Storm Child

by Sharon Sant

  Charlotte went to the desk, giving Ernesto’s body as wide a berth as it was possible to give, and gathered up the papers that Polly had just uncovered. Taking them around to the other side of the desk, she spread them out and began to read, Polly and Isaac standing to look over her shoulder. Quite why they were looking, neither of them was sure. It wasn’t as if they could read them, but it seemed that some kind of show of support was in order.

  ‘What do they say?’ Annie asked from her spot on the floor. Her tone was one of utter defeat.

  ‘I need a moment…’ Charlotte replied vaguely, still poring over the contents of the documents. ‘It’s all written in such archaic English, and some of it doesn’t look like English at all.’

  ‘That’ll be the Old Language – words of magic,’ Annie said flatly. ‘Mama could read it but she never taught me.’

  ‘They can’t be Ernesto’s papers then,’ Polly cut in. ‘He don’t know none of that.’

  ‘Maybe they belong to the Brethren,’ Isaac said.

  ‘Why would they be here?’ Charlotte replied. ‘That makes no sense.’

  Polly shook back her curls and glanced at the silent body in the chair. ‘Ernesto weren’t stupid. He knew that he were dealing with rum coves and there were no guarantees he would get his payment for turning Georgina over. He might have stolen these papers, for insurance or something in case things went badly for him.’

  ‘You reckon they came here to get them back and killed him then?’ Isaac asked.

  Polly shook her head. ‘Like Charlotte says, there’s no mess. I don’t think they knew he had them. I think death was his payment for handing Georgina over.’

  ‘To shut him up?’

  Polly nodded. She turned back to Charlotte who had resumed her reading. ‘What can you tell from them?’

  ‘Not much,’ Charlotte said without looking up. ‘It’s difficult to make any sense of any of it. But I think these are writings about the prophecy itself, and most of it we’ve already pieced together ourselves.’

  ‘So they don’t give us any clues about where the Brethren will be?’

  ‘They don’t seem to. Nor about whom they are either.’

  ‘Perhaps the prophecy will give us some clues?’ Isaac said.

  ‘It isn’t really the prophecy as such, but writings that pertain to it.’ Charlotte paused and gazed at Isaac. ‘One thing is clear, they are obsessed with power. Assassinating the Queen and seizing control of the empire was only the beginning of their plans, from what I can tell here. But they also seem rather fixed on this idea that an infant will somehow bring about their downfall and are determined to prevent that from happening.’ She frowned. ‘I still don’t really understand how a baby such as Georgina would be able to do that. Apart from remarkable progress in her growth and skills, there was nothing extraordinarily powerful about her.’

  ‘Unless there’s somethin’ Annie ain’t telling us,’ Polly cut in, looking at Annie.

  ‘There’s nothin’ other than she has magic, which you already know,’ Annie replied. ‘There ain’t no point in hiding anythin’ from you now.’

  Charlotte had resumed her reading and held up a hand to silence them. ‘Isaac was right about pomp. There are some details of a ritual here for…’ she glanced up at Annie with such sadness in her eyes that it seemed her heart was about to break.

  ‘I know what you’re goin’ to say,’ Annie said quietly.

  Charlotte drew a deep breath. ‘But the ritual takes days to perform. So it means she should still be alive for now. Although… I cannot say that she won’t have endured some torment.’

  Annie gave a weak nod of understanding.

  ‘All the more reason we find out where she is as quick as can be,’ Isaac interrupted. ‘So we’d better get thinking about it.’

  Polly’s eyebrows knit together. ‘Annie, what about your magic? I know you said only animals and healing, but there must be somethin’ it can do?’

  Annie shrugged. ‘I suppose I could call on help. A bird or some such to search?’

  ‘How would you be able to explain to a bird what they’re lookin’ for? Unless you can put your thoughts of what Georgina looks like in their heads.’

  ‘I can’t do that.’

  ‘So…’ Charlotte offered, ‘we need to think of a way an animal can track her without knowing what she or the Brethren or their lair look like.’

  ‘Could Chester do it?’ Isaac asked.

  ‘I’m not sure,’ Polly said doubtfully. ‘Do horses track things? You want somethin’ like a dog probably.’

  ‘Somethin’ exactly like a dog…’ Isaac smiled. ‘Or a wolf…’ He turned to Annie. ‘Have you got anything that smells of Georgie?’

  Annie leapt up, a new sense of purpose in her expression. ‘I have her old blanket,’ she called breathlessly as she raced from the room to fetch it.

  ‘You’re surely not goin’ to let Ern’s wolves out?’ Polly snapped.

  ‘That’s exactly what we’re goin’ to do.’

  Polly folded her arms. ‘I’d better get the seasoning then because they’re about to get their dinner.’

  Isaac strode across to her and took her by the shoulders, gazing into her eyes. ‘If Annie can use her magic on animals then she can get the wolves to track the nipper. It’s worth a go, ain’t it?’

  ‘What if the wolves don’t want to track the nipper? What if they’d rather eat the nipper… after they’ve finished eatin’ us?’

  Isaac smiled faintly as he kissed her. ‘Ain’t like you to be scared.’

  ‘I’m not scared,’ Polly pouted. ‘It’s just someone’s got to use their noggin’ around here. And you can stop that kissing nonsense as well. You’ve had enough for one day. You got to die three times over to deserve what you’ve already had.’

  Isaac laughed and then pulled her into another one. ‘Annie will do it, you’ll see. She’s got us out of more than one jam before, don’t forget.’

  ‘I hope you’re right or I’ll see to what Ern couldn’t.’

  Isaac gave a tight grin. ‘That’s my Poll.’

  ‘Wolves?’ Charlotte asked uncertainly.

  ‘Ern keeps some, at the back of the house.’ Polly disentangled herself from Isaac’s embrace.

  Charlotte’s eyes widened. ‘He keeps wolves?’ Isaac and Polly both nodded. ‘In that case, I have to say that I agree with Polly on this occasion,’ Charlotte ventured.

  Polly scowled. ‘On this occasion? What was wrong with the other occasions?’

  ‘I just mean that we haven’t always seen eye to eye,’ Charlotte said hastily. ‘I mean to say that on this occasion I have serious reservations about using wolves.’ She shuddered. ‘Georgina and I were attacked by a wolf not so long ago and we barely escaped with our lives. It didn’t look like a creature you could reason with.’

  ‘Nobody said anythin’ about reasoning with it,’ Isaac said. ‘If Annie’s magic is as good as I think it is, the wolves won’t have a choice.’

  Charlotte shook her head, clearly still unconvinced. ‘One wolf is dangerous enough. A pack of them, twisted by years of unnatural captivity, would take magic of the most potent kind.’

  ‘Then we’d better hope that magic of the most potent kind is exactly what young Annie has got,’ Polly said, shooting a loaded glance at Isaac.

  Annie returned, thrusting a tattered, knitted blanket at Isaac. ‘Here it is!’

  ‘Good girl,’ Isaac said, putting his nose to it and sniffing. ‘Nice and smelly. Should be perfect.’

  Annie frowned slightly. ‘It’s not Georgina’s fault.’

  ‘No, smelly is good,’ Isaac smiled. ‘The smellier the better.’ He put a hand on her shoulder and held her in a measured gaze. ‘Do you think you can do this?’

  Annie nodded uncertainly. ‘I think so. Whether I can or can’t I don’t have a choice.’

  ‘Good girl, that’s the spirit.’

  ‘Do you think we should all go into the wolf den whilst Annie casts her spell?’
Charlotte asked hesitantly.

  Polly rested her hands on the fullest part of her skirt and glared at Charlotte. ‘What’s the matter? You scared?’

  ‘It’s not that…’ Charlotte sighed. ‘Come along then. One way or another, our fate is about to be decided.’

  Isaac led and the others followed as they made their way as inconspicuously as they could to the back of the house. Things were complicated enough without them being seen skulking around in a very suspicious fashion when there was a murdered man lying inside. Doubtless, any judge would take very little persuading to convict a bunch of worthless street children of the crime and have them deported or, worse still, hanged.

  Outside the door, they could hear the restless patter of claws on stone and the heavy panting of creatures desperate for freedom. Isaac turned to Annie.

  ‘You know what to do. We’ll wait outside so we don’t distract you or them. When you think they’re under, call me and I’ll unlock the cage.’

  Annie nodded uncertainly, her breath coming in short, sharp bursts. Isaac put a hand on her shoulder and smiled tightly. ‘Don’t you worry, Annie. We all got faith in you.’

  Polly, Charlotte and Isaac waited nervously as Annie slipped inside. They could hear her begin her enchanting song – high, lilting notes that soared on the air. Each one felt themselves grow light as it affected them too, right at the edges of their minds. It seemed to last for hours, though it could have only been a few moments, and then all was still. When Annie didn’t emerge straight away, Isaac exchanged a worried glance with the others.

  ‘Do you think she’s done it?’ he whispered.

  Polly shrugged silently. Charlotte opened her mouth to reply when Annie’s face appeared at the door. She looked grey-skinned and exhausted.

  ‘I think they’re under.’ She paused. ‘They’re quiet, at least,’ she added.

  Isaac nodded sombrely and held up Georgina’s blanket for her. ‘You ought to show this, as it’s you that has ‘em enchanted. I’ll unlock the cage and come in with you, but I’ll stay near the door in case I spook ‘em.’

  Without another word, Annie took the blanket, her expression one of fear mixed with grim determination. Isaac followed, his face just as serious but with the boldness of someone who was beginning to find danger just another everyday event.

  When they entered, the wolves were all sat back on their haunches, staring at them. Isaac counted six, all varying shades of brown to black. He moved slowly towards the cage door and inserted the key in the lock. The clang and scrape of metal on metal made him wince, and he glanced up to see if it had snapped them from Annie’s spell, but the wolves remained motionless and silent. He didn’t like letting Annie go in alone with the blanket, but he didn’t see any other way. He clenched his jaw, fists balled as he watched her approach the biggest one.

  ‘Grant me this favour,’ she said quietly as she held the blanket to the creature’s black nose, ‘and once the task is done your will is your own again. I need you to follow this scent.’ The wolf whimpered slightly.

  ‘That should do it,’ Isaac whispered. ‘We’d best be on the road.’

  Annie turned to him. ‘We take them all,’ she said firmly. Isaac’s jaw dropped as he stared at her.

  ‘What?’

  ‘We take them all,’ she repeated. ‘Don’t you see, they can be our army as well as our guides?’

  Isaac rubbed a hand across his chin as he looked over at the pack thoughtfully. ‘It’s risky,’ he said doubtfully. ‘You got to keep them all under control the whole time. You look tired now and we ain’t even begun yet.’

  ‘Don’t worry about me. All I care about is getting Georgina back.’

  Isaac let out a long breath. ‘Alright,’ he said finally. ‘I can’t say I like it but we’ll do it.’

  Annie nodded and turned back to the cage. She went to each wolf in turn and waved the blanket under their noses, giving the same instructions. Then she turned to Isaac again. ‘Open the main door.’

  Isaac sprinted out into the daylight. ‘Stand clear you two,’ he called to Polly and Charlotte. The girls leapt back out of the way as Isaac shoved the heavy iron door to widen the entrance. ‘Right, Annie!’

  The wolves poured from the building, noses to the air and the ground, Annie in their wake. Within seconds, they had picked up a scent and their pace quickened as they headed through the main gates of the house. Annie ran after them.

  ‘Come on!’ Isaac shouted to the others as he followed.

  Charlotte and Polly gave chase.

  The wolves were fast but they stopped frequently to sniff around, as if they had lost the scent or it had grown fainter. But it was only ever for moments, and then they were off again. It became a good thing; if they had been running at full speed the humans would never have been able to keep up with them. As it was, they followed, panting and winded, but at least able to keep pace.

  The trail led them away from the house and towards the Uxmouth road. But just as the party began to fear that they would have to run the pack right through the town, the trail veered off towards the outskirts. The pace seemed to quicken too, so that there was now a good twenty or so feet between the pack and the pursuing humans. If anyone had witnessed the strange chase, they might have been forgiven for thinking they’d gone mad.

  ‘I think they’re really onto something now,’ Isaac called breathlessly behind him as he headed up the group. The girls struggled to keep up – not only because their strides were shorter than his, but because their heavy skirts weighed them down and got in the way. Polly was about ready to rip her underskirts away in a rage when a large, grey building loomed ahead on the horizon. She skidded to a halt and stared up at it. Annie and Charlotte stopped too. Charlotte looked at her with a silent question, one that Annie answered for her.

  ‘The orphanage….’

  Seeming to sense that the girl who held their minds had become distracted, the wolves ground to a halt too. Isaac walked back to the others, fighting for breath as the pack waited patiently, staring at them.

  ‘What’s the matter?’

  ‘They’re taking us to the orphanage,’ Annie said quietly.

  Isaac raised his eyebrows slightly as he stood with his hands on his hips, wiping sweat from his eyes, but didn’t seem unduly surprised. ‘That makes a lot of sense to me if it is where we’re going.’

  ‘It don’t to me,’ Polly cut in. ‘If the Brethren are here, in the orphanage, why did they let Annie and Georgina go to Ernesto in the first place?’

  Isaac smiled slightly at Annie. ‘I suppose you must have done a first rate job of hiding yours and Georgie’s magic while you were in there, eh?’

  ‘And then Ernesto must have seen Georgina do something that made him suspicious? So he was straight on to the Brethren to sell her back to them.’ Polly whistled. ‘They must have been annoyed to find out that they had her all the time and now Ern wanted money from them to get her back.’

  ‘Annoyed enough to kill him,’ Charlotte said with an involuntary shudder.

  ‘Yep,’ Polly replied, ‘I’d say that’s rather annoyed.’

  ‘Why didn’t they just kill us as soon as we arrived?’ Annie asked.

  ‘You sound like you want to die,’ Isaac half laughed.

  ‘No, but why not? Georgina’s got black hair and they wouldn’t have thought twice about getting’ rid of me an’ all.’

  He shrugged. ‘Perhaps the Brethren ain’t there all the time. Perhaps they just missed little Georgie amongst all the other kids, bein’ so small an’ all. And I suppose, even though folks don’t give two jots about street urchins, they may have been afraid that some do-gooder would start asking questions if all those that went in there started disappearing willy nilly. Whatever the reason, just be thankful they did.’

  ‘I had no idea our enemies were right there amongst us,’ Annie said in a small voice as she stared that the forbidding square of dark stone on the horizon.

  Isaac clapped her on the back. ‘Just
goes to show how smart you are that you managed to stay hidden. Think of it that way and you’re bound to feel better.’ Polly shot him a withering glance and he shrugged. ‘I’m just trying to make her feel braver.’

  ‘Well, it ain’t workin’ so keep it to yourself.’

  There was a whine from the wolf pack. Annie shook herself. ‘We don’t know that the orphanage is where they’re taking us for sure, but they are getting restless and I don’t know how much longer I can hold this spell.’

  ‘You look dead on your feet,’ Charlotte said. What she didn’t say was how worried she was about the prospect of Annie losing control of the wolves through sheer exhaustion. In fact, it was what they were all secretly thinking. Perhaps they would be quick enough to make a run for it if the worst happened, but anyone unprepared for a wolf attack in the vicinity might not be so lucky. It was a terrible burden to dwell on.

  ‘Come on,’ Isaac said. ‘We’ve come this far; we might as well keep going now.’

  Annie started to walk in the direction of the pack and almost immediately, the wolves began to track again.

  They made steadier progress in the direction of the orphanage this time, the wolves moving more slowly, much to the relief of the children, so that they could follow at a jog. It was soon clear that as much as the group hoped their destination would be a different one, the one they had dreaded was exactly where they were they were being led to.

  Twenty-one:

  The wolves stopped, almost as one, and sniffed the air. The largest headed the pack. He turned to Annie and let out a whine.

  ‘This is it,’ Annie said in a low voice.

  They stood side by side at the gates and looked up at the imposing building. Considering that there ought to have been the chatter of hundreds of children inside, it was eerily silent. They would have believed it deserted had the wolves not led them there.

  ‘What do we do now?’ Charlotte asked.

  The wolves turned, eerily in concert again, and looked at them, as if asking the same question.