The Children of the Sky

the wood fasteners were cracking.

“Ravna!” That was Heida, and even louder than usual.

It wasn’t till hours later that she remembered the perfection of Tinish mimicry; this was Heida or some pack. In the here and now, she simply popped open the door.

It really was Heida. She grabbed Ravna’s arm and dragged her into the hallway.

“You gotta help us. Right now!”

“What? What?” said Ravna as Heida pulled her toward the stairs.

“Geri Latterby, she’s gone!” said Heida.

Down on the main floor now. The few kids present were clustered around someone bundled in outdoor clothing, sitting at one of the desks. Ovin Verring turned, saw Ravna. “You got her!”

Now Ravna recognized the seated figure. It was Elspa Latterby. The kids parted before Ravna, letting her near. The girl’s head was bent forward. She had vomited all over the desk.

Ravna touched her shoulder. “Elspa?”

The girl looked up. The left side of her face was scraped and she was bleeding from near her eye. It looked like she had fallen on her face. “Geri … we were almost home. Bunch o’ raggedy Tines jumped us. They took Geri. Beasly ’n’ I chased ’em … I couldn’t keep up.”

Ravna brushed her hand gently across Elspa’s hair. “We’ll get her back, Elspa.” She looked around at the angry, frightened faces. Run-ins with fragments were an occasional problem. There had even been a robbery three years ago. But an abduction? Okay then. “Lisl? You’re our favorite medic. Please help Elspa.”

The young woman had been hovering in the background, too shy to push her way forward. But Lisl Armin was one of the few who had really believed Ravna’s rants about the importance of first aid. With Lisl, and Oobii’s diagnostics, Elspa should be okay. As for Geri, “Ovin, start phoning around. There should be an auto list at the top of Emergency Procedures. We can set up a search—”

“The landlines, they’re down.” Ovin was wall-eyed.

Of course. “You’ve radioed Woodcarver and Nevil?”

“Y-yes,” he said, “Woodcarver is sending out the city troops. Nevil is—”

“Hei! Everybody!” It was Bili Yngva, standing at the outer entrance to the Meeting Place. He waved a radio at them. “I’m coordinating with Nevil. He’s spotted the Tropicals; they’re running south!”

The Children swarmed toward the exit.

•  •  •

You can’t be two places at once. Ravna took a chance, and left the Oobii to accompany the Children.

Queen’s Road ran parallel to the cliffs, gently descending toward the top of Margrum Climb. There were town houses along the road, their pole lamps bright circles of light. A trickle of Children joined their group, and soon they were overtaken by packs of Woodcarver’s city troops.

The Children were full of rumors, stories of attacks all over town.

Bili and his radio had something closer to hard facts—but not very many of them. “Yes, there’ve been several attacks on Children and city packs,” he said.

“Who?” that was the shout from several corners of the crowd.

“We don’t know yet! Geri and Elspa, but Elspa is okay. Edvi Verring and his Best Friend.”

Up ahead, Ovin Verring stumbled. Edvi was his cousin. Ovin twisted around and pushed his way close to Bili. “Are they okay?”

Bili lowered his voice. “We don’t know, Ovin. Both Edvi and Geri are missing. Parts of Dumpster and Beasly are dead or missing.”

“Sons of bitches!” said someone. “Best Friend” packs ranged from opportunists to groupies—to truly best friends, very much like Pilgrim. Ravna remembered Beasly and Dumpster. They had been ideal companions for the youngest.

“Look,” Bili shouted. “All the witnesses agree the attackers were Tropical nutcases. We’re on this. Nevil is almost down to the embassy.” The same direction the rest of them—and the Tinish troops around them—were going.

They were leaving the area of newest construction. The last lamppost marked the south end of Ravna’s own house. There were no lights in the windows, and the agrav was missing from its customary place behind the house.

Ravna stepped across the frozen ruts. “Let me borrow the radio for a moment, Bili.”

Yngva stared down at the gadget clutched in his hand. “I have to keep in touch with Nevil.”

She held out her hand. “Just for a moment.”

The conversation had not slowed Bili down, but he looked around at the nearby Children. He was not as smooth as Nevil, but he could recognize an audience when he saw one. “Okay, but please keep it brief.”

He handed the device to Ravna. It was one of Scrupilo’s analog radios, not a proper commset. Not that it mattered much now; Ravna only had to get through to the ship. Fortunately, what had to be done was well within the authority Nevil had granted her:

She had Oobii ping all the existing radios, repeat back their locations. Yes, Nevil was already on the grounds of the Tropicals’ Embassy. Woodcarver was on a wagon, driving down the inner road. She’d reach the embassy before Ravna. Scrupilo was at North End, trying to get airborne. Johanna and Pilgrim … their agrav was still aground at the Cold Valley lab. She punched a message through to it, ending with “… and we’ll need some active search.” She asked Oobii to relay all priority items.

“Please, Ravna. Nevil needs this radio for the rescue work and it’s already low on charge.”

As she handed it back, Oobii’s voice began babbling from the device. Bili listened for a second, then announced. “Everybody! More casualties. Belle Ornrikak is dead. The Tropicals grabbed Timor!”

Belle was the least known of the casualties. Half a year ago, Timor might have counted as the least of the human losses. Tonight … a groan went around the Children. Some of them started running, trying to keep up with the soldier packs who were steadily passing by. But the frozen, rutted ground was not kind to spindly two-legs who wanted to run. These kids were just causing a traffic jam. Ravna caught up, persuaded them to keep to a fast walking pace, at the edge of the road. Even Heida slowed down.

They were beyond most of the town houses now. Only a few of the kids carried lamps, but Ravna persuaded one squad of packs to stay with them. Their oil torches lit the way.

Tonight, that light was really needed, even by humans. The sky was completely dark, without aurora or moon or stars. She hadn’t checked the weather earlier, but the cloud cover must be thick and complete. They walked on about a thousand meters. Bili reported—actually Oobii relayed—that there were no more casualties; all the other Children were accounted for. Jo and Pilgrim were airborne and coming south.

Now at the southern horizon, there might be a break in the clouds. There was light, shifting in much the same slow way as the aurora. The kids were pointing to it now, “Strange color!”

Heida climbed the drifts by the road, stood precariously at the crest for a moment. “That light. It’s a fire!”

There was only one large structure this side of the Margrum dropoff: the Tropicals’ embassy.

•  •  •

The fire had not been large. It looked like only one area near the top of the central tower had burned. In the troops’ torchlight, it was hard to see much damage. The main gate was open. Two packs in military line formation guarded the entrance. Four reserve packs were visible in the shadows. Numerous ordinary packs and some Children were already here. They milled around, blocked by the troops from going further.

Ravna walked toward the gate, followed by Ovin and Heida and the others from Oobii.

Bili strode ahead, talking on the radio. “Right. Okay.” He stopped just short of the guard line and waved everybody back. “I’m sorry guys, they’re still gathering clues in there.”

Ravna took a step or two more, till she was face to face with Yngva. “What about Timor and Geri and Edvi? They could be in there.” The words just popped out; she really wasn’t trying to make trouble.