Patricia Wrede - Thirteenth Child

I didn’t wait for them to answer. I walked out the door and around back, to the cleared-off circle where Papa and Professor Jeffries had been doing their magic tests. I felt light-headed and cut off from everything, as if there was a wall of glass between me and the whole rest of the world. Right in the middle of the circle, I stopped. I glanced back to make sure Wash and William had caught up, and then I held the bucket out and took the lid off.

All the mirror bugs in the bucket took off in a glittering streak of silver, heading in the same direction. “Wash,” I said in a voice that sounded very far away, “what direction was that settlement Papa and Lan were going to?”

“Southwest,” Wash said.

We all stared after the twinkling line of mirror bugs, flying as hard and fast as they could toward the southwest.

“Something has happened to Papa and Lan,” I said with certainty. “I have to go find them.” I set the bucket down and started for the settlement gate.

GOING AFTER PAPA AND LAN WASN’T QUITE THAT SIMPLE, OF COURSE, but it turned out to be a lot easier than it could have been. Mostly, this was because Wash and William both believed me right off. Rennie and Mr. Harrison argued, though as soon as she realized that Mr. Harrison didn’t want me to go, Rennie stopped arguing and just glared at everybody. It would have been funny if I’d had an inclination to be amused right then. Mr. Harrison just couldn’t get on anybody’s right side.

I just kept walking toward the gate, while Mr. Harrison said there was no point in jumping to conclusions because of a few bugs. It was getting late, he told us, and there’d be time to send a messenger in the morning. We collected quite an audience as we went up the street, on account of Mr. Harrison not bothering to keep his voice down. Finally, just as we got to the corral, Mr. Harrison yelled, “You aren’t going anywhere, any of you! I forbid it.”

I stopped and looked at him.

“In the absence of Professor Rothmer, I am in charge of this expedition,” Mr. Harrison said in a slightly more normal tone. “And I will not allow—”

“Mr. Harrison.” I kept my tone as polite as I could manage, which I fear wasn’t too much because Mr. Harrison’s eyes went wide and he stopped in mid-sentence. “Papa told you before that this was a family trip. You aren’t my family by a good long ways.”

“That was a ruse to get into this place, and you know it!” Mr. Harrison said. A lot of the Rationalists who’d gathered murmured angrily and glowered at him, but he didn’t seem to notice. “This expedition is vital to the protection of the settlements, and I won’t allow your whims to jeopardize it.”

“Whims?” William said. “Eff’s the least whimsical girl I know. And she’s Lan’s twin sister, in case you’ve forgotten. Of course she’d know if anything happened to him.”

There wasn’t any “of course” about it; I’d never before gotten a sliver of a notion when anything was wrong with Lan. But Mr. Harrison wasn’t to know that, and he’d surely heard the stories about twins who could do such things. Besides, something was pulling at me, sure enough, and it wasn’t any whim of mine. I kept my mouth shut and let Mr. Harrison sputter.

After a minute, Mr. Harrison glared at William and me and said, “Even if something is wrong, you can’t do anything to help. It’s better to take these things slowly—to find out what the problem is, if there is one. Then I can go back and send out the right people to handle it.”

I looked at him, getting madder by the minute. Ever since he first found out Lan was a double-seventh son, he’d been trying to get at him, or at Papa, but now that they were both in danger, he wasn’t in any hurry to help. Ever since…I remembered Mama threatening to haul Lan and me back East. All the anger settled down, and I smiled, knowing just what to say.

“That’s as may be, Mr. Harrison,” I told him. “But I’m not an employee of the college, nor of the Settlement Office, nor of anyone else in Mill City, and you’ve no authority over me. Papa hired the cart horses that brought us here. One of them will do for me to ride, and if I can’t borrow a saddle from Brant, I can manage bareback. There’s nothing you can say that will keep me in Oak River, and I can’t see you laying hands on me to stop me.”

“Just let him try,” William muttered.

“So I’m going,” I finished. “And that’s my last word, and I’m wasting no more time on you.”

As I started turning toward the corral, Mr. Harrison said, “You can’t go off to this other settlement without a magician to do the protection spells for you!”

“Why not?” I said. “The Rationalists do it all the time.”

There was a murmur of approval from the people standing around, and Mr. Harrison seemed to notice them for the first time. “You’re hardly more than a girl!”

“I turned eighteen last month,” I said.

“And I believe there’s a good deal more to Miss Rothmer than you’re allowing for,” Wash’s voice said behind me. I turned to find him leading three horses. “I took the liberty of saddling up our horses,” he said to me and William. “Seeing that there may be reason for hurry.”

“You can’t go with them!” Mr. Harrison shouted. “You work for the North Plains Territory Homestead Claim and Settlement Office, and I’ll fire you if you do!”

“Well, now, I don’t believe you can rightly do that,” Wash drawled. “My contract is with the Frontier Management Department in Washington, not with the North Plains Territory branch office. Still, if you want to write them a note of complaint, I’m sure they’ll take as much notice as ever they do.”

William choked on a laugh. “You want help mounting, Eff?”

I nodded. I hiked my skirts up, thanking my lucky stars that I’d worn full ones, and stepped into his cupped hands. An instant later, I was in the saddle. Wash held the horse while I tucked my petticoats in around my legs to keep from chaffing too much against the saddle. As he and William went to mount, Mr. Harrison yelled, “You can’t just leave me here!”

“Now that’s a true thing.” Out of the crowd of Rationalists came Mr. Lewis and Brant, leading another riding horse. Mr. Harrison stared at them. Brant walked over and handed him the reins. “You’re not welcome in Oak River any longer, Mr. Harrison,” Mr. Lewis went on sternly. “We’ll see you on your way.”

“You can’t do this!” Mr. Harrison said. “I’m the head of the North Plains Territory—”

“—Homestead Claim and Settlement Office,” Mr. Lewis finished for him. “So you’ve been saying these last few days. But we’ve been here five years and earned out our settlement claim.”

“The only thing you have to offer us is the service of your magicians,” Brant said. “And we’ve no interest in them.”

“Which is a thing you seem to have a mite of trouble comprehending,” Mr. Lewis said, and I couldn’t help wondering what Mr. Harrison had been doing in Oak River while everyone else had been working on finding out about the beetles. “So be on your way, before we’re moved to be less polite.”

Mr. Harrison just stood there staring like he couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

“Looks as if you’d best come with us, Mr. Harrison,” Wash said.

“He can come if he likes,” I said, “but I’m not waiting for him.” I nudged my horse with my heels to get him walking toward the gate. I had a tense feeling in my chest and a growing urge for hurry, and I could see that if we let him, Mr. Harrison would talk nonstop for the next two days to keep from having to leave. “Thank you for your hospitality,” I called over my shoulder to Brant and Mr. Lewis. Then we were out of the gate.