A Children's Tale Read Free Page B

they were usin' the wee ones as bait?"
    Hunter turned that over in his mind, sparing a glance at the two children. William had bundled them up in spare blankets. Angela and Miles huddled together for warmth and reassurance, occupying the space between the overturned tree and the small campfire. It provided the warmest place, for heat from the fire reflected back from the overturned roots.
    "Bait? I couldn't imagine why they'd be bait for us. No, I suspect we led them to the children unknowingly." Hunter took a sip of the tea and offered the cup to Moira without a word.
    "Thankee, I could use a cuppa.” Moira took a sip of the hot drink and handed it back. “Followin' or waitin', shame on it either way. It brings ta mind dark reasons why.”
    "I wish I could think otherwise, but it was too convenient. They arrived the moment we brought those two children out of that wreck, something like that isn't happenstance, my dear."
    She nodded slightly in agreement. After a moment's consideration she added, "Or we be in a bad bargain."
    "Spot on point. I had not thought of that. However, if that's so, I can't figure what their Uncle Ian would get from it since he hired us to find them." Light flakes of snow drifted in the wind to brush his face while he looked up to the cloudy sky. He sighed, exasperation and fatigue taking its toll. "Either way it's something to sleep on. For tonight we'll need watches."
    "Aye Cap'n. Ah'll take first light."
    "Well and done, Moira. William?"
    William looked up from where he sat mending a small hole in a spare blanket. “Aye Cap'n?”
    “Setting watches between the three of us. Moira has first light. What say you? We've quite a lot of night to cover.”
    "Now's fine for me Cap'n. Ya can get some sleep. O'Fallon's only just drifted off a bit ago, I kin watch him for awhile. 'Sides, I been needin' ta mend ma blanket for awhile."
    "Fair enough," Hunter yawned despite his best efforts to resist it. Methodically, he reached down to wind the mainspring of his clockwork right hand. Carefully he flexed it, the interlocking gears within the chocolate brown rhino-hide leather joints protested at the cold. Hunter winced as the temperature and sensation of the cold gears radiated subtly through his arm. “Watch close, we'll break camp at first light."
    The wolf's howl broke the night air again. The trio cast glances into the dark trees around them. Hunter frowned.
    “And by all means, eyes sharp tonight. I don't think we're alone.”
    Embers glowed in the coals of the fire struggling against the chill the next morning. A dusting of light snow added to the effect, blanketing the camp and everyone in it with a touch of frost. Moira cupped her hands near her mouth and blew. Fog from her breath encircled her head while she walked between the lumps of blankets and coats, rousing the campsite.
    Captain Hunter rubbed his eyes and yawned. "Any signs?"
    "A bit o' smoke near the ridge. No signs o' the fliers."
    "Good, with luck we'll put some distance between us and them." Hunter stood and stretched. A bit more alert against the morning light, he knelt and recovered his blanket. Carefully he knocked the light snow from it and rolled it tight.
    Moira, having already packed her blanket, walked over to the two smaller bundles of blankets on the far side of the coals. "Up to it. Let's pack up so's we kin be movin' downslope."
    "We gotta?" Came the little boy's whimpering reply.
    "Aye that ya do, young sirrah."
    While the children rose, stiff and irritable, William stood with a yawning stretch then checked the quartermaster near him. O'Fallon's eyes opened slowly. "Where be we t'day?"
    "Same as day afore. Let's check them bandages."
Despite the cold of the snowy mountain air, Hunter stepped a few paces away from the campsite into the tree line. Carefully, he scanned the ridge behind and above them. Just beyond the rocks a thin column of gray smoke, barely visible, rose into the morning air. His thoughts turned over the