Drake had had to carry Helen, and though Gilda had accepted Angus’s support, she hadn’t allowed him to do the same. There was an odd kind of distance between them that Zach didn’t understand, but he hoped like hell it went away soon. This place needed them strong, functioning as a team.
It needed him and Lexi to do the same.
Zach’s back ached, but he ignored it, preferring the mindless monotony of labor over the worries eating away at him.
What if Lexi’s fears were right and she never managed to access his power? He was sure the failure would crush her, not to mention the fact that he had no clue what that would mean for him. His lifemark was no longer dying, but it wasn’t renewing itself, either. There were no new leaves forming, no buds.
Patience. He needed to stop worrying and have some faith. It had only been a couple of days. He needed to give Lexi some time to figure things out. Heaven knew she was trying.
A warm smile pulled at his mouth. He could hardly wait for her to try again.
A small whimper of sound rose up to his ears, barely audible. Zach stilled and held his breath, listening. It came again, a little louder this time, from the thick brush on the far side of the wall. It sounded like a wounded animal.
Or a child.
Fear kicked hard, making Zach’s body move into action. Had one of the human children wandered out through the opening and gotten hurt? There was so much chaos around the wall’s break, it could have happened.
The sound came again, a little sobbing noise of pain and terror. Definitely not an animal.
Zach shouted to the closest man, “Neal, come here. Back me up.”
The sky had lightened enough that the floodlights shining on the work area had been turned off. The humans who had needed the illumination had all gone inside for food, anyway.
Deep shadows left dark pockets over the landscape, but Zach had served perimeter duty enough times that he knew the area well and had no trouble negotiating the dips and ruts in the dim light.
Neal was bare-chested. He pulled a T-shirt from his waistband and wiped the dust and sweat from his face. “What’s up?” asked Neal. His voice was deceptively lazy as he came up beside Zach, moving so smoothly, it was hard not to watch.
“Thought I heard something. Like a kid.”
“Doubt it,” drawled Neal as he dropped the shirt and drew his sword.
Zach had been teamed up with Neal often enough to know that despite his casual manner, the man could go from zero to killer in about three seconds.
“Yeah, me, too. Guess we’ll see.” Zach checked the sky. “Whatever it is, can’t be that bad for long. Sun’s almost up.”
The pitiful sound came from the bottom of a shallow ravine about fifty feet away.
“It sure as hell sounds human,” said Neal, but he didn’t put away his sword.
They reached the edge, and Zach saw a movement in the brush below. Something wearing pale blue. “Help me,” said the kid, and it was definitely a kid. “I’m stuck.”
Both men slid down the side of the ravine, which was maybe seven feet deep and twenty feet wide. During the rainy season, the crevice would be running with water, but right now, it was filled with scrub brush, mud and weeds.
Neal sheathed his sword as Zach pushed through the brush toward the kid. It was a little boy, maybe ten. He was wearing faded blue jeans and near him was a fishing pole and tackle box. His feet were sunk into the mud up to his calves and he’d fallen back, lodging his arms and his butt in the thick mud as well.
Zach didn’t recognize the boy, but there were a lot of kids at Dabyr, more all the time.
“What’s your name, son?” Zach asked as he looked for a way to reach the boy without getting stuck himself.
“Clay.”
“Are you hurt, Clay?”
“I twisted my ankle.” He sniffed and looked like he wished he could wipe the tears from his face before Zach got close enough to see them. His night vision was good enough that he had no trouble making out the shiny streaks over the kid’s face.
“Don’t worry. We’ll get you out of here.”
His voice wavered with genuine fear. “Are you gonna tell my mom?”
Absolutely, but no sense in freaking the kid out. He had to learn how dangerous it was to go outside the walls—learn it well enough that he never did it again. “Don’t worry about that right now. Let’s just focus on getting you out of here.”
From behind him, Zach heard the metallic click of a gun being cocked. He turned to see what was going on, already knowing it was bad.
A burly man in denim overalls stood on the sloping land behind and above Neal with a matte black gun pointed at the Theronai’s head. “Move and I’ll blow his brains out,” said the stranger.
Zach stepped in front of the kid to protect him from stray bullets.
Neal’s hand moved to his sword.
“I wouldn’t do that,” said another man behind Zach.
Zach whirled around and saw a skinny human with a scraggly beard on the far side of the ravine. In his hands was a shotgun, and it was pointed at the boy.
Outrage surged through Zach. This whole thing had been a trap with the kid serving as bait.
“You won’t kill him,” said Zach. “That child is one of your own.”
“He’s not my kid,” said Skinny, his voice chilly with indifference. “Go ahead. See if I’m bluffing.”
The boy’s eyes overflowed with tears and his nose started running. “You said we were going fishing.”
“Shut up,” barked Skinny.