return.'
'You can't do that,' Lieutenant Burns whined.
'That slip of paper that says I outrank you, tells me otherwise. And Lieutenant, if you annoy me once more, I will personally throw you out of that door to fend for yourself, clear?'
Lieutenant Burns nodded furiously.
'Great, now go make yourself useful by helping anyone who needs it.' I waited until he was out of earshot. 'How the hell did he make Lieutenant?'
'Important daddy,' Sergeant Roberts said. 'I'll make sure he's kept busy.'
'I'll be back soon. If he causes you any trouble, shoot him.'
'It's not him I'm worried about. What happens if those things get in here?'
'The two slits on the door can be opened to let you see outside, yes?'
Sergeant Roberts nodded.
'Most of what are out there are called barren,' Sky told sergeant Roberts. 'They can be killed with a shot to the head or heart, just like a human.'
'I'm pretty sure what was out there wasn't human.'
'That's true, but they die just as quickly once they're reminded of it.'
It didn't take long to get through the pantry and up the hidden stairway to the officers quarters. Finding the civilians help took far longer, mostly out of a desire not to make too much noise. But eventually, I found them, four women and a man, all of whom were huddled together in a corner of the large kitchen. The man swiped at me with a butcher's knife, but it was easily avoided and he was disarmed without further incident.
'Please don't kill us,' one of the women said with a thick French accent.
'I came up through a secret stairway from an underground room, all of the soldiers are down there,' I said. 'You'll be safe there.'
The woman translated to the other women who nodded with enthusiasm.
I stopped by the front entrance and motioned for the others to continue as I glanced into the courtyard beyond. Men shuffled about without purpose. They moved with a slightly unnatural step-it was as if they were unsure they could restart if they stopped moving. They were the barren, and there were dozens and dozens of them. A mixture of army soldiers, still in their uniform, and ranch hands. These were the missing people from both the other fort and the Warren ranch.
The two bodies I'd noticed dead on the ground earlier were being devoured by several of the barren. They tore apart the flesh and snapped the bones as if they were eating a chicken at a banquet.
I hurried after the group into to the dining room, and opened the secret door that sat behind a moved cabinet, which I'd pushed away from the wall when I came up earlier.
'Is there anyone else left up here?' I asked. 'Apart from the Captain?'
Three of the women and the man shook their heads and entered the tunnel, but the fourth woman, the same who had spoken earlier, paused as she stepped past me. 'There are two children. The Captain keeps them in his room.'
'What?' I asked with far too much anger. 'Why didn't anyone mention this to me before?'
The woman flinched back as if I were about to strike her. 'None of the men know, apart from Lieutenant Burns. I was sworn to secrecy. They threatened to have me executed for treason if I spoke of it. Captain Waltham says they're Indian spies; he's interrogating them. Lieutenant Burns brought them in about a week ago.'
I pointed down the path. 'Go find Sergeant Roberts and tell him that I'm up here and going to find these kids. If you happen to see Lieutenant Burns, please feel free to shoot him.'
The woman’s eyebrows rose in shock.
I walked away without telling her if I was joking, mostly because I was pretty certain I wouldn't be able to lie convincingly and say that I was.
Moments later, I was standing to one side of the Captain's room banging on the door. 'Either you open it, or I will.'
A rifle round shot through the wood exactly where my head would have been if I'd been in front of the door.
A quick glance through the hole told me that the captain was alone in the room. I placed a hand on either side of the doorframe and increased the air pressure around it, crushing the wood, until the door buckled and collapsed under its own weight. I immediately grabbed the remains in a bubble of air as they fell inward and flung them into the room beyond, slamming into the captain like a… well, like a door being slammed into a human at near hurricane speeds. I was almost certain it hurt, and from the moaning noise creeping out from under the reshaped wood, I was more than likely right.
'You should have opened the door,' I said, pushing a heavy trunk, which had been used as a barricade, aside and stepping into the room, which apart from the trunk was devoid of any other furniture.
The captain moaned and pushed the pile of wood off of him as he reached for the rifle. I picked up the weapon and emptied it, tossing it through the open doorway. 'The children, where are they?'
'Spies.'
I kicked him in the ribs and he yelled in pain.
'They were caught running from Kilnhurst.' He tried to push the remains of the door off him, so I stepped on it to apply a little more pressure, which caused him to wheeze.
'They found out about the lich,' he said breathlessly. I removed the pressure and allowed him to continue. 'I had to keep them away from everyone. Couldn't let them go running back to their friends.'
'And you couldn't kill them. You couldn't risk their bodies being found. Two dead native children showing up would cause you a few problems.'
'Are you going to kill me?'
I kicked the wood aside, and dragged him to his feet. 'That sort of depends on how much help you give me in finding those children.'
'They're behind the wall there.' He pointed behind me. 'I've been keeping them inside a hidden room to make sure no one discovers them. The door can just be pushed aside.'
'Good to know,' I said and launched the captain through the wall with a crash, that was accompanied by the screams of children. I suddenly felt very bad about using the Captain to open the door for me. It probably hadn't helped their nerves. Bits of plaster and wood rained down over the floor and I waited for the dust to settle before stepping over the prone form of Captain Waltham, and into a small room that held two beds, a small table and two buckets. Two children, a boy and a girl around ten or eleven years old, sat at the end of the room, huddled together in a corner.
'I'm Nathan,' I said softly, crouching down to their height.
The boy stared straight ahead, never making eye contact with me. There were marks on his sleeveless arms. Little circles of burnt skin. I pushed down the anger that bubbled inside me. 'Can either of you speak English?'
'I can,' the girl said.
'Good, I'm here to get you to safety. Some bad people have arrived at the fort. We need to get away before they get inside this building.'
'He's bad people. He hurt my brother.' she motioned toward the captain, 'when my brother wouldn't tell him what he wanted to know.'
'I won't let him hurt you every again. Will you tell me your names?'
'I'm Tala,' she said. 'This is Wapi.'
'Let's get you both out of here. We'll talk more once you're safe.'
She spoke to her brother in a whisper as I stood. I turned to check on the captain, and was surprised when he slipped a blade into my stomach. He twisted the weapon and pulled it out as I staggered back.
'You're going to die in here,' he said and grabbed a clearly terrified Tala, dragging her through the ruined door and into the hallway.
Wapi stared at the dark glyphs that erupted over my skin, as they did their job of healing me, using my own spilled blood to fuel the magic. The knife hadn't been silver, so it didn't take long before I was able to get back to my feet. Captain Waltham had failed to kill or stop me, but he'd succeeded in making me very angry.
'We're gonna go get your sister back, now,' I told the young boy and, even though he couldn't understand me,
