Sprite

Norah flew down the stairs as soon as she heard gunshots.

“Stay up there, Miss!” shouted Jonas, holding up one hand to motion her back. She brushed right by him. This was her factory, whether she wanted it or not. She was determined to be in charge of it. Jonas fell in behind her.

“What’s going on?” she asked breathlessly. She was still a floor away, and couldn’t see anything except the crowd of workers milling agitatedly about on the main floor.

“Sprite,” Jonas replied, out of breath too. He wasn’t used to running. “Somebody yelled they have Datro’s Sprite down there!”

Norah nearly missed a step.

The workers backed away from something in the center of the room, and Norah pushed her way through. A haze had formed there. In it, she could barely make out two figures, one lying on the floor. Her head began to pound as she tried to get closer. One of the figures stooped to help the fallen one, and when he turned, Norah gasped in shock. “Will!” she called out, but the figure in the mist didn’t appear to hear her. As she watched, he lifted his fallen comrade, and Norah glimpsed a pointed face, drawn in pain. There was something odd about the other man. Norah stared, trying to pinpoint what it was, but the haze continued to thicken about them. She started forward, her entire body tingling as she neared the outer edges. It wasn’t cold or wet; rather, the space seemed insubstantial, not really there. Norah had felt this before, once, in the woods. She shivered, and reached out her hand to touch it. The air shimmered as her hand passed through it.

“No!” A shout rang out across the room. Roselle stood at the top of the stairs by the main entrance, holding her side and panting. “Wait!”

Norah stopped, and made her way back through the workers to Roselle. “Was that—was that—Will?” she asked. Why else would Roselle have come here, and obviously in a big hurry.

Roselle nodded, her eyes huge. “What happened to them?” She had come in just as the two slowly faded into the mist. As they spoke, the shimmering in the air disappeared and with it, the two mutants. “Where did they go?”

The noise suddenly increased in the factory as everyone realized the same thing. “They’re gone!”

“It was a trick!” someone said. “They must have escaped in the fog! You, you and you, to the side exit!” One of the supervisors from the lower level led a group of men off in pursuit. No one else moved.

“Back to work!” Norah commanded in a loud voice. “Jonas! See to it that everybody gets back to work. I’ll want to talk to the one who shot that gun later. Go on!” she said, as only the changelings shuffled back to their jobs. The human workers looked to the supervisors for confirmation first. Norah gritted her teeth.

Jonas repeated what she had said. “There’s nothing more to see. Get back to work.” Reluctantly, the rest of the men returned to their posts, leaving Norah and Roselle alone on the now deserted floor.

“What is that?” Roselle pointed to the spot where Will and the other mutant had been. Norah had expected to see a bloodstain, but instead, unaccountably, amazingly, a red flower bloomed in the cement floor. Norah stooped down to pluck it and, after a few tugs, it came loose. She sniffed it and sighed. It reminded her of home.

Roselle gripped her arm. “Norah. Norah!”

Norah blinked.

“Why is there a flower growing in the floor? What happened to Will? Did you talk to him? I can’t believe he left me there! You were going to leave, too! I saw you start to disappear!”

“What?” Norah stared at Roselle in shock.

“You went into the shimmery area and I couldn’t see you anymore! I thought Will and his friend were taking you away because you are all--,” she glanced around, but the main floor was empty, and the few workers who remained were over at the other end of the room. “—you know. And I’m not.”

“You talked to Will? You told him about me?”

“You didn’t?” Roselle said in surprise. “Will was coming over here to ask you about Lou. He told me so right before his friend did something to knock me out! I was so mad when I woke up!”

“Lou? How does Will know anything about Lou?”

“I told him what happened. He asked when he saw that you were gone, and no, I didn’t tell him about you—I thought maybe you did.”

Norah inhaled the red flower deeply. Already, the insubstantial quality of the air was fading, and she wasn’t sure whether she was relieved or disappointed. “I didn’t even know it was Will until I got down here.”

“Do you think it was a trick? So they could get away?”

Norah didn’t think so. The shimmery air was familiar to her. She glanced at the flower in her hand. There had been a red flower growing nearby that other time, too.

“Miss? Miss Norah? Your grandfather is on his way. Would you like to speak to the mutant who sounded the alarm before he gets here?” Jonas stood by her elbow. Behind him, three changelings waited. Oddly, it was the biggest one who was quaking with fear.

Norah closed her eyes briefly. Of course the supervisors would have sent for her grandfather. She ran this factory in name only. Jonas was the exception. He seemed to have a soft spot for her.

She squeezed Roselle’s arm. “You’d better leave before Grandfather gets here.”

Roselle nodded, leaning in close to whisper, “I’ll look for you in the usual place, if you can get away.” Her eyes shone. “Will’s back! He came for us!” She whirled away, out the main door and down the steps before Alan Avery could show up with his disapproving frown.

Alan Avery blustered in before Norah had time to interview any of the parties involved. He waited until he had Norah up in her office before snapping, “Another mutant incident? I thought I told you to stay clear of the mutants. Let the supervisors handle it. Jonas told me you spoke a name. Did you know these mutants too?”

Norah’s heart twisted when she realized where Jonas’ loyalties lay. Grandfather probably knew Roselle had been here as well. “I thought I did.” It was no use lying now. Hopefully, Will and his strange companion were far away. Was the stranger with Will truly a sprite, perhaps the one Will had set off to find in the great forest? If so, what were they doing here in Datro? Had Will, as Roselle believed, come to take her away with him? And Norah too? She wanted to believe it. ‘Datro’s Sprite’ had made no move since Lou and Patrick from 3 had been taken prisoner. How could she? Grandfather had not let Norah out of his sight since he had made her leave school.

The three mutants who had reported the intruders were grilled repeatedly in front of Norah. When her grandfather found out the intruders had come for Lou, he growled, “That girl’s on borrowed time. She hasn’t told us a thing about Datro’s Sprite, and now the damn sprite himself has come after her!”

He rewarded the supervisor who had shot the sprite by giving him the rest of the afternoon off.

“Norah, you’ll go home with Jonas today. I don’t want you traveling alone until we capture Datro’s Sprite, and whoever else might be with him. I won’t be coming back until tomorrow night.” He dismissed Norah with a wave of his hand, turning to address Jonas once more. “I’m meeting with Dave Longan in the morning at Lorry’s farm, where we’ll take care of our little problem. Tonight, I have a council meeting.”

Jonas nodded. “Come along, Miss,” he said deferentially. “I’ll bring the wagon around.”

“What’s at Lorry’s farm?” Norah asked Jonas as they rode silently the short distance to Grandfather’s house.

Jonas glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. “I think you can guess, Miss,” he replied. They pulled up in front of the house, where Emma already waited in the doorway. Grandfather must have given her specific instructions to watch over Norah also. “Miss, if I hadn’t mentioned Will to your grandfather, someone else would have. It was better coming from me.”

Norah nodded, and smiled wistfully. Jonas surprised her by giving her a rough hug. She ran into the house, and straight up to her room. Emma went to bed around ten. Norah waited until the house was dark, before quietly getting up. She threw a few changes of clothes, her jewelry box with its hidden razor, and her bathing suit into a bag. She braided her hair and wrapped it tightly around her head, then donned a thick, long-sleeved shirt, pants, and her riding boots. With practiced ease she slid open her bedroom window and gingerly climbed down the side of the house.

It was late, and she wasn’t sure Roselle would still be at their meeting place, but she went there first. Roselle was there, curled up with her head against the big rock, sleeping. She jumped awake when Norah gently shook her shoulder.

“I didn’t think you were coming, Norah.” Roselle sat up and rubbed her eyes. “Did you hear anything more about Will? He never came back.”

Norah shook her head. “No, but I can’t wait for him. Roselle, I’m leaving Datro. First I have to try and find Lou and Patrick. Grandfather is planning to kill them.”

“Then I’m coming, too,” Roselle said determinedly. She stood, brushing away dirt and leaves. “We’re going to take them to Will, right? To the forest.”

“Roselle, you can’t! What about your family? You have a life here! If you leave with me, you can never come back!”

Roselle’s eyes blazed. “Why would I come back? Will came for me, Norah. I want to go wherever Will is. My parents will understand. They raised me to speak my own mind.”

Norah smiled. That was certainly true. “I only hope my parents are as understanding. The factories are my inheritance, not Grandfather’s. But I don’t want them!”

Roselle knew where Lorry’s farm was. It was a long walk, because neither girl could risk going back for a horse or wagon. They came upon the farm shortly before dawn, and already it bustled with activity as the farm hands, mostly members of the Lorry family, began their morning chores. Where would they keep the two mutant prisoners? Norah headed for one barn while Roselle checked out the second. If it were neither one, then they would have to check the house itself.

Norah discovered the prisoners by accident. She backed into an empty stall when a gangly boy entered the barn with a bale of straw, and tripped over something which moved when she stepped on it. A sharp intake of breath warned her that she wasn’t alone. Inside the stall, it was still pitch black, but she could make out vague shapes in the darkness. “Lou?” she whispered as softly as she dared. “Is that you?”

A small shape threw itself at her, almost knocking Norah to the ground. Little solemn faced Lou cried softly, burying her head in Norah’s chest. “I knew you’d come,” she whispered.

“Come on, we’ve got to get out of here,” Norah said, as soon as the boy who had spread the hay left the barn. “What about Patrick? Do you know where he is?”

Lou took Norah by the hand and led her over to the third stall. Patrick, the angry changeling from Factory 3, was chained to the far wall by one ankle. He half-dozed against the wall, but the chain was too short for him to lie down comfortably without twisting his leg. He looked up when Norah and Lou entered the stall, his eyes no longer angry or bitter, only resigned. He looked away again.

Norah was grateful that they had only locked Lou in her stall. She wasn’t sure how she was going to get Patrick’s chain off. Roselle, it turned out, did. She took a pin from her hair and moved it round and round in the lock until it clicked, as Norah looked on in amazement. “You didn’t think I climbed out of windows all the time, did you?” Roselle remarked dryly, replacing the pin in her hair. “Let’s go.”

She helped Patrick, whose legs weren’t used to moving, while Norah took Lou’s hand as they ran into the nearby fields. “There are woods on the other side of the fields,” Patrick said. “If we can make it through before daybreak, we might have a chance.”

“We’ll make it,” Roselle promised. “Just keep running.”

Norah hoped Roselle was right.