy’s hands were around her neck. “I’ll kill her!” Emmy yelled, her hot breath scalding Bryte’s cheeks.

  Bryte had no time to think. She drew back her arm and used all her strength to slam her fist into Emmy’s face. The woman fell back, loosing her grip on Bryte’s neck. Blood spurted from her nose. She spat out a tooth. Momentarily stunned, she fought to regain her balance. Bryte stepped away from her, while Petrus and Gretta rushed forward. They each grabbed hold of Emmy, restraining her. The Toad tried to come to her aid, but Conlin and Oni tackled her, pummeling her with their fists and kicking and biting her as she tried to fight them off.

  The front door opened and the younger children poured inside, accompanied by the Wilcoms and Mistress Metheny. The children spread out between the cluster of peacekeepers and Bryte. Heading toward her, Keely said, “Bryte’s our hero! We won’t let you hurt her.”

  In response to her husband’s alarmed look, Mistress Metheny made her way to his side and declared, “I couldn’t stop them, Arnston. They said they’d die rather than go back to work in the mine.”

  Fyodor and Fedrek faced the four peacekeepers. “We won’t let you give us back to those mean people,” Fedrek announced, hands on his hips.

  “Shoot them,” Zilla hollered.

  “We can’t shoot children,” Thrall said.

  “I can!” Zilla drew her pistol.

  Bryte saw the tan shadow slip through the open front door and slink along the wall, keeping low to the ground. When Zilla raised her pistol, the coyote leaped from hiding and sank its teeth into her leg. She screamed and threw up her arms, firing her gun and sending the bullet into the ceiling. Len and Erle, his arm bandaged, grabbed her.

  Pistol drawn, Master Wilcom went to the four peacekeepers and held his gun steady on them, while his wife, armed with Rale’s knife, collected their weapons.

  Teddy shifted to his human form and spat. “Her blood tastes as nasty as she is,” he said, bringing a relieved grin to Bryte’s face as she watched him join with Len and Erle in subduing Zilla. Melusine had slid down to the floor and grabbed the pistol the boys forced Zilla to drop. She rose and, holding the gun gingerly, carried it to Dr. Metheny. On taking it from her, the doctor bent and kissed her cheek. “My brave girl,” he murmured, his voice clear to Bryte’s sharp ears.

  Little Alida, her blond curls bouncing with every step, ran to position herself in front of Thrall. Sabah followed directly behind her. Alida shook her finger at Thrall. “You know what they do to us. Why do you let them? You’re a bad peacekeeper. You let us be whipped and smacked around and made to work in that nasty mine all day and then not have hardly anything to eat and be sent to bed hungry every night.”

  “That’s right,” Sabah chimed in. “You’re as bad as they are.”

  Thrall regarded the little girls with a strange mixture of shame and defensiveness. “I’ve just been doing my job,” he mumbled.

  “So your job is to hand defenseless children over to ruthless slavers?” Lina stood in the doorway, skewering Thrall with her catlike gaze. With all eyes fixed on her and clearly enjoying the limelight, Lina strolled to the center of the room. “As you can see, Officer Thrall, I am not a prisoner. I returned to help my young friends and their kind adult supporters, but I see—” here she paused dramatically and looked around the room, her glance falling on each of the children and lingering briefly on Bryte and Teddy— “my help is hardly needed. You have things fairly well under control.” She turned her gaze back to Thrall. “I advise you to have your men seize these miners and take them to your Correction Facility to be charged with the imprisonment and brutal treatment of children entrusted to their care and with bribery and corruption of innocent lives. I suspect that if you do so, Officers Beckwith Sagist and Bo Puckley may be persuaded not to bring formal accusation against you of collusion with criminals, accepting of bribes, and enlisting men under your command to carry out illegal activities. Otherwise, I think you will find your career as a peacekeeper will end in disgrace, dismissal, and a long stay in the Correction Facility.”

  Thrall’s mouth opened, closed, opened again, and closed again, a gesture putting Bryte in mind of a dying fish. She suspected Lina of using her talent of coercion when, shoulders sagging, face pale, Thrall turned to his men and said, “Officers, take the miners into custody.”

  Hesitantly at first, and then with more assurance, the men in Thrall’s squad bound the three miner women’s hands behind them and led them from the house, protesting loudly every step of the way. The younger children ran to the
front windows to watch as Emmy Cooper, Zilla Warvine, and Mora Todd were shoved into the back of one of the motorcars the peacekeepers had come in.

  What about the men, Bryte wondered. Stoke Pranze and Webb Warvine had gone out to hunt the children they believed had escaped. Her question was soon answered when she, too, looked out the window. Pranze and Warvine and the peacekeeper who had gone after them were already installed in the vehicle Lina had driven back, their arms tied behind them as the miner women’s had been, their faces angry. Warvine had long scratches on his arm, Bo, the peacekeeper who’d joined forces with him and Beck, and finally Thrall left the house, and they and the remaining peacekeepers crowded into the two vehicles. Beck waved at the faces in the window and drove off on his motorcycle.

  Nia and Cara came into the room from the kitchen. Cara ran to Lina. “I was a bird,” she said. “A big bird. I flew up to the ceiling and came down on Rale’s head and jabbed him good.”

  Lina’s eyes widened. She glanced at Bryte, her eyebrows raised, questioning.

  “She did. She became a shalkor. She saved my life,” Bryte affirmed.

  “Well, well,” Lina said, smiling at the girl. “You know, that’s quite a talent. When you’re old enough, you need to go to the Lesley Simonton School for the Magically Gifted. You’ll be their star pupil, I’ll bet.”

  “Where’s that? When can I go?” Cara’s eager inquiry brought a frown to Nia’s face.

  “Not for a few more years,” Lina said. “You need to go to a regular school first.”

  “And your sister needs to complete her apprenticeship with me,” put in Dr. Metheny. “Nia will be an excellent doctor one day.”

  “And I’ll be an excellent bird,” Cara said.

  “Is it really over, do you think, Lina?” Bryte asked. “You know, there were two more of the miners who didn’t come here with Thrall.”

  Lina nodded. “And there’s this snake.” She walked to where Rale lay and nudged him with her foot. He moved slightly and groaned.

  “Oh!” Bryte jumped at the sound. “I thought he was dead.”

  Dr. Metheny shook his head. “I cauterized the wound when I bent down to examine him. I deliberately didn’t let anyone see me.”

  “I knew it,” Teddy put in. “I smelled the skin burning.”

  “Why didn’t you let him die?” Gretta demanded, her voice angry and menacing.

  “As a doctor, Gretta, my job is to save lives, not take them. Even a life as evil as Rale’s. But I don’t think he’ll be a threat to you any longer. If he lives, it will take him a long while to recover from his injuries, and he’ll spend his convalescence in the Correction Facility along with the others. The Wilcoms and I will transport him there as soon as he can be moved. For now, we’ll put him on a cot in my dispensary.”

  Bryte shuddered. “I don’t like the idea of him being here even if he’s helpless.”

  “It won’t be for long,” the doctor promised. “I’ll arrange with the provincial authorities to have him placed where he can’t escape if the town doesn’t have the proper facilities.”

  “He doesn’t deserve to live,” Petrus said. “He set the example of cruelty that the others followed. Vee Cooper and his mother were the owners of the mine, but Rale was the mine operator. He hired the guards and told them what to do and made sure they did it. He taught them how to be cruel. He enjoyed seeing them hurt us.”

  “You can testify against him when he’s brought to trial,” Dr. Metheny said. “Come on now, you and Conlin help me get him to the dispensary.”

  Once Rale was taken out, everyone pitched in to clean and eliminate all evidence of the recent mayhem. Mistress Wilcom and Mistress Metheny worked together to prepare a celebratory meal.

  It was almost ready, and Bryte was seeing that the younger children washed up before dinner, when Torby arrived. Everyone rushed to greet him, eager to tell him of the day’s events. He looked tired, but quite pleased with himself.

  “Miss Lina,” he began before the children could launch into their account, “you’ll be happy to know that all the letters were safely posted in Vernor.” He looked around at the children crowding around to greet him. “I’ve been worried, but it appears like everything went well here today. I guess nothing bad happened after all.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  MOVING ON

  The tapping foot warned Bryte that Lina’s patience was running low. No surprise there. Patience had never been Lina’s strong point, as Bryte had often had occasion to observe. But leaving like this—sneaking off in the middle of the night—had not been Bryte’s choice. Lina hated goodbyes.

  Nevertheless, leaving couldn’t be easy for Lina either. When she’d announced that she’d be going soon, all the children had protested. Cara had run to Lina and said, “No, Mama Lina, no. You can’t go. I’ll be a bird again and fly after you. I love you, Mama Lina.”

  Lina bent her head to kiss the little girl’s forehead, but not before Bryte caught a glint of tears in Lina’s eyes. By the time Lina raised her head, the tears were gone. She spoke lovingly but firmly to the child. “Cara, you are very special to me, but I’m not your mama. I’m not anybody’s mama. If you went with me, Nia would be very sad. You wouldn’t want to make her sad, now would you?”

  “Nia could come with us,” Cara responded, but doubt had crept into her voice.

  “No, Dr. Metheny has taken Nia as his apprentice. She’s going to learn medical care from him. And he and Mistress Metheny will be staying here with all of you. They’ve bought a big, pretty house in town. I won’t leave until you all move into it. I’ll stay and help you settle in, but then I’ll have to go.”

  “But I don’t want you go away,” Cara wailed.

  “Cara, a lot of things happen that we don’t want. That’s life. It’s part of growing up. So you must be a brave girl and make your sister and the Methenys proud of you. Just think about how lucky you are to live in a big house and have the Methenys as your mama and papa and have all the other orphans as your brothers and sisters. No more working in a nasty mine with mean guards. No more not getting enough to eat. You’ll go to school and learn lots of new things, and you’ll be happy here.”

  “But I’ll miss you. Why can’t you stay here too?”

  “Because I have a place I want to go to, and I have my own life to live just as you have yours. Now, no more argument. I’ll be here for a while yet, and when I’m gone, I’ll write to you and Nia and the others, and I may see you again one day.”

  “Promise you will,” Cara begged.

  “I never make promises I’m not certain I can keep. But I will try to visit.”

  “And will you help me go to that magic school when I’m old enough?”

  “I will definitely give you a recommendation and ask that you be accepted there. I think when they find out how gifted you are, they’ll want you as a student.”

  It occurred to Bryte in listening to the conversation that Lina had never offered to recommend her or encourage her to apply to the school that she knew Lina and Lina’s friend Oryon had attended. Maybe Lina didn’t think she was gifted enough. Or maybe Lina just liked having her as a traveling companion.

  Bryte had been urged to stay as much as Lina had. She had been tempted. She had come to think of Nia almost as a sister. The Methenys were kind and generous. The doctor had assured her there would be room for her if she wanted to stay. The children had begged her to stay with them. Teddy had even said that if she left, it would feel almost like losing his other arm. That made her cry, but Lina said, “He’ll get over it. You are too much like me. You’d soon become restless just as you did when you left your father’s home.”

  Lina was right. When her father had answered her letter describing the situation with the orphans here and asking for his help in making the Ministry of Families and Children aware of it, he had agreed to help, but he’d also begged her to come home. She’d had to write back and say that she wasn’t yet ready or able to settle down.

  At l
east now she was leaving knowing the orphans were safe and would never again be threatened by the miners. Berta Leed, the only miner who had not come to the house with the others on that fateful day that put an end to their mining operation and the enslaving of orphans, had disappeared. Emmy Cooper and the others were all confined in the Correction Facility, where they were judged too corrupt to be released for many years. Although Dr. Metheny had treated Rale and thought he would survive, he had died during the night. No one questioned the doctor’s declaration that his death was due to blood loss. Certainly it might have been, but Bryte had caught a knowing look passed between Petrus and Gretta when the doctor announced his death. Whatever the truth of Rale’s demise, Bryte felt that the world was better off without him. No one would mourn his death.

  True to her word, Lina had waited until the new house the Methenys had purchased was ready. It had given her time to search through every shop in Marquez that might conceivably have a power net. She hadn’t found it, but she had found another reason to head for Hillcross. A shop called The Brave Bear turned out to have genuine items of use by gifted people, and the proprietor, an old woman, knew what a power net was. She assured Lina that none was to be had in Marquez, nor did she know where one might be found, but in Hillcross Lina would find a sizable Community of the Gifted, and someone there might be able to give her that information.

  At last the renovations needed on the new home were completed, ready for the Methenys and the children to move in. Lina and Bryte helped with the move. The Wilcoms had had to leave weeks before. Master Wilcom’s vacation time had passed, and he had a job to return to. They promised to return often to check on how the orphans were doing.

  Bryte and Lina joined in the festivities accompanying the move into the new house and stayed long enough to help the children settle into their newly decorated rooms. Bryte celebrated her fourteenth birthday while they tarried there.

  Now it was time to leave. Bryte closed the latch of the valise that held her few belongings and followed Lina from the house, moving silently through the dark rooms. They slipped outside and went to the car Torby had borrowed to drive them to the train station. They’d purchased tickets for the early morning train to Vernor. From there they’d take a bus to Pescatil. Maybe this time they’d stay long enough to learn why the bus driver and others had referred to it as a peculiar place. That sounded a bit ominous, but Bryte didn’t imagine it would be any worse than what they’d encountered here in Marquez.