Rising Dark (The Darkling Trilogy, Book 2) (36 page)

I went to him, shocked into inaction
by his injuries.

“
Avery! There’s no time!”
Luna knelt and grabbed the arm of the man with the throat wound—who
was no longer moving—and dragged others to her with her telekinetic
powers.

She disappeared with about five of
them, making the rest scream out in shock, the terrifying events
too much for them to comprehend. Luna reappeared seconds later and
picked up the youngest member of the group, a boy of about five.
She dragged other members of the group to her in the same manner
she had before.

“
Leave him, Avery! There’s
no time!”

She was right. The others, and their
dogs, would be here in the next few seconds. The man in the group
with the wound to his neck was probably already dead. I had to get
the rest out of there, for their sake as much as for their
pursuers’. If they caught up to the Negroes and did them injury, I
wasn’t sure there would be anything I could do to prevent Luna from
killing them all.

I raced to the small group as Luna
disappeared with the others. I grabbed hold of those closest to
me.

“
Try and get a hold of me,
all of you!” I ordered, compounding my words with a mental command
so they obeyed.

Two dogs appeared through the trees a
few yards away, their guttural barks resounding in my
ears.

Not even sure I could take that many
with me into the ether, I was galvanised into action by the
desperate clasps of their hands on me as another white male burst
through the trees, his gun levelled at me and the small group of
Negroes. I glanced one last time at the white man choking on the
blood spilling out of his mouth and nose. It had been a long time
since I watched a man die.

“
I am sorry,” I
muttered.

I hurtled myself into the ether as one
of the dogs lunged at us, the weight of so many people smothering
me as the trees, the men, and the dogs disappeared.

I was flung out of the ether on my
knees, well away from our pursuers. The others clinging to me were
thrown to the ground. But thankfully they had all come through with
me.

Luna was waiting, the little boy still
in her arms. The others all stood a little apart from her in a
frightened little huddle. Some had tears streaming down their
faces. All were visibly shaken and petrified of us. The man whose
throat had been ripped out by one of the dogs lay lifeless on the
ground.

“
Do not be afraid. We are
here to help you,” I said.

Some nodded in response to my words,
but they were all staring at Luna in fear. Only the little boy was
unafraid of her and he had his arms tightly wrapped around her
neck, his gaze blank in the meagre moonlight streaming through the
trees.

“
We’ll take you to a safe
place. The...journey will be more comfortable if we take you in
pairs,” I said. “We have to be quick.”

I held out my hands to two of them.
After a few seconds, they took it, gripping it tightly. Luna held
out her hand and after a long moment, a woman, the boy’s mother,
reached for it.

“
We’ll be back,” I said to
the others, and we were gone.

Alba was in the dining room clearing
the table. When we re-materialised out of thin air before her, she
only appeared to be surprised at the fact that we were not
alone.

“
We found these four in
the woods,” Luna said. “They were being chased by a group of
whites. Get them downstairs and out of sight. They’ll need food,
water—”

“
I know what to do!” Alba
snapped.

She gestured for them to follow her
and headed toward the door.

Luna seemed reluctant to let go of the
little boy. He still held on tight to her, but one hand had found
the ugly charm that had been the focus of so much tension over the
past few days. Luna’s face twisted with disgust when she saw his
hand on the foul smelling charm. She took it out of his hand,
ripped it off her neck and threw it to the ground. The boy’s mother
stood before Luna, staring up at her with unease in her eyes. She
reached for her son.

Reluctantly, she handed him to his
mother and we left the dining room.

We returned to the mansion with the
others and did what we could to make sure they were comfortable and
hidden in the cellar. I noticed that Luna was sitting with the boy,
speaking to him quietly. Perhaps because her son was so at ease in
Luna’s presence, his mother appeared to lose some of her fear
around her. We listened intently as they told their
story.

Two of the males in the group owned a
small but successful goods store in one of the towns nearby. For
the last few months, they had come under pressure from some of the
local whites to close the store. They resisted. When they received
warning from an old white lady that a group of armed whites were
headed to their homes, they fled into the woods where their
pursuers soon caught up with them. That was when Luna materialised
in their midst.

We spent time with each one, modifying
their memories of what they had seen. Then we made arrangements for
them to leave Louisiana at dawn. The small goods store at the
centre of this was lost now, and with one man dead, it was decided
they should leave the area and start again elsewhere.

So we did not get a chance to speak to
the Morrisons until well past midnight when they entered the
drawing room to tell us everyone was settled for the night. They
were clearly exhausted, but they seemed pleased, and I would go so
far as to say that Celesta was exhilarated and kept beaming at
Luna.

We waited, expecting them to say
something about what they had seen us do, but they were quiet. Luna
eventually broke the silence.

“
You all know what we are
now. If you breathe a word of what you saw us do tonight to
anybody
, you won’t live
past sundown.”

I sighed. “What Luna means is
that—”

“
I mean what I said.
They’re not to breathe a word about what we are to anybody. Do you
understand?”

There was a long silence before Samuel
spoke.

“
Miss Luna, we don’t know
what you is.
Nobody
knows what you is. All we knows is that you’s been good to us
and we would die protecting the two of you. We has our differences
with you from time to time, but if you’s gots to threaten us like
this, then you don’t know nothin’ about what kind of folks we
is.”

For once Luna was silent and, I may
say, even a little bit ashamed of herself.

“
Goodnight, Miss Luna, Mr
Avery,” he said and they left the room.

Even Celesta, who rarely took anyone’s
side against Luna, would not meet her gaze and stared ahead, her
face stony as they left the room.

I have to say it was extremely
satisfying seeing Luna so effectively given a dressing down by
Samuel. She was quiet over the next few days, and even managed to
be incredibly civil, and even complimentary, to Alba. And the fact
that Alba did not wield the little advantage it gave her showed the
extent to which Luna had wounded them with that unnecessary threat.
It was a few days before they all stopped being angry with
her.

Although the group of Negroes were
gone the following morning, a certain peace seemed to settle over
Celesta after that episode and the part she played in helping them.
And step by step, she came alive. She was never entirely at ease
when I was around, but it seemed she had come to trust me. And
perhaps, she came to trust life because she blossomed, and seemed
to give life and joy a chance again. That was the most rewarding
thing about having them with us, the change we saw in her and how
the group of Negroes had played a part in helping to give her back
her life.

One night she turned to all of us, a
smile on her lips.

“
I wants to be a teacher,”
she said.

Her mother greeted this news by
rolling her eyes and shaking her head. Her father merely nodded his
approval, but there was intense sadness in his eyes.

“
You’ll make a fantastic
teacher,” Luna said with tears in her eyes. I nodded in
approval.

That night in the woods was the first
time I had seen Luna kill. I was shocked by the brutality of the
man’s death, but I did not speak to her of it. One single kill did
not compare to the field full of murdered slaves. The group of
Negroes, and the white man she murdered, were never mentioned
again.

I only became aware of the unrest in
town through Samuel and Alba. For the last couple of days, Samuel
had appeared troubled, although he took great pains to appear his
usual cheerful self around Luna and myself. And one evening I
noticed he had a cut to the side of his head. When I asked him
about it, his reply had been offhand.

“
Oh, I wasn’t looking
where I’s going is all, Mr Avery.”

I thought no more of it. The following
morning he said he was going into town that day and, as was his
custom, asked if there was anything in particular we wanted him to
buy. His hand kept coming up to the cut on the side of his head and
Alba, who was in the room, stopped what she was doing to
listen.

I told him we did not need anything
and he left to make his usual journey to town. But what made me
aware all was not well was a single look that passed between him
and his wife. She had not taken her eyes off of him the minute he
announced he was going into town, and as he moved out of the room,
he gave her a small nod, one that was meant to reassure. But I
could see she was anything but reassured, and it served to make me
curious enough to follow him.

I stayed out of sight and monitored
his movements through the eyes of others. He seemed on edge, tense
and was constantly looking over his shoulder. He finished his
business quickly and wasted no time heading back home. I was just
about to return to the mansion when the trouble he was expecting
found him.

Two white men on horses were waiting
for him, blocking the small dirt road. Samuel slowed to a stop.
They appeared to be sharecroppers, many of whom were experiencing
financial hardship as the crops had been particularly bad that
year.

“
Morning, Samuel,” the
largest one drawled, getting off of his horse. “Why don’t you get
down so we can have a little talk?”

“
Mr Fortier, I got no
quarrel with you and your brother. My boss be waiting on me to get
home with these supplies. So just let me be on my way. I ain’t got
no quarrel with you.”

“
Everybody knows that boss
of yours is never even there. And we don’t like how you niggers has
that big old house all to yourself. Must be why you carrying some
airs these days with them fancy clothes, thinking you too big to
get down off that cart and have a little talk with us.”

His brother, a short thick set man
with sandy-coloured hair had dismounted by then.

“
Please, Mr Fortier.
Please. Just let me go on home. I—”

Samuel was cut off when the man pulled
him off the cart and onto the floor. He directed a vicious kick to
Samuel’s chest as his brother came around to Samuel’s other side, a
thick piece of wood in his hand.

“
Now what I tell you
uppity niggers about getting too big for your boots?” his brother
said as Samuel cowered on the floor with his arm up over his face.
“I’m gonna teach you that when I tell you to do something, you do
it!”

He raised the piece of
wood.

I caught his wrist before he could
bring it down on Samuel. He gave a start, clearly wondering where
on earth I had come from. I shoved him back and he collided with
the cart. I got some degree of satisfaction from seeing him wince
in pain from the collision.

“
What is the meaning of
this?” I turned to the first man.

Samuel lowered his arm in disbelief
when he heard my voice, relief flooding his frightened
eyes.

The two men were silent, mistrust and
hatred in their eyes that had nothing to do with suspicions
regarding what Luna and I were, as I helped Samuel to his feet. No.
That hatred was about the civility I was showing to Samuel and
their hatred of nigger-loving white folks like me.

“
I asked you a question.
Why did you attack my man?”

I was much angrier than I expected I
would be, and it was only memories of the slaughter of three
similar men on that long hot night in Mississippi, that prevented
me from teaching them a lesson.

The sandy-haired one smiled, a smile
that only emphasised the mean glint in his eyes.

“
It was just a
misunderstanding. Ain’t that right, boy?” He cuffed Samuel around
the head roughly in what was supposed to be a playful
gesture.

“
You make sure there are
no more
misunderstandings
and that everyone knows if they trouble anyone in
my household, they will have to answer to me.”

The smile disappeared and he sneered
openly, looking like what he was, a weak little bully. They moved
away and back to their horses. As they mounted, they regarded
Samuel with open hatred, the matter clearly not closed as far as
they were concerned.