Part 16 (1/2)

It was here that my father motioned me to rise and speak, and I lied to protect the animals. 'According to two convicts I watched and listened to in the underground chamber, there is a traitor living among us,” I said. ”This man is their leader and goes by the secret name Sebastian, thus the letter S. ”

A burst of gasps again filled the room, not the least of which was from Ganesh, as he looked at me with horror on his face.

”You've gone too far now, Daley. Stop with this nonsense!” he shouted.

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”Really, you two, this is too much,” said Grayson. There was a mixture of mumbling around the room, and then a voice was heard that no one expected.

”I personally helped escort the convicts to Ainsworth.”

It was Pervis, his head down, facing the floor.

He looked up then, and surveyed the room from side to side. ”Only thing is, Warvold stayed in Ainsworth for , several days after my guards and I returned to Bridewell. 1 It could be that he bought their freedom, or otherwise persuaded Ainsworth to set them free outside. He was a peculiar man and he often made secret, unusual decisions with implications only he understood. Don't think for a minute that he didn't expect things to unravel as they have. We may yet see his wisdom in all this before we're through.” He sc.r.a.ped his chains across the table, turned, and gestured toward the window. ”In any event, we've known for a long time that creatures move around in The Dark Hills. My guards and I see them all the time. Maybe now we know what they are.”

”Oh, come on, Pervis, this is simply ridiculous!” Nicolas exploded. ”Are you telling me you believe the fantasies of a child?”

For the first time since I had entered the meeting room, I felt conviction and courage and even some anger. So much at stake, and such closed minds. It would take something more concrete to get this group to believe. I pushed my chair out and walked to the window. I stood for a moment with my back to the group and observed 201.

the sickening stone wall. It looked almost alive with its green ivy veins shooting in all directions. When I turned around to address the men, I had a new pa.s.sion in my eyes.

”I have more to tell.”

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CHAPTER 21.

THE DARK HILLS DIVIDE.

All my hesitation was gone. The people sitting at the tables, the things I knew were true about the convicts, the meeting room itself none of it scared me any longer. Years behind the wall had blinded these men to the world outside. But the wall had taken more than their freedom to experience the outer world. I could see that it had stolen their ability to figure out the truth.

I unfolded the paper Murphy had left for me on the windowsill.

”When I ventured outside the wall I met a remarkable man. This man has lived in the mountains for many years, and he has extraordinary abilities with animals. He has been watching the convicts, and he gave me this note.”

”Did this man tell you his name?” asked Grayson. I nodded and told him the man's name was Yipes. He questioned me again, this time about the man's size, and I told him he was the smallest man I'd ever seen. Grayson turned a ghostly white and looked at me with a blank stare. Then he put his elbows on the table and dropped his head into his hands.

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”What is it, Grayson?” Ganesh asked. Grayson looked up, scanned the faces in the room, and answered.

”I think she might be telling the truth,” he said. Everyone was looking at him now, trying to figure out what he was talking about.

”Yipes is no legend,” he continued. ”He's real. He's a very small man, more than likely able to communicate with animals, and he lives in the wild.” Grayson continued his stammering and began shaking his head. He stood up and looked around as though he was trying to recall a distant memory and remember it properly before speaking.

”When he was a boy he lived in Bridewell for a time. He arrived from Ainsworth, and wandered the streets until he was hungry enough to steal bread.” Grayson stopped and looked directly at me, then continued. ”He stole that bread from me, and I caught him. After that, I let him stay in the library and sleep on the chair in the corner. He was so small, n.o.body ever took notice of him. When people came in, he hid in the shadows. I brought him sc.r.a.ps from the kitchen and read him books.” Grayson walked to the window, drawing out the memory, gazing at the ever-present stone and vine of the wall.

”One day I rounded the corner to the chair and found him sitting in Warvold's lap. I was shocked, afraid old Warvold would get rid of both the boy and me. But I could not have been more wrong. Warvold loved the boy. He would sit and read to him and they would talk of 204.

things I heard only in whispers, of talking animals, of things in the wild outside the wall, of secret pa.s.sages and mysteries of the distant past only Warvold understood. I thought it was all rubbish.”

He turned and faced the room, leaning against the windowsill, his body outlined against the morning light. ”I went about my business, cared for the boy, and taught him what I knew. Warvold was a busy man in those days, and often he would be absent for weeks on end before returning. Yipes was remarkably agile and strong for his size. He would stack books on the top shelves when no one was about. He could scale a tall bookshelf in an instant, hang by one hand, and stack volume after volume perfectly.

”I don't know how old he was when he arrived, nor have I any idea what his age was when he disappeared a year later. I only know that he told me he would find a way outside, and that when he did, he would live in the wild with animals and learn to communicate with them. Warvold told him so, and he believed. He was treated badly by humans, forgotten, discarded. In the wild, he believed things would be different.”

Grayson was visibly moved by his own recollections. He seemed overcome by the idea that this boy he once cared for was still alive, living out his days in the mountains and the forest.

”One day I came into the library and Warvold was sitting in the chair sobbing, holding a strange silver key 205.

between his fingers. 'He's gone,' he said, 'never to return.' I guess Warvold was right, because I have not seen Yipes since.”

The room was quiet. I felt it was my best chance to reveal what little else I knew, to convince them that trouble was indeed on the way. So I read the note from Yipes I had sent Murphy to get. And in the reading, I felt a chill in my bones.

”The Dark Hills divide cannot protect you from an evil that lurks within. At twelve o'clock this very night he will signal them, and they will come for you. Your only hope is to tear down what you have built.'

”It's signed by Yipes,” I said. After that, there was a look on the faces in the room I had never seen before in all my visits to Bridewell.

Suspicion.

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CHAPTER 22.

SECRET PLAN.

After I read the note from Yipes, the meeting room was quiet for a long time. It was as if n.o.body knew what to say or do next, or even how to act. My father was the one to finally break the silence.

”It seems we are all having trouble coming to grips with the situation at hand. Unless anyone objects, I suggest we let Alexa tell us everything else she knows. If what she has already explained to us is true, and it appears that it is, then we have almost no time to prepare for a possible invasion.” Pervis s.h.i.+fted in his chair and started the chains jingling between his legs. I was glad to have him in our midst.

I rose and advanced to the far end of the room where a large wooden table surrounded by chairs was kept. My father unhitched Pervis and escorted him to a chair at the new table, then locked him to one of the legs. I invited everyone else to join us and sit down, and I unrolled the map onto the middle of the table. I used heavy bra.s.s candlesticks to keep the map flat against the wood.

”We haven't got a lot of time and we lack proper defenses,” Father said. ”Most of those who normally reside in Bridewell are conducting business in other parts of the kingdom, which is both good and bad. Fewer people are 207.

at risk, but it puts us drastically short of men. No doubt this is precisely why the convicts have chosen to attack now.”

Father looked across the table at Pervis and said, ”We have the six of us. How many guards do we have?”

”We have fourteen, fifteen if you take these shackles off of me, plus sixty or so men, women, and children scattered around town,” said Pervis.

”Fourteen guards?” asked Silas, a.s.suming we would not be letting Pervis go. ”There could be hundreds of convicts out in those hills. There's no way we could handle them all, especially since we don't know how or when exactly they will strike. And worse, one of them is inside the wall. It could be anyone. Even one of us.”