by Sharon Sant
‘Got it!’ one of the children squeaked, handing the key to her. Polly now shoved her captive into the oncoming ambush, giving her just enough time to plunge the key in the lock and spring it. The door swung open just as Mrs Brown turned her gun towards Polly. Charlotte launched herself at the housekeeper, knocking her to the ground and the pistol from her grip. It skittered across the stone floor and landed at Polly’s feet, who caught it up with a manic grin. She swung her sword in one hand and brandished the gun in the other as she swaggered towards Finch, his Brethren hovering uncertainly as they watched. She was armed to the teeth and full of fire and it would take a strong man to take her down now.
‘Let her go,’ Polly said, pointing the gun at Mrs Brown who now had Charlotte in a stranglehold. The woman shoved Charlotte away with a sour look. ‘Not so nice to be lookin’ at your gun from that end, is it?’ Polly grinned.
The next thing she saw was a man beside Finch draw a dagger from his belt. Polly lifted her gun. ‘One step closer and you get it,’ she said. But then her eyes widened in shock at what happened next.
‘Kill him!’ Finch shouted, pointing at Isaac, still tied to the table.
‘No!’ Polly screamed. She fired the gun. Unprepared for the violence of the shot, however, she staggered backwards and dropped it. Sparks flew around the room as the bullet missed its mark and ricocheted from the stone walls, hitting another hooded figure who crumpled to the ground. Polly leapt up as the dagger sliced through the air towards Isaac. She threw herself at the man, swinging with her sword, her opponent changing the course of his knife and meeting her metal with his. The shock reverberated down her arm and she dropped the sword too.
‘Get them!’ Finch shouted as the children from Polly’s cage poured out towards the doors. All around the room, men in hoods chased the escaping children. The man fighting Polly was distracted for a second and she reached for her sword again, snatching it up and bringing it down on his arm. He let out a howl, followed by one from Isaac as her sword narrowly missed his head.
‘Watch what yer doin’! I like this face!’
Polly grinned and Isaac flashed one in return.
‘Finished swooning then?’ she asked.
‘I weren’t swooning,’ he fired back.
‘That’s what it looked like to me.’
‘I lost a lot of blood that’s… POLL!’ Isaac roared. ‘LOOK OUT!’
The man was up again and coming at Polly. She lashed out with her sword and he ducked out of the way.
‘Annie!’ Polly shouted.
Annie was staring at the mayhem, the wolves still packed around her. It was clear that she wouldn’t be able to keep control for much longer. She was swaying on her feet, barely able to focus. It seemed that Finch knew it too, and he was inching towards her.
‘She can’t hear you,’ Charlotte cried at Polly, now struggling against Mrs Brown’s grip. ‘She needs to concentrate. If she loses them now we’ll all be savaged.’
‘Better that than sacrificed,’ Polly shouted back as she leapt away from the man who was attacking again. ‘We need the wolves to fight.’ Lunging forward as he regrouped, she swung her sword down onto the rope binding one of Isaac’s hands. It fell away and Isaac twisted over to try to undo the binding at the other hand. In a fluid movement she swirled the blade back and across the man’s face, who dropped his dagger and fell away, roaring in pain.
‘I didn’t know you could sword fight,’ Isaac yelled as she cut away the binding at his other hand.
‘Neither did I,’ she grinned. Isaac bent to his feet and undid the knots there before leaping down from the table. He caught a wince from Polly as she slid her gaze over his bare, bloody chest.
‘It ain’t as bad as it looks,’ he said with a wink. ‘And I’m sure Annie can fix me.’
Polly nodded. She turned to look for Annie to see that although the wolves snarled and bared their teeth at his approach, Finch continued to move towards her, Annie now so dazed and exhausted that she barely seemed to notice it. ‘Can you get the other nippers out of the cages?’ she asked, turning to Isaac again.
‘Can I! Where’s the key?’
Polly turned to view her empty cage, searching the floor. ‘I don’t know.’ She swung her blade at a new attacker who was trying to rush Isaac, catching the man in the throat. She let out a whimper as he fell, blood gushing from an obvious fatal wound, and then stared up at Isaac, horror-struck.
‘It weren’t your fault,’ Isaac said. ‘He’d have killed you first chance he got.’ He glanced down at Polly’s adversary, now writhing and clutching at his neck, and then bent to take something from the dying man’s belt. ‘With a bit of luck, this key ought to do it,’ he said, holding it aloft.
Polly nodded and turned to face a new onslaught while Isaac dodged a blow as he raced for the nearest cage.
‘When I open the door you run for your lives, you hear?’ he panted as he twisted the key in the lock. But it wouldn’t open. ‘Damn it!’ he shouted, kicking the bars. His head flicked up just in time to see the sword racing towards him and he ducked, throwing himself forward into his attacker’s legs and bringing the man crashing down. There was a race to reach the dropped sword and Isaac won it, flipping himself over and to his feet and bringing the blade down across the man’s legs before retrieving the key from the lock and moving to the next cage.
But Isaac never had a chance to try the next cage. A shot echoed around the room and all eyes turned to see Mrs Brown with the gun in her hand, Charlotte hanging onto her arm as if trying to impede her aim. Annie slid down the wall, blood flowering from a wound in her chest. There was a moment of hush, as though someone had dropped a blanket over the world. And then the wolves woke from their sleepwalking and began to snarl and drool, bunching together and advancing on the room at large.
‘You idiot!’ Finch shouted at Mrs Brown. ‘Shoot the blasted things!’
She turned her gun onto the nearest wolf and pulled the trigger. But nothing happened. With a look of horror, she cocked it and tried again. When there was nothing but a dull click for the second time, she hunted in a bag at her belt for ammunition. But she would never find it. The wolf sprang and pinned her to the ground as it lifted its snout and howled in triumph.
‘Fire!’ Polly shouted at Isaac.
‘I ain’t got the gun!’ he yelled back. ‘She’s still got it.’
‘No, goat-brains! FIRE!’
Isaac looked puzzled for the shortest moment, and then a manic grin crossed his face. He leapt for the nearest torch and yanked it from its bracket on the wall. Polly did the same and worked her way towards him, waving her flame as she went, the wolves backing away from her path. ‘We got to get Annie out,’ she said as she reached him and they moved back towards the door, still waving the torches. Some of the Brethren had seen them and followed suit, so that the whole room was now an eerie space of swift moving shadows and sparks. In the confusion, Polly searched for Georgina’s cage. It still swung above their heads, Georgina’s wailing weak and tired, the little girl curled on the floor with a thumb in her mouth. Charlotte joined them.
‘How will we get her out now?’ she asked, following Polly’s gaze.
‘We can’t.’
‘But we can’t leave her here –’ Charlotte began to argue but Polly cut her short.
‘She’s safe enough up there and we can’t get to her while all hell is breaking loose.’
‘What about the other children?’ Isaac put in.
‘Same for them,’ Polly said. ‘They’re safe in the cages so long as they don’t stick their hands out and try to pat one of the wolves.’
‘It ain’t the wolves I’m worried about,’ Isaac replied. ‘What about the Brethren?’
‘I don’t see many of them surviving this. An’ if we don’t get out now I don’t see us surviving it either. We take Annie and we get her out, then we come back for everyone else.’
‘No!’ Charlotte cried.
‘Yes,’ Isaac replied. ‘I don�
�t like it any more than you but Polly’s right, it’s the only way.’
‘What if we can’t come back?’
‘If we’re dead we definitely can’t come back,’ Polly said. ‘Stop complainin’ and give me a hand to lift Annie.’
‘Let me…’ Isaac handed his torch to Charlotte and hauled Annie up over his shoulder. She looked like a rag doll as she hung limply, her hair over her face. But they had barely taken two steps towards the door when Finch appeared, dagger raised and eyes full of hatred.
‘I will have my sacrifice… one way or another!’ He rushed at Isaac and Charlotte rushed at him, stabbing at him with her torch. But her eyes widened as he grabbed for it and held it fast. The flames licked around his wrist but he seemed not to notice.
‘How…’ Charlotte whimpered.
‘I am single-minded of purpose,’ Finch said coolly, ‘and as such, a minor inconvenience like fire will not deter me from my destiny and my rightful place at the Dark Lord’s side.’
‘It’s lucky you like fire so much, because there’s plenty of it where you’re going!’ Polly yelled as she leapt at him with her sword. He dodged and swiped at her with the wooden end of the torch. Polly stumbled backwards and fell across the entrance as Finch now loomed, his dagger poised.
Isaac did the only thing he could do. With Annie still slung across his shoulder, he picked up Polly’s fallen sword and hacked at Finch’s shoulder blade. Finch fell back with a howl and turned to him.
Charlotte searched for some sort of fallen weapon. But then her eyes fell on Mrs Brown’s pistol, lying abandoned. There was no ammunition, but she picked it up anyway. As Isaac backed away from Finch, Charlotte turned to see the nearest wolf tear into a member of the Brethren, and then hurled the pistol at the beast. In the same moment, she ran at Finch and grabbed the torch from his grip. The wolf turned with a snarl and bounded over. Charlotte ran into the space between Isaac and Finch and guarded Isaac with the flame.
‘Take Polly and go!’ she screamed.
Isaac hesitated, and then nodded. At the same time as he raced for the doorway with Annie and ushered Polly up the stairs, the wolf leapt at them. Charlotte ran to follow Isaac and Polly. For a second she turned at the door, if only to see that the wolf was not following. The room was filled with the screams of adults and children alike, smoke from the torches and their dancing light, and the ripping and snarling of wolves that had spent almost their entire lives in captivity and had nothing other than the taste of revenge on their minds. Finch was lying just a few feet away, his throat in the jaws of a wolf and his arm a burned, blackened stump.
Sobbing now, Charlotte took one last look around the room. The faces of the children in the cages would haunt her for many years to come. Georgina still swung above it all, now curled up on the bottom of her birdcage trembling. But Charlotte could do nothing for any of them now. She had to close the doors and let the wolves have their way. She began to push and shove at the wood, tears streaming down her face. But then the door snagged on something. She looked down to see that it was an arm.
She could stand it no longer. She ran for the anteroom and fled up the stairs to find the others.
Twenty-four
Isaac and Polly were on the stairs waiting for her. They had laid Annie down on the steps and Polly was doing her best to stem the flow of blood from her wound with a piece of fabric ripped from the hem of her dress.
‘It’s hopeless,’ she said, looking up at Charlotte’s arrival. ‘We need to get her to a doctor soon and we’re miles from anywhere.’
‘We’ve got bigger problems right now,’ Charlotte replied. She darted a glance over her shoulder and then Isaac seemed to make the connection.
‘We need to shut the wolves in or as soon as they’re finished their main course in there we’ll be pudding.’
‘The doors won’t close, I’ve tried. And it’s too dangerous to go back down there now. We have to go up.’
‘But we still got to get back in there whatever else happens,’ Polly cut in. ‘How else we goin’ to get Georgina?’
Isaac gave Charlotte a tight grin. ‘Perhaps you done us a favour. The pack will leave once they’ve had their fill down there and if all the doors are open, they can trip up the stairs and away onto the heath. Then we can go back in and get the nippers out.’
‘What if the Brethren are waiting for us when we go back in?’ Charlotte asked doubtfully. ‘And where are we going to hide in the meantime? What if the wolves are waiting to ambush us as we travel home?’
‘We lock ourselves in a room upstairs and we wait. I don’t reckon anyone will survive who isn’t protected by a cage…’ he paused for a moment with a grimace. ‘I can’t say it’ll be a pretty sight for the nippers watching but there’s no help for that. We’re keeping ‘em alive and it’s the best we can do.’ He glanced at Polly. ‘As for home,’ he added, ‘I don’t even know where that is now for you and me, Poll.’
‘No point in bleatin’ about it,’ Polly replied. ‘First we got to get her upstairs.’
Isaac nodded. He swept Annie into his arms and followed in halting steps as Polly guided them up the narrow steps. At the top, they left the secret doorway wide open, and opened the outside door, so that the wolves had a clear exit.
‘What about our scents?’ Charlotte asked as they made their way through the main workshop and up a flight of stairs to the first floor. ‘Won’t the wolves be drawn to us? What if they don’t leave but lie in wait? Annie’s blood is all over the place and it must smell like nectar to them.’
‘I ain’t thought that far ahead,’ Isaac grunted with the stress of Annie’s weight. ‘We’ll just have to fight them.’
Charlotte paled. ‘What on earth with?’
‘Beats me. Maybe I’ll throw Poll at them. It’s enough to terrify any savage beast into submission.’
‘I heard that!’ Polly shouted from in front. She twisted the knob of the door to her right side and opened it to reveal a dormitory full of dirty beds. ‘Ain’t exactly Buckingham Palace but it’ll have to do.’
Isaac laid Annie down on the nearest bed as gently as he could. Polly and Charlotte joined him and gazed down at her. She was clammy, her forehead beaded with cold sweat, her skin almost white. The corset of her dress was now almost soaked in blood. Charlotte unbuttoned it as Isaac turned and walked to the window. She winced as she wiped away the blood, trying to find the wound site.
‘I need more cloth. And some water.’
‘I’ll see what I can find,’ Isaac said, striding from the room.
‘Maybe it’s not as bad as it looks,’ Charlotte whispered.
‘But she weren’t exactly strong before it happened,’ Polly replied. ‘I honestly thought the magic were going to kill her. I didn’t reckon on that old hag giving it a helping hand.’ She laid a hand on Charlotte’s arm. ‘We got to be ready for the worst. You know that, don’t you?’
Charlotte nodded.
Isaac returned with a bowl. ‘I can’t say how clean it is but I done my best.’
‘At least we can clean some of this blood away and I might be able to see what we’re dealing with,’ Charlotte replied, taking the bowl from him. Polly ripped another strip of fabric from her dress and handed it to her.
‘I’d have torn some from mine,’ Charlotte said with a slight smile. ‘There’ll be nothing left of yours soon.’
‘It’ll give Isaac something to look at,’ Polly said, returning the smile.
Charlotte began to mop at Annie’s skin, rinsing away the gore. Eventually, she gave a triumphant squeak. ‘There! See that, the bullet penetrated a lot higher than we had feared. It’s really only her shoulder and nowhere near her heart.’
‘She’s still losing a lot of blood,’ Polly said doubtfully. ‘That’ll kill her just the same.’
‘We’ll make a tourniquet and keep her as still as possible while we wait. It’s all we can do right now but I feel certain that it does mean we have some hope of saving her.’
; ‘It were lucky you managed to ruin Mrs Brown’s aim,’ Polly said.
Isaac called to them from the window. ‘The wolves are outside. At least, I think it’s all of them. I count three but there’s no way of knowing how many were killed by the Brethren.’
‘What are they doin’?’ Polly asked as she helped Charlotte bandage Annie. ‘Are they goin’?’
‘No… that’s the strange thing. They’re just sitting waiting outside the back door.’
‘Maybe there’re waiting for more of their pack to join them before they head off,’ Charlotte offered.
‘Let’s hope so,’ Isaac said as he gazed out. ‘I don’t fancy another round with them.’
Charlotte ran a critical eye over him. ‘Perhaps you’d like your wounds attended to?’
Isaac looked down at himself. ‘I’d almost forgotten about all this. They did draw a right pretty pattern on me, didn’t they?’
‘You want me to look at them?’
‘I’ll do it,’ Polly cut in. She marched across the room and stood in front of Isaac, running her gaze up and down his bare chest. The blood was crusting in places now, congealing to form sticky scabs. ‘You’ll live,’ Polly said in a firm voice.
‘It’s a bit parky without my shirt, though,’ Isaac said, regarding her with a mischievous look. ‘I could do with a cuddle to keep me warm.’
Polly snorted and turned to survey the room. She strode to the nearest bed and picked off a coarse shirt which she threw at him.
Isaac laughed and pulled it over his head. ‘Pongs a bit,’ he said, wrinkling his nose.
‘It doesn’t exactly fit well, either,’ Charlotte said with a smile as he stood before them, sleeves halfway up his arms and the hem revealing his navel.
‘Shut your complainin’ and watch what them wolves are doing,’ Polly snapped. Isaac grinned and turned back to the window and Charlotte caught a faint half-smile from Polly as she turned her attention back to Annie.
