Brother to Dragons, Companion to Owls - Jane Lindskold [92]
His voice is tight with an edge that I have heard many times before in the Home. Tears overflow his eyes and mingle with the blood from his lips. A sour smell taints the air. Fear brutally breaks his mind in a way that neither guilt nor pity could.
Yet, despite the noise, the baby in my arms stirs only a little.
“Sarah,” Professor Isabella says, “we’ve done what we came for. Come away.”
I hand my nephew to her and motion for them to precede me from the room. In his bed, Dr. Aldrich burbles chaotically. I move as if to follow the others and then dart back into the room.
With one hand I grab his hair, twisting his head so that he is forced to face me. His eyes are mad, but not with the clean madness of Head Wolf or Jersey. This is self-interest so acute that it has driven him mad with horror.
Grasping my knife firmly, I thrust it into the pulsating hollow below his Adam’s apple.
“How sharper than a serpent’s tooth it is,” I say as I twist the blade, “to have a thankless child.”
Beneath my hand, blood runs bright. Aldrich convulses once and then is still. The pulse fades as suddenly.
A hand—Midline’s—draws my hand away and the knife falls free.
“The bone is cracked,” he says gently. “Aldrich is dead. Not just from the knife wound, I think. His heart stopped from the terror. A good killing of one such as him.”
Aware of the drumming of my own racing heart, I retrieve my blade.
“There will be fingerprints,” Abalone says, “but that shouldn’t matter. Right after we found the baby, I set up the heating system to screw up and start fires all through this building. Aldrich’s research materials must be completely destroyed or someone else may try to duplicate his work someday.”
“If we’re finished here then,” Professor Isabella says, “I think we should leave. The baby isn’t likely to stay quiet forever, especially now that he’s disconnected from that box.”
As if to confirm her words, the baby kicks against his blanket. Taking Betwixt and Between from Abalone, I put them on his chest and the chubby hands reach to grasp my dragon.
“Sing a song of sixpence,” I tell them, “a pocket full of rye. Four-and-twenty blackbirds baked in a pie.”
“I always thought that was a really sick thing to sing about to a kid,” Betwixt comments.
“Oh, shut up,” Between replies. “You know what she wants.”
“Yeah, I do. ‘Rock-a-bye-baby’?”
Together they begin to harmonize sweetly on the lullaby. The baby’s hands tighten and his expression brightens for the first time with something like delight.
Professor Isabella looks thoughtfully at him.
“I wonder,” she says, “if he can hear the way Sarah can? The records seemed to indicate that Aldrich was trying to create the same talent.”
Abalone looks at him and then starts shoving us down the hallway toward the exit.
“Of course, he can, can’t you see? But, in case you’ve forgotten, we are in enemy territory and these”—the toss of her head indicates both the baby and Aldrich’s corpse—“complicate things somewhat. I’ve called for the trolley capsule and signaled Peep and we really should be leaving.”
Midline sniffs the air. “And the fires are starting. We want to be away before they are noticed.”
“I did have the sense to cut the fire alarms,” Abalone retorts. “Sarah, put your suit jacket in your briefcase. It has blood on it.”
I obey, finishing before the trolley arrives. My hands are steady and, to my surprise, so am I. All my rage, frustration, and misery died when I struck out against Dr. Aldrich.
Despite Abalone’s concern, our escape is easily managed. Peep arches an eyebrow when he sees the baby, but his only comment is to tint the windows rusty brown. We speed by the attentive guard, but his attention is for his monitors, not for a single sedan.
Professor Isabella looks at me, her expression alive with concerns she won’t admit.
“How are you, Sarah?”
I gesture to the receding Ailanthus compound, a wry smile bending my lips.
“Hating people is like burning down your own house to get rid of a rat.”
“Well, I didn’t figure that you loved him”—Professor Isabella tries