Page 67 of Ryld's Shadows
Trusting the cover of darkness, he peeked around the edge of the bricks. A white van was parked near the double doors at the back, its engine idling. Without windows in the doors, it was the type of van used mainly by workers in some sort of trade or another. As he watched the orphanage door opened. A woman stepped out. Kai thought she looked vaguely familiar. A human woman, perhaps one of the teachers he’d seen during their tour. She walked up first to the driver side window and spoke with the driver—though Kai couldn’t make it out—then walked to the van and opened the rear doors.
Another woman came from inside the building, this one carrying something covered with a dark cloth. She set it in the of the van, then they both returned inside.
“What do you see?” Hank whispered.
“They’ve started loading.” Kai pulled him closer to speak in his ear. “Two teachers, I think. One human, one aelfe. I don’t see him, but I can feel the shape of the goblin casting the spell. Warrior caste, I think. Back and to the left of the van.”
“Do we…?”
“No, wait. They haven’t brought any children out. No false alarms.”
“I’ll go after the goblin.”
Kai heaved an exasperated breath. “Hank, you can’t see him.”
“No.” Hank grinned. “But I can smell him. Would it kill him to shower?”
Their hushed conversation was cut off by the door opening again. The human teacher led out four small pixie children. Two looked a little older, probably just into adolescence. The other two were very small.
“Are we going to meet them at the bus station…?” one of the older children asked.
“No, not until you arrive. Hush now, get in and don’t cause any fuss.”
Kai kept his grip on Hank’s arm until the children had climbed into the van, the smallest one lifted in since the steps were too high up and the kids were wearing T-shirts over their wings.
“Shut your eyes,” Kai whispered. “I’m going to dispel the darkness.”
Hank did as he asked, and Kai raised his hands as he shouted the drow word for light. The words weren’t important, theintentwas, and the goblin’s spell shredded under his onslaught. All three adults cried out, temporarily blinded with the lightning flash of the spell.
“Now, Hank.”
Realizing they were under some sort of attack, the human teacher ran for the door. The aelfe stood her ground, slamming the doors of the van, while the goblin lifted one hand, some sort of spell gathering between his fingers, a knife clutched in his other hand. He pointed the knife toward Kai and Hank. “There!”
Hank charged him, throwing up a shield to take the brunt of whatever spell the goblin was about to hurl. Kai threw a quick, sloppy wind strike at the human teacher, quite sufficient to take her feet out from under her and tumble her down the stairs.
Unfortunately, this gave the aelfe time to throw a fireball that Kai could only partially deflect. It raked along his sleeve, and he hissed at the flare of pain along his forearm.
“So uncivilized,” he snarled at her. “That was one of my better shirts.”
His ball of mage lightning struck her midsection and sent her breath from her in a noisywhoomp. Behind her, Hank had tackled the goblin, a big one. Kai thought he might have been another palace servant, which did make sense in a goblin network sort of way.
He hesitated to intervene, both to preserve Hank’s pride and because their proximity didn’t give him room for a good spell strike. Hank ducked under a wild swing from the goblin’s knife, picked up a loose piece of concrete from a parking barrier and smacked the goblin in the head with it.
“Well.” Kai drew in a careful breath. “That could have gone worse. Are you all right?”
Hank got up, dabbing at the side of his mouth. “Fine. Caught my tusk on the way down. But fine.”
The goblin was out cold but the aelfe was still moving. Kai grabbed her and hauled her up before she could crawl away.
“You have no business here,” she hissed.
Kai let his eyes glow and showed his teeth. “Youhave no business selling children. Hank, check with the driver for rope or a rope substitute.”
He flashed his fangs at the human woman, just to ensure she would remain cowering on the ground. Hank came back with zip ties and extension cords, most likely from the van’s more everyday purpose as perhaps an electrician’s or landscaper’s vehicle.
With the child thieves secured, Kai opened the back of the van, his sharp teeth put away again. “Hello, children. There’s been a change of plans.”
It took only about twenty minutes for them to be back on the road, Hank driving the cart and Kai riding beside. In the back sat their bound prisoners, the pixie children and two empty cages. Neither he nor Hank could in good conscience keep the six fairies that had been in those cages captive a minute longer. They were all very young fairies who, as far as they had been able to ascertain, had been raised in the cages. They didn’t know how to ‘port so they sat on the pixie children.
