The Changlings (The New Earth Chronicles Book 2)

by J. J. Thompson

  “Maybe we're too far from the city?” Bobby asked.

  Sarah shook her head as she opened her eyes and looked at him.

  “My powers are stronger than they used to be. I know that once upon a time I couldn't reach anyone who was more than a couple of miles away, but distance doesn't seem to matter anymore. No, there's something else going on. Maybe it's the bunker.”

  She looked around at the reinforced concrete walls and ceiling.

  “Maybe we're just too deep underground? Too much cement and metal might interfere with the magic. I don't know why it would, but I suppose it's possible.”

  'Sarah?'

  She gasped and almost dropped the stone at the sound of someone's voice in her mind.

  “Who is that? Miesha?”

  'Yeah, it's me.'

  Miesha's voice sounded thin and weak.

  “I can barely hear you,” Sarah told her as Bobby leaned forward, watching her face. “What's going on? Where is everyone?”

  'On the run. Or dead maybe. I don't know.'

  “What?”

  'You heard me. Not long after you called us to warn about the dragons, we were attacked here. Not by a dragon, but by a pack of drakes. They tore through our doors like they were paper. I think that Jeremy's dead.'

  “Oh no!”

  Bobby shook her shoulder roughly.

  “What's she saying?” he asked urgently.

  Sarah looked at him, her sudden tears making it hard to see his face.

  “I'm so sorry, Bobby, but she says that Jeremy might be dead.”

  He gaped at her in shock. Next to Sarah, Bobby had been closest to the youngest Changling. They had been like brothers and Jeremy had followed the older boy everywhere when they had lived together in the Diefenbunker years before. To hear that he was dead, just like that, was devastating.

  “But...how?”

  “Drakes,” Sarah told him. “Miesha, where are you now? Where are your other friends?”

  There was a short pause and she felt her stomach clench with fear.

  'I don't know, Sarah. We got out through the back tunnel, the narrow one that we dug out in case of emergencies, and when we reached the surface, I told everyone to scatter. Less chance of the drakes tracking us all down at once, you know? I headed southwest. Right now I'm in the basement of an old apartment building. It's cramped in here but there is no way a drake is going to reach me unless it digs through forty feet of rubble.'

  “Did they follow you?” Sarah asked anxiously.

  'I don't know. I don't think so. Drakes aren't exactly subtle, you know, and I haven't heard any of their hunting calls for a few hours, so I'm guessing that I lost them for now. As for my people...'

  Sarah wiped her eyes and waited. Miesha was obviously in shock and mourning her loss and Sarah knew that she had to be patient with her. She patted Bobby's arm but he just looked past her, his face empty of expression.

  'I don't know, Sarah. I'm the only one of us with a magic stone, so I have no way to contact them. They could be anywhere. Or else they're all dead. I've tried contacting the other leaders, but no one is answering. Have you heard anything?'

  “Not yet, but I've just started calling. Bobby and I made our way out of the city and ended up back in the Diefenbunker.”

  'Seriously? How the hell did you manage to do that?'

  “Just lucky, I guess. But the place is still secure, Miesha. There's no food here, but the water's still drinkable and the blast door still works. Is there any way that you can reach us?”

  Again there was a moment of silence and she waited as patiently as she could. If all of the Changling camps had been attacked, it would be insane for her and Bobby to go back to the city to try to help them. The best that they could do would be to try to get in touch with the other leaders and tell them to meet up at the bunker. If any of them had survived. It was a thought that sent chills down Sarah's spine.

  'I might be able to,” Miesha finally answered. “It could take me a day or two though, if I manage to avoid the drakes during the day and the drakes and goblins at night. I doubt that I'll be able to make it, but I guess that it's my only option.'

  “Actually, traveling after dark might be the better choice,” Sarah told her.

  'Seriously? Why?'

  “Because drakes hate goblins as much as they hate us, and they hunt them whenever they can. And the feeling's mutual. I have a feeling that once the sun goes down, it'll be open warfare between the two sides.”

  'Hmm, now that's something I hadn't thought of. I don't know how many drakes are in the city, but I can't believe that there are a lot of them. Maybe the goblins will be able to wipe them out. And then, if there's a dragon around, it will kill all of the goblins. Wishful thinking, I know.'

  “Definitely. But anything's possible. Miesha, I forgot to ask; are you hurt? Do you have any food or water?”

  'No, no and no,” Miesha replied with a touch of her old humor. “But water isn't scarce. And I've gone for long stretches without food, so no worries there. I'll get by, never fear. Now, I'm going to have to cut you off, Sarah. Any noise I make might attract the drakes, including talking, and if there are any goblin magic-users around, they might pick up on our magical communication. I'll call you back when I can, okay?'

  “Okay. Call me any time. And Miesha, I am so sorry for your loss. Jeremy was a very sweet person.”

  She glanced sadly at Bobby, who didn't appear to be listening.

  “And Bobby loved him like a brother. I don't know what else to say except please, please be careful. We don't want to lose you too.”

  'Thanks, Sarah. Hug Bobby for me. I know how close he was to Jeremy. Talk to you soon.'

  Miesha's presence faded from her mind and Sarah put her stone on her lap and let out a long sigh.

  “It's not right.”

  She looked at Bobby.

  “What?”

  “It's not right. Jeremy was just a kid. What did he ever do to anyone?”

  His voice was emotionless and sounded almost mechanical. Sarah was at a loss. What could she say?

  “Nothing, Bobby. He didn't do anything. The drakes are evil, just like the goblins are evil. They kill us because they hate us, but it's not rational. It just is.”

  He rubbed his face, pushing back his hair irritably.

  “Well, it sucks. And if Jeremy is dead, a lot of the others might be too. He was fast and clever. If he could be caught, anyone could be.”

  Sarah patted his arm again and Bobby gave her a perfunctory smile.

  “Are you okay?” she asked softly.

  “No, I don't think so. But I'll deal with it. Keep trying to reach the other leaders.”

  He pushed himself to his feet.

  “I'm going to take a walk, do some thinking.”

  “Okay. If you need to talk...”

  “Yeah, I know. Thanks.”

  Bobby walked to the door, grabbing one of the torches from a bracket along the way, and left the room.

  Sarah watched him leave and then picked up her stone again. She knew that Bobby would have to spend some time mourning, but she hoped that he would be all right. If a lot of their friends had been caught by the drakes, it would only get worse, for both of them.

  She held the stone in both hands and focused her thoughts on it again. This time she decided to try to reach out to the leaders one at a time. Maybe if she used all of her power on a single target, she would be able to make a stronger connection with them.

  “Rachel? Can you hear me?”

  She pictured Rachel's blue hair and ivory-colored skin, trying to make the image as detailed as possible.

  “Come on, Rachel. Answer me. Please!”

  'Stop shouting, Sarah. You're making my head hurt.'

  “Rachel! You're alive.”

  The older woman's voice sounded almost normal; a little tired perhaps, but not as lifeless and strained as Miesha's had been.

  'Of course I'm alive. Why wouldn't I be?'

  “Well,
with the dragons and drakes attacking, plus what happened to Miesha...”

  'Wait. What happened to her?'

  Sarah frowned at the stone in her lap, confused by the question.

  “What do you mean what happened? They were attacked by drakes. Jeremy's dead and the rest of them are on the run. You didn't know?”

  'Of course I didn't know. Oh, poor Jeremy! He was such a wonderful person. And Miesha's people are being chased by drakes? Damn those monsters! Look, no offense, Sarah, but these blasted talking rocks of yours aren't working properly. I haven't been able to contact anyone since the last time we all spoke with you. I think that I'm going to ask for a refund.'

  Sarah was too shocked to respond to Rachel's feeble joke.

  The stones didn't work? But hers was working perfectly! What could have gone wrong with them.

  She stared at her own glowing stone, trying to puzzle out what might have happened.

  “Rachel, examine your stone please. Describe the pattern that I engraved on it.”

  'Sure. Let's see here. There's sort of a circle around the design. It's kind of oval shaped. And inside is a spiral on the left with two vertical lines beside it. The line closest to the spiral is shorter than the other one. On the right is a weird backwards C with a dot in the center. Um, yeah. That's about it.'

  Sarah listened intently, seeing the design in her mind as Rachel described it.

  “Okay, that sounds right. Wait. Is the spiral turning clockwise or counter-clockwise?”

  'Does it matter?'

  “It all matters, Rachel,” Sarah told her.

  'If you say so. Uh, clockwise. Yes, definitely clockwise.'

  Sarah put a hand to her forehead and shook her head.

  “Oh damn,” she said softly. “I screwed up.”

  'What? What are you talking about?'

  “It's supposed to be turning in a counter-clockwise direction. The spiral is what allows all the other stones to connect with each other. If I was just making a second stone to contact my own, I wouldn't include a spiral at all because it wouldn't be needed. Crap, no wonder Miesha couldn't get in touch with the rest of you. Damn it, damn it. People are dying and it's all my fault!”

  'Stop that,” Rachel said sternly. 'Don't be ridiculous. Any deaths among our people are the fault of the drakes, and their masters, the dragons. Being able to talk through the stones didn't make the damned things appear, Sarah, so don't go blaming yourself for things you can't control. So you made a mistake. Big deal. What you have to do now is improvise. Where are you?'

  “Bobby and I are in the Diefenbunker.”

  There was a moment of silence.

  'Are you kidding me? You made it back to the bunker?'

  “Yep. Just dumb luck that we found it, I suppose, but we're back. The water's still drinkable and the blast door is secure. We're safe, at least for now.”

  'Wow, that's amazing. And it's good news too because, since your stones don't work properly, you are going to have to coordinate all of the leaders' actions, if we want to survive these attacks. You will be the central hub and we'll get in touch with you when we want to pass along messages to the others and share information with each other. It's an important job, Sarah. Are you up for it?'

  Sarah felt a surge of adrenaline at the idea. Since she'd obviously failed to create the other stones properly, this could be her chance to redeem herself.

  “Absolutely. I'll contact everyone else, tell them what's happened with Miesha, and about my stupid mistake, and get as much information from them that I can. Then if any of you want to pass along a message, you can just contact me and I'll do it.”

  'Exactly what I was thinking. I'm glad that we're on the same page. Okay, here's my camp's situation at the moment. We were assaulted by a drake, but just one. And it didn't get too close to the camp.'

  She laughed, a sound of satisfaction in her voice.

  “It didn't?” Sarah asked. “Why not?”

  'Spike pit. One of our traps. Stupid beast walked right into it. Took a while to die, but it was deep enough that I guess other drakes on the surface couldn't hear its screams. It may sound callous, but I found the whole thing rather satisfying.'

  “You guys killed a drake? Amazing!”

  'Just good trap building. I've told the others over the years that they should install more traps around their camps, but they didn't listen. Well, Eric did, but he's the only one. If Miesha's place was overrun, that might have been one of the reasons. Not that I blame her for Jeremy's death or anything,” Rachel hastened to add. “It's just that more traps might have at least slowed down the attack. Oh well, what's done is done, I suppose.'

  “Unfortunately. So, you guys are staying put?”

  'For now. But I'm not blind to the reality of the situation, Sarah. We may have stopped one drake, but a couple of my people got to the surface and did some scouting and there are a lot more of them out there.'

  “How many more?” Sarah asked fearfully.

  'Dozens, my friend. Maybe more. Why they chose Ottawa to attack is beyond me, but they have and they are here in force. And my friends saw a black dragon too. There may be others. The city is lost, Sarah, and it's only a matter of time before we are all hunted down.'

  “So what are you going to do?”

  'Get the hell out of Dodge, that's what. If you say that the Diefenbunker is secure right now, then that is the logical place to regroup and make plans. It's too close to the city to stay in for long...'

  “And there's no food here.”

  'Yes, and that. So we'll have to make plans for a long journey. God knows where we'll go, but I think that, in the future, we had better avoid any major cities.'

  “I agree. So when are you going to make a break for the bunker?”

  'Soon, I guess. I'll talk to my friends and we'll decide together. Probably after dark. The goblins are none too happy about the drakes showing up and there have been a few battles. So that may be the best time to leave, while they're distracted.'

  “Yeah, I think so too.”

  'Good. Okay, call everyone else now. Tell them that you are the only one they can contact, and explain the situation. And tell them that Miesha and I are heading in your direction. That might convince some of the more reluctant ones to join us. And good luck, Sarah. I'm glad that you and Bobby are safe.'

  “Thanks, Rachel. Please be careful and call me any time.”

  'Will do. Bye.'

  “Bye.”

  Bobby stood in the main hallway listening absently to Sarah's voice. He couldn't make out her words, but it sounded like she had made contact with another leader. That was good.

  He slowly walked away from the rec room, holding the torch up so that he could see the floor ahead of him. He fiddled with the hilt of the sword on his hip with his left hand, tracing the leather wrappings with a forefinger as he got lost in his memories of his friend, Jeremy.

  They had known each other almost as long as Bobby had known Sarah. Maybe it was because Jeremy had been so little and so scared when they had entered the bunker. He had latched on to Bobby for some reason and had followed him around constantly. Sarah had actually teased him about it a few times, but she had only been joking. She'd been almost as fond of Jeremy as Bobby had been.

  “And now he's gone,” he said as he walked down the dark hallway. “Just like that. He never even got a chance to enjoy life without his wrappings. It's not right.”

  He stopped next to a wall bracket and slipped the torch into it. He tightened his grip on the sword hilt and then looked down at it in surprise. He'd almost forgotten that he was wearing it.

  “Have you come to me for a reason?” Bobby asked it softly. “Do you serve Justice? Jeremy deserves some justice, don't you think?”

  He drew the sword and watched the torchlight shimmer along its length. It glowed ethereally against the darkness.

  “Where did you come from?” he asked as he made a few experimental swipes through the air. “What kind of history do you have? H
ave you killed before? Have you tasted blood?”

  The sword remained quiescent. It was just a length of sharpened steel. Ancient, perhaps, but just a tool of war.

  “I think maybe I'm going to need you soon,” Bobby said to it. “I don't know how to use you, but I can learn. I can learn.”

  He clumsily sheathed the weapon again and patted it gently.

  “You and me,” he whispered. “We're going to do great things. Just you wait and see.”

  When Bobby returned to the rec room, Sarah was speaking to someone that he couldn't hear. He stopped in the doorway to listen.

  “Yes, Alexa, I've spoken to everyone now except for Eric. He's not answering. Do you have any idea where he is?”

  She frowned down at the glowing stone, her hair almost hiding her face.

  “Okay. Well, I'll try again. If you see him before I reach him, tell him what's going on, would you? And ask him to call me. You too. Call whenever you need to, all right? Good. Take care of yourself and the others and we'll talk soon. Bye.”

  Sarah sighed and set the stone on the bed. She stood up and stretched, her arms over her head. When she turned and looked at the doorway, she jumped back.

  “Oh! Bobby, you startled me. Are you okay?”

  She thought that he looked strange. His eyes were glassy in the light of the torch in his hand and his face was blank of expression.

  He blinked rapidly and took a moment to focus on her.

  “Hmm? Oh. Yeah, I'm fine. How's it going? Did you get in touch with everyone?”

  “Everyone except for Eric. He hasn't answered yet. I'm going to use the latrine and drink some water and then I'll try again. What were you doing?”

  He stuck the torch in a bracket and walked over to the bed next to Sarah's. He pulled off the sheets and then waved away the cloud of dust that rose around him. Once it had settled, he sat down heavily.

  “Nothing. Just...remembering better times, I guess.”

  “Better times? Yeah, we had those once, didn't we? Well, we'll have them again, Bobby, I'm sure of it.”

  She smiled at him, but he only grimaced.

  “Will we?” he replied gloomily. “I wonder.”