DRAGON
DRAGON
IT WAS AFTER DARK when Hetty woke, curled up against the basket’s side. She supposed it was the cold that woke her, for spring nights up this high were downright wintry.
Silhouetted by the dim lantern light, Benjy sat across from her, bent over the map spread out over the basket floor.
It was a sight that was hardly different from what she saw before she shut her eyes, the only change being the lit lantern by his elbow.
“You didn’t wake me up,” Hetty muttered to Benjy. “You said you would.”
“There’s no use in both of us being short on sleep.” Benjy shrugged. “You were yawning.”
She had, although Hetty would never admit it. She made a spell up to hide the air balloon from sight, and maintaining the spell was much harder than she had thought. Especially over the many hours she had to keep it up until true dark fell. An air balloon was hard to miss in the sky. And it took only one look over the basket rim to know that if someone shot at them, death was a likely outcome.
But that was the risk they took, because timing was that important. Benjy’s estimates of travel by balloon, buoyed by the modifications he made that allowed the balloon to be steered at a controlled pace, had them arriving just as they planned. That they hadn’t gotten lost was the work of small miracles. Although Bernice Tanner told them that she would send news ahead to the other agents of the Vigilance Society scattered in their path, Hetty and Benjy didn’t bother to make contact. Given their speed it was nearly certain they had surpassed even the quickest telegram. And the time they would waste explaining things would be time they could not afford to lose.
Through a mix of luck, the use of the stars to guide them, and the modifications made to the air balloon, they arrived exactly as planned to a tree that towered majestically above its neighbors. A tree that, according to Sarah Jacobs, was the site of funerals, for it was near enough to the farms in the area for people to travel, meet, and mourn.
While Sarah was utterly confused about their plan with the balloon, she was able to describe everything about the tree, including the good luck charm tied to the topmost branches that let Hetty and Benjy know they were right where they needed to be.
There was no place to land the balloon—the trees were too close. Instead, Benjy anchored the balloon to the top branches and Hetty set spells to conceal them until nightfall. It was a bit risky, but it would do.
Because getting here was the easy part. Leaving was going to be a bit more tricky.
“We need to start now, to make use of full dark,” Hetty said, stretching out her back.
“Wait.” Benjy pointed to the instruments above their heads. “How does this work again?”
This was the third time he’d done it, and it irritated her even more now that they were on the cusp of the task at hand.
“I don’t need to know how it works,” Hetty said. “You know how to do it. It’s enough.”
“And if it’s not?”
Hetty turned away and swung up on top of the basket, one foot ready to land on a nearby tree branch. “It’s not going to be a problem.”
She dared him to argue it wasn’t. Part of Hetty was even curious what he’d say. She never met someone who didn’t fight her every single step. He stood his ground on things that were important. But even when he didn’t protest, his opinion was clear.
Benjy wasn’t pleased about her refusing to learn how to work the balloon. But he didn’t understand. Her learning how to fly the balloon meant he’d try to stay behind if things went poorly. She wasn’t going to let that happen. She was in the business of finding people. She refused to lose any more.
“Do you still have the knife I gave you?” Benjy asked instead.
Still sitting on the basket’s rim, Hetty lifted up her skirt to reveal the top of her boot. The hilt of the knife he gave her before leaving Philadelphia stuck out, ready to be grabbed at a moment’s notice.
Hetty didn’t know why he gave it to her, knowing she was likely to stab him as well, but it made him feel better and she liked having the knife with her.
It was over a mile to the farm, and the darkness made it feel longer. They had only what Sarah Jacobs told them of the area, and she had only walked to this place in the daylight so a number of the things she told them to look for were swallowed up by shadows.
Yet they arrived at the right place, guided by the flickering firelight on the grounds before them.
Candles lit up a few windows in the big house that loomed on the slight hill ahead. And down near the cabins there was light too, a small communal fire which several people sat around. Although the air around wasn’t exactly cheerful, there was a shared spirit of relief about.
Crouched on the boundaries of the farm, Hetty stared at the fire, wondering if this complicated things or not.
That was when Benjy tapped her arm.
Hetty reached for her knife, but stopped when she noticed the beads around her wrist were glowing.
The sigils carved into the bracelet weren’t brighter than the glow of a firefly. But the light had a twin.
From the group around the fire, a woman abruptly moved back to the cabins, her cupped hand not fully hiding the glowing beads around her wrist as well.
She walked back to the cabin and lifted the sheet to slip through.
Perhaps luck was still at their side, because this cabin faced away from the fire, so the way toward it remained in the deepest shadows.
Over the fence they went, going the way Sarah had advised them to. The weakest part of the fence moved at their touch, and they walked as swiftly toward the cabin as they could without drawing attention.
The cloth moved aside and a young boy only a couple years younger than Hetty stepped out. His feet were bare and he looked as if he had been stirred from sleep.
He woke up completely when he saw them.
Benjy grabbed the boy, slapping a hand over his mouth and firmly trapping him before he could make a sound.
The boy struggled for just a moment, before he went limp.
“Let him go right now.”
The woman had stepped back into view.
“Let him go.” The woman held a mason jar aloft. The jar didn’t glow with magic, but the fury in her eyes told Hetty the contents inside held a promise of great harm.
“We aren’t here to hurt him,” Hetty said.
“I don’t know who you are.” The woman still held the jar, but her eyes were locked on the glowing beads at Hetty’s wrist. “But you are not Sarah. How do you have that?”
“Sarah gave this to us. We are the conductors she sent from Philadelphia to bring her children to her,” Hetty said.
“I’m supposed to believe you?”
“You’re Anna, right? She gave me the beads because Jim carved them. Sixteen beads for the star sigils they know and will teach their children.”
The jar lowered, and Anna stared at Hetty. “She really did send you.”
Hetty nodded. “We’re here to steal the children to safety.”
“You can come with us.” Benjy let go of the boy. “And anyone else who wishes.”
“Such big talk. How can you manage that?”
“We fly,” Hetty said.
Anna stared at her, her next words lost in her surprise.
“Can you give us wings?” the boy asked in awe.
“In a way,” Hetty said. “How many are here, and how many are willing?”
“I don’t, I can’t possibly—” Anna began. “You hear stories and people talk. But—”
“It’s a simple question. Are you willing?” Hetty asked.
“Yes.” Anna looked at the boy. “I wanted to run ever since this one grew like a weed. The master has debts, and a sale will happen soon. But this isn’t a big place. There’s six of us, not counting the babes. Anyone missing will be noted. Tomorrow might be Sunday, but—”
“Then we shouldn’t waste time,” Benjy said.
Anna turned to her boy. “Go tell Zipporah. She should be resting in her cabin. Find out what she thinks. The others will say yes. I’m sure of it.”
He nodded and slipped away to a nearby cabin.
Anna led the way inside her cabin and knelt by the pallets on the floor. Nestled together were two small children, the oldest five and the younger perhaps two. While they were certainly quite young, they were not the babies Hetty hoped they would be, if only because tiny babies would be easy to carry away.
Hetty knelt down and lifted the oldest’s arm, and inside along the forearm was a small circle with a line etched across like Sarah said would be there. Its twin was on the other child in a similar spot.
Anna watched all this in silence, but her expression grew less grave, as if this confirmed Hetty truly was who she claimed to be.
The oldest stirred then, her eyes opening wide when she saw the bracelet.
“You’re not Mama,” the girl whispered. The little girl looked at Anna. “Anna, where is Mama?”
“Emily, this woman’s going to take you to your mother. She’s a friend.”
Hetty held up her wrist to show Emily the beads. “She gave this to me. And I will give it to your mother when you are with her again.”
Emily looked on suspiciously but nodded in the end. “Okay.”
“I’ll carry the bigger one,” Benjy said. “You take the other.”
They did just that, the younger daughter staying sound asleep as Hetty picked her up.
That’s when Anna’s son ran back into the cabin.
“The lights are on in the field!” he cried.
Anna gasped. “That’s the alarms! They know and will be here shortly, but how? Were you seen?”
Hetty hesitated. She had not seen anyone on their way here. Nor had Benjy. But that didn’t mean they weren’t seen, or maybe there were quieter spells.
Or maybe someone was watching.
Hetty looked down at the child in her arms. Sarah Jacobs was so important that Bernice Tanner insisted on getting her out, and that when Hetty told her that Sarah would only leave with her children at her side, Bernice gave them money, a list of contacts, and everything they wished for before they left. Something more was going on, but there was no time to find out what it was.
This lurch in their plans wasn’t going to change their goals.
“They were watching for anyone,” Hetty said finally. “Doesn’t matter. All it means is that I need to make a distraction.” Hetty placed the younger daughter into Anna’s arms.
“What are you about to do?” Benjy asked.
“Set something on fire.”
“I’ll help,” Anna said.
“No, you go with him. You get everyone willing out, and I’ll grab anyone who takes their time.”
“But you can’t,” Anna protested.
But Hetty wasn’t listening to the protest. There was only one person whose protests she’d listen to at the moment, and he interrupted Anna.
“Trust her,” Benjy said. “We need the distraction she’ll make. The alternate is we leave you behind and take the children. Your choice.”
What choice was that? Anna took one look at her son, and nodded. She held out the mason jar to Hetty, placing it in her hand.
“Use this as part of your distraction.”
“I will.”
Hetty left the cabin then, striding for the farmhouse.
It was still quiet, but a tense sort of quiet.
The light that Anna’s son had mentioned created a brightness that left few places to hide. It wasn’t bright as day, but the light had the strength of several campfires.
A few of the cabins were open, and the people called out to Hetty.
But Hetty ignored them all. Her eyes were on the house. It sat on a slight hill, where movement and shadows stirred like ghouls. Ghouls they were, and she was going to do her part in getting rid of them.
Three years ago Hetty ran from a place not much bigger than this. She had only thoughts of escape back then as she hadn’t known the magic she knew now.
Calmly, Hetty drew arrow star sigils in the air, and launched them in all directions like she was throwing darts. Some hit buildings, some hit the ground, and others hit places she wasn’t aiming for at all but would work just the same.
Then she took Anna’s mason jar and dug a shallow hole. She buried the jar and placed more spells around it to make sure the jar broke at the right moment.
Distantly Hetty could hear the ring of alarms. But she ignored them. She had more spells to cast. Sagittarius came to her fingers next; it was a complicated star sigil, but she managed it all the same, bringing it in an almost lifelike form next to her. She nodded at the star sigil and urged it forward to charge at the big house. Its hooves sparked flames as it ran, which spread across the ground and didn’t stop until it hit the building.
Then she summoned the wind.
Slowly Hetty moved the flames along the house so that by the time an alarm came from within, it was already surrounded.
She saw windows open, but she didn’t stay around to see who got out.
Hetty ran.
Hetty ran across the now empty ground, priming her spells to react at the next burst of movement that passed over them.
She ran and ran, until she reached the edge of the farm, where another man had stopped at the edge.
His eyes were wide as he stared at the flames.
“What is this?” he whispered.
“A way of escape,” Hetty said, guessing he was another one of the people in the cabins, the only one left, it seemed, who might have been skeptical of escape being possible.
“Are you willing to come with me?”
“Come with you?” The man stared at her. “Did you do this?”
“I’m just helping things along. If you don’t want to come, stay here, but I don’t think you want to.”
Something boomed like thunder back on the farm. One of the arrow traps she’d set had gone off.
An explosion of air to send whoever disturbed it flying backwards.
“No, I don’t,” the man said.
They ran down the path Hetty had carefully crouched along earlier. The light from the flames trickled through the trees. But it was still dark, and she wasn’t too surprised when the man tripped, stumbling over the uneven terrain.
Hetty stopped when he did not jump up right away.
“Need help?” she gasped, holding out a hand.
“Yes, I do.”
He grabbed her hand, but instead of pulling himself up, he twisted her wrist as if to snap her bones.
Pain dazzled Hetty for a moment, but being used to pain, she fought through it and jerked her hand away from him.
She shook her wrist to make sure it wasn’t broken, but something worse had happened to it. The Canis Minor star sigil glowed on the back of her right hand. As the glow grew brighter, she found she couldn’t move her fingers. “Why, what—”
The man stood up, and in that moment Hetty realized she was wrong to mistake him for a runaway.
Her eyes had adjusted a bit to the darkness and she could see his clothes were much nicer than anything that Anna or her son wore.
But more than that, there was something unkind in the way he held himself.
“Let’s make this easy, shall we? Give me the children you took and you can go on your merry way.”
“Why would I do that?”
“Because it’s the only option that lets you walk free.”
Hetty didn’t bother answering. She drew the first star sigil that came to mind. But the spell was too quickly done, and it fell apart in a flash of light.
The man howled in laughter, and then waved his hand forward.
The sigil on Hetty’s right hand lit up and dragged her toward him.
Hetty kicked and swiped at him with her good hand, but he evaded her. The man grabbed her, and wrenched her arm back so hard that this time Hetty couldn’t power through the pain. “Don’t make this hard. They just want the children. Give them to me and you won’t be hurt.”
“I can’t. I don’t have them.” Hetty tried to wiggle out of the grip, stomp her foot on the man’s heel, to do anything that could get him to let go. But he yanked her back, so her gaze swung skyward to where the stars should have been.
“Lead me to them. I know they went somewhere. You don’t have time to play games. If you don’t take me, my employers will force you. I can’t say what they’ll do, but you will not like it.”
Trapped as she was, Hetty wasn’t frozen in fear yet. For whatever reason the man was holding back from hurting her too much. She could use this. He clearly thought he was presenting the kinder option and that she would consider it. If she played along with this assumption, she might be able to cut her way out of this trap.
“I will,” Hetty stammered then. “I have something that will let them know where I am. Let me go and I can get it.”
To her surprise, he let go without a word.
But her surprise was not so great to stop her from ramming her shoulder into his chest.
Hetty bent over, grabbing the knife from her boot.
When he reached for her again, Hetty spun around, sweeping the knife like a scythe.
Her knife slipped across a surface, and warm blood splattered against her face and hands.
The man reached out to her at first, but then he staggered, falling to the ground clutching his face. More blood spilled, pooling around him.
Hetty stood over him, clutching the knife.
He was still moving. He was still alive.
At first she was glad. She had not killed a man this night. But that gladness turned to fear.
She had not killed him, but should she?
He was after these children, he had threatened her. He still could follow them and get the upper hand.
A bird’s whistle caught her ear.
Hetty looked up and realized why there were no stars.
The stars were still out, but they were blocked by the expansive canopy of the air balloon.
A rope ladder fell down before her within easy reach.
Hetty shook herself, and shoved her knife back into her boot. Wiping the blood on her skirts, Hetty grabbed ahold of the ladder. As she climbed, the balloon began its ascent. Soon Hetty was surrounded by stars, the gentle night breeze taking her far away from the fire and the yelling below.
Hetty hadn’t even reached the basket’s rim before Anna appeared, with her hand outstretched. Hetty grabbed it, the glowing bracelets becoming even brighter as they came into contact. Anna’s son came to the other side, and helped haul her over the rim.
The balloon, which had felt so spacious before, was crowded with Anna, her son, an old woman, and a young man missing part of his left foot. A young woman held Emily Jacobs in her lap, while Emily’s sister slept on peacefully in the middle of the basket.
All of them were staring at Hetty, none more than Emily, whose eyes were the widest and struck with amazement.
But Hetty ignored the stares to look for Benjy. He was well occupied with getting the balloon and its occupants far away from here at a reasonable height and speed. Yet busy as he was, Hetty didn’t miss the relief on his face.
“I told you,” Hetty called to Benjy. “I don’t need to know how to work the balloon!”