Apollo scanned for Gayl and found her quickly. She lay in her mother’s arms, half asleep, nuzzling against her mother’s neck. Her older brother stood at his mother’s side but leaned against her hip, sleeping on his feet.
New destruction in the courtyard. More explosions, many of the old buildings back there were turning to rubble. These were the sounds of battle, thunder of war. In a way this was good. If Kinder Garten remained occupied back there, it meant he hadn’t realized the Wise Ones were here, at the ferry slip.
Despite their training, a faint buzz had risen in the crowd. Busy checking bags and soothing children, who were, understandably, losing composure. A child will whine for a snack even as the world is exploding. But what could they do? Nowhere else to go. They had to wait here at the pier.
“I alone can fix this!”
Wheeler’s voice caused everyone to go silent again. Even the infants stopped wriggling. Mostly. Now everyone watched the tree line. Sudden understanding: the destruction of buildings had ended, the task complete. Had it really taken so little time?
What now?
Then, behind them, a whisper played across the water.
A Pilgrim 40 Pilothouse Trawler appeared out of the darkness. One of the Wise Ones, a guard in her cloak, stood at the helm. The ship eased to the dock.
THE CHILDREN WERE brought on board first, but it was the older kids who were at the head of the line, seven-and eight-year-olds pulled up by three guards. The infants came next. The mothers on the pier handed their infants to the seven-and eight-year-olds, who immediately took each one to the forward master cabin, the most protected part of the ship. After the children had all gone below, the women tossed in their bags and supplies, one woman to the next, like sandbags. Last the women boarded. Two guards pulled each woman on, and in eight minutes, no more than that, the Wise Ones were ready to go.
Almost.
Apollo, Cal, and her twin imperial guards remained on the dock.
The wind picked up across the water, and the trees near the water’s edge snapped and flapped. Apollo turned toward the tree line, squinted and scanned. For a moment he thought he saw a silhouette of a man…but a man of an unimaginable size. More likely it was only an oddly shaped hill caught by the moonlight and animated by Apollo’s fear. It had to be that.
“People call us witches,” Cal said quickly. She grabbed Apollo’s hand. “But maybe what they’re really saying is that we were women who did things that seemed impossible. You remember those old stories about mothers who could lift cars when their kids were trapped underneath? I think of it like that. When you have to save the one you love, you will become someone else, something else. You will transform. The only real magic is the things we’ll do for the ones we love.
“One night I watched Emma out on the water, in her creek boat, paddling across the river, going back out to try and find her son, and I’m telling you, out on the water, that woman? She glowed.”
Now Cal pulled Apollo backward, toward the trawler. The twins followed alongside. They gripped their maces so tightly, the backs of their hands were red. Apollo put his arms up to be helped onto the trawler, but the guards didn’t pull him in.
“I’m sorry, Apollo,” Cal said. “You’re not taking this trip. My people are going east. You’re not going with them.” She pointed past the dock to the rocky shoreline fifty yards away, where something small had been tethered.
“That’s our creek boat,” Cal said. “I’m going to help you get to it.” She gestured for him to shimmy alongside a ledge of dirt; from there he’d be at the rocks that sloped down toward the water.
Cal turned to her imperial guards. “You two get on board now,” she said.
Neither woman moved. They stared down at her, their expressions a mask of professional cool but their eyes betrayed fear. “We’re committed to you, Cal. Until the end.”
Cal touched both women’s faces gently. Then she squeezed their chins so tightly both women winced.
“This is not Sparta and I don’t give one flying fuck about glory. Every day we stay alive is a day we beat our enemies.” She let go of their chins. “I never met two stronger, smarter women than you. Who’s going to need that strength, me or them?” She pointed toward the trawler where the other guards were making ready to depart.
The twins dropped their heads.
Then Cal went on her tiptoes and gave each woman a kiss on the cheek.
As the pair boarded, Cal walked to the edge of the dock. The adults and a few of the oldest children appeared at the windows of the cabins. The moon highlighted Cal’s tears, the tears of all the Wise Ones on board. She clapped one hand over her mouth to reassert her self-control.
The trawler’s engine played so faintly, it could hardly be heard over the whipping winds. The boat coasted backward, and the fenders bobbled against the dock, and in a moment the trawler drifted off. Then the engine burbled louder, and the trawler pulled away. Apollo read the ship’s name painted on the stern.
Merricat.
He shivered with gratitude, bone-deep relief, that they’d made it off the island. If nothing else it meant Kinder Garten’s threats were at least half empty.
Cal turned to Apollo and clapped him out of his trance. “Are you still standing there?” she asked. “I thought I told you to get down there.”
“Why didn’t you go?” he asked. “I hope you didn’t stay for me.”
“Oh, please,” she said. “Get over yourself.” She seemed chipper when she said this.
“Then why?” Apollo asked.
“Someone had to stay here and keep them busy,” Cal explained. “Until they can get some distance.” She put a hand on his shoulder and urged him to move.
He still looked confused. “But once you’re on the water, why would it matter?”
Cal looked back to the trees once again.
“The big one can swim,” she said.
THEY MOVED QUICKLY but carefully along the earthen ledge, and when they reached the rocks, they scrambled down. As they descended, they saw less and less of the Merricat. The farther the trawler moved, the more cheerful Cal became. They weren’t far from the creek boat, but still high enough that they could see the trees. And then, as casual as you please, Kinder Garten walked out from the shadows. Head to foot he was covered in brick dust. Dust in his hair and all over his clothes. His skin looked speckled and nearly red. He looked like a demon. He walked out on the ferry slip and scanned the water.
Cal crouched and Apollo crouched, too, but he wasn’t used to the terrain so he fell backward, down the sloping rocks, coming to a stop at the water’s edge. Cal scrambled after him.