Brother to Dragons, Companion to Owls - Jane Lindskold [91]
A nude baby boy, no more than a year old, is slowly awakening in the box. His eyes are green, tinged with infant blue, and his hair is a shade more golden than my own. I don’t need to be able to read the listing on the box to know that this child is a member of my family.
Putting Betwixt and Between on the dresser where they can watch, I start flipping the fastenings on the box. The baby shows no interest in what I am doing and my rage grows with his indifference.
“Dear God! A baby!”
Behind me, Professor Isabella’s voice rises in shock, but the soundproofed walls of the little room swallow the sound.
I nod, my attention still on the baby. When I move to lift it, she hurries over, sniffing the air suspiciously.
“Let me, Sarah. You need to support his head and cradle his body like so.”
She demonstrates and I nod curtly. There is more rage in me than I knew was possible, but I struggle to conceal it.
Abalone comes to join us a few minutes later and freezes in the doorway when she sees my discovery.
“Who?” she squeaks.
Professor Isabella, now efficiently diapering the boy, actually has an answer.
“I believe that he is the child of Dylan and Eleanora, test-tube bred by Aldrich and carried by a surrogate mother. I thought that what I was reading over was a planned-for project, but obviously I was wrong.”
Under Betwixt and Between’s watchful gaze, she fishes a white jumper from the dresser drawer.
“I can get him dressed, but I don’t know for how long he’ll stay quiet. Already he’s the most passive baby I’ve ever seen.”
Abalone steps closer. “Drugged. Look at his eyes.”
While they are distracted, I stalk from the lab and into the hall. Midline’s dark eyes meet mine.
“Finished in there?” he asks softly.
I nod, narrowing my eyes. “I must be cruel, only to be kind.”
He studies me. “What do you want?”
I point to the door that leads into Aldrich’s suite.
“We were going to leave him alone,” he says.
“No.”
There must be something in my expression, for he doesn’t try to stop me when I move toward Aldrich’s suite.
The door is not even locked and seems to leap open at my touch. Once I am in the room, I disconnect his comm. Then, deliberately, I turn on the lights and shake him awake.
“Silence is golden,” I warn him, showing him the hunting knife I have carried since my return to the Free People.
He swallows his yell and says very softly, “You!”
“Vengeance is mine; I will repay,” I growl.
“‘Saith the Lord,’” he replies tentatively.
“No,” I say. “Vengeance is mine, I will repay.”
He quivers under the bedclothes. “What do you want?”
My face is hard. “One fire burns out another’s burning; One pain is lessen’d by another’s anguish.”
“Sarah.” He struggles into a sitting position. “You never would have been born if not for me. You owe me your life.”
“Life can be bitter to the very bone, when one is poor, and woman, and alone.”
“Your life hasn’t been bitter, Sarah,” he says. “You have talents of which other people only dream. Surely you have enjoyed your abilities.”
Slowly, I turn the knife so that the room’s dim light plays off the blade like will-o’-the-wisps over a marsh. My reflection in Dr. Aldrich’s mirror shows me the incongruity of my tidy business suit and the steely blade.
“All ambitions are lawful,” I say, testing the blade edge against my thumb, “except for those which climb upward on the miseries or credulities of mankind.”
Dr. Aldrich is awakening to an awareness that this is real, not a nightmare—that he is about to die. Behind me, in the hall, I hear Professor Isabella and Abalone talking with Midline. I wait until they join me and carefully take the baby from Professor Isabella.
At the sight of his latest creation cradled in my arms, Dr. Aldrich bites down on his lower lip until blood beads forth from the thin flesh.
“You’ve found him,” he says. “Give him to me! He’s my last hope. They’ll kill me if you take