CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Tragedy Brings People Together

“Tell me again,” I insisted as we dropped back to the research library’s first floor, “what have you heard?”

“Five, Eleven, and Twelve went on a mission with Professor Schmidt and Hound Squad earlier today,” Number Four explained as she followed after me and Number Three down the stairs. “But a scout arrived just now and told the adults that Hound Squad was attacked by a fiend while on the road.”

Number Three’s grip tightened on my hand. Despite not being there when the fiend nearly tore my guts out, she’d seen the thing’s corpse up close and was intuitive enough to understand how deadly such a monster was.

“No running in the library, children!” Milady demanded as we passed by her station.

“Sorry, Milady!” I yelled over my shoulder. “It’s an emergency!”

And it was an emergency. Because objectively recalling my encounter with the fiend, I was left without a doubt that Hound Squad was in big trouble. Numbers Five and Twelve were highly capable conjurers while Number Eleven was one of the few kids who managed to follow in my transfiguration footsteps, but none of them were as good as me or Number Three in a fight. And I barely survived my battle with the fiend, and that was only because my abilities had been boosted by arcanite. More importantly, Hound Squad’s leader was no Major Wolf.

“What did the report say exactly?” I asked as I pushed open the double doors that led back into the first floor’s main hallway.

“Not much… We just overheard a little of the scout’s report to the colonel,” Number Four admitted.

“But they said there were deaths,” Number Three added. “And—”

From the way her voice quaked, I guessed that one or more of those deaths had been one of our crib mates.

I reassuringly squeezed her hand as I led her through the hallway toward the main building’s front doors. “Five’s strong…”

“…And Professor Schmidt’s really smart,” I added as an afterthought.

The professor who taught our Introduction to Alchemy class was someone who’d never failed to answer any of my inquiries on sorcery-related stuff. Whether it was a question on alternative ingredients to alchemical potions or obscure magical references from Asya, the man knew his sorcery. Schmidt was also an arcanist who wielded fire in a similar way to how Major Wolf manipulated water, although the professor was no warrior like my master was — and that was the part that troubled me.

“He’s not Wolf,” Number Three protested.

And she was right. Even though I’d had a hard time with it, I believed Major Wolf would have made mincemeat of my fiend. I wasn’t confident that Professor Schmidt would have fared the same.

As we reached the front doors, the noises from outside could be heard even through the thick double doors of the entrance.

“That’s the sound of the front gates opening,” Number Four reported.

No, it was more than that. The noise outside was like the sirens of an ambulance heralding the tragedy that would follow.

“They’re back?” Number Three asked.

“We’re about to find out,” I replied.

We burst through the front doors and found ourselves witnesses to a scene that would revisit me in my nightmares later on.

What the Hel.

There was one long carriage parked just below the steps of the main building with a second carriage speeding hurriedly past the front gates toward us. Both carriages had a silver rose plastered on their carriage doors. It was Aarde’s universal symbol for healing much like the red cross was for my old world.

“Ambulances,” I whispered.

The medics of the first ambulance were already busy unloading their passengers onto stretchers manned by the institute’s guards. These were adult members of Hound Squad, many of whom looked like they were gravely injured.

“How bad?” Dr. Michel asked one of the medics.

“Half the squad’s in here,” the medic jerked a thumb back at his carriage, “while the other half…”

He glanced warily at the second carriage.

“The bodies are in there,” he answered gravely.

Bodies… plural.

Dr. Michel inspected one of the soldiers on the stretchers, and even from my spot, I could see her furrowed brow. The blood leaking through the first-aid bandages wrapped around the man’s head was a pretty good indicator of his condition.

“Alright,” Dr. Michel nodded stiffly. “Get these people to the infirmary.”

“How are the men?” Colonel Heinrich asked from over her shoulder.

Dr. Michel shook her head. “Many of these soldiers will need surgeries… some might not last the night.”

All-Father… that doesn’t sound good.

Colonel Heinrich sent an icy glare at the medic who’d been standing close by.

“And the children?” he growled. “Where are the children?”

His question was answered by the first of the bodies the medics lifted out of the second carriage. It had been wrapped in a white sheet like custom demanded, but we could all tell from its size that the corpse belonged to one of our eight-year-old crib mates.

I heard a gasp to my right and glanced toward the sound out of instinct. Number Four had her hand clasped around her mouth. A tear was rolling down her cheek.

“It’s not five,” Number Three said.

“How do you—”

She pointed a finger back to the corpse whose white sheet the colonel had just removed.

“Oh,” I whispered.

The thin, blue-eyed girl lying lifeless on the ground had short golden hair styled similar to Wolf Squad’s medic, Jana Jensen.

“It’s Eleven,” Number Three said in a voice that seemed close to breaking.

I wasn’t as close to Number Eleven as I was with Number Five, but I’d helped the girl in her transfiguration lessons early this year. Plus, she was one of my crib mates who hadn’t called me a traitor every time she saw me, which made her pretty awesome in my book.

Number Three’s hand tightened around mine, and I leaned my shoulder against hers so that her warmth helped to lessen the ache in my chest.

“But… where’s Five?” I wondered aloud.

More bodies were lifted out of this second carriage. None of them were child-sized. It was a relief that lasted only until I heard Number Four let out another gasp.

“What?” I asked.

The last wounded soldiers to be lifted out of the first carriage were two kids. They were Number Five and Number Twelve — and they both looked bad.

“Five!” Number Three yelled.

She and I dashed down the steps but we were quickly stopped by a pair of hands that grabbed us both from behind.

“Let me go!” I snapped just as I was whirled around and found Major Wolf’s grave face looking down at me. “Master it’s Five—”

Major Wolf had no words of comfort to give us. He just knelt on the steps and drew me and Number Three into his embrace.

“Master…?”

The warmth of his hug loosened the knot of tension inside me and only then did I notice that I’d be holding back the tears. Now they flowed freely down my cheeks, and I didn’t care. Five wasn’t just my friend. He was a brother to me.

“Dr. Michel’s got him. You can see him after,” Major Wolf promised.

As for Number Four, I could see her over my master’s shoulder because she hadn’t run down the steps like we had. Number Four was looking away from us while her arms wrapped around herself in that way people often do when they feel alone.

Seeing her standing in the cold with no one to comfort her, I once again felt that divide that split me and Number Three from the rest of our crib mates. Because none of them had a master like ours who treated us like the kids we were.

Man, I wish she had someone like Wolf to help her… Which was when I realized that Number Four did have people too.

I peeled myself away from Major Wolf after telling him I was better now. Then I hopped over to stand in front of Number Four. And despite how rocky our friendship had been this past year, she didn’t pull away when I moved to hug her.

“He’ll be okay,” I said, although I didn’t sound confident. “We’ll go see him soon.”

“Okay,” she said in a weak voice.

With the way she stiffened in my arms, it didn’t feel like my hug was getting through to her. And just as I was wondering how to make Number Four feel better, I felt another pair of hands wrap around us, and I knew Number Three had come in for a group hug. That’s when I felt Number Four loosen in my arms, and then she began to cry too.

---

I didn’t know how long we’d stayed there by the steps just hugging each other. Only that the injured soldiers had all been carted away to the new infirmary building by the time we let each other go. All three of us looked quite embarrassed too, although I will admit that my cheeks had been redder than either of the girls.

Luckily for us, the colonel had been too busy managing the handling of the corpses to notice our display of affection which he probably would have reprimanded us for if he’d seen the group hug.

“Weakness has no place in your hearts. You must be as hard and unflinching as tempered steel,” he’d once said to us in a lecture.

Soon enough, Number Four and Number Three were leading the way to the infirmary’s new building on the right side of the campus. My master held me back though so we could have a chat on matters only he and I were aware of.

“They were attacked on the road to Sprühregen,” Major Wolf confirmed.

“That’s really close…” I said.

From studying the maps around the institute, I knew that Sprühregen was a small town about an hour west of the institute. It was where most of our supplies came from.

“What did they fight?” I asked. “Was it…”

I couldn’t finish that sentence as the thought of another one of my former crib mates turning into a monstrous half-lizard was already causing goosebumps to rise on my arms.

“It wasn’t like the one you fought.”

“So there really are other kinds?”

“The report said this new fiend was some kind of wolf hybrid.”

I glanced sideways at my master, my eyebrow rising slightly. Was he actually telling me that Hound Squad had been decimated by a… werewolf?

Seriously?

No, vampires and werewolves and other dark myths of my old world had no equivalent on Aarde. From what I understood, the Sidhe were the only supernatural creatures here. But Major Wolf’s follow-up description, “A child-like form with a body covered in dark fur and a face that was half-man and half-wolf,” was pretty much what I thought a werewolf would look like.

“Child-like,” I repeated.

Fuck.

“I understand how you feel, but don’t think of it as just as a victim, Number One… Something that can slaughter half of Hound Squad has already lost its humanity.”

In my mind’s eye, I recalled the face of that lizard-type fiend and its all-too-human eyes. And I just couldn’t agree with Major Wolf.

“How did they beat it?”

Major Wolf actually smiled.

“The report said your friends distracted it long enough for Professor Schmidt to cut the fiend’s head off.”

I smiled too after hearing that. I felt proud that my crib mates had played a big role in defeating the fiend that bested most of the adults in their squad.

“Come on, slowpokes!” Number Three called.

She and Number Four were already waiting by the infirmary’s front door.

“Master… did you report everything we learned to the colonel?”

He shook his head as he led me into the infirmary.

“I’m not sure who we can trust yet… We’ll keep this between you and me for now.”

I was honestly relieved. I didn’t think we could trust the colonel at all. I mean, it might have seemed like he had nothing to do with that laboratory in Drenken, but you never could tell with Colonel Heinrich. For all I knew, that journal had been left there to throw us off his scent.

The girls were waiting impatiently for us by the infirmary’s front desk.

“Five’s in surgery!” Number Three reported in an uncommonly frightened tone.

“How bad?” Major Wolf asked the nurse manning the front desk.

The nurse glanced uneasily at us kids, but after a curt nod from the major, she hesitantly spilled the beans. “One of his lungs has been punctured. He has a concussion as well.”

We all cringed at hearing how bad Number Five’s injuries were.

“What about Number Twelve?” Number Four asked.

The nurse looked a little less stressed when she explained that Number Twelve’s condition wasn’t as bad as Number Five’s. “She has lacerations on her arms and legs, and a nasty bite on her shoulder that’s causing a high fever — but nothing life-threatening. Stitches and antibiotics are all she needs right now.”

Relief flooded my chest, although a tiny part of my mind wondered about that ‘bite’ she’d gotten.

“Can we see her?” I asked.

“Number Twelve’s sleeping right now, honey, but I’ll make sure you can see her when she wakes up,” the nurse promised me.

“Let’s go to the waiting area… we can get more info there,” Major Wolf insisted.

“Kay,” Number Three replied just before she rushed ahead of us toward the stairs leading to the second floor. “Come on, slowpokes!”

When we arrived at the waiting area, I was surprised to discover that we weren’t its first visitors. Numbers Two, Nine, and Eight were already there.

“Hey,” Number Eight, a curly-haired girl with freckles around her small button nose waved at us. “You came too.”

Number Three ran over to Number Eight looking for a hug, and the other girl obliged readily.

“There, there, Three,” Number Eight cooed. “Five will be okay. He’s tough.”

If Number Three was the rowdiest of our crib mates, then Number Eight would be the perkiest of our band. Always smiling and upbeat like she was everyone’s cheerleader. Even now. Although I noticed that her smile was more subdued than usual.

Number Nine also looked different from the enthusiastic kid I’d run into at the library earlier. His eyes were red like he’d just finished crying.

“We heard about Eleven,” he said.

“Yeah…” I sat between him and Number Two and just wordlessly wrapped an arm over each of their shoulders. “But Five will be okay.”

“You bet he will,” Number Eight said as she gave me the thumbs up. “Five’s a fighter.”

I felt my spirits lift a little. Number Eight’s optimism was catching like that.

More of our crib mates began dripping into the waiting area. Some, like Numbers’ Six and Seven, were looking extra-worried for their fellow prankster. While others, like Numbers’ Ten and Thirteen, had arrived looking confused by what had happened to their friends. Hel, even Numbers’ Sixteen and Seventeen had shown up, although they waited by a shadowy corner that was as far from me as possible.

This was why I couldn’t hate my crib mates despite how some of them had drunk the Kool-Aid of Number Sixteen’s poisonous slander. Whenever shit hit the fan, we all gathered in support of one of our own just like a real family would.

The adults arrived too. Nannies and members of the staff who’d taken a liking to Number Five and weren’t part of Colonel Heinrich’s usual goon squad. Like that guard he often traded veggies for chocolate with.

“Don’t tell the boss, but I brought some treats for the kids, sir,” he said to Major Wolf.

He’d brought a small basket with him that was filled with bars of chocolate which he and Number Five’s nanny passed to each of us. Seriously, a whole bar of chocolate per kid. It would have felt like Christmas if the situation wasn’t so dire.

“Goble 'em up fast, kiddos,” the guard urged. “Don’t want the colonel catching us red-handed with these rations…”

There was a spattering of nervous laughter from the adults.

“I’ll take the blame for this, Corporal,” Major Wolf assured him. “Colonel Heinrich won’t mind for once.”

Speaking of the colonel, he arrived an hour into our vigil — and the noise died instantly at his approach. But the reprimand for being too emotional hadn’t come. Instead, in an uncommon act of solidarity, he told us not to mind him and resume with, in his words, “Your fretting.”

Yup, he was still a douchebag but at least he knew how to read a room.

Also, Colonel Heinrich wasn’t alone. A tall, wiry man with slicked-back black hair framing a pointed, clean-shaven face that had dark eyebags under amber-colored eyes had arrived with him. This man, who wore a lab coat over his military uniform, was none other than the hero of the hour — Professor Thomas Schmidt.

Professor Schmidt approached Major Wolf and struck up an animated conversation with him that I couldn’t hear from where I sat in the corner.

No, I wasn’t brooding like I sometimes did in a crowd. I just wanted to be alone with my thoughts for a while. There was just so much clutter in my mind that I was hoping to sort them out while I waited. I mean, there was that whole thing with ‘G’ and Magical Meridians to consider besides the infestation of fiends that was clearly going to be a problem from now on.

Maybe I can find a healing potion in Potions and Tonics for the Aberrant Mind that’ll help with Number Five’s recovery, and, When’s the next attack going to happen… and where? Were just some of the problems bouncing around in my head when I felt someone approach me.

I looked up and found Professor Schmidt standing next to my seat.

“Major Wolf just finished regaling me with tales of your recent valor, Number One.”

“I heard you did pretty well yourself, sir.”

Professor Schmidt took the empty seat next to mine.

“Yes, well, I admit that it was a challenging encounter. I wasn’t sure I could have slain that monstrosity without the help of the children… I’m not much of a fighter.”

I liked that he wasn’t being prideful at all over his recent victory.

“And while I needed support, you fought one off mostly by yourself… Impressive as usual, Number One.”

I frowned at his praise.

“I wasn’t the one who beat it, sir.”

“No need to be so modest, boy. Be proud of your success.”

“I…”

Honestly, I only liked getting praises when it came from my crib mates. Whenever an adult did it, they seemed no different than the praises heaped upon me by Drenken’s upper class.

“Major Wolf tells me that this despicable laboratory you discovered had all sorts of contraband inside it.”

I nodded.

“Did you bring any of it back with you?”

“Yes.”

Too many eyes had seen what we’d seen for me to lie about it.

“And what did you find?”

I couldn’t help raising my eyebrow at him. People usually didn’t inquire into the missions of a different squad.

“I think you should talk to Major Wolf, sir. I didn’t have time to look through—”

Professor Schmidt drew closer to me so that our noses were nearly touching.

“You’ve had a recent brush with arcanite, haven’t you?”

“H-how did you—”

“The blue veins in the whites of your eyes. They’re a sign that arcanite enhanced energy’s been in your system.”

As he pulled away, I couldn’t help but notice that wide-eyed delight in his face, almost like a hungry gaze one gave a piece of steak that had been dropped to their plate.

“You truly are an impressive boy… aren’t you?”

That hungry stare was quickly replaced by a calm and collected expression which almost made me wonder if I had seen that other look, but I had. I didn’t think much of it though as most of the researchers, even Dr. Michel and Milady, sometimes looked at me that way.

“Um, I think Number Three just called me—”

“The major mentioned a journal.”

I stiffened in my seat.

“Sir?”

“Ah, sorry.” He waved away my concern. “I was just wondering if you’d also read that journal that Major Wolf told me he found.”

I shook my head. “I was too busy with the fiend to notice anything else…”

“I see.”

I let another few seconds go by before I got up from my seat. “I’ll see you later, sir.”

“Yes, yes,” he replied distractedly.

As I rushed over to where Number Three and Number Four were, a thought crept up inside my mind, one I found very disturbing.

Didn’t the major just tell me to keep our discoveries to just us? Then why did he tell Professor Schmidt about the journal?