Free Dragons of the Watch by Donita K. Paul Page B

chances of finding an escape, Ellie walked happily beside her escort as they made their way back to the library.
    Tak wandered ahead of them, poking his nose into whatever interested him and nibbling whatever grew from the flower boxes. Bealomondore stopped at a corner.
    He motioned toward Tak, who had gone on in a straight line.
    “We turn here.”
    “Tak,” Ellie called. “Come back. We’re going this way.”
    The goat turned his head and started back, then stopped. He looked at them and then down an alley.
    “This way,” Ellie insisted.
    Tak shook his head so that the hair on his whole body shimmied in the moonlight, then took off down the side alley.
    Ellie turned to look at Bealomondore with a shrug. “I’m sorry. But I can’t leave him out here. When the children come out tomorrow, they would love to catch the ‘dog.’ ”
    “I understand.” He put her bag down and took her bundle to place next to it. “We’ll leave these here. It’ll be easier to give chase without any encumbrances.”
    The goat let out a plaintive “Maa!”
    “He sounds upset,” said Ellie.
    They hurried to the point where Tak had disappeared around a corner. Tak stood just a few feet into the alley. At his feet, a pile of clothing lay in the shadow of the building. The moonlight touched the white hair of the goat and part of the cloth.
    Ellie didn’t recognize any of the visible material as part of her missing garments. She walked forward with Bealomondore right behind.
    “Maa!”
    She stopped beside the goat and leaned over. Tak shifted, and themoonlight he had been blocking fell on the clothing. Ellie saw a dirty hand and stood up abruptly. She turned to Bealomondore but could not utter a sound. He hurried to her, put his arm around her shoulders, and turned her away.
    Her voice trembled. “Is it …?”
    “Yes, I think so.” He let go of her.
    Ellie thought she would faint. She’d never fainted, but as Bealomondore’s arm left her, she thought she would crumple. She stiffened her legs and felt the tumanhofer crouch beside her.
    “Is she …?”
    “He, I think. And yes, I’m afraid so. There’s a lot of blood.” He stood and looked up. “He must have fallen from that catwalk up there.”
    Ellie took a deep breath in. She glanced up at the ladderlike structure that crossed the alley from one building to another. Three stories up, the narrow planking with rungs passed from one window to another.
    She felt the world tilt and dropped her chin to her chest. Bealomondore had stood, so she took hold of his arm, willing the dizziness to subside.
    She swallowed hard and hoped she wouldn’t throw up. “What should we do?”
    “I don’t think there is anything we can do.”
    “Tell the other children?”
    “No.”
    “Do you think they know? Do you think they saw him fall?”
    “I have no idea.”
    Bealomondore’s answers angered her, but she realized his tone held sorrow and sympathy. He wasn’t being heartless, just answering her truthfully. She fought the horror of a child dying from such a fall and the bitter words that sprang to her tongue.
    “Bury him? We can’t just leave him here.”
    He put his arms around her and guided her face to his shoulder. “It’s all right, Ellicinderpart. All the urohms in this city have died, yet there are no bodies, no skeletons, nothing. Whoever brings the food and rain takes away the dead.”
    Tears coursed down her cheeks, and she embraced Bealomondore, holding him tight. She cried for the big child and for all the little ones cowering in the dark, perhaps sleeping, perhaps too upset to close their eyes.
    She sobbed as her companion urged her to leave the alley and continue to the library. When they reached the corner, he whispered, “I’ll come back for your things.”
    They entered the library by the rear vent, and Bealomondore had her sit on a cushion near the storage room.
    “I’ll return as soon as I can.”
    He left, and Ellie wiped her tears on her sleeve. She