“That wasn’t what we agreed,” Jonah said, sounding displeased. “At least one of my men is dead because of her.”
“Then you need better men,” Findo said. He paused in his forward momentum. “If this boy is an example of them, you need a lot better men.” And that was the truth, to balance out the lie he’d told earlier, about Jonah having some promising young men.
“Brock? He has his uses,” Jonah said.
“Family connections,” Hallie said, from her upside down position. Hanging from Findo’s shoulder was making her head pound even more strongly. If it went on much longer, she might pass out from the pain. But right now she was conscious, and could stir up some more trouble for both Jonah and Findo.
“You leave my mother out of this,” Brock hissed.
“Oh, so brave,” Hallie mocked him. She tried turning her head to look at him, but the world spun. Her damaged head did not like being upside down at all. She grit her teeth and forced herself to continue. “I wasn’t talking just about your mother. Ask Findo about the last time he saw your grandfather.”
“That’s enough from you,” Findo said. His fingers tightened around her leg hard enough to leave bruises. Reminding her of just how powerful he was. As if she needed the reminder.
“But, do you know my grandfather?” Brock asked. From the tone of his voice it was clear he didn’t have any particular love or respect for Findo. Hallie could picture him, standing with his shoulders square, chin lifted a little, staring at theveondken. He would never have risked that tone with Jonah.
“You don’t question guests,” Jonah told him, voice a sharp snap. “Alright. You can take her now. Let’s go,” he said, with a slightly different note in his voice. Speaking to Findo, and making it seem as if he was agreeing to a request from theveondkenrather than going along with what Findo wanted. Hallie wondered if the two men had ever had a true disagreement. She didn’t think it would end well. With any luck, they might actually destroy each other. Part of her wondered how she could create a divide between them.
Findo moved, and Hallie found that being carried over his shoulder when he was walking was even more uncomfortable than when he’d been standing still. She heard at least one other person walking with them. Jonah. And possibly another, which meant that Brock might be there, too.
She couldn’t see much, nose bumping against Findo’s back. The floor changed from bare boards to stone and the temperature of the air dropped so much that she began to worry about her bare feet and whether she was going to end up with frozen toes. Frostbite had never been a real danger in low city, but she was far away from home now. The chill in her feet wasbeing counter-acted by the heat from Findo’s body, which was the one - the only - advantage to being carried by him. A lot ofveondkenhad higher body temperatures than humans, and Findo was no exception.
Findo stopped after a short walk and she could hear clattering and then what sounded like a sliding door. He took a couple of steps forward and then turned and she found herself staring down at a metal grate formed of heavy, rough-cast metal, with what looked like an endless drop beneath it. A couple of pairs of boots came into view nearby. The door slid again, there was more clattering and then a jolt and the sensation of movement.
Hallie made a small noise. Surprise or fright, she wasn’t sure which. Her brain scrambled, trying to work out what was happening. The sense of movement and still floor under her let her work it out. Lift. They were in some kind of a lift. It must have been built into the hill where the house sat, as it was going down and down and down. She thought of the frantic climb she had made up the hill, her legs and lungs burning, and felt a spike of irritation. She hadn’t needed to do all that work. Apparently there was a lift that would have taken her from somewhere below right up into the middle of the house.
At length there was a hard jolt and the movement stopped. More clattering, and another sound of a sliding door opening. Findo walked out of the lift, and Hallie felt the cold sting of biting fresh air against her face and her mouth filled with the taste of salt. They’d travelled down to sea level. Upside down across Findo’s shoulder, she tried to work out just how deep a drop that was but couldn’t. She remembered the brief glimpse of the house on the hill from the helicopter and her impression that it was high, high above the sea. That was as accurate a picture as she could get. So they’d travelled further down than she’d climbed up the hill. For some reason that annoyed her again.
The ground underfoot was stone that gave way to wooden planks, with small gaps between them that let Hallie see brief glimpses of water underneath. Some kind of a dock.
Without warning, Findo dragged her off his shoulder and dropped her onto the ground. He wasn’t a tall man, but the fall was enough to jar every bone in her body and set her head ringing again.
“Don’t worry, I’ll come back for you,” he said, teeth glinting in an unpleasant smile before he turned and headed away with Jonah.
Hallie muttered a curse under her breath and struggled to sit up, aware of tears on her face. Her head hurt again. She’d been thrown onto her side, and would have even more bruises to show for it. There was a large wooden chest next to her and she managed to wriggle around so that she was sitting with her back against it. It was a far better vantage point than on Findo’s back.
From her new position, she could see that they were in some kind of a natural cave. The mouth of the cave looked surprisingly narrow, meaning it was probably hidden from outside view to casual passers-by, if there were any. But, starting inside the mouth, the cave widened out to form a huge space. She could barely see any part of the ceiling, more like an impression of height and dark overhead. She could just about judge the size of the open space, though. Big enough for a sea-faring ship to dock. As was being proven by the fact that there were not one but two ships tied to the dock.
Before she took in the details of the ships, she wanted to get a sense for the rest of the space and who else was there. Twisting her head to try and look behind her, she saw what must be the door to the lift, standing open, and not far away from that, a set of wooden stairs leading upward. She lost track of the stairs somewhere in the shadows. The area immediately in front of the lift was bare concrete or stone with piles of crates like the oneshe was leaning against. There was also a small wooden hut that seemed completely out of place, tucked next to the wall not far from the lift. There didn’t seem to be any other people there, which was something of a relief.
Facing forward again, she could see that the wooden walkway where she had been dumped was indeed a dock, and stretched out a fair distance ahead of her. To one side was a beaten-up vessel that looked a bit like a fishing trawler with nets and what looked like wire baskets on the deck. There were a few trawlers still docked in the harbour in low city, even if they were almost all no longer used. This one didn’t look sea-worthy, but Hallie had a feeling that might be deceptive. She didn’t think that Jonah was the sentimental type to hold on to something that no longer worked. There were a few dents in the side of the trawler that Hallie could see, and the paint was peeling off, revealing rusty metal underneath.
On the other side of the wooden walkway was a larger vessel, two or perhaps three times the size of the fishing trawler. It was in much better condition, with no dents or rust visible that she could see. The hull was painted a dark blue-gray colour, which she thought meant it would likely blend in with the sea at night. There was no name or other insignia on it that she could see. She was fairly sure that was illegal. She’d never seen a boat, no matter what size, without some kind of numbers or letters on its sides. But there were a few people - all human - working on and around it. Loading up some wooden crates that looked a bit like the one she was resting against.
The vessel had a flat deck, with a large opening towards the back where the humans were loading the crates, and a cabin sticking up from the deck around the middle of the boat. She didn’t pay much attention to that, or the crates, attention caught by clear evidence that this wasn’t an ordinary boat. At the front and back of the vessel were giant guns - some kind of enormousmachine gun on a metal mount, which was most likely bolted to the deck. There was another weapon of some kind on the top of the cabin. Hallie didn’t recognise it beyond knowing it was a weapon. She shivered, teeth clattering together. Not just a boat disguised and designed to hide from detection, but one carrying powerful weaponry.
And that vessel, along with everything else in the cave, answered at least one question as to what Jonah was up to in this out-of-the-way place. Smuggling.
It explained how Jonah was able to get fuel for the ATVs and a generator or other mechanisms to provide power to the house, and why his men had access to bottled water and protein bars. She could easily see what Jonah was getting from the arrangement. She didn’t understand what the island might have that Jonah was smuggling out. Then she remembered the conversation between Jonah and Findo. Part of the cargo was young men, bundled off to fight in Findo’s illegal rings. Hallie thought there was likely more to it than that, but that explained a few things. She remembered Rhodda’s warning that Jonah made people disappear. She felt sick, and wondered if No-knot knew that far from being sent to another posting, with more interesting things to do, he was most likely going to be stripped of all his weapons and put into a ring to face whateverveondkenFindo could find to pit against his human fighters. She didn’t think No-knot would enjoy the experience. Or survive for long.
She remembered the nameless dead men that she and Girard had found, carelessly discarded in low city, with no ID on them. Perhaps they’d come from here, transported through this cave, thinking that they were heading for a better life.
Her stomach turned and she leant her head back against the crate, trying to breathe lightly and not throw up. Thezaubersent a gentle pulse of magic through her, keeping her warm, but also giving her healing a little boost. She sent it a silentthank you.After their efforts defending against the warrimel and then the further energy draw in hiding the children, it still wasn’t at full strength, but it was giving her what it could. She could only hope it would be enough.
Shifting her position against the crate again, she realised that the rope around her wrists felt a little looser than when she’d woken up. She flexed her elbows, pulling, and felt the rope yield. Not much. Not enough for her to wriggle out of the tie, but it was something.
Findo and Jonah had gone to stand by the larger vessel, involved in some tense exchange. Whatever the business was between them, it was clear that they were not friends. They were caught up in their disagreement, attention focused on each other. Brock was standing a few paces away from the men, shifting on his feet, shoulders bowed. Not sure what he was supposed to be doing, or why he was there, Hallie guessed.
She had a chance to do something now, while Jonah and Findo were distracted. She wasn’t sure what she was going to do, but it certainly wasn’t going to be sitting here meekly waiting for whatever destination Findo had in mind.
