him, count the cages.
She couldn’t see to the end of her own row, but in the light she could see that the row facing her had almost twenty cages, most with at least one huddled person inside.
Mostly women and girls, a few younger boys, but none older than their late teens.
And it barely took any Gift at all to taste the despair and anguish that coated the walls, filled the air itself.
“It doesn’t look like much of the future for us,” she blurted.
Lips twisted in a snarl, he strode back to the front of her cage, slamming the flat of his hand on the bars.
Despite herself, Esme jumped back.
“You don’t matter,” he spat. “You should never have been allowed to breed unsupervised, develop the talents that were rightfully ours.” He pulled himself upright, regained control of his expression. “We will have them anyway.”
His full lips drew back in a grimace, accentuating the asymmetry of his face. He noticed as her eyes were drawn to it.
“Oh, you’ve noticed your little gift to me?” If possible, his voice grew even colder. “I’m looking forward to thanking you for it.” He leaned forward and she shrank back, all attempts at bravado gone. “Very soon.”
Another dark uniformed figure stood at the door.
“Lord Braydon. The subject is ready.”
“But in your turn. As I said. This is a place of science. Reason. I’ll attend to you soon.”
He stalked away, and the door slid shut behind him, cutting off the light.
But as she pulled one shaky breath into her chest, then another, Esme realized other panels around the room glowed softly, relieving the darkness somewhat.
“You’re back, I always knew you’d come back,” a thin rusty voice emerged from the cage immediately to Esme’s right.
She whirled to face an emaciated woman dressed in rags, hair so short it looked shaved, thin face dirty, but not so besmirched as to cover the scar that ran through one white eye.
“You know me?” Esme asked.
“Diahann’s back,” the woman said, rocking back and forth, thin arms wrapped around her knees, gazed fixed on the floor in front of her. “Diahann left, left Nettie all alone. She’s waited all these years. But you’re back now.” The woman’s head snapped to the side, pinning Esme with her stare. “I told them you would be.”
“I’m so sorry,” Esme gasped, fisted hands covering her mouth, pity numbing her to the sense of any other emotion. “I still don’t remember much.”
“You left me!” The woman screamed, launching towards Esme’s cage, wiry fingers wrapped around the bars separating them as she shook the panel. “You escaped and left me to face them alone!”
Esme scrambled back, breath rasping as her heart pounded in her ears.
“I’m sorry!” she sobbed, but the woman wasn’t listening anymore, had gone back to rocking in place, muttering words that only she could hear.
“Don’t worry about Nettie,” a boy’s voice whispered from behind the panel that Esme had retreated towards. “She has good days and bad days, and this is a bad day.”
Esme spun, eyes wide to find--
“Roddy!” she exclaimed. “What have they done to you?”
The oldest of the children taken from the camp, the young man already looked thinner. His hair had been shaved as well, fresh burn marks wrinkling his scalp.
“I guess I’ve had a bad few days too,” he admitted. “But that man? The one they called Lord Braydon? I think he’s trying to see inside our minds or something. He’s been trying to find something in all of us.”
The boy frowned. “But how did they get you? We thought everyone else was safe and had escaped?”
Esme swallowed hard.
Surely Layla knew what had happened to the rest of the clan. But if the children were still innocent of the tragedy, the news could wait a bit longer.
It wouldn’t do any of them any good to know the truth now.
“I was trying to find you all,” she forced a smile. “I heard someone whistling Tancred’s Lament from a strange building and went rushing in.”
“That was me,” Roddy shook his head slowly. “I was trying to get the littles to cheer up. I didn’t know that man could capture the song in a box until he showed me.” His eyes shone wetly in the dim light. “And I really didn’t know he could use it to get you, too.”
“Don’t be silly,” Esme said. “Of course, you didn’t know. A week ago, I wouldn’t have believed it either. Is everyone here?”
From further down the row Layla answered.
“We’re all here, but I’m not sure what good