Cogling (15 page)

Blue moon high above my head.

ands jerked Edna awake so fast, her teeth clattered. Ike stood over her, a gas lamp sending shadows across his thin face. “Get up.”

Edna blinked. “Is it morning?” Questions about what she’d heard the night before crowded her brain, but she couldn’t conjure a proper way to ask them. If she insulted Ike, he might abandon her. Nothing could stop her from reaching Harrison.

“The police are here.” Ike yanked the blankets off her.

“We can show them how evil the hags are.” She tried to pull the covers back, but he caught her wrist. The prayer beads pressed into her skin.

“They’re here because we ran away from the gin house.” Ike scowled as he hauled her off the bed.

She pulled the quilt around her shoulders, glaring at his hand on her arm. “We did nothing wrong. If we keep fleeing, we get further from Harrison. If we confront the police, the chase ceases.”

“By now,” Ike snapped, “Augusta will have forged documents saying we’re indentured servants.” He tugged Edna into the hallway. “Charles and Polly are talking to them in the yard, but the police might want to search the house. Their dragon followed our scent here.”

Talking to the police under those conditions would make everything worse. The evil pumped toward her extremities.

“We’ll never get away,” Edna squeaked. “If we’re thrown into prison, or given back to Augusta, we’ll never reach Harrison.”

Ike led her across the hall into a room. Past the bed, he pulled open a small door to reveal a closet. Ike shoved clothes aside and knocked on the wood.

“What are you doing?” she panted. “Changing our clothes won’t help.”

“I’m finding the hollow space.” He knocked again.

“We have to get out of here.” She slapped his shoulder to get his attention, and gasped as the back of the closet swung open. Ike dragged her in, clothes pressing against her face, and he pushed her to the back wall. She grunted as she hit the hard surface.

Ike shut the door. The click of a latch echoed in the darkness.

“Dragons can sniff.” Edna pawed at him until she found his arm. “They’ll still find us. We should’ve gone to the woods again. The dragon couldn’t follow if we ran in the stream.”

“Charles has bone powder rubbed all over the closet to block our odor.” Ike sat. “Polly will knock thrice on the door when it’s safe to leave.”

“Waxman Estate can prove I’m not an indentured servant.” The cold air bit through Edna’s thin nightgown, so she held the loose collar against her throat. Ike still wore the clothes Charles had given him. Had he known the police would come? More information he hadn’t shared.

Edna squinted in the darkness as her heart pounded. While rubbing her beads, she drew deep breaths and her eyes adjusted to the absence of light.

A blimp driver shouldn’t have a secret room.

“What aren’t you telling me?” Edna pinched his arm and smiled when he jumped. “I heard you talking to Charles and Polly last night, so don’t lie. I want Harrison back and I don’t want either of us dead.”

Ike shifted to remove his jacket and draped it around her. His scent invaded her nostrils. She closed her eyes and inhaled, trying to place the odor: lavender and something unique to him.

Hags smelled of lavender.

Yet even that realization still nudged the evil back into her recesses. He leaned his hand on her shoulder. Their backs rested against the wall, and when Edna stretched her legs to relieve the cramping muscles, her feet bumped the opposite wall.

“I can’t tell you everything, but I’m not a liar.” Ike’s whisper stirred the hair on her forehead. “I’m getting you to your brother, and I’ll set you on the right path back to Moser City, just like I said. That’s all you need to know, and you’re right. They’d figure out you weren’t an indentured servant and send you back to the city.” Ike drew a deep breath. “They’d recognize me.”

“From the gin house?”

His breathing hitched. “Not that.”

Downstairs, the front door banged. Voices drifted upwards.

“That’s a lovely baby dragon,” Polly said.

How does that work exactly?” Charles asked. Dishes clattered in the kitchen, and although the sounds were faint, Edna guessed Polly offered the police officers refreshments.

“The male recruits keep the babies, like this one, unless they need to track,” the female officer explained. “Adult dragons can track across land, but when we hunt in buildings, the babies are easier to maneuver. Dragons will only pair with maidens, so that’s why men can’t handle adults.”

Dishes clattered in the kitchen. “Tea?” Polly asked.

“First I’d like to take a look around your house.”

“I’ll go with you.” A chair scraped while Charles spoke. “What do these kids look like?”

The moaning stairs drowned out the answer. Edna held her breath and pressed her face against Ike’s shoulder, squeezing her eyes shut. He would shelter her as he’d done on the train. Despite the tension and fear, the evil stayed back. He did that for her. Somehow. Like Harrison did at times.

“Track,” the woman said. A thud sounded, followed by a scraping scurry. A door creaked as the dragon hurried into a room. The loud snuffles echoed off the walls.

“This is my daughter’s,” Charles said. “I’m sure that’s why your dragon’s sniffing the bed.”

“Naturally, young dragons are attracted to virgins,” the woman agreed.

Charles coughed. “My children always leave their rooms a mess and we don’t want to tidy. It helps us feel like they’re home.”

Ike held Edna tighter as the authortities entered the bedroom. The dragon hurried to the closet and scratched the door.

“My daughter keeps some of her clothing in there,” Charles drawled, as though bored.

Edna bit her tongue to contain a whimper. The evil had better not show, no matter how much it wished to destroy for her.

“The dragon doesn’t seem to be locating anything specific.” Fabric rustled in the closet as the woman moved the clothes. Then, the door shut, and they followed the dragon from the room.

Polly stopped Edna on the front stoop to fasten a leather cape around her shoulders. “The police shouldn’t come through again, and I doubt they’ll try the swamp. The fumes bother tracking dragons. The bog waters smell awful, like rotten eggs.”

Edna wrinkled her nose. “I can’t imagine poor Harrison trapped in there.” Polly glanced toward the barn where Charles and Ike prepared the airship.

“It must be expensive owning a blimp,” Edna said to take her mind off Harrison’s suffering. People who owned locomobiles were nobles and merchants—rich. Charles and Polly owned a cottage, not a manor.

“It’s our business. We make do.” The woman lowered her voice to a whisper. “I’m so sorry about your brother.” Polly gripped Edna’s shoulders as she’d done in the bedroom. “I can’t imagine losing a sibling like that, and I wish you the best of luck retrieving him. Hags don’t like to part with what’s theirs. The longer the children stay in the factory, the more they’re exposed to magic. It changes them.”

Edna trembled beneath Polly’s grasp. “Harrison will be distraught, but he won’t be injured. He has to be whole. Our parents will be traumatized if I don’t bring him back as he’d been.”

“They turn gray, and then…”

Edna’s eyes widened. “My brother is
gray
?”

“Hags eat them.” Polly shuddered. “They work them until every dream is gone. Magic affects everyone differently. He may not be who you remember.”

Edna jerked away, heartbeat racing and the evil pricking. “I don’t care if he’s gray! Harrison will always be my brother.”

“Yes.” Polly sighed.

Edna backed toward the door. “There’s too much evilness surrounding those hags. I know Ike’s been to the swamp before. I heard you all talking.”

Polly clasped her hands in front of her. “Trust him.”

Edna licked her lips. “Is he… magical?”

“There’s a lot more to Ike than a street urchin.” Polly unhooked a basket from the rafters and filled it with vegetables. “He won’t hurt you.” She thrust the basket into Edna’s arms.

Edna gulped. Taking it, she hurried into the yard.

Ike and Charles had wheeled the airship from the barn. The giant, inflated balloon was black, the basket underneath made of woven metal strips. Charles sat in the driver’s seat and Ike stood at the open door.

“We gotta go, Eddie. It’ll take us a while to reach the factory.” He seized her hand to haul her in, then latched the door. Still clutching the basket, Edna sat on one of the benches. Ike chose the one across from her.

“Harrison will be fine. I’m going to save him.” The mantra pushed the evil away.

Charles started the propeller and the motor purred. The blimp soared off the ground.

Polly waved. “Goodbye!”

Edna tried to keep her stomach from rebelling against the sudden motion of lift off.

Edna nibbled a hunk of bread as the trees flashed by below the airship. Eating gave her something to do other than worry, and the little bites calmed her stomach. Sometimes she spotted a farm or field, a few cottages along a winding dirt road. Living in Moser City, she’d never fathomed how far the wilderness could stretch. Now she could finally explore past the trolley’s map.

“Harrison would’ve loved the adventure.”

“Sometimes the motion makes a stomach queasy,” Charles called.

Edna held her hand out, wondering if she could touch a cloud. “At first it felt weird, but I feel more settled.”

“I got sick my first time up.” Ike rested against the back of the airship, studying the steam left in their wake. “Had to put my head between my legs. Helped fast.”

She took another bite and swallowed. “Nothing can be as horrible as Harrison’s disappearance, not even motion sickness.”

Charles tipped his head to see her. “How long have you lived in Moser City?”

“All my life, but my mother was born on a farm.” Edna closed her eyes, savoring the cool wind against her face. “She’s a singer now.”

Charles whistled. “Couldn’t live in a city. I need the wide-open skies. Toss me the canteen; my mouth’s awful parched.”

“Sure.” Edna stuffed the rest of her bread into her mouth and reached under her seat to pull out the food basket; her hand brushed something sharp. “Ouch.” She drew back, a line of blood appearing on the back of her hand. “Must be a sharp nail under here.” Edna dropped to her knees to see what she’d touched.

Huddled beneath the airship bench, a baby dragon stared at her.

“The king have mercy!” Edna jumped up and grabbed the railing. “There’s a dragon down there.”

Ike laughed and Charles chuckled.

“I’m serious.” Edna scurried to the other side of the airship. “I’ve never seen a dragon not chaperoned by a police officer. It might attack us.”

Ike rolled his eyes as he strolled to her bench and dropped to his knees. “Saints. There
is
a baby dragon.” Ike pulled it out and cradled the tiny body against his chest.

The dragon keened, stretching its silver neck. Its wings folded against its oval body and a tail stretched behind, its neck as long as Edna’s forearm. The dragon stood on its hind legs, its front paws curled against its chest like clawed hands. Edna shrank against the railing, the wood digging into her back. The creature might panic and lose control, ripping through her with those talons.