An old water barrel butted up against one wall. I climbed on top of it and stuck my candle between my teeth, careful not to bite down too hard as I started feeling around for handholds. There was one clear path, a series of shallow indentations leading up the side of the wall. It made sense. Kids always find a way out, but in Blind Michael’s lands, that didn’t mean getting away. They also needed a way back in.
The climb was slow, painful, and one of the most nerve-racking things I’ve ever done. There was no way to run if anyone found me before I was over the wall; if I got caught, I was as good as dead. The cuts on my hand burned when they pressed against the stone, my knees ached from fighting gravity, and hot wax spattered my cheek and neck every time I moved. But I made it. I reached the top of the wall, my candle still burning a steady blue, and no one sounded the alarm.
The Children’s Hall spread beneath me in an unmoving patchwork of stillness and shadows. The children were gone, probably still searching for me back in the “real” world. That was a good sign. A tapestry hung a few feet to my left, anchored to the top of the wall with rusty metal loops. It looked as decayed as everything else in Blind Michael’s kingdom, but it would do. Inching along the wall, I grabbed the tapestry, intending to climb carefully down.
The decayed fabric had other ideas. It tore under my hands, and I fell, grabbing for a less tattered section of the cloth. This time I got it right. The tapestry stretched but didn’t tear, and I slammed against the wall hard enough to knock the air out of my lungs, nearly biting through my candle in the process. I hung there for a moment, breathing rapidly through my nose. When I was sure I wouldn’t fall, I started to descend.
The tapestry ended about three feet above the floor. I let go, landing hard but upright. I’d made it; I was in the hall, and the children weren’t, although I knew better than to count on that to last. I needed to keep moving.
There were a few makeshift toys scattered around the floor. Sticks, stones, and some bones I didn’t look at too closely; a teddy bear without a head and a doll’s head without a body; shards of wood and plastic. None of them looked as if they were used very often, save perhaps as weapons. I searched until my candle had grown shorter still and didn’t find anything but garbage. “Damn it, where is she?” I whispered. The darkness didn’t answer. Wherever she was, it wasn’t here, and it was time to get moving.
The tapestry I’d used to break my fall looked like it would hold me. Putting my candle back between my teeth, I grabbed hold and started climbing. It didn’t take as long as it did the first time; fear and failure were hurrying my steps. I hauled myself over the edge of the wall, pulling the tapestry with me and dangling it down the outside of the building. It was proof that I’d been there; that didn’t matter as much as not breaking my neck did.
The tapestry made an excellent ladder. I lowered myself down, dropping without a sound onto the water barrel. One down—the easy one—and one to go.
Of course, I’d left the hard part for last.
The night was getting colder. I crept from building to building, stopping outside the one other landmark I was sure of: the stable. The screams that surrounded it before were gone, replaced by nickers and whinnies. The children we hadn’t rescued weren’t children anymore. I shuddered as I slipped inside, hiding behind a bale of hay. No one was likely to look for me there. What kind of idiot hides in a prison? Damn it all, anyway. How many parents were crying for children they’d never see again? Those kids hadn’t done anything wrong—they were just human and in the wrong place at the wrong time. It had to end. I was going to save Karen, and then I was going to kill Blind Michael. Firstborn or not, he’d die for what he’d done.
The sounds of the horses faded into background noise, becoming almost normal, and a new sound began making itself heard beneath the stamp of hooves and the rustling of hay. A sound I didn’t want to hear. Sobbing.
I turned to look at the nearest stall. It was barred with brambles and wire like the others, but whatever was behind it hadn’t been changed. Not all the way; not yet. I crept closer, whispering, “Hello?”
There was a pause. Then a too familiar voice said, “Hhello.”
An Artificial Night
Seanan McGuire's books
- A Man for Amanda
- Dance Upon the Air
- Moon Island(Vampire Destiny Book 7)
- A game of chance(MacKenzie Family Saga series #5)
- Death Angel
- Loving Evangeline(Patterson-Cannon Family series #1)
- A Changing Land
- A Clandestine Corporate Affair
- A Gentleman Never Tells
- An Inheritance of Shame
- And Then She Fell
- Anything but Vanilla
- Anything for Her
- Anything You Can Do
- A Rancher's Pride
- A Stranger at Castonbury
- An Act of Persuasion
- An Unsinkable Love
- Angel's Rest
- Be Good A New Adult Romance (RE12)
- Beauty and the Blacksmith
- Beauty and the Sheikh
- Blood and Kisses
- Captain Durant's Countess
- Cardwell Ranch Trespasser
- Cavanaugh on Duty
- Chances Are
- Cinderella and the Sheikh
- Currant Creek Valley
- Cowboy Enchantment
- Dance With Me
- Dangerous Refuge
- Dicing with the Dangerous Lord
- Down and Dirty (Dare Me)
- Ein Mann fur alle Lagen
- Emancipating Andie
- Entanglement (YA Dystopian Romance)
- Forever and a Day
- Grace Anne
- Guardian Wolf
- Her Hesitant Heart
- Her Man in Manhattan
- Highland Defiance
- Meant-To-Be Mother
- Highland Heiress
- Highland Master
- Highlander Most Wanted
- Hotter than Texas (Pecan Creek)
- Kiss and Spell (Enchanted, Inc.)
- Lady Vivian Defies a Duke
- Lanterns and Lace
- Leather and Lace
- Lightning and Lace
- Lost and Found
- Meant to Be (Heaven Hill Series)
- More Flirts! 5 Romantic Short Stories
- More Than One Night
- Need A Want Companion Novel
- Night Maneuvers
- No Stranger to Scandal
- Norma Jean
- NYC Angels Flirting with Danger
- Once and Again
- Operation Endurance
- Radiant
- Real Romance
- Rock and a Hard Place
- Roman Holiday
- Sand Angel
- Scandal at the Cahill Saloon
- Scene of the Crime Deadman's Bluff
- Second Chance
- Seductive Company
- Sins and Scarlet Lace
- Stranded with a Billionaire
- Strangely Normal
- Tap Dance (Dance Series)
- The American Bride
- The Banshee's Desire
- The Banshee's Revenge
- The Devil's Heart The Chattan Curse
- The Englishman
- The Game Changer The Final Score
- The Rancher and the Event Planner
- The Reluctant Wag
- The Texan's Contract Marriage
- Translation of Love
- Urban Venus
- Want (Stephanie Lawton)
- Wanted (Amanda Lance)
- The Raider_A Highland Guard Novel
- The Wife, the Maid, and the Mistress
- India Black and the Gentleman Thief
- Take This Man
- The Wiccan Diaries
- The Swan Book
- How To Be A Woman
- It Takes a Scandal
- An Heir to Bind Them
- Passion and the Prince