“Hey. Hey, pal. You need to get out of here.”
Solomon couldn’t be sure where the voice was coming from. It sounded nearby. He opened his eye to see a man crouching next to him.
“You all right? You can’t stay here.” The man said again.
Solomon nodded, his head bobbing loosely on his neck. This was new to him. He had never been sick a day in his life. He didn’t like it.
He put his hands down next to him and tried to push himself to his feet. He only made it a few inches off the ground before sinking back with a groan.
“All right, pal. I’ve got you. Come on.” Hands wrapped around his chest and helped lever him upright. “Whoa. You’re a tall one, aren’t you? All right now, here we go.”
The man helped him walk, Solomon limping and leaning on him heavily.
“Where?” he managed to whisper, his throat parched suddenly.
“Out of here,” the man answered. “I’ve got a hiding place. It might work for the two of us, but we have to hurry.”
As if in answer, a whistling tune started somewhere, floating through the streets. Solomon peered around blearily, noticing that except for him and his benefactor, the streets were deserted.
“Yep. Need to hurry. All right now. Come on.”
The man moved faster, almost dragging Solomon along with him.
They turned down a side street, and the whistling grew louder. The man was breathing in gasps now as he rushed along, tugging at Solomon more insistently.
“Down here. Not far now. All right.”
He pushed Solomon down on the ground near the foundation of a building and left him to lie there. Solomon could hear scraping, like rocks being slid across each other. Then the man grabbed his shoulders and started pulling him. He grasped his pack in his uninjured hand and held on tight.
“Sorry for the rough treatment,” he said. “All right, here we go. Inside now. Safe and sound.”
The whistling sound grew some more, sounding almost like a tune that Solomon should know. He smiled, wishing he could remember what it was and join in.
Then, there was the dark of a low ceiling passing over his head and rough dirt on his back. His leg hit the side of an opening and he cried out.
“Hush now,” the man muttered. “Almost there.”
He let go of Solomon. A moment later the sound of scraping rocks came again, and then there was only darkness.
“We’re safe now,” the man said. “But stay quiet. We’ll be all right, now.”
Solomon smiled to say thank you, pursed his lips and tried to whistle a tune like the music outside. But his mouth was dry, and it was dark. Better to let it go and do it tomorrow when he woke up.
Chapter 25
When Shireen returned to her office the next morning, there was no sign of Samuel. Her desk was still the same mess she left it the night before, and usually, her aide was there before her, making sure that only the things that truly required her attention were left on it. But as the day went on, it always seemed to become more cluttered and disorganized, which went against everything she had been trained in as a scout.
There, she knew where every item in her saddlebags was, and could get to them in seconds. Everything in its place, exactly where she wanted it.
Why couldn’t she do the same here? Mostly because she didn’t want to be doing this. And looking at her desk like this now, for the second day in a row, made her realize even more how much she was coming to rely on Samuel. She was pretty sure she stumbled onto the secret of how Jediah had been such an effective Head of House.
Sighing, she took her seat and started to try to organize the drift of papers herself. At least she’d have made a start on it when Samuel arrived.
Two hours later there was still no sign of him and she was starting to get worried.
She was preparing to get up and find someone to go look for him when Orlando entered.
“Have you seen that Darius guy?” he said, sitting down in the chair across the desk from her.
“No. Why? Should I have?”
“I guess not, but he’s not in his quarters, and he didn’t show up for dinner last night.”
“Are you sure he’s not in there? Maybe he’s still sleeping. You said he told you he was tired yesterday.”
“He’s not. After he didn’t show up last night, I thought I better make sure he was all right, so I went over there. I banged hard on the door, and when I got no response, let myself in.”
Shireen raised her eyebrows at that.
“I know,” Orlando said, “not exactly good host etiquette. I was concerned though. Who gets that tired from a trip from Whispering Pines?”
“And?”
Orlando shrugged. “I still have no idea. He wasn’t there, and what’s more, he hadn’t been there all night.”
“What do you mean?”
“His bed wasn’t slept in, there were no clothes, nothing. The room was exactly like it was when I left him there.”
“Where did he go?”
“If I knew that, I wouldn’t have come to you with this. I have no idea.”
Shireen sat back in her chair, tapping her pen against her bottom lip. “This is strange. This Darius shows up, says he’s from Jocasta, who we don’t really know, and then disappears. And, on top of that, there’s been no sign of Samuel today either.”
Orlando twisted in his seat to look back into the outer office. “I didn’t even notice. He’s usually so quiet when I come in.”
