Armageddon's Children - Terry Brooks [160]
The last thing he saw, looking back over his shoulder, was Tessa sitting where he had left her, weeping into her hands.
Chapter TWENTY-SEVEN
LOGAN TOM SPENT the remainder of the night keeping watch in the hallway outside the door he had tried unsuccessfully to pass through earlier. Realizing that the gypsy morph was in all likelihood the boy called Hawk—the one he’d unfortunately let pass him by on the street before coming into the building—he had determined to wait for his return. Hawk would be back soon, Owl had insisted. He had gone to the compound to visit his girlfriend. She would not say anything more than that. No one quite trusted him yet. Candle, more than the others, believed he was there to help. But it was Owl who made all the decisions, and she was taking no chances.
So, despite everything—or perhaps because of it—she had steadfastly refused to let him enter their quarters. All she had been willing to agree to was letting him remain in the hallway outside the door. She had promised that they would not make up their minds about him until Hawk’s return. She promised that they would not try to slip out the back or flee into the city and that they would let him cast the finger bones again when Hawk returned.
Then, having left his staff lying on the floor where he could reach it, they had backed into their lair and closed and locked the door. There had been no argument from any of them, including Candle, that he should be allowed to come inside.
So he sat in the hallway all night with his back against the far wall, facing the door and waiting. He slept off and on, but never deeply and never for very long. He had time to think about what he would do once he had determined if the boy Hawk was, in fact, the gypsy morph. How hard would it be to persuade him of his lineage? It was one thing to offer your help; it was another to gain acceptance. None of these street kids knew anything of Knights of the Word. Why should they? But it made his job just that much more difficult. There was no reason for the morph to trust him any more than these other street kids did.
There was another problem, a potentially bigger one. Would the morph even know what it was supposed to do once it had been told what it was? O’olish Amaneh had seemed confident that all the pieces would fall into place once the morph was found. But Logan was suspicious. In his experience, few things ever seemed to work out the way you expected. Mostly, something went wrong.
Dawn broke, and Hawk had not returned. Logan rose and went down to the street and looked around. There was no one in sight. He stood there for a long time, willing the boy to appear. But the street remained empty of life.
He took a deep breath and exhaled. Something was wrong, and he was afraid that it was going to change everything.
He needed a bath and something to eat, but he gave up on both and went back into the building. He climbed the stairs to the fourth floor and knocked on the door to the lair of the Ghosts. This time the door opened immediately and Owl wheeled into view, the other street kids trailing silently.
“He hasn’t come back?” Logan asked. Owl shook her head. “Will you try to find him?”
“I don’t know. Has this ever happened before?” She tightened her lips. “No. He meets Tessa secretly, and then comes back before it gets light.
Usually, he takes Cheney, but Cheney is hurt, so he left him behind. Hawk has been taking chances lately with Tessa. Someone in the compound might have found out about them. I’ve warned him that these meetings are dangerous. The people in the compound don’t like street kids.”
Logan nodded. “I know how they think. I’ve encountered it before. They don’t like anyone who lives beyond the walls. They can be very hard on outsiders.”
“It might be worse here. Tessa was stealing medicines from the compound stores to help street kids. Hawk asked her, and she agreed. If they found out about that. . .”
“Can you get inside the compound to find out?” asked the girl with dark hair and intense eyes.
“Maybe.” He shrugged. “Maybe