“Oh, no,” Thorne whispered, staring at the cages in horror.
“What?” Justin asked.
“These are all children.”
Upon further examination, he was right. These cages contained young children exclusively. At least a dozen kids between the ages of two to ten resided behind the metal bars. What kind of monster would do such a thing? My heart ached at the despair and pain on their tiny faces. It was as if I were back in the orphanage re-living some of the worse moments of my life. Despite the horrors of living on the streets, in some ways the orphanage was worse. There I had the expectation of someone taking care of me. Instead, we had been starved and abused. You kind of expect that from living in the gutters, not from those paid to clothe and feed you.
“We’ll get you out of here,” I whispered as I approached. More of a promise to my lost childhood than to the young ones before me.
“Have any of you seen a baby?” Justin asked a boy around four.
He shook his head.
“There’s one over there,” a little girl with metallic copper ringlets proclaimed, pointing a grubby finger to her right.
We hurried over to where she pointed. A small bundle of rags lay in the middle of the cage. Unmoving.
I clamped my hand over my mouth to hold back a cry.
Justin grabbed the cage door, but it was locked and no amount of shaking would get it free.
“Oss, over here!” I shouted.
Oss ran to Justin’s side, kicking up dirt as he went. “What?”
I pointed. “We need this lock open.”
He tapped it with his finger and the padlock tumbled to the ground. Justin didn’t hesitate to open the latch and pull the bundle out.
“Is it him?”
Justin squinted. “It’s hard to tell in the dark.”
Oss pulled Amalia out of his backpack. She helpfully aimed her light beam over the small body. Bright blue eyes, stared at us unblinking. “Is he alive?”
Justin pressed his palm to the front of the infant. “I don’t feel a heartbeat.”
“Press your hand against his chest,” Oss told me.
“Why me?”
“It’s your power to control mechanicals, isn’t it?” Oss asked.
My hands trembled as I reached out to the baby. Despite the grief I gave Justin over not wanting a child, I couldn’t fail. This was his son’s life.
“Take a deep breath, then focus all of your magical energy into your fingertips,” Oss coached.
I opened my mouth to tell him I’d never felt my magic before, but as I followed his instructions, I did feel it. My hands tingled from palm to fingertip. I tried to imagine more energy flowing out of them and into Justin’s son. Feigning confidence, I waited for Justin to move his hand before replacing it with my own. The small body jolted from the contact and a cry pierced my ears as the infant proved his lung strength.
Justin made a small, strangled sound that pulled my attention from the wailing baby. Tears streaked down his cheeks.
“We need to get him out of here,” I warned. “We can’t count on no one coming to feed them.”
Our luck had held amazingly well so far, but we shouldn’t depend on it.
If they were discovered breaking out the prisoners, we would be in a huge disadvantage trying to get several ill people to safety while fighting. “Is Buster among the prisoners?”
“No,” Thorne said. “I don’t see him.”
