Dragons of the Watch - Donita K. Paul [41]
The child’s head dropped closer to the rag she embraced.
Ellie tried again. “I have little brothers and sisters.”
Leg Clinger’s head tilted slightly, and Ellie got a brief glimpse of one eye.
“How long have you lived here?”
The child shrugged, and Ellie felt she’d made one step closer to reaching her. “I come from a place outside the bottle.”
“There isn’t a bottle.” The girl shifted so she faced Ellie. “That’s a fairy tale.”
“I see.” Ellie searched for a topic that wouldn’t shut off the flow of conversation. “Who gives you your food?”
A shrug and the head dropped, leaving Ellie to stare at matted hair. Mud caked the child’s shoes, and stains covered her skirt, blouse, and apron. But in contrast, none of her belongings looked old.
Ellie decided to try one more topic. “You have nice shoes.”
Leg Clinger straightened out her legs and looked at her feet. She nodded.
“Where did you get them?”
Another shrug.
“Do you have a name?”
The look she got from the urchin said Ellie was incredibly dumb.
“Yeah.”
“Mine is Ellicinderpart. What’s yours?”
“Gardie. Yours is too long.”
“You can call me Ellie.” She waited, but Gardie didn’t comment. “Who takes care of you?”
Another disgusted look. “Me.”
“When I was six, I had a mother and father to take care of me. What happened to all the mothers and fathers?”
A shrug. A sigh. “Old One took care of us, but he got mean.”
Another child lifted her head from a pile of stones he played with. “That’s another fairy tale, Gardie. You know it is. He never was anything but mean.” He glared at Ellie. “We aren’t supposed to talk about it.”
Gardie ducked her head.
The stone-piling child motioned to Gardie. “You come over here and leave the prisoner alone. You probably aren’t supposed to talk to her.”
Gardie stood and shuffled over to stone-piling child.
Ellie looked at the one with the stones. “Do you have a name?”
“I won’t talk to you.”
“What is the game you play with your stones?”
A pause. “Trickery.”
“I don’t know how to play Trickery. Will you show me?”
“Long as I don’t have to talk to you. I bet we aren’t supposed to talk to you.”
“Who will tell you if you aren’t allowed to talk to me?”
“Yawn,” said Gardie.
The boy was moving his stone pile closer to Ellie. “Yawn’s top bad guy.”
“Are you all bad guys?”
Both children nodded.
“Why? Why not be good guys?”
Both children shrugged. Ellie despaired of ever getting information out of these two. She watched as they played with the stones and could not make any sense of the game. If she asked questions, they shrugged. The game went on and on until the boy who would not speak to her scooped up all the stones and crammed them in his pockets. Gardie didn’t seem to care.
With no cue that Ellie could detect, the children sprang to their feet and bolted from the room. Tak raised his head, looked around, and stood.
“Maa.”
“I don’t know where they went. Oh! I bet it’s dinnertime.”
Gardie ran back into the room and halted just inside the door. “I can’t bring you anything to eat.”
“That’s all right.”
“I gotta go, or it’ll all be gone.”
“That’s all right. Go ahead.”
“We’ll come back. We have to be inside before the sun goes down.”
“Why?”
“If we don’t go to bed, there’s no food in the morning. Everyone has to wait until noonmeal, and if they figure out who wasn’t in bed …” Her eyes grew wider. “I gotta go.”
She dashed away.
“Maa.”
Ellie twisted her wrists against the stockings binding her to the posts. “Just a minute, Tak, and I’ll go with you.”
“Would you like some help?” Bealomondore stood in the doorway, looking very dapper, a sword strapped to his waist.
“Yes, I would. I don’t want to be here when they come back. And I certainly don’t want you brandishing that sword at them.”
He came across the room and quickly undid one knotted stocking. “I wouldn’t hurt a child.”
He untied the other stocking, and Ellie took it. She stuffed the unmatched pair into her pocket.
Her voice broke in the middle of her next declaration. “I know you wouldn’t hurt them.” She stood rubbing her wrists.
“What’s the matter?”
“There’s