Gibbel frowned. “Me thoughts you’d said there was two – a boy and a girly. I ain’t seen no girly.”
“They’re relaticated -- brother and sister. They’re never apart. Where you finds one, you finds the other. I don’t care hows you does it, just do get to Master Simon and tell him Ergel’s found his leases.”
“You ain’t comin’?”
“I gots to stay here and keep me eyeballs on ’em.”
Gibbel looked around. “Can I take the truck then?”
Was he joking? Ergel would be crazy to let this pea brain behind the wheel of a steamer. But he couldn’t say that out loud.
“I wish you could, but if they move off, I gotta be able to foller them.”
Gibbel scratched his knobby chin. “Then how’s me gonna get there?”
“As fast as ya cans. Get one of the ‘brothers’ down the line to motorvate ya. Just do it.”
“Why don’t we both just ride up now? Together.”
Ergel smacked the back of his head again. “I just tol’ ya – I gots to stay here and keep ’em in me sights.”
Gibbel paused then nodded. “Awrights. I’m off, but I can’ts promise when I’ll get there.”
“The sooner yer stops jawin’ and gets movin’, the faster yer gets to the farm, and the faster yer gets that rewardation, don’t ferget…”
That falsifimication put some light in the troll’s eyes. He snapped his stubby fingers and grinned. “Yer right about that – so youse can count on me, Ergel.”
And then Gibbel was out of the cab and running down the road with the wobbly run of all trolls. Ergel had no idea how long it might take him to get word back to the farm, but if Ergel was anything, he was patient. He could stickify with these boys for however long it might take.
Picking up his spyglasses, he watched the three boys as they began heading off down the driveway in the farm truck. They looked like they was in a hurry, and he wondered what had them so stirred up. He would have to keep them in view without revealing his own self, but he knew he could do it. He fired up the steamer and waited to see which way they would turn.
They mighta flummoxed him in the past and gotten away with it. But not this time.
45
“Anything starting to look familiar?” said Cal.
Ryan sat between Dillon and Cal as they drove past the fork in the road and along the section lined with thick shrubbery. Despite the warmth of the morning, he felt cold. Lack of sleep was part of it, but so was fear – fear that something awful had happened to Emma.
Was it his fault? Maybe he should have stayed with her. But at the time, drawing off that pack of lycans seemed like the right thing to do.
The small grove of trees where he’d spent the night loomed ahead.
“It’s right around here,” he said pointing off to the right.
Easing back on the throttle, Dillon slowed the vehicle. “Just tell me when, and I’ll pull off to the side.”
“Everything looks different in the daylight, but we were hiding in one of these clumps along this stretch.”
“Good enough, then.”
Dillon slowed the steamer to a crawl, then pulled off the road and eased it behind one of the clump of bushes. As it hissed and belched and lurched to a halt, Dillon set the brake and opened his door.
“Why are you parking back here?” Ryan said.
Dillon shrugged. “Not taking any chances. Wouldn’t do for someone connected to the farm to drive by and see an Armagost truck. They’d start asking questions I can’t answer.”
Ryan nodded. Good thinking.
“Let’s fan out and start looking,” Cal said.
“I don’t know…” said Ryan. “If she was here, she’d have seen us by now. This doesn’t look good.”
Calling Emma’s name – as loud as they dared without attracting too much attention – they pushed into the thick brush. When the two bigger boys could penetrate no farther, Ryan pressed on until he found an area where the brush had been trampled flat. A couple of broken twigs gleamed with moist sap – recently broken.
“This is the place!” he called out. “We both hid here as the packs went by.”
He gave everything a careful onceover, relieved to find no sign of a struggle – no blood, no shreds of clothing, no kicked-up dirt. He fought his way back through the branches to Cal and Dillon.
“Okay,” he said, straightening and looking around. “I came out here to see if the coast was clear and… it wasn’t. Another pack was coming along the road. I figured if I tried to go back to Emma, they might spot me, so I ran for those trees to draw them away.”
Cal was staring at him and Dillon nodded as he looked him up and down.
“You’ve got guts, little guy.”
Ryan appreciated the compliment, but had to add, “Not so little. And Em’s my sister. Brothers look out for their sisters.”
Cal smiled as he nodded. “I wouldn’t know about that, but you did a brave thing, Ryan.”
“So I thought. But was it the right thing?”
Cal clapped him on the shoulder. “Don’t second guess yourself. No question it was the right thing.”
That made Ryan feel a little better.
“Those trees?” Dillon said, point down the road to the right.
“Yeah. Climbed one near the center and beaned them with apples to hold their attention.”
“Apples?” Dillon said. “What are apples?”
“Whatever the fruit is that grows on those trees.”
“Oh. Those are ommot trees.” He laughed. “You threw ommots at them? I bet that made them mad.”
“Crazy mad. Emma was supposed to use the distraction the run to that other copse across the road from mine.”
Dillon started walking. “Okay. Let’s follow the path she would have gone and see what we can find.”
Good idea, Ryan thought as he led the way. “I already checked the trees. Let’s see… she would have come out the way we went in, then she would have made a beeline straight along here.”
They moved into the open area between the bushes and the trees
“But what if a wolf came between her and the trees?” Cal said. “She would have had to change course.”
Ryan wanted to tell him to shut up, because he couldn’t see how Emma would have a ghost of a chance against a transed lycan and he didn’t want to think of her as anything but alive and well. But he kept his mouth shut. Cal was only going over the possible reasons why Emma wasn’t in the trees.
“You’re assuming she never made it there,” Ryan said. “What if she made it and then left for some reason. What if–?”
He stopped and stared at the ground before him. The grass had been kicked up, and recently too. He squatted for a closer look.
“Looks like there was a struggle here,” he said, feeling the moist dirt.
“Hey!” said Dillon, moving to Ryan’s left and pointing to the ground. “Look at this!”
Ryan saw what had grabbed his attention: two parallel ruts, half an inch deep and maybe six inches apart.
Cal said, “Looks like something was dragged along here… like…”
“Two heels,” Ryan said, feeling sick as he pictured Emma being dragged be her neck or her arms through the darkness.
He started to follow but slammed to a halt when he saw something lying in the grass, right where the tracks ended.
“Oh, no!”
“What?” Cal and Dillon chorused.
“That’s Emma’s shoe.”
His hand shook as he picked it up and he felt his eyes fill as he turned it over and over. No question about it. Emma had been wearing this last night.
He made a frantic three-sixty turn. No sign of her. Where was she? The only thing he could imagine was someone or something dragging her for a ways, then lifting her and carrying her away.
He screamed. “EMMAAAAAAA!”
46
“EMMAAAAAAA!”
Ergel had been spyifying from within the trees. Why
was the lease boy screaming? Emma? Wasn’t that the name of his sister, the lease girl? Was she missing?
Ergel’s stomach twisted. Oh, this was no good – no good at all. He’d sent Gibbel to tell Master Simon that Ergel had found them both. If the master rushed here and found only one… well, he would be disappointed because he’d be expecting both. And he would take that disappointment out on Ergel.
He turned and hurried back to his truck. He had to catch up to Gibbel before he reached Armagost Farm.
47
Gibbel’s legs was tired and his muscles was crampifying. Troll legs wasn’t made for long walks, and even if they was, Gibbel wasn’t used to exercization. He spent his work days sitting by a bridge collecting tolls from the walkers and riders. And when he wasn’t working he was sitting at home eating and drinking.
That was why, when he heard the hiss of an engine coming up behind him, he jumped out into the road and waved his arms.
“Hoi! Hoi!”
The flatbed truck swerved to a stop, narrowly missing him.
“Crazy troll!” shouted the necro behind the wheel. “I almost bent my bumper on you.”
“Next time we’ll just hit you” said the squatch beside him.
Both were dressed in Uberall outfits.
“I needs to gets to Armagost Farm,” Gibbel said, approaching the driver’s window.
The necro sneered. “What do we look like? A taxi service?”
“Just a little helps for a fellow traveler. Whatta yer say? I’d give youse a ride if places was reversicated.”
The necro looked at the squatch who shrugged.
“Awright, troll. You can ride in the back, but we ain’t taking you all the way to Armagost. We’re headed for the compound. We’ll take you that far. After that you’re on your own.”
“Fair enough!”
Gibbel hurried around to where he could climb onto the rear bed. The Uberall compound was a ways from the farm, but a lot closer than he was now. Maybe he could find a ride from the compound. If not, he’d have to rely on his feets again.
But as the truck hissed into motion again, an idea popped into his head. If Falzon was at the compound, maybe Gibbel wouldn’t have to go to Armagost. He could just tell Falzon that his missing leasified boy and girly humanses had been found – by Gibbel, of course… no need to mention Ergel – and that Gibbel was just the troll to lead him to them.
Yes-yes! Excellent plan. And then he’d be due some rewardation from the grateful rakshasa.
He rubbed his stubby-fingered hands together. This was turning out to be a good day.
48
Telly’s mouth filled with saliva when he heard the lunch bell ring. He’d skipped breakfast so he was famished.
He grinned and said, “I’m like one of Pavlov’s dogs.”
Dr. Koertig looked up from where he had the disassembled innards of one of the breach generator’s components spread out on a workbench.
“Who’s Pavlov?”
Idiot! Telly thought, wishing he’d chosen his words more carefully. The famous Dr. Pavlov had never existed on Nocturnia. Think fast!
“Um, one of my neighbors back home who raised dogs. He used to ring a bell every time he fed them. And so every time they heard that bell–”
“–they began to salivate. Commonly known as the Heidel reaction, first described by a pluriban named Lorenzo Heidel.”
“Doctor Heidel, ay?” Telly said, hiding his relief at squeaking out of that jam. “I’m always learning something new with you. But right now I need to eat something.”
Koertig waved him off. “Go. I’ll stick with this.”
“Want me to bring you back something?”
“From that swill trough?” He made a face. “The substances they dish out there – one cannot in good conscience designate them ‘food’ – are of dubious origin and fit only for lower life forms. But please, feel free to consume your fill.”
Okay, the food here isn’t good by any standards, Telly thought as he left the lab and stepped into the courtyard, but it’s not that bad.
Back home Telly had limited his diet to two basic food groups: take-out and delivery. Here on Nocturnia he had to limit himself to veggies, because odds were high that any meat being served came from sheeple. No matter how hungry he was, or how sorely he missed his 5 Guys double cheeseburgers, he wasn’t about to start down the cannibal road.
A flat-bed steamer passed him and hissed to a stop in the near corner of the courtyard. A troll he’d never seen before hopped off the bed and rushed up to him.
“Is Falzon here? Does yer know wheres I can finds him?”
That took Telly aback. Someone wanted to be with Falzon? Pretty much everybody, Uberall or not, did whatever he or she could to avoid the rakshasa.
“I think he’s here,” Telly told the troll. “He’s usually in his bunker when he is, but you can’t just walk in there.”
“Why not?”
“Because he’ll take your head off.”
“Well, Gibbel doesn’t wants that. How does one gets in?”
Necro and a squatch got out of the truck and approached.
“Here, don’t you go bothering us all now. Get on your way.”
He kept shifting from one foot to the other, like he had to go to the bathroom. “But I needs to see Falzon.”
“That’s not easy,” Telly said. “You have to ask for an audience and if he agrees to see you, you have to be escorted in by one of his guards.”
“That’ll takes too long. Gibbel has important news that can’t wait!”
His curiosity piqued, Telly said, “How important, and why can’t it wait?”
“Two humanses, two rental kids, the ones that gotted aways – Gibbel knows where they is!”
His words struck Telly speechless. The “two humanses, two rental kids” could only be Emma and Ryan. But how did this troll know about–?
The necro and squatch whispered back and forth while Telly did a quick turn. “Where’s Ergel?”
Gibbel said, “You knows Ergel? He’s spyifying on them as we speaks.”
The squatch laid a heavy hand on the troll’s shoulder. “You telling the truth about these missing human’s?”
“I is! Absolutistly!”
“Okay, then,” said the necro. “We’ll take you to Falzon. But if you’re lying…”
Telly saw what they were up to: trying to score points with the boss by bringing him this kind of news.
“Wait,” Telly said, his mind racing to find a way to gain control of the situation, “the Lir has better things to do than bother himself with runaways.”
“He hates runaways,” said the necro.
“That he does,” said the squatch, pulling the troll toward Falzon’s bunker. “And the first thing he’ll do is send out a hunting party. And what’s more fun than chasing down humans?”
The necros laughed. “Nothing! Absolutely nothing!”
Helpless to stop them, Telly had to stand there like some lame-o and watch the mismatched trio head toward Falzon.
“And I’ll be getting rewardation, right?” he heard the troll say.
“Rewardation?” the squatch growled. “You mean a ‘reward’? From Falzon? I’ve met a lot of dumb trolls in my day, but you gotta be the dumbest.”
As their voices faded, Telly paced in a nervous circle. Think. Think! If – no, when – Emma and Ryan were captured and dragged back to the compound, Falzon would do one of three things: He’d either return them to Armagost Farm, punish them – harshly, for sure – or kill them. Telly had seen Falzon do that. Even though renting out his human slaves was a steady source of income, the rakshasa had been in a foul mood since returning from his visit to his homeland. Telly wouldn’t be surprised if he killed Emma and Ryan.
So Telly’s course was perfectly clear: He had to get to them first.
Yeah, it meant risking everything – the fake identity he’d built up with the Uberalls, his own safety, his own life – but the three of them shared a p
arent and they shared blood. The choice was easy.
Just one problem: He didn’t know where they were. They’d said they were staying at the Jantzes’ place but he had no idea where that was.
But this greedy troll did.
Telly followed them to Falzon’s bunker. The rakshasa kept an office, complete with throne and all, at the rear of the building. Telly wandered around the side to the back, hoping he’d find a rear entrance. Turned out he didn’t need to get in. Falzon had all his windows open. Telly sidled up to one and listened.
He heard Falzon say, “You are aware, troll – what wasss your name again?”
“Gibbel, sir.”
“You are aware, Gibbel, that thisss isss a very ssserious accusssation.”
“I wouldn’t prefabricate to yourself, sir. It’s true as sunrise.”
“Thisss meansss that Massster Sssimon allowed two of my leasssesss to essscape and didn’t tell me.”
Telly flinched as something smashed against the inside of the wall as Falzon let out a howl of rage.
“Where are my humansss now?”
Gibbel’s voice sounded terrified. “On-on-on a farm north of Balmore, sir. You-you-you take Mairfee Road out to the farmlands and b-b-bear left at the fork. Name of ‘Jantz’ is on the mailbox.”
“You two” – Telly guessed he was talking to the pair who had driven Gibbel here–”gather every Uberall we can ssspare and go to thisss farm. Take thisss troll with you and” – his voice rose to a scream–”FIND MY HUMANSSS!”
Telly had heard all he needed. He ran to the motor pool, found a four-seater sedan idling in the garage. Perfect. Reminded him of the one he’d used to free Emma and Ryan from the farm that night. Speedy little thing… and he’d need speed. Looked like someone had been working on it and left it for a few moments. He didn’t hesitate. He jumped in, threw it into gear, and raced into the courtyard, leaving a cloud of steam in his wake. A mummified mechanic lurched out of the garage and shouted something. Telly just waved like he owned the car and raced through the gates.
49
Where on Nocturnia is he? Ergel thought as he motorvated along the road. Gibbel couldn’t have walked this far already. What if he got himself a ride? Oh, that wouldn’t be good.
Family Secrets Page 19