“I think it’s just what the Council would expect you to show up in,” said Amelia.
Lendir laughed. “That’s funny!” He pointed at Amelia with his fork. “You’re a clever human, aren’t you? You don’t meet too many of them.”
“Maybe you’ve met them and you’re just too thick to get their clever jokes,” she said. “Ever think about that?”
Lendir finally closed his mouth to chew. He moved his head back and forth as he did. “That’s an interesting point,” he said after swallowing. “At least, I think it was. I don’t really know for sure. I was too distracted by the fact in this lighting, I can see right through your sleeping shirt.”
Amelia looked down and to her horror found that he was right. She put her forearm over her chest to cover herself and sneered at Lendir. “You’re disgusting.”
“Hey, I’m not the one flaunting my goods around the breakfast table.”
“Lendir, is that you?” Eldan called from the other room. Not wanting him to get a peek as well, Amelia took her coffee to go and ran upstairs to get changed. She made a mental note as she pulled a different shirt on never to wear that pajama top again.
She didn’t say much on her walk to work with Eldan. He tried a few times to start a conversation with her, but she only gave him one word responses and eventually he stopped trying. They were a few yards from the nursery when she turned to him and asked, “What ever happened with those guys who kidnapped me?”
“What?” He looked genuinely confused. “What do you mean what happened?”
“I mean, you said you had called some of your buddies at the District Eight police department to come bust their operation. So, did they?”
Eldan shrugged. “I don’t know. I never followed up.”
“You never followed up?” She gawked. “How could you not follow up on something like that?”
“I just forgot, I guess,” Eldan put his hands in the pocket of his pants, making the muscles in his arms halfway flex. He was wearing a t-shirt, which was a little too tight on him. This was his usual work uniform. He didn’t so much enjoy dressing up, Amelia had noticed. He barely even wore a shirt unless he was going to work or they were having guests over to the mansion. “I’m sorry, I will call them when I get into the office.”
Amelia shook her head and felt tears forming in her eyes. “I just don’t understand how you could forget something like that. What if they didn’t catch the guys? What if they didn’t shut down the operation and those creeps have been stealing and selling girls ever since!”
Eldan’s shoulders again crawled up towards his ears. “I don’t know what to tell you… I’m sure my buddies went to check out the tip I gave them, and hopefully they did get that group of sellers, but you know the black market for selling humans to shifters is huge. The second you shut down one operation, a new one pops up.”
“So what? You’re saying we shouldn’t even try?” She knew she was twisting his words, trying to start a fight where there didn’t need to be one. But she felt like fighting. She needed some sort of release for all these emotions she’d been pushing down for the past three weeks. The fear, the sadness, the excitement, the anger, it was all boiling to the surface at once, and poor Eldan was taking all the heat. “Screw all those innocent women in District Eight.” She was yelling now. Passersbys were beginning to slow, if not stop completely, and stare. “Screw the men too! What do we care? We are living high and mighty over here in Meldania, where everything is always happy and the sun always shines!”
“Where is this coming from?” Eldan raised his voice, but didn’t match her volume. “Just last night you were telling me how happy you were to be here. Everything seemed great. Why are you suddenly acting like this?”
“Because I feel guilty okay!” The tears poured from her eyes and down her cheeks. “I feel horrible, gut wrenching guilt. It’s not fair that I’m here, living in this amazing house, having all the food I want and making more money in a day than I would make in a month working in the District. It’s not fair. What about everyone else? What about my friends and family?”
“What about them?” said Eldan. “Bring them here! They are welcome in Meldania.”
Amelia hadn’t expected this response. She felt some of her anger dissipate and the tears were no longer blurring her vision. “You mean they could come and live here?”
“I don’t see why not,” said Eldan. “It might take some fenagling, but I could make it happen.”
Relief washed over her, but the guilt wasn’t entirely gone. There were still so many people suffering in District Eight, so many in danger, and even if she could ensure the safety of her loved ones, she could never save all of them. There was also no guarantee she could convince her family or Victoria to move.
“Do you want me to set up a private phone line?” Eldan asked. “You can use it to call into the District without alerting any District Officials.”
“You can do that?”
“Yes,” he said. “It’s very expensive, and illegal, but I can do it.”
“That would be amazing.” She wiped her cheeks with the back of her hand and smiled. “I’m sorry for freaking out like this. I had a terrible night filled with terrible dreams.”
“No need to apologize,” he said and she could tell he meant it. “These are trying times, and their even harder for a person as caring and empathetic as you.”
She started to laugh. “You really know how to talk a girl down, don’t you?”
He chuckled and said, “I really should get to the office. It’s late.”
“Right, sorry.” Amelia painted a lively, ready-to-start-the-day look across her face. “I should go too. We can talk more about this on our walk home, yeah?”
“Of course.”
This time he reached for her hand. “Have a good day,” he said, giving her hand a gentle squeeze.
“I’ll try.”
6
A Girl and her Alligator
Matron Ilda decided to take her lunch break early that day. Apparently, she had said something to Amelia on her way out. Amelia, in her defense, was at the time dealing with two screaming toddlers who were fighting over a toy telephone, and could barely hear herself think, none-the-less hear an off handed comment from a coworker already halfway out the door.
Once she got the kids settled, which meant having to take the toy away entirely, Amelia announced it was nap time and called out for Ilda, who she assumed was in the back room. When the Matron didn’t answer, Amelia called again, and a third time.
“That’s odd,” she said partially to herself, partially to Renny, the seven-year-old shifter who loved to follow Amelia around all day. “I wonder where she went. It’s not like her to just leave without saying anything. In fact,” she smirked and looked over her shoulder at Renny. “She would totally freak if I ever pulled something like that.”
The little girl shrugged, her thumb in her mouth. She was a quiet one, Renny. She had light green skin with small, perfectly circular spots running down both her arms and the center of her face. They looked like carefully placed, white freckles. She usually had one of her thumbs in her mouth, and in whichever hand she wasn’t snacking on was always her stuffed alligator, named Chomps.
“Maybe she went outside for a smoke?” Amelia suggested. She had caught Ilda with a cigarette in her hand one day when she left to walk home, but she didn’t think the woman ever smoked during her shift.
“I’ll be right back,” Amelia said to the room full of kids. “I’m just going to check the back room.” The front door to the nursery had a child lock on it, making it virtually impossible for one of the kids to open it. She figured they would be fine for thirty seconds while she poked her head out the back door and called for the Matron. Renny followed her, as always. The girl had become sort of like a shadow to her. She often forgot she was there, then she would turn around a little too quickly and nearly knock the poor child over.
Leaning her weight into the partially stuck door,
Amelia finally got it to budge. The mid-day sun poured in, causing Amelia to squint and visor her eyes with her hand. “Ilda!” She called. “Are you out here?”
She pushed the door open all the way and took a step outside. “Ilda!”
The matron was nowhere to be found in the back alley. Amelia contemplated walking down a ways to double check, but she didn’t feel comfortable leaving the kids alone for too long. She went back inside and spent the next half hour trying to get the kids down for their naps. Ilda returned a few minutes after that. She opened the front door slowly and made sure it didn’t slam shut behind her.
“Where did you go?” Amelia whispered as the matron hung up her jacket. “You just left.”
“I told you I was taking an early lunch.” She looked down at the slumbering little ones and frowned.
“What is it?”
The woman started counting under her breath, pointing to each kid as she did. “Eight,” she said. “That’s not right.”
“Who’s missing?” Amelia started to search the faces of each kid, mentally checking them off. Dede, Simon, Lerane, Polly, Cedrick, Renny–– wait, Renny wasn’t there. She always laid her nap mat down next to Cedrick’s. “Renny,” she said. “Where is she?”
“Don’t look at me,” said Ilda. “I just got back.”
Amelia ran to the back room. Sweat was forming on her temples and under her arms. First, she whispered, “Renny? Renny?”, looking in every nook and cranny of the back room. She started screaming after a while, not caring if she woke up the others. “Renny! Where are you? This isn’t a game. If you’re hiding, you need to come out now.”
The little girl did not reveal herself, and Amelia knew she wasn’t the type to disobey. Amelia’s stomach dropped as she stared at the back door. “Oh no.” She half opened half busted through the door and out into the alleyway. “Renny! Renny!” She ran down one way, choosing a direction at random, and searched behind the dumpster, the piles of trash. This way deadened into a high, chain link fence. Renny could have probably climbed over, if she really wanted to, but Amelia didn’t think she would. She was a curious child, but not necessarily a bold one.
Running down in the other direction, Amelia caught a glimpse of something bright green ahead of her. She slowed her pace, quickly realizing what she was looking at. Coming up on the stuffed animal, Amelia began to cry. Chomps was sitting on the ground, at the edge of the alley where it meets with a busy street. She picked up the alligator and brushed some dirt off of his snout. “Renny,” she said softly. “Renny, I’m so sorry.”
“I’m sorry, I know you’re in the middle of your work day, but I didn’t know what else to do. Who else to call.” It had been about three minutes since Amelia found out Renny was missing, and she had already cycled through an impressive slew of emotions. She went from devastation to panic, took a quick trip through anger, and had now arrived at determination. She was going to find that little girl.
“It’s fine,” Eldan said on the other line. “What is it? You sound out of breath.”
“I lost one of the kids,” she said, emotionless. “I need your help finding her.”
“Of course,” he said. “I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
Eldan arrived not ten minutes later, with fifteen volunteers from his office building. Amelia provided them with a short description of what Renny looked like and warned everyone that she was very shy, so if someone saw her, it was best not to approach her directly or yell her name.
“If you see her,” Amelia said. “Just follow her and get in contact with me or Eldan as soon as possible. Whatever you do, don’t lose her again.”
They all nodded and Amelia gave the floor to Eldan, who, knowing the city better, was in charge of assigning who was to look where.
“Amelia,” he said, coming to her last. “You and I will start with my office building down the street and work our way through all the other shops leading back here.”
“I’ll stay here,” said Ilda. “To watch the kids and in case she comes back.”
Everything was organized and everyone was out on their search routes within twenty-five minutes of the child going missing. Amelia knew time was the most important factor here. The longer this little girl was gone, the further away she could be, and the smaller their chance of finding her.
“It’s going to be okay,” Eldan said. They were coming up on the office building, which had thirty stories and tons of hiding places. “We will find her.”
“We should split up,” said Amelia. “This building is too big and we need to hurry. I’ll start with the top floor and work my way down, you start on the bottom floor and go up.” She couldn’t look at him. She worried if she did, she would start crying again, and there was no time for that.
“That works,” he said, and they were off.
Amelia cursed the elevator as it crawled up the thirty flights of stairs. Three different people had pressed the button, making the contraption stop three different times. Each person who came into the elevator was given a full rundown on the situation from Amelia, who then asked them to please help look, or if they must go back to work than to at least keep an eye out. Two of the three workers agreed to help look once they got off at their desired level. The third person, a shifter man with reddish-brown skin and angry eyes, barely listened while Amelia was talking and grumbled something about “useless humans” as he stepped off at his stop.
The thirtieth level was where the royal offices were –– Eldan, his brother, and the Queen and King all conducted their business on this level. Amelia had never been anywhere except the lobby of this building, and she was starting to wonder if it was such a good idea to have separated from Eldan. She wasn’t sure which doors led to closets, which to offices, and which were locked, so she had to try each one. She searched Eldan’s office, which she knew because of the name plate out front. She knocked on Lendir’s office before going inside, unsure whether or not Eldan’s brother was working that day. The office was empty, no Lendir, no Renny.
The next door didn’t have a nameplate, or any sort of sign. Amelia was just about to turn the door handle when she heard Queen Clarin talking in an exasperated voice. “I cannot believe your brother!”
“I know, mom,” she heard Lendir say. “But what can we do about it?”
“We have to do something!” said the Queen. “He’s out there running around, helping that human girl again. When is he going to stop with that ugly, twiggy creature?”
“I think he loves her.”
“You take that back!” It sounded as if she slapped him. “He would not dream to disappoint me like that. This is all your father’s doing. If he hadn’t been so damn kind to those parasitic humans who invaded Meldania, Eldan wouldn’t be such a bleeding heart.”
“You won’t have to worry about father’s influence much longer.” Lendir’s voice was strained. Amelia couldn’t tell if he was upset or just trying to talk low.
“You’ve seen him?” asked the Queen. She lowered her voice too, and Amelia now had to press her ear against the door to hear. “And?”
“And he’s very weak. He has less than a month probably.”
“Finally,” she said. “Finally, I will be able to set my plans into motion.”
“Not this again. Mom, you can’t be serious.” Lendir was standing very close to the door. Amelia stepped back, fearing he was about to storm out, but the handle didn’t turn. “I know you don’t like them, but you can’t just get rid of all of them.”
“Why not? After your father kicks the bucket, I will be the most powerful person in Meldania. I will be able to do whatever I want, including exterminate all the humans in the city. Starting first with that little bitch living in our house.”
“Eldan will be––”
“Eldan won’t be able to do a thing about it!” she yelled. “Now get out of here before your brother comes back. I don’t want him getting suspicious.”
Amelia pushed down the urge to process all that she ju
st heard and focused on getting out of there. She ran down the hall, turned the corner, and kept going, unsure which direction Lendir was going to head after leaving the office.
At the elevator, she opted instead to take the stairs. She pushed open the door next to the elevator and made her way to level twenty-nine. She had checked every office save the Queen’s on the thirtieth level, and it wasn’t like she was going to go knocking and ask the woman who wants to murder her if she could pop in for a quick second.
She burst through the door on the next level down and surveyed the scene. It had the same layout as the thirtieth level. She took the same route she did before, checking the rooms in the same order. She repeated this for every level, trying not to think about anything else but finding Renny.
Find Renny. Find Renny. Don’t think about your impending death. Just find Renny.
Eldan ended up finding the girl. She had wandered into the office building and asked the man who worked at the front desk if he had seen her alligator, Chomps. She explained how she had seen someone walking a dog, and she ran across the street to pet it, and once they were gone, she realized she didn’t know where Chomps was.
The man told her he didn’t have her alligator, but that he was sure Chomps would show up eventually. He convinced her to stay there, with him, while he figured out where her stuffed animal was and maybe help figure out where this child belonged.
Eldan went straight to the front desk after splitting up with Amelia and found the little girl. He talked with Renny for a while, trying to show her that he wasn’t a threat. Soon enough, she agreed to go with him and he brought her directly back to the nursery, where her parents were eagerly waiting. He wanted to find Amelia first, to tell her the good news and relieve some of her worry, but he knew the priority was getting the child back to her mom and dad.
He ran into Amelia a few minutes later, on level twenty-eight, and she collapsed into his arms when he announced Renny had been found. He held her for a long time, letting her catch her breath and shed a few more tears. He kissed the top of her head and smoothed her hair. Eventually, she got back to her feet, and the two walked back to the nursery, arm and arm.
Sold to the Prince of the Meldanians Page 7
