The other two children stared at her in shock. Ida shrugged, but the truth was, it had made her feel better and less afraid.
Suddenly the Brothers stopped digging, and the snorting and panting stopped. Ida looked at Mary and Clarence. What was happening? Surely they couldn’t have understood what she’d said?
What Ida couldn’t have known was that up above ground, the Brothers had heard a high-pitched shout from across the field. They had stopped digging to see what it was. And oddly, a child had slowly risen up out of one of the holes and made peeping noises at them.
One of the Brothers went to check it out. But as the creature got closer, the child suddenly disappeared. The Brother turned back toward the hole, but then it heard the chirping again. It turned and saw the same child, slowly rising out of the ground and then disappearing. The Brother stood on its hind feet and walked toward where the boy had been. Then it heard a clatter coming from behind. It turned to see a different child seemingly levitating above the ground. The child, Kevin, was making faces and rude noises at the Brother, which was infuriating to the creature.
Kevin saw the Brother running toward him and waited as long as he could manage before he yelled, “Now!” The two children he was standing on dropped back down into their hole, hiding all three of them. They heard the Brother grunt in frustration. Kevin looked at his friends and smiled.
Bruce stood tall in a different hole, with Sarah standing on his shoulders. “Do you see them?” he asked her.
“One of them was going after Kevin.”
“Good. We want them away from Ida’s hole. Now, don’t wait too long, honey. As soon as one heads this way, you give me the signal.”
“I know. I will.” She was shaking with anticipation. Suddenly the other Brother stood up on its hind feet and sprinted straight for Sarah. She felt her muscles suddenly solidify.
“What is it, Sarah? Are they coming?” Bruce asked, annoyed he could see nothing from the bottom of the hole.
The Brother was about to reach her, its claws stretched out in front of it to take off her head, when Bruce heard Sarah squeak in fright and he immediately dropped to his knees. The Brother’s paw swiped at the empty air and it landed with a thud on the other side of the hole, confused.
Sarah had toppled in on Bruce and she looked at him apologetically. “Sorry. He came at me so fast . . .”
“It’s okay.” He hugged her. “But my heart won’t survive you doing it twice.”
By this point the Brothers were running in circles from hole to hole, always just missing the child that was tormenting them. The children continued to bait them, standing on one another’s shoulders and always ducking back into their holes as soon as one of the Brothers got near. At last the creatures began panting and their running became labored.
When Bruce felt the Brothers were tired enough, he snuck out of his hole and crept to the edge of the forest. Sarah reluctantly let him go, frightened of losing him again.
At the same moment, the Brothers were heading for Kevin, and Bruce called out to them from across the field. “Hey! Your mother’s a snaggletooth and your father smells of scat and onions!”
The Brothers swung their heads simultaneously and saw Bruce, out of the holes and vulnerable. Bruce waved his arms and wiggled his rear at them, and they headed straight for him. They were trying to sprint, but all they could manage now was a strenuous jog. Before they could reach him, Bruce disappeared into the forest, and they angrily followed him.
And then there was an eerie silence.
Ida, Clarence, and Mary peeked out of their hole and saw that the Brothers were gone. Ida crawled out, relieved to be done with the claustrophobic space. Being in a hole alone had been bad enough, but with two other people! She and Clarence helped Mary up, and they joined the other children, who were climbing out of their own holes and congregating in the middle of the field.
Kevin told Ida that Bruce wanted them to climb back into the tall trees next to the manor until nightfall, when the Brothers would go to sleep. Then Bruce would return to lead them into Gulm.
So the whole group headed back toward the manor and the trees.
Kevin nudged Ida and said, “We really saved your stump back there.”
“The only reason they left us alone was because I yelled at them,” Ida said with pride.
Kevin smiled. “Yeah. Sure.” He had lost the bet with Genevieve and owed her five puddings, but he didn’t mind.
Soon the trees were once more full of children. Ida helped Mary climb up and then started to walk away.
Mary balked. “Where are you going?”
“To the house,” Ida announced. “To find Fargus. I’ll be back.”
“Wait!” Mary squeaked.
“What?” said Ida, growing impatient.
Mary began to tear up. “I left Betsy in the hole.”
“Who’s Betsy?” Ida asked in alarm.
“It’s her doll,” one of the other children chimed in.
“Oh. Her doll.” Ida looked Mary square in the face and replied, “Kid, tough turkey.” And with that Ida turned and walked alone toward the manor.
FORTY-SIX
Ned had already lowered ten children out the window and into the water, but he could see that it was going to get very complicated. Some of the children couldn’t swim and some were just frightened. Ned tried to locate the strong swimmers to look after the others. It was challenging to treat these young people as the adults they were. His instinct was to order them around like babies. He tried to move as fast as he could, but they had already taken twice as long as he wanted, and they were making enough noise to wake the dead. He nervously looked back at Lucy huddled against the wall, seemingly oblivious to the activity around her. He would carry her down himself.
There was a scream from below. Ned ran to the window and looked down at the moat, expecting to see a drowned child. Instead he saw a boy treading water and looking up at him. “There’s something in here.”
The other swimming children screamed and headed as fast as they could for the shore. Ned was frozen. Perhaps there were poisonous fish after all, and he was going to be responsible for the death of all these poor children. He felt as if he was going to faint. Suddenly a new girl popped out of the water, a girl Ned recognized from the Jarvises’ farm.
“Hey! Ida! What are you doing down there?” Ned cried.
“Trying to get up there!”
The boy who had screamed glared at her. “You bit my leg!”
