Bruce said, “Either that tree likes footwear, or someone’s hiding up there.”
Ned took another step forward and saw a second sandal hurtling toward him. He ducked just in time and took another two steps. “Hello? Who’s up there?”
“No one!” came a voice from above.
“Oh great, Francis. Now they’ll go away.”
“Shush,” said several others.
“But Kevin threw my sandals!”
“It’s children!” Bruce exclaimed.
“Children with a mean right hook,” said Ned, as he rubbed his chin. “Strange place to play, if you ask me.” He spoke into the tops of the trees. “My name’s Ned. And this is Bruce.”
Bruce attempted a weak smile. “We don’t want to hurt you.”
“PROVE IT,” one of the children yelled.
“Uh, well, we know that the Master lives here, and we want to rescue some children we think are inside.”
Kevin dropped out of the tree and faced them, armed with a yellow boot. “We live inside. Who are you looking for?”
Bruce was taken aback to hear that the Master still had many kidnapped children. He hadn’t raided the town in years. Where had he gotten them all?
Ned told Kevin, “Well, we want to help a boy and girl named Fargus and Ida, but we’re prepared to help all of you, if you want.”
“Why?” Kevin asked, suspicious.
Bruce stepped forward. “My daughter, Sarah, was taken from me a long time ago. And a day hasn’t gone by that I don’t think about her. We just want to help those two children get home.”
There were whispers in the tree and an air of excitement. A girl dropped down and landed by Kevin.
Bruce wasn’t entirely sure he was awake, because for a moment he thought the girl standing in front of him was his young daughter, Sarah.
She said, “Poppa?”
Bruce squinted at the girl and then at Ned and then back at the girl.
She approached him with arms wide. “It’s Sarah!”
Bruce took a step backward, unable to believe his eyes. “It’s nice to meet you,” he said, “but you can’t be . . . My Sarah was taken more than twenty years ago . . . and you’re only . . .” This girl had the same brown hair and green eyes of his daughter, but she looked no older than ten. Sarah smiled and Bruce’s eyes filled with tears. “I don’t know what kind of joke you’re playing, but it’s . . . it’s very cruel.”
“It’s no joke.” She took a few steps closer to him. “My name is Sarah Jarvis. I was born on the fifteenth of June. My favorite color is purple. My mother is Alma, and when I was three, I ran into the kitchen table and nearly blinded myself. You can still see the scar.”
Bruce approached her cautiously and looked at her face. Underneath her right eye was a small pink dot. Sarah whispered, “And last summer I turned twenty-nine.”
Bruce tried to process the information, his tall frame swaying a bit with the confusion. He took several large gulps of air and then reached his hand out to touch the tiny scar. He felt that she was real, that her scar was made of flesh, and then he grabbed her and hugged her as if he’d never felt a real flesh-and-blood person before in his life.
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Sarah. I should have come sooner. I should have found you. . . .” Tears ran down his cheeks and landed in her hair.
“It’s okay. It’s going to be fine.” She patted his back. “How’s Mother?”
Ned was gobsmacked. “What’s going on around here? How can that girl be twenty-nine?”
“We’d love to explain, but we still have a major problem here,” said Kevin.
“What is it?” Bruce asked.
Kevin pointed across the field. Ned looked, and in the far distance he could just make out the outline of the Brothers.
“They’ve been there all day. They’ve trapped three of us inside. Clarence, Mary, and your friend Ida.”
“Ida rescued us from the feeding holes,” one of the children yelled down from a branch. “We have to help her.”
“Feeding holes?” Ned asked.
Bruce seemed to remember where he was, and without releasing his grip on Sarah, he said, “Can’t we just wait until nightfall, when the Brothers disappear?”
“They’ll reach the bottom by then,” Kevin explained, and added ominously, “And all three of them will be goners.”
“All right,” Ned said. “Then we need a plan.”
“How many children are left in the manor?” Bruce asked Sarah.
The children conversed among themselves for a moment. Sarah said, “Probably fifty or more.”
Bruce surveyed the field. “Ned, you go on to the house. These children and I will take care of the Brothers.”
