Last Wild Boy (17 page)

Alice thought before she answered. She wanted to do everything she could to see that Nora had every chance of survival. If she lied about the child, would it matter? The rangers were going into the valley either way. If she told the truth, they could be warned what to expect. Perhaps they could be instructed to separate Nora from the boy without hurting her. But what if it had been her and Tish? she wondered. How would she have wanted Nora to act in her stead? Could the rangers ever tear Tish away from her without hurting her? Of course not. She knew then what she had to do. “Yes,” she said, lowering her eyes.

“Was this outsider child complete?”

“Yes,” she said, and began to sob.

“Then we have few choices. The rangers will continue to muster below the valley and clear the land mines blocking them from the valley entrance. When they have gathered there in sufficient force and the land mines have been cleared, the attack will begin. The child will be terminated and things can finally return to normal.”

“How long before it all begins?”

“A few days. I'll give the final directions to the controllers tomorrow. I'll tell them about Nora and the runaway child. The rangers will be ordered to bring Nora out of there alive and treat her with the respect due to any insider, under penalty of death. There will be no mistakes this time — I'll see to that myself. The mistakes of yesterday must be corrected so that I may sleep again.”

Alice gazed at her mother. She didn't look like any simple military operation would make her sleep better. She was getting old and tired, and she was letting her paranoia and exhaustion get the better of her.

Alice rose from her chair and walked over to her mother. She sighed deeply, and then bent and kissed the older woman's cheek. “I know you're only doing what you think must be done,” she said.

“Of course!” Blanchefleur said.

Alice started to walk out of the room, then paused and turned back to her mother. “Were there no outsiders ever who were good and kind?” she asked.

“Certainly! There were many, but that didn't stop the suffering. There were enough who were neither good nor kind, and there was no way of determining one from the other.”

“Can Tish and I stay in the Manor House with you until it's all over?” Alice asked.

Blanchefleur rose from her chair and wrapped her powerful arms around her daughter. “Well, of course you can.” She stepped back and looked her daughter in the eye proudly. “Perhaps my little Alice will be ready to serve her city when her time comes, after all.”

C
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r 29

Nora sat at the big head table in the dining hall, between Mabon
and Aesop. In front of them, seated on wooden chairs around
smaller tables, sat Brin and those other old ones who were well enough to attend, about three dozen in all.

They had decided that Aesop would be the first to speak. Nora watched as Aesop rose to his full height, his leathery face stern and his white hair wild, emphasizing his mood. After a moment the small crowd fell into a stony silence. “Dr. Ueland has warned us that our days here in the valley have grown woefully short,” Aesop began. “Blanchefleur's rangers have found our little hideaway, and will be attacking soon.” There were murmurs of shock and dismay throughout the crowd. Aesop cleared his throat to silence them, and then continued. “We have gathered you here
to construct a plan. But first you have to decide between two
options: either to flee or to fight.”

Nora looked around the room, scanning from face to face and noting the alarm and fear on each of them. There were rumblings of speech, but no single voice emerged from the crowd. Finally Brin, who had been rocking from side to side in his chair, stood up. He waited in silence until the room settled again into stillness. Brin smiled his broad smile. “Can any of you imagine me running away from these rangers?” There were pockets of nervous laughter. “Can you imagine me running anyplace?” he continued. This time the laughter was widespread, softening the tension somewhat. Brin joined them in their laughter. He began to shift slowly from foot to foot in his usual way. “I don't expect any of us old ones, except maybe Aesop, could get very far. If we run, we'll be in the open wild. At least here there is shelter. If we are being attacked, it had better be here, where we can do something or other to defend ourselves.”

A few of the old ones laughed at the idea of defending themselves. Someone said, “That's a laugh, us defending ourselves against rangers.”

Someone else said, “What's the point, if we're going to die anyway?” There was an embarrassed silence and almost everyone shifted their glance to their feet.

Aesop stood up again. “So your plan is to simply give up? If we quit, then we all die like helpless cattle in a slaughterhouse. Even the death of a cow has a purpose; it gives us food to eat. What will our deaths mean? Nothing. They will mean nothing. We will suffer pain and outrage and it will all be for nothing. We will be dead, and so will Mabon and Nora. And Adam, with all the hope he promises for the future, will die as well. What will be next? Ueland and the rest of the outsider workers? If that's the case, then our entire half of the species will be gone forever.”

“We may not be able to save ourselves,” said Brin. “But we
have to at least try to save our future. Mabon, Nora, and Adam should leave now, and get as far from here as possible before the rangers come.”

“No!” shouted Mabon and Nora, almost together.

Nora stood up and looked hesitantly over the crowd. But when she spoke, it was with a quiet confidence. “If we go now, they'll find us. They'll use all the rangers gathered here to hunt us down. Then they'll return to slaughter you and destroy the valley. We can't let that happen. We have to try and stop them, or at least slow them down and reduce their numbers. Maybe we can even beat them!” There were a few guffaws from the crowd. “It
is
possible,” Nora continued. “I truly believe it. But even if it isn't, we'll at least be giving Adam a better chance. And if we die, we die with honour and self-respect.”

Mabon stared at her. He couldn't believe what he was hearing. Nora, who abhorred violence and had always believed that there was a peaceful solution to any conflict, was advocating for war. He wasn't sure why, but he couldn't help feeling proud of her.

“Nora's right!” shouted Aesop, his eyes full of fire. “This valley was our first real home.
Ours.
Before this, we'd never had anything that was ours in our lives. We're free here. Nora and Mabon brought us Adam, the only complete male outside of Aahimsa, the last city where any man continues to exist. Perhaps soon he will be all that remains of our half of the once powerful and proud human race. We have no choice. We have to fight for what little there is that is still our own.”

“But we can't win,” one of the old ones said. “No matter what Nora says.”

Nora spoke again. “I left Aahimsa because I couldn't let my
own kind kill an innocent baby. I fled the only world I knew. Now that baby has grown up strong and healthy. I love Adam like a son. But he is also your son, the only son you will ever be able to claim as your own. I rejected the world of women and found another world, a world of gentle old men. But neither world is complete, neither is as it was meant to be. As long as Adam lives, there is a spark of hope that we can return to a world where men and women complete the human circle.”

“That's all well and good,” came another voice from the crowd,
“but how are we supposed to stop these trained, well-armed
fighters?”

Mabon stood up beside Nora. “We may not be able to stop them,” he said. “But if we put our heads together and use the advantages we have here, we can at least slow them down. Are you at least willing to try?”

“I will not die for nothing!” shouted Brin. “If we die, let it be with dignity.”

“Yes!” shouted voices in the room. Everyone cheered and applauded.

When the cheers died down, Mabon spoke again. “I'm no military commander, so I'm hoping you will all help me. First, everyone needs to go back to their rooms and workplaces and find as many things that could be used as weapons as they can. I've made a few makeshift bows and arrows for you, and I'm hoping you can help make more. These bows are not powerful, but they should be easy to pull.”

“But we're not archers,” said one of the old ones. “I couldn't hit the broad side of a barn.”

“You don't have to be an expert. I'll teach you how to send the arrows up in a high arc. If enough of you are doing this at once, the arrows will come falling like rain on the rangers. You will slow them down and confuse them enough for me to get a decent shot at them.”

“Will you kill them?”

“Maybe. We'll be trying to hurt them enough that they can't fight any more. But if they have to die, they will. They'll certainly kill us if they get to us.”

Nora watched Mabon from her seat. He seemed so sure of
himself, so courageous. She could almost see the confidence of the old ones building. She was bursting with pride and affection.

“And as for weapons,” Mabon continued, “use anything heavy or sharp, blunt or pointed: axes, hoes, hay forks, shovels, carving knives attached to poles, sharpened sticks, even pots and pans. Dress in your heaviest clothing, leather if you have it. Boots and gloves, hats, anything that can absorb a blow or deflect another weapon.”

The old ones nodded vigorously.

“As you know, our valley is shaped like a bowl, with very steep, hard-to-climb walls. The rangers could probably climb them, but I don't think they will. They won't expect you to fight them and so they'll come in the easy way, by the sloped entrance we regularly use for coming and going. That's where they've been removing the land mines. We'll set up obstacles on the top of the slope and barricades inside the valley, where we will be waiting.”

Mabon walked over to where Nora was sitting and stood behind her. “Nora and I and Adam will stay to fight for as long as we can. When the time comes, we'll slip out and use ropes to descend the steep wall to a landing very near where the rangers are now encamped. I expect we'll be safe there, as most of the rangers will have joined the battle by then. We would stay until the end, but we must get Adam away from here if he is to have any hope of survival.”

“Are you sure you shouldn't just leave right now?” Aesop asked, standing beside Mabon. “Hide out in the wild until Ueland is able to take Adam in at the Manuhome?”

Nora rose and stood next to them. “We already owe you our lives,” she said, “Adam, Mabon, and I. We have decided we want to say and fight, for as long as we can.”

“You're brave, but very foolish,” said Aesop, his watery eyes pinched and serious.

“Not foolish, nor brave,” said Nora. “We think it will be much safer to leave while the battle is going on. The rangers will be distracted then.”

“How much time have we got to get ready?” asked Brin.

Nora looked toward Aesop and Mabon and raised her eyebrows in question. Aesop gestured to Mabon, who simply shrugged. “A day,” he said. “Maybe less. We need to get started right away. Those of you who are still able to will need to start moving bales of straw up to the valley entrance and more down near the tunnel. Bring up all the wagons and equipment —anything that will move — and use it to build a strong barricade at the entrance. Pile on boards, wooden crates, fence posts, furniture and beds, anything large and heavy. Keep the drum of gasoline nearby so we can soak the straw and set it on fire at the right moment. Drive nails through planks so they stick out like porcupine quills and set them up across the valley entrance. The more obstacles we make, the more we slow them down. Everyone put on their thinking caps, and let's get to work.”

C
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r 30

After the meeting, Mabon and Nora returned upstairs. They found Adam sprawled out on Nora's bed, slowly turning the pages of a book called
Gulliver's Travels
. Lucky was napping on the floor beside the boy.

“What's your book about?” Mabon asked Adam.

“It's about a man who travelled in lots of different lands,” said
Adam. “It has giants and small people. It's a fun book, but it's
serious too.”

“I'm glad you like it,” said Nora. “But you'll have to put it away for now. Brin asked me to send you down to help him prepare the dinner.”

“But he has kitchen staff for that,” Adam answered. “Why do I have to do it?”

“His staff is busy with other things,” Nora said. “Run along,
please.”

“Okay,” Adam said reluctantly. “C'mon, Lucky.” He gestured to the big old dog, who, in spite of his stiff joints and the white hairs around his snout, still followed the boy around like a puppy.

“I still can't believe our time here is almost over,” Mabon said after Adam was out of earshot.

“I know,” Nora said, sitting down on the bed. “I don't want to go.”

“None of us wants to leave this place. Sometimes there's no choice.”

“I just can't stand the thought of leaving Adam,” Nora said, her eyes filling with tears. “I know the Manuhome is the safest place for him right now, but I'm not sure I can let him go.”

Mabon sat down beside Nora and put his arms around her. He'd barely ever touched her before, let alone held her, and he was surprised at how right it felt. He pulled a clean cotton handkerchief from his trouser pocket and quietly dabbed her eyes one at a time. He half expected her to take the handkerchief from him and finish by herself, since she was usually so headstrong and self-sufficient, but this time it felt different. He could feel her helplessness and her need for tenderness.

Nora ever so slowly moved her face closer as Mabon wiped her cheeks and the damp corners of her lovely, full mouth. She nestled her head against his strong shoulder and he kissed her forehead as he had kissed Adam's as a baby. He felt a warm flush of pleasure as he watched her watching him, and he felt a surge of confidence in her love for him, a love that had been his for the asking for a long time. He kissed her soft, full mouth, his lips landing on hers, lightly at first, as a butterfly on a rose, and then, tasting her warmth and the salt of her tears, he felt her respond
with urgency and their need for each other grew in intensity
until they could no longer hold back.

When Adam returned in later that evening to call his parents down for dinner, he noticed that many of the furnishings in their rooms were missing. He found Mabon and Nora sitting side by side on the one remaining sofa, holding tightly to each other's hands. In spite of their damp, red eyes, they looked unmistakably different — stronger, and somehow content.

“Everybody's going nuts outside,” announced Adam. “What's going on?”

Nora looked at Mabon, who gestured for the boy to sit between them.

When he was settled, Nora said, “What exactly is happening?”

Adam looked at them with worried eyes. “A bunch of the old ones tipped a wagon over at the entrance to the valley, and then they started piling stuff on top: plows, carts, wooden troughs, even beds and dressers and tables from the kitchen. They're wrecking the place!”

“Do you know why they're doing all this?” asked Mabon.

“I heard somebody talking about a fight with the rangers.”

Nora looked toward Mabon. He nodded at her. She took Adam's hand in hers. “Do you know that you are special?” she asked.

“Yes,” he said “And you and Mabon and Aesop and Brin are
special, too.”

“Yes,” she said, “We are. But we're not special in the same way you are. Someday you'll be a man and you'll find somebody you love. You'll have children together, girls and boys like you. Your children will grow up and find others they can love, and they'll
have children of their own. But right now, you, Adam, are the
only boy in the world who is free to do that.”

Adam glanced at her and then at Mabon. He looked confused.

“Someday you'll understand better,” she said.

“Why do the rangers want to hurt us?” asked Adam. “Is it because I threw a rock at one of them?”

Nora turned to Mabon. “No,” Mabon said. “Blanchefleur, the Mayor of Aahimsa, ordered them to find us. She's looking for you. She knows you're special, and she wants to make sure you don't have a chance to grow up and have children.”

“So we have to fight them,” said Adam.

“Yes,” said Mabon. “That's why the old ones are building the barricade at the entrance.”

“But what happens if the rangers catch me?” Adam asked.

“We won't let them,” said Nora. “After we fight the rangers we'll escape and take you to the Manuhome. Dr. Ueland, the man you met, will hide you for a while so Blanchefleur and the rangers can't hurt you.”

“Can I help fight the rangers?” Adam asked.

“Yes, you can help,” Nora said. “But you will have to stay close to us at all times. We have to be ready to run at any moment. Do you understand?”

“Can I use the bow and arrows Mabon made me?” Adam asked, his dark brown eyes bright with excitement. “I've been practising really hard!”

Nora gave Mabon a stern look. He shrugged and smiled. “Yes, you can,” he answered. “But you heard what your mother said. You have to stay close to her and to me. We have to get you to Dr. Ueland safely so you can have a chance to grow up to be a man.”

“Will you both be coming with me to the Manuhome?” Adam asked.

“We'll take you there, but we aren't allowed to stay there with you,” Nora said, biting her lip. “You'll have to be brave and do whatever Dr. Ueland tells you to. He's a good man. We'll come back and get you as soon as we can.”

“But I want to stay with you guys!” Adam said.

“We want you to stay with us, too,” said Mabon. “But it won't be safe where we're going. You need to stay with Dr. Ueland until we can find a place that will be safe for us all to live.”

Adam forgot about his excitement. He hugged Nora tightly and began to blubber and then to cry. Nora took him in her arms and rocked him like she had when he was a tiny baby, and Mabon in turn put his arms around Nora. The three of them sat there a long time, locked in their embrace, trying to hold on to one another while their world collapsed around them.