Legacy: The Girl in the Box #8 (24 page)

Jon Traeger

Lake Superior

November 10, 1975

They nicknamed the ship the
Mighty Fitz
. He’d barely made it on board; just in time, really. The wind was howling and the squall was pitching the sides of the massive freighter he’d found passage on at the last moment. They didn’t normally take passengers, even though they had two cabins for it, but a lot of money had changed hands and the deal was done just moments before the
Fitzgerald
left port. It was worth it for Jon to get her out of here, to get her away from the Midwest.

“We’re safe now,” Jon said to the woman who sat a little distance away from him. He’d been reassuring her since they’d gotten on board, but it didn’t seem to be having much effect. Not that he could blame her.

Her name was Elizabeth, and she was huddled against the chill that was seeping into the passenger cabin. The steady wash of the water against the sides of the ship was getting more dramatic as the hours passed, and the freighter was listing to the side. They’d been awakened in the early hours of the morning and been unable to get back to sleep. The storm seemed to have worsened. A couple of hours earlier when Jon had tried to talk to the captain, the man had ordered them to stay off the deck.

She shook her head, her dark hair and smeared makeup distinctive. “I don’t know that we’ll ever be safe. Not from him.”

Traeger felt the swell of uncertainty as he stared at the walls of the freighter’s cabin. There was a drape covering the porthole, and every few minutes he’d find himself pacing the deep-pile carpeting to pull it back and look out into the darkness, where the rain and waves lashed at the ship. “He’s not invincible. He’s not infallible. We lost him in Duluth, before we crossed the Wisconsin line, simple as that. You’re free now.” He sank down to the bed as the ship rocked to the side again, almost throwing him against the wall. “He can’t hurt you now.”

She swallowed so heavily he could hear the
gulp!
over the sound of the storm outside. “I don’t think he wanted to hurt me, exactly.”

Traeger could smell the oily residue of the ship’s reprocessed air. “No? Why do you think he wanted you?”

She started to answer when a grinding thud and the squeal of metal cut her off. A shudder louder than any the storm had produced ran through the ship. Elizabeth’s eyes went wide, and she jumped for the bundle on the bed next to her, laid out asleep. Jon moved for them both, protectively, as another grunt of stressed metal echoed through the whole ship and the world pitched on them, turning sideways, the hardest list of the ship yet.

“He’s found us.” Her voice was low, filled with quiet desperation as she clutched the bundle in her arms. It was long enough that it ran across her body, legs sticking out the side, oblivious to the commotion taking place around her. Jon threw his arms around them, grasping Elizabeth and the child in a tight embrace.

“Impossible,” Jon said, almost under his breath. The sound had stopped, just for a moment. “We left port over a day ago. No one could track us like this. No meta could find us over open water like—”

The hatch to the cabin opened with a slow, grinding squeak, the mechanism squealing as it turned, in desperate need of oil. Jon stared at it in a kind of fixed horror, trying to figure out his next move.
Can I fly them out? The girl, maybe, but not both,
he realized grimly.
Not in this storm.

Jon looked down at the bundle in the woman’s arms. It squirmed, a little girl, eight years old, looking up at him with wide eyes, still blinking from her sudden awakening.

“Shhhh,” he whispered, and the door creaked again, squealing the lock open the last little bit, popping as it swung wide. The ship was still listing, the waves rocking it in the waters of Lake Superior.

The door swung open, framing a figure silhouetted in the light coming from the corridor outside. There was a shadow at first and that was all, a great silhouette dripping rain onto the carpeting, and then the man took a step over the lip of the hatch threshold, and shut it behind him, turning the heavy wheel to crank it shut. Once it was closed he stepped away, and Jon could see him wearing a coat that was soaked through, black, and boots that oozed water when he took a step.
Did he fly all the way out to us from Duluth? That’s a long flight, even for a—

“Hello, there,” the man said, breaking his silence. “I’ve been looking for you, Elizabeth.”

Jon felt iron descend down his back bone, and he stood, ramrod straight. “She doesn’t want to go with you.” He protectively an arm out.

“She doesn’t know what she wants yet,” the man said, staring at Jon with slight mirth in his eyes. “She’s been running from me because of legends that have no basis in reality. I don’t want to hurt her. I’m not here to cause trouble—”

“Then what did you do to the ship?” Jon asked, staring him down. “Because it sounds like you may have caused some trouble.”

“I didn’t do anything to the ship. Yet,” the man said. There was a little hint of darkness in his eyes now, menace and malice. “I have no interest in fighting with either of you. I just want an opportunity to talk with her.”

“You’ve picked an awkward way to go about it,” Jon said. “Chasing her down. You can’t just let her go?”

The man hesitated at that. “I wouldn’t have preferred it this way. I’m a man who doesn’t want ... well, anything, most of the time, honestly. But ... I need to talk to her. I’ve been looking for her for a long time—”

“Hence the reason she’s running,” Jon said. “Not usually a good sign when a man of your reputation is hunting someone down. Tends to be a little ominous.”

The man laughed humorlessly. “What do you know about me?”

“You’re Sovereign,” Jon said without hesitation. “Not just a local legend, but it seems like you’ve spent more than your fair share of time in the Midwest for the last few hundred years.”

The man smirked. “What can I say? I like the Nordic people, and I’m a sucker for a good hotdish.”

“You’ve killed a lot of metas,” Jon went on, “and more than a few humans.”

“Dangerous ones,” Sovereign said darkly. “Ones that were extorting their fellow man, taking advantage. What about you, Jon Traeger?” Jon bristled at the mention of his own name. “You’ve got a little bit of a reputation, too. Working for Alpha, crisscrossing the world, looking to solve other peoples’ problems, even when they haven’t asked—”

“Usually those problems involve Omega,” Jon said, “and let’s face it, when it comes to dealing with them, most folks don’t know there’s any other option.”

Sovereign smiled. He didn’t look terribly sinister, Jon had to admit. “So you’re watching out for your fellow human beings, guarding them against the dangerous and criminal brotherhood of Omega.”

“It’s a sisterhood, too,” Jon said. “Just ... you know, in the name of equality.”

“Right,” Sovereign said. “So here you are, protecting a girl from a dangerous threat.”

“Potentially the most dangerous,” Jon said, staring back at Sovereign. “According to what I’ve heard, at least.”

“‘What you’ve heard’?” Sovereign’s bleak amusement filled the cabin. “Do you find there’s typically a lot of truth in rumors?”

“A grain,” Jon replied. “Enough to concern me.”

“Let me put you at ease,” Sovereign said. “I’m not taking the girl without her permission. I’ve been seeking her out—”

“That much is plain,” Jon said.

Sovereign smiled. “I need to talk to her.”

Jon stared back at him. “So talk.” He looked back at Elizabeth. “She’s listening.”

Sovereign stood quietly for a moment as the little girl quivered wordlessly in her mother’s arms, and a look of discomfort came across his face. “Look, I don’t know what you’ve heard about me, but I’ve not been after you to hurt you in any way.” He laughed nervously, surprising Jon.
A man this powerful gets nervous?
“I mean, we haven’t even had a chance to meet face to face until now. I don’t know why you were so afraid of me—”

“Because I have a child, sir,” she said, staring at him, the little girl clutched across her chest, a blanket separating them, wrapping the little girl up wholly so that she looked like a waif. “And when a powerful man starts inquiring about you, trying to find you, track you down, if you’re in my position you don’t wait to find out his intention.” She looked away. “I know the intentions of most men—”

“I promise you, mine are different,” Sovereign said.

“Yeah, well, it hasn’t worked out so well with any of them,” she said bitterly.

“It would be different with me,” Sovereign said, “because I’m different.” He took a step forward and Jon held out a hand to stay him. “Put your hand down before you hurt someone,” Sovereign said.

Jon shook his head. “Just keep your distance until she asks you to get closer.”

Sovereign’s face reddened. “I’m not here to hurt her.”

“Fair enough,” Jon said calmly, “then you won’t mind keeping your distance, will you?”

Sovereign’s nostrils flared. “You’re a creature of the wind, are you not?”

Jon stared at him levelly.
Looks like this is about to turn hostile.
“I’m an Aeolus, yes.”

“Let’s call you what you are,” Sovereign said. “A Windkeeper. A creature of the wind.” His face darkened. “And all that’s left of you when I’m finished with you will be able to float away on the wind, so don’t tell me what to do. I don’t take kindly to being interfered with.”

Jon stared at him, felt the fury and fear rise in equal measure in his gullet.
This isn’t going to get any prettier by waiting. He’ll kill me in an instant.
He closed his eyes, took a breath, and hurled a burst of wind so hard that the man called Sovereign was flung bodily into the wall.

“Let’s go!” Jon shouted, grabbing for Elizabeth’s arm. He caught her by the wrist and she ran with him, unbattening the hatch and slamming it behind them, leaving Sovereign behind, shaking his head from where it had struck the bulkhead. A little bit of blood was visible on the man’s face in the flickering light of the
Edmund Fitzgerald
’s passenger cabin as Jon slammed the door and cranked the wheel to batten it shut.

Jon’s feet pounded as Elizabeth followed, the child in her arms. The little girl was crying, but the sound was barely audible as they crossed metal stairs toward the deck.
Out into the storm. I can carry us in the storm, maybe lose him in the clouds ... with wind drifts like these, even the woman and child might not be too much for me to carry ... Just have to harness it, tame it.

They burst onto the deck as a wave crashed over the bow and the ship tilted. Jon felt his balance tested, but he caught himself on the side of the conning tower, holding Elizabeth steady along with him. The night was dark, the driving rain highlighted in the deck lamps, coming in nearly sideways and frigid cold as they steadied themselves between waves. “Hold tight to me!” he shouted as the world started to list again.

There was a grinding of metal once more, and something burst in the middle of the ship. The deck peeled back and Jon saw it split, the forecastle of the ship breaking off from the strength of the impact. He adjusted to grab for Elizabeth but failed, snagging the little girl’s blanket instead.

Elizabeth let out a cry as the deck pitched, a wave crashing over the side with such force that the whole thing shuddered, and Jon watched as the
Edmund Fitzgerald
was snapped in half, the damage done beneath the deck compounded and revealed by the strength of the waves. He grabbed hold of a recess in the conning tower, feeling every tendon in his shoulder yanked tight by the sudden drop of his entire body, the shift in gravity as the ship dipped, sinking into the waves.

It happened so fast he barely knew it. He found himself hanging on vertically, the girl’s blanket bunched tightly in his fist, and he watched as Elizabeth dropped away into the water beneath him, screaming as she fell into the frothy, roiling surface of the lake. He cried out, shouting into the storm, and felt the conning tower of the
Fitzgerald
pitch forward, tilting over with the strength of the waves. He jerked the blanket upward, snugging the child into his arms and letting the sodden, wet mess of it fall away as he clutched her tight to him. As another wave came at them, he realized that if he didn’t leave now, he would surely be carried down with the wreckage of the
Fitzgerald
, and Elizabeth, down to the bottom of the lake.

He started the wind with his free hand, a tornado that carried them up, him and the little girl, whose cries were lost in the screaming of the gale. They broke the clouds after a few minutes of turbulent upthrust, and he held her, cold, wet and sobbing against his chest as he flew them into the night, toward a shore that was somewhere in the distance.

They reached land less than an hour later, but by then Jon’s arm had grown numb and weary from carrying the girl crooked in it, his skin cold from the frigid storm. As his feet set down gently upon the shores of Lake Superior, Jon Traeger looked down at the girl, now sleeping in his arms, and let out a sigh.

“I’ll take you to England,” he whispered, the clouds above brewing, ready to bring forth the harbinger of the storm he’d just outrun. “To Alpha. Maybe Hera can find your living relatives.” He let a weary sigh, and cradled her with his other arm. “If not, I’ll take care of you myself.” He felt her warm against him, even through the layers of wet clothing. “I won’t let any harm come to you ... Adelaide.”

Sienna Nealon

Now

“So the question is, did they wait to strike until we were more vulnerable or did they happen to catch us at a convenient moment?” My mother’s voice echoed over the speaker of the phone. I held it in my hand, pushed against my ear, my head back against the chair.

“I read the minds of a few of the surviving mercenaries,” I said, replying slowly, as if I were prying the words out of my own mouth. “They didn’t seem to know we’d be at half capacity. Their task wasn’t even to kill the metas they did, they were supposed to secure them and barter for the telepaths.”