Free The Children of the Company by Kage Baker Page A

backup systems will run before shutting down, too. I can’t seem to reset myself. Will you swear to me to fulfill a duty? As my confessor, Eogan!”
    “Of course,” I assured him. As his anmchara I had that obligation, whatever nonsense he spouted as he lay dying.
    “Go back now,” Lewis begged me. “Go back and seal the Codex Druidae in lead, and bury it ten feet below the floor of your scriptorium. You’ll find the lead casket with my things in the guest-house.”
    “Why is this so important?” I asked, trying to be rational.
    “Because it’ll be worth an awful lot of money to the Neo-Wiccans when it’s dug up in 2350,” he replied.
    I had not the slightest idea what he meant by that at all, nor was I ever to get him to explain further, for his eyes went wide suddenly and he gasped. “God Apollo! Look at that.”
    This last was not a timely prayer but a reaction to the creatures that were suddenly there with us in that dark hall, things like horrible children. Small, with skins pale as ashes, and tiny weak faces set low on big heads. They were naked, save for goggles of black glass worn over eyes that were perhaps as weak as the rest of them. No genitals at all. I wanted to yell with revulsion at the sight of them; but a voice like the devil spoke within my ear, wheedling, coaxing, imploring.
    Please, it begged me, pleease! Rise and bring the changeling with you. Pleeease go with us. We’re going somewhere nice. You’ll want to come . And, though I detested the little voice before and after I heard it, while it twittered away at me I could no more deny it than a call of nature. I prayed to my sunlit Christ to deny them power over me. Still I obeyed them, got to my feet and picked up Lewis. His head hung down like a broken doll’s, and I was certain I’d killed him; but as I moved to follow the pale children, I heard him murmuring inexplicably: “Mass hysteria, was it? Faked photographs , was it?” in tones of indignation.
    Down the long hall we went, and it was dark and warm, reeking with strange animal smells. We came to a door, neatly made. The pale children bid me put my shoulder against it and push my way in. I shoved through into a tiny stone chamber, lit by white glass beyond the door (“Watch out! Careful of my head,” fretted Lewis as it nearly knocked on the jamb). Then we were in and the door had swung shut after us, and I saw that there was no handle on the inside, and the silky voices had stopped, and I felt like a fool in a trap, which I was.
    Behind me I heard a hiss of indrawn breath.
    “Guests,” mused a voice in Latin. “How fortunate I am.”
    “Eogan, turn around,” said Lewis in tones of distinct alarm.
    I whirled about expecting a dragon, at least, but saw instead a pale child in chains, sitting against the wall.
    No, not a child. A thin wispy beard trailed from his chin, and on his big head were wisps of hair. His gender was evident, if small as a baby’s. He had a bitter thin mouth, and wide green eyes that were fixed on us with an expression of malevolent amusement.
    “Slave,” he told me, “bring the mechanism here. I’d like a look at him.”
    “Slave yourself,” I replied, though I’d felt the strongest compulsion to do as he’d bid me. I retreated to the opposite side of the room and set Lewis down. He was staring, as if fascinated, at the prisoner.
    “What on Earth are you?” he inquired.
    “And what are you?” mocked the other. “But, you see, I know the answer to that question. We know all about you and you know nothing about us. You passed through the disruption field, clearly.”
    “Was that what it was?” Lewis’s head lolled sideways. “Eogan, hold me up so I can see him.” I obliged, while the prisoner giggled at us.
    “Yes, and it works well, apparently! Mother will be so happy. My uncles
will learn a lot from you, when they open up that ticking head of yours. Enough to improve our defenses, next time.” The creature smiled nastily.
    “What