Dragons of the Watch - Donita K. Paul [27]
“I understand.” He put her bag down and took her bundle to place next to it. “We’ll leave these here. It’ll be easier to give chase without any encumbrances.”
The goat let out a plaintive “Maa!”
“He sounds upset,” said Ellie.
They hurried to the point where Tak had disappeared around a corner. Tak stood just a few feet into the alley. At his feet, a pile of clothing lay in the shadow of the building. The moonlight touched the white hair of the goat and part of the cloth.
Ellie didn’t recognize any of the visible material as part of her missing garments. She walked forward with Bealomondore right behind.
“Maa!”
She stopped beside the goat and leaned over. Tak shifted, and the moonlight he had been blocking fell on the clothing. Ellie saw a dirty hand and stood up abruptly. She turned to Bealomondore but could not utter a sound. He hurried to her, put his arm around her shoulders, and turned her away.
Her voice trembled. “Is it …?”
“Yes, I think so.” He let go of her.
Ellie thought she would faint. She’d never fainted, but as Bealomondore’s arm left her, she thought she would crumple. She stiffened her legs and felt the tumanhofer crouch beside her.
“Is she …?”
“He, I think. And yes, I’m afraid so. There’s a lot of blood.” He stood and looked up. “He must have fallen from that catwalk up there.”
Ellie took a deep breath in. She glanced up at the ladderlike structure that crossed the alley from one building to another. Three stories up, the narrow planking with rungs passed from one window to another.
She felt the world tilt and dropped her chin to her chest. Bealomondore had stood, so she took hold of his arm, willing the dizziness to subside.
She swallowed hard and hoped she wouldn’t throw up. “What should we do?”
“I don’t think there is anything we can do.”
“Tell the other children?”
“No.”
“Do you think they know? Do you think they saw him fall?”
“I have no idea.”
Bealomondore’s answers angered her, but she realized his tone held sorrow and sympathy. He wasn’t being heartless, just answering her truthfully. She fought the horror of a child dying from such a fall and the bitter words that sprang to her tongue.
“Bury him? We can’t just leave him here.”
He put his arms around her and guided her face to his shoulder. “It’s all right, Ellicinderpart. All the urohms in this city have died, yet there are no bodies, no skeletons, nothing. Whoever brings the food and rain takes away the dead.”
Tears coursed down her cheeks, and she embraced Bealomondore, holding him tight. She cried for the big child and for all the little ones cowering in the dark, perhaps sleeping, perhaps too upset to close their eyes.
She sobbed as her companion urged her to leave the alley and continue to the library. When they reached the corner, he whispered, “I’ll come back for your things.”
They entered the library by the rear vent, and Bealomondore had her sit on a cushion near the storage room.
“I’ll return as soon as I can.”
He left, and Ellie wiped her tears on her sleeve. She needed a handkerchief. Getting up, she followed a light and found a room with lots of tables of books in various states of repair. She climbed a stool and took a rag from the tabletop. It smelled of turpentine, but she shook out the dust and used a relatively clean corner to blow her nose.
She sat on the edge of the stool and waited. Her tears dried and left her with sadness squeezing her heart. She wanted to talk the situation over with her mother. She wanted to hold her little brothers and sisters.
Bealomondore came back and easily found her. With both arms filled with her belongings, he looked up to where she sat perched and waiting. “Are you going to be all right?”
She nodded. “Did you know they have … accidents?”
“I figured it out. Old One’s mentioned that there used to be over a hundred children. They don’t die of old age. He’s said he never had any illness. I thought that if he didn’t have colds or stomachaches, then probably the children would be protected as well. But they are wild and do what they want, and they don’t show