Blaze (The High-Born Epic) (39 page)

             
But amidst the jubilation a parent burst through the crowd and quickly took Harold’s hand away from Sarah.

             
“Where is my Emma?” she asked.

             
“What about Ben?” a man called.

             
Several people began shouting out different names at once, and Harold held up his arms and slowly lowered them.

             
“All of the children are safe,” he said.  “We didn’t have the room to bring them all at once!  But by this time tomorrow, they should all be back!”

             
The crowd calmed somewhat, and Harold felt something else grab his right hand.  When he looked down, he saw Maggie clasping it.  Harold cringed when he thought about how Phil looked the last time he saw him.  Suddenly, another hand reached down and took Maggie’s, and Harold saw Aunt Nean’s teary eyes look into his.  For a moment, Harold’s heart sunk.

             
“Phil will live,” Aunt Nean whispered into his ear.  “But Maggie shouldn’t see him right now, I will take care of her.  You have enough to deal with.”

             
Aunt Nean scooped Maggie up and put her on her hip.

             
“I want my daddy,” Maggie said.

             
“I know you do, baby,” Aunt Nean replied.  “We will see him soon... I promise.”

             
Maggie regarded Aunt Nean almost suspiciously for a moment, and then hugged her while silently laying her head on her shoulder.

             
“How is Scape?” Harold asked.

             
“I think he’s going to live,” Aunt Nean said.  “He’s eating and drinking, and he’s almost always asleep, but he’s making it.”

             
Out of the corner of his eye, Harold caught a glimpse of nearly white hair, and he turned to see Gabby standing right beside him.  Harold noticed a wave of silence ripple through the townsfolk of Foxx Hole as they looked at the beautiful stranger.  Harold nodded at Gabby, and then looked back to the crowd.

             
“I have found a powerful new friend,” he said.  “If it had not been for her help, I would have not been able to save the children.  She is just as responsible for their rescue as I am—”

             
“—People of Foxx Hole!” Gabby interrupted.  “I am Aireon!  And I am just the same as you!  I have grown up under the rule of the High-Born!  They lord over us as if we are their property!  But no more!”

             
“That’s right!” a man in the crowd called.

             
“As if our slavery were not enough for them!” Aireon shouted, and swept her hands towards the crowd.  “Now they seek to steal our very children!  But Blaze has powers unlike anything the High-Born have ever seen... And so do I!”

             
Aireon’s eyes pulsed with white light, and the air around her seemed to shimmer as a strong gust of wind rushed over the townspeople.  She grabbed Harold’s hand, and nodded to him.  Harold looked towards Sarah, and she knew to step away.  Harold’s eyes gleamed orange and flames rolled over him.  Aireon then pulled his hand along with hers above their heads, as the townspeople stepped back.

             
“Together, Blaze and I, along with your help, will bring down the High-Born!”

             
Willie began shouting and holding his fist high in the air as Blaze and Aireon’s terrible eyes looked across the crowd.  Another father’s hand shot above his head as he began shouting at the top of his lungs, and soon catcalls of defiance were echoing all across the town.

             
Sarah clapped and shouted herself, but she felt strangely inadequate when she saw that Blaze’s fire was simply wrapping around Aireon’s hand.  It would have burned her to a crisp had she been holding his hand.  As the town grew into a frenzy, Sarah saw Aireon’s glowing eyes glance at her, and then back to Blaze, and she could have sworn that she saw Aireon smiling.

             
After the rousing speech, Blaze doused his flames and Aireon calmed her winds.  The townspeople began gathering around them, and Sarah quickly grabbed Harold’s hand.  Gabby held on to his other hand for a moment and then let go, and turned away to talk to a grateful villager.

             
“Who is she?” Sarah asked.

             
“She’s Aireon,” Harold replied.  “But her friends call her Gabby.  She’s a friend.”

             
Sarah regarded her silently for a moment and said, “Thank you for saving my brother.”

             
Gabby’s eyes flicked from her to Harold and then back to her, “You’re welcome.  They had my brothers and sisters as well, so I know how you felt.”

             
Sarah nodded, extended her hand, and said, “I’m Sarah, Harold’s girlfriend.”

             
Gabby took her hand and nodded, “Nice to meet you, Sarah.”

             
“I can’t believe that y’all actually did it,” Sarah said.

             
“It sure is something, isn’t it,” Harold smiled.

             
“Are you going to get something to eat before you go?” Sarah asked.

             
“We don’t have time,” Gabby interrupted.  “We’ve got too many children back at camp to deal with, and the High-Born are all over the place.  In fact, we need to be putting some air behind us right now.”

             
Sarah glanced at Harold, who said, “She’s right, Sarah.  We’re gonna’ have our hands full over the next few days.”

             
“We need to go, Harold,” Gabby said as she began walking through the excited citizens of Foxx Hole.

             
Harold regarded Sarah, and then pulled her close.  He gave her a tender, but passionate kiss, and she pulled herself close to him and ran her hands through his hair.  Several of the people in Foxx Hole began whistling and clapping again and soon they parted.

             
“I love you,” Sarah whispered into his ear.

             
“I love you too,” Harold replied.  “Tell the townsfolk about Scott’s secret base.  That’s the only place the young’uns will be safe.  Keep them there as much as possible and especially during town meetings.”

             
“Will do,” Sarah answered with a nod.

             
“And Sarah,” Harold said as he turned to leave.  “Bring those books.”

             
“They’ll be here by the time you get back with the next load of kids,” she replied.

Chapter 33

             
As Foxx Hole disappeared from view, Harold watched Gabby fidget with the monitors of the gunship.  He could see that she was referencing the map, and making the necessary adjustments to their flight path.  As the treetops below sped by, Harold looked around the compartment, and with the children gone, he was amazed at how quiet the ride actually was.  The only thing he could hear was a barely audible humming coming from the various panels strewn throughout the cockpit of the gunship.

             
“So what’s the deal with you and what’s her name?” Gabby asked as she continued tinkering with the control screen.

             
“We’ve known each other since we were little,” Harold replied.  “And her name is Sarah.”

             
“Seems like she really likes you,” Gabby replied as she looked towards Harold.

             
“Yeah,” Harold answered.  “But I like her too.  So it works out pretty well for us.”

             
“I guess so,” Gabby said as she cut her eyes sharply away.

             
“What about you?” Harold asked.

             
“What about me?” Gabby asked confused.

             
Harold just regarded her for a moment.

             
“Oh,” Gabby smiled.  “No, I’ve never had a boyfriend.  I’ve always been too busy taking care of the kids in the orphanage.”

             
Harold was quiet for a moment before he said, “I’m sure you did a great job of that.”

             
Gabby dipped her chin and smiled, “Thank you... I would like to think I did.”

             
“I’ve been thinking,” Harold said.  “All of the racket we’ve caused is really gonna’ stir up the High-Born.  They’re probably gonna’ get loose-headed trying to find us.”

             
“Yeah, I thought the same thing.  And I bet we’re thinking the same thing,” Gabby replied with a creeping grin.

             
“We attack—” Harold said.

             
“—Make them chase us—” Gabby continued.

             
“—Don’t make it hard for them to find us—” Harold interrupted.

             
“—Keep them away from everyone else—” Gabby nodded.

             
“—By focusing the fight on us,” Harold finished.

             
Gabby’s blonde hair slightly rustled as she nodded in agreement and in a short time they were back at the lake and the campsite.  It took about ten minutes to load the second group of children and then they were flying back to Foxx Hole.  Though they saw some aircraft on their way back to Foxx Hole, none of them came close enough to cause any concern.  They landed on the outskirts of town, and swiftly unloaded the second group of children without bothering to walk them into town. 

             
Over the course of the next two hours, they returned all of Foxx Hole’s children to their homes, and got the calculus and history book from Sarah before returning to the lake.  Once there, they loaded the first of Marksville’s children, and Gabby began tinkering with the controls.

             
“What’s Marksville like?” Harold asked.

             
“It’s nearly the same as Foxx Hole,” Gabby replied as she pulled on the control stick and the gunship rose from the ground.  “From the looks of it, I can barely tell any difference.  We’ll probably land in the same part of town we did in Foxx Hole.”

             
She turned the gunship to the northwest, and pushed the control stick forward.  As they began accelerating, Harold turned and looked at the children of Marksville.  He stared across their wide and excited eyes and realized that it was actually the first time since the entire adventure began that he had really looked at them.  He was surprised by how much they resembled the children of Foxx Hole.  They wore nearly the same clothes, and could just as easily have been their brothers and sisters.  They all gave him nervous smiles, and he returned their grins.

             
“Thank you for helping us,” a little girl about ten years old said.  “I was so scared.”

             
“I had a lot of help,” Harold answered, and tilted his head at Gabby.

             
The girl nodded, “Yes, sir.  She has always been awesome.”

             
He turned and looked at the treetops now zooming below them for several moments, and then looked out across the horizon.  He called his fire into his eyes and looked for enemy patrols, but he saw nothing that caused him any alarm.  He turned and looked at Gabby, and he could see small beads of sweat on her face.

             
“The strain of keeping us totally cloaked is starting to get to you, isn’t it?” he asked.

             
“Yeah,” she answered.  “I think I can make the trip back, but then I’ll have to rest and get something to eat.”

             
“How long will it take us to get there?”

             
“About as long as it did to get to Foxx Hole,” she answered.  “From the way things look, it seems that Marksville is about as far north of the compound as Foxx Hole was south.”

             
“I guess they put the compound there to make it easier to travel to,” he said.

             
“Yeah, it makes sense,” she replied.

             
Harold leaned back in his chair and watched as the slowly moving icons on the greenish grid moved slowly closer to the center.  The time passed quickly as they moved swiftly across the terrain, and soon, a large gray line appeared in the distance.