The Child Thief

over to Nick, grabbed him by the collar, and pulled him up out of the creek. He propped Nick back up on the rock, then plopped down across from him, leaning forward and locking his crazy eyes on him.

“You need to understand a thing or two,” Redbone said. “So I’m gonna lay it on you. Back before I came here I lived upstate with my old man. Got tired of the sorry fuck beating the snot out of me every other day. So I upped and lit out for the big city. In less than a week, I was sleeping in a cardboard box, stealing, and turning tricks just to eat. You’ve any idea how bad that is? I had to do things I can’t even talk about still. I was thirteen. Fucking thirteen!

“One night this pimp gets a hold of me. Bastard tells me if I wanna work his street, I gotta pay. Pay? With what? I didn’t have enough dough to buy food. How was I supposed to pay this hustler? So I don’t. Sure enough he catches up with me and beats the crap out of me. I mean really beats the crap out of me. Left me in a Dumpster, spitting up blood. Man, at that point I wanted to die.

“Week later I’m back at it, because that’s all I got, see. Only now, no one wants anything to do with me. Y’know why?” Redbone’s eyes bore into Nick. “Because I got this gnarly scab on my mouth and I was all scraped up from the beating. So I’m mostly stealing shit and eating out of garbage cans. He caught me on his turf again. I wasn’t getting any action. I was just there, y’know. Made no difference to this motherfucker. He drug me into an alley, stuffed garbage in my mouth so no one could hear me screaming, and pulled out his knife. Says he’s gonna fix me for good and gives me this.” Redbone traced the scar running down his face. “Would’ve killed me, but that’s when Peter showed up. Y’know, the guy you were just badmouthing? Before that asshole even knew what was happening Peter cut him wide open. Laid him out! That’s one son’bitch that’ll never hurt another kid, ever.

“Peter doctored me up the best he could and brought me back with him. So let me lay it on you straight. I love that pointy-eared dude. He did more than save my life. He gave me a life. Gave me a family. I know what I’m about, ’cause it’s all real simple here. We’re clan. We’re Devils and we look after one another.”

Abraham and Dash nodded along.

“And if you think my story’s bad,” Redbone continued, “man, you ain’t heard shit. Get Abraham to tell you what it was like to be a runaway slave sometime. Ask him about the life Peter saved him from. Hell, ask any of them kids back at the fort. Every one of them gots a hard-luck story that’d bring tears to your eyes. Plenty a lot worse than mine. And there’s not a single one of them that wants to go back. Because we’ve all had our share of dealing with fucked-up parents, stepparents, priests, cops, pimps, pushers, crackheads, all those fuckers out there. That world out there, I say they can keep it, man.

“Peter’s given us another chance. That cat has put his life on the line for me. For you and for every kid here, time and again. The sooner you get your mind right about that the better off you’ll be. Are we straight on that?”

No, Nick thought. We’re not. But he nodded anyway.

“Good,” Redbone said. “Because I like you. And I’d hate to have to kill you.”

Nick wasn’t sure if Redbone was kidding, was pretty sure he wasn’t, pretty sure this kid would kill him if Peter asked him to, and judging from what he had seen back at the fort, probably any of them would. He glanced at Abraham, Dash, Leroy, even Cricket and Danny. He could see it in all their eyes. They were completely taken in by Peter’s ruse. It was as though Peter was some sort of messiah to them, come to take them to the promised land.

“This is a magical place,” Abraham said, addressing all the New Blood. “You wouldn’t know it. Not by the way things are now. But when I first come here these forests were lush, teeming with life. Every kind of fruits and nuts you could imagine. Why there were wild bananas hanging off the trees…a true paradise.”

“And it’ll be again,” Redbone stated with absolute conviction. “That’s where we come in. Where you come in. Together we’re gonna drive away the Flesh-eaters and then.” His eyes glimmered. “Then, we’ll be the Lords of Avalon.”

“Flesh-eaters?” Cricket asked.

Redbone hesitated, cut his eyes to Abraham.

“Tell us,” Cricket prodded.

“Yeah, well,” Redbone muttered. “Let’s just say they’re the ones causing all this trouble and leave it at that.”

“What are they?” Cricket persisted.

“Hush up, now,” Abraham said. “Here comes Sekeu. She’s in a foul enough mood already. She’ll scalp the lot of us if she hears us talking to New Blood about Flesh-eaters. Peter will tell you. Let you in on everything soon enough.”

Why can’t we talk about these Flesh-eaters? Nick wondered. What are they hiding? Nick thought about asking Sekeu, then saw her face and decided now wasn’t the time.

Sekeu held out her hand: four gray acorns.

“That there’s from Oak Grove?” Abraham asked.

She nodded.

“What’re we gonna do?”

“I say we slip across the creek,” Redbone said. “Make a quick raid into the Lady’s Wood.”

Abraham looked at him as though he’d lost his mind. “You do have a death wish.”

“The elves are too vigilant,” Sekeu said.

“Well, that leaves the witch’s swamp,” Redbone said.

They all fell quiet.

“Well?” Abraham asked, looking at Sekeu.

Sekeu shook her head. “What other choice do we have?”

THEY FOLLOWED THE creek downstream until the land began to level out. The water turned brown and led into a marsh of high, gray reeds. The reeds gave way to squat twisted trees with slick, black, oily bark, their branches dripping with thick moss. The path became soggy then muddy, grabbing at their feet. The trees pressed in around them as the path wove around weedy bogs and stagnant ponds.

Nick didn’t like it; other than an occasional bellow, the swamp was still and silent, the air musty and stifling. Even Redbone had fallen deathly quiet, all of them creeping along, weapons out, keeping a tight watch on the trees and murky pools. Nick felt as though he was in a sideshow spook house, knowing something would pop out at any second. He was worn out, his feet sore, and the dread was wearing on his nerves. He decided he’d had all the adventuring he needed for one day, and found himself actually longing to be back at the fort.

A cry came from behind and Nick spun about in time to see Danny sliding down a short embankment and into a pool of black, viscous mud.

“HELP!” Danny cried as he clawed at the slippery bank. The mud bubbled up around him. It was up to his waist in no time and appeared to be pulling him down.

Redbone leaped over, grabbed a root in one hand, and snatched a hold of Danny’s wrist with the other. Dash and Dirk were there in a second and it took all three of them to finally pull Danny out.

“Hey Danny,” Redbone said. “Next time you decide to drown yourself, try not to make so much noise. Okay?”

Danny looked like he was about to cry. He’d lost both his boots and was covered from the neck down in stringy, oily mud. The mud gurgled loudly behind him and he scurried away from the bank.

“Maybe we should take them back,” Abraham said to Sekeu.

“There,” Sekeu said, and pointed to a cluster of spotted mushrooms growing beneath a thick, thorny hedge.

“Few more over here,” Dash said. “We should spread out. Might just find enough.”

Sekeu nodded in agreement. She pointed at Nick and the other New Blood. “You four look here. Abraham, stay with them. The rest of you spread out. But keep in sight. We must be quick. She will find us if we linger.”

“OUCH,” NICK SAID, and stuck his finger in his mouth. That was about the hundredth time he’d been pricked so far. The only mushrooms they’d found were growing beneath the thornbushes. Nick