My imagination didn’t live up to reality.
Cages. Dozens of cages, stacked on top of each other and filled with people. Or part people, part mechanical beings. They sat filthy, cramped, and cowering before us. I had seen animals at a slaughterhouse in better conditions. Most of the enclosures were too small for them to stand and they had nothing but bare wire to sit upon. Water bowls were wired to the outside along with a food container like you would feed an animal that had to remain confined. Bile rose in my throat. I lost the battle with my stomach and vomited in the corner. It couldn’t make the smell any worse.
Justin was at my side in a second. “Shh. I’m sorry you had to see this.” He rubbed my back as I expelled the last of my morning toast.
“Here.” Oss pulled out a water canteen from his pack.
I’d long accepted that my friend had a solution for everything. I took several drinks of tepid water. When I tried to hand it back, he waved it at me. “Keep it for now.”
I examined the canteen suspiciously, not the least bit surprised to see monogrammed initials etched on the outside that matched one of Oss’s least favorite supervisors. Shaking my head, I shoved it into my pocket within easy reach.
“Are you all right?” Justin continued, his soothing rubbing.
“I’ll be fine.” I wouldn’t lie and say the scene didn’t affect me, but I would get past it. There wasn’t another option. These people needed saving and I wouldn’t leave them behind because of my weak stomach. “We need to search for your baby.”
Justin straightened so fast I thought I heard his spine snap. He turned to Thorne and Oss. “Question everyone if they’ve seen a baby. There can’t be too many part mechanicals being born, or we would’ve heard about it by now.”
I didn’t counter Justin’s naiveté, but Oss wasn’t as kind.
“Where do you think all these people came from?”
Justin flushed but didn’t argue. Good choice.
We moved farther into the room. Silence fell upon the caged mechanicals like a herd of prey spotting an unfamiliar predator.
Justin stepped into the middle of the room. When he spoke, his voice rang throughout the building. “I’m looking for my baby son. We are willing to free you all in exchange for information,” Justin said.
I had no doubt he would free them, information or not, but I didn’t object to his wording. If it had been me in the same situation, I would’ve sung as loud as one of my little birds.
The first cage I reached had a young woman crouching in the corner.
“Hello.”
She showed no sign of hearing me. Gears covered the left side of her face and her entire neck. From the holes in the rags she wore I spotted more mechanical parts. Her eyes were completely human, and disturbingly blank.
“I’m here to help. Duke Lear’s child was born partly mechanical and was recently stolen. Can you help? He is just a baby,” I pleaded.
The woman’s eyes flickered. “Baby?” Her voice creaked; a rusty harsh sound that made my throat hurt to hear. “There was a baby.”
“Where?” I asked, after a minute of silence.
She pointed across the room to another row of cages. “Over there.”
“Justin!”
“What?” He rushed to my side at my excited shout.
“She said there was a baby over there.”
“How long ago?” he asked.
She ignored him.
I grabbed Justin’s arm and dragged him to the other side of the room toward the cages she’d pointed to. “She isn’t all there,” I whispered.
Oss moved to join us. “Did you find him?”
“That lady said he was over there.” I pointed over my shoulder. “Whether he still is, is the question.”
