The Childsnatcher

A Plan Unfolds

Tad sat on one of the logs that lay in the middle of the grove. He looked around himself, shivering in the damp air. The lantern next to him was only shining dimly, leaving much around him in shadow. He wished he dared turn the wick and let the fire burn more brightly. Unfortunately, that ran the risk of drawing attention to this meeting place. And if he and the others were caught here this late at night, they’d all be in trouble. Worse, the plan they were considering would be over before they even finalized the details and started to implement it.

He shook his head as he thought about the plan. He knew it was insanity, and it bothered him that he was even considering it, let alone involving the others. At eleven, he was the oldest in the group. And what they were considering is something not even the adults of the surrounding villages had the courage to consider. But that’s exactly why we’re doing it, he reminded himself. They won’t, and that leaves jus us.

He started a bit as he heard something rustling in the tall grass behind him. He turned just in time to see a stocky girl with red girls walk into the grove towards him. “I’m sorry, Tad. I didn’t mean to startle you.”

“It’s okay, Elana,” he replied. “I’m just a bit nervous, all things considered.”

“Yes, I know. It’s not really safe to meet out here like this, is it?” The ten year old girl sat on the ground a few feet from him. Tad marveled at Elana’s preference to sit on the floor, despite the various logs and stones available.

“Yes, it is. But I don’t see that we have a great deal of choice. We certainly can’t meet in one of our homes or anywhere else in the village. The adults would surely find us there, and they’d have to stop us.”

“I know, but it’s still a frightening thought. They could still find us here. Or something else could find us here, too.”

“Something else could find us in the village, too. That’s become pretty clear over the past few months, I’d say.”

The both turned in fright as a raspy voice spoke to them from behind a tree at the edge of the grove. “Yes, my dears. But you’ve certainly made my job easier. I don’t have to sneak past adults to get you here.”

Tad turned pale and was about to speak until he caught motion out of the corner of his eye. Elana had pulled something out of a small bag tied to her belt. She whipped it towards the source of the voice. Suddenly, he heard a cry, “Ouch! Damnit Elana!”

“You’re just lucky my hand found a woodchip rather than a stone, Bartok! Now quit horsing around and come out here where we can see you!”

Tad relaxed as the eight year old boy stepped from his hiding space, still massaging his right cheek. He was a lanky youth and dressed in ratty clothes. Even by Bethany Village standards, the boy’s family was quite poor, and his attire showed it. “That hurt something fierce!”

Elana glanced at the cheek as Bartok passed her and shrugged. “That’s the price you pay for being a prankster when tensions are high. Besides, it’ll only leave a welt. It’ll be gone in a few days. Did you see the others on your way here?”

“I think I saw Trevin sneaking through the market a while ago. He should be here before much longer. As for Gustav, he’d be coming from the other direction. So I have no idea.”

Tad spoke, “Well, we’ll give them both a few more minutes. Besides, what else can we do? Gustav has vital information we need.”

“That I do,” the blonde boy said as he stepped into the grove. He took a seat on a nearby rock and nodded to each of the others. “And it’s not good news, either. Shall I give it to you now or wait until Trevin gets here?”

“We better wait,” Tad said to the ten year old boy. “I can’t imagine it would be too terribly bad if you were still able to get away from your father, though.”

“Actually, that was no small feat, believe me. In the end, I had to drug both my parents.”

Elana gasped at that, “Are you serious?”

“Yes. Fortunately, my father already had some sedatives mixed up in his shop. So I simply had to pour a little bit into both Mom and Dad’s drinks. I’m just hoping they don’t realize what I did when they wake up in the morning.”

Bartok snorted. “Gus, you have all the fun! Think you could knick me some of those sedatives sometime?”

Bartok glared at the other boy, “Fat chance. You’d likely poison someone with it.”

“I would not!”

“Maybe not intentionally. But we all know how you tend to get when it comes to your pranks.”

Bartok crossed his arms and sulked, eyeing the apothecary’s son resentfully.

“Okay you two. Let’s not turn on each other,” Tad said. “If we go ahead with what we’re considering, we’re all going to have to trust each other. No point in jabbing at each other now.”

“You haven’t voted without me, have you?” came a voice from behind Tad. Everyone turned to see their last companion, a nine year old boy with jet black hair and a heavy wool cloak.

“No Trev, we haven’t,” Elana assured him. “In fact, most of us have just barely made it here ourselves.”

“Good,” Trevin said as he sat on the log next to Tad. “Glad to see you made it back from Devonshire, Gus.”

“Me too,” Gustav nodded. “Though I bring bad news with me. I think everyone’s greatest fears may have been realized.”

Tad sighed. “Whatever’s been taking children for nearly a year is coming out of the dark lands?”

Gustav nodded. “That’s what the folks of Devonshire are saying, at least. About a week ago, a seven year old girl name Tabitha was kidnapped there. When the men of the town went to investigate, they found prints leaving town on the south road. And there’s only one place that road leads, you know.”

“Directly into the dark lands, the former holdings of Duke Pachette,” Elana offered.

“You got it. But it gets weird after that. Some of the men decided to follow the trail, until about noon, when it disappeared.”

“Disappeared?” Bartok asked.

“Yes. According to one of the men who went, the prints just end abruptly. There’s no sign that they left the road.
There’s no sign that someone tried to destroy the prints. There’s just one last print and then nothing.”

Elana let out an eerie whistle. “So maybe we’re dealing with a demon?”

Trevin spoke quietly. “I’m not so sure. Sure, demons could disappear like that? But why travel so far from town before doing so? And besides, I’m pretty sure they couldn’t make the girl disappear with them.”

Gustav nodded emphatically. “That’s right, preacher boy. That’s what the men in Devonshire said, too. That’s why the searched the area around where the footprints disappeared. They tried to find her body. They figured that if it was demons had disappeared, they had to have killed her and left her.”

Tad prompted, “So did they find a body.”

“No.”

“So what does that mean?” Bartok asked.

“Well, some are saying that it means that the trail was probably a decoy. They figure that the real kidnappers took the girl a different route and had someone set up the fake trail. Some are even supposing that the kidnappers are mages and used actual demons to set up the fake trail.”

Bartok nodded, “Well, that would certainly be logical.”

Tad watched the younger boy a moment. “But you’re not convinced?”

Bartok shook his head grimly. “I know a thing or two about misdirection. It just strikes me as too...obvious.”

“How so?”

“When you’re trying to send people down a wrong path, you have to convince them that it’s legitimate. The thing is, if it’s too convincing, then people begin to question it. People don’t like it when things seem too easy to figure out.”

“And you think this is too easy to figure out?” Elana asked irritably.

“Well, it is to those of us who know more than brute force, yes. I mean, come on. A fake trail into the dreaded land of legends and bogeymen? A trail that’s easy to follow and disappears, yet proves it can’t be the right trail because of how abruptly it ends? Who’s that going to fool? I mean, besides you.”

“Elana, stop,” Tad warned. The girl removed her hand from her bag, empty. “He raises a good point.”

“Yeah, and it’s the same thing that others said in Devonshire. Someone called it…a double-misdirection, I think. Some are saying that it’s the right trail, just made to look wrong so people will look elsewhere.”

“It’s what I’d do,” Bartok offered.

“But how?” Trevin asked. “We’ve already established that demons couldn’t disappear with the girl. So how did the trail end suddenly?”

Gustav shrugged. “That’s the question everyone’s asking. No one has figured out an answer. But that doesn’t change the fact that most are convinced it’s true. Something has come – or come back – to the dark lands. And it’s that something that’s taking away children. And it’s probably evil. Majorly evil.”

“And what are the folks of Devonshire planning to do about it?” Elana asked.

“Same thing as everyone else,” Gustav shrugged. “Not a damn thing. Everyone’s too scared. They figure that anything that can get into home and carry off children could probably defend itself against an attack too.”

Elana snorted. “Cowards. They’d rather just lose a few children here and there.”

Tad stiffened, “My father’s not a coward, Elana. He just doesn’t want to risk good men fighting an unknown enemy. Especially not one we don’t even know if we can defeat."

“That’s easy for a man whose only son will be safe in another month,” she spit back.

“We don’t know for sure that children are safe at age twelve, Elana. That’s just speculation.”

“Yeah, but considering the disappearances have been happening for over eight months, it’s a pretty good guess.”

Trevin spoke up, “That may be. But let’s face it, none of the rest of our parents are keen to come to our aid. I’m vulnerable for another three years, and my parents are just as scared and just as unwilling to act.”

Elana sighed, “I know. I’m sorry. But you know how my family is. We’re fighters.”

Tad nodded, “I know. And I don’t disagree with you. I mean, someone has to do something about this.”

Bartok asked, “And you think that someone should be us?”

Elana shrugged. “If the adults won’t do something, who else does that leave?”

“But you’re talking about going off into the unknown and fighting an unknown evil. Without any kind of training or knowledge.”

Gustav spoke up. “My cousin, Drakus, has offered to join us.”

“Oh great. So a half-trained apprentice magician will accompany us. I feel so much safer,” Bartok quipped.

Tad spoke stiffly, “Um, Gus? I thought we agreed not to include anyone else in our plans.”

“Come on, Tad. We need him and you know it. He’s fifteen. He’s knowledgeable. And he does know some magic. If we’re going into the dark lands, we need that kind of help.”

Trevin objected, “Those who rely on sorcery shall only be its victim.”

“I don’t want to hear it, preacher boy,” Gustav snapped. “Your church has its own magics, and I don’t hear anyone condemning them.”

“Prayers of the faithful are not sorcery.”

“Yeah, sorcery works.”

Elana grabbed Trevin by the arm as he lunged for Gustav. “That’s enough, you two! Look, I hate to admit it, but Gus is right. We are going to need all the help we can get. And if Drakus is willing to help us, then all the better. You’ll just have to deal, Trevin. You too, Tad.”

Tad glared at Elana for a moment. “Fine. He just better be prepared to be a team player.”

“Is that code for not trying to take over as leader,” Bartok asked with a gleam in his eye. Tad was about to respond when he saw Elana’s glare. He bit back his words.

“Okay, so are we going to go ahead with this? Or not.”

They all looked around and nodded.

“Okay, I think you all know the kind of things you need to bring. We’ve discussed the actual travel plans enough that there’s no need to rehash that.”

“What am I supposed to bring?” They all turned in surprise at the new voice. A little blonde girl stood behind Tad, looking at them with tears in her eyes. Tad cursed as he recognized the six year old.

“Kayla. You shouldn’t be here. And you certainly can’t come with us.”

“Why not?”

“Because you’re too young,” Elana offered.

“I don’t care. I’m coming.”

Trevin stepped towards her, “Now listen Kayla.”

“No! You listen! My big brother was taken two nights ago! I want to go find him! I want to help! Because he’d come after me if I had been taken instead!”

“But Kayla—“ Gustav began.

“No! I’m going! You can let me come with you. Or I can follow you on my own. Either way, I’m going.”

Tad sighed and looked at the others. They each shrugged, echoing his own resignation. They couldn’t let her follow them on her own. At best, she’d get the rest of them caught. At worst, she could get them all killed. If they took her, at least they had a little more control, though not much. “Okay, fine. You just bring some extra clothes,” Tad said.

“Don’t we still have to figure out how we’re going to get away?” Bartok asked.

Gustav spoke, “Actually, I think I have that one figured out. My father’s making another trip in a couple days. This time, he’s going to Hopkins. It’s a three day journey west. I figure you can each tell your parents that you’re going with us. No one will think much of that. And by the time they find out the truth, we should be well on our way.”

Tad nodded. “Yes, I think that should do. Everyone trusts your father. And it’s not unusual for him to take other kids along on his trips to other markets. But what about you?”

“I figure I can play ill the morning my father leaves, then tell my mother I’m feeling better and want to catch up to him later that afternoon.”

“And they’ll both buy it?”

“I think so.”

“Sounds good to me. The rest of us can sneak out the night before and meet here. Then you can join us that afternoon and we’ll set out on our journey.”

Bartok shook his head. “We must all be mad.”

Elana glared at him, “No one is making you come along, you know. You can back out now if you want. Just don’t tell anyone or else.”

The boy laughed. “Oh, I wouldn’t dream of it! It may be madness, but then maybe I’m a little mad myself. I think I have to be to survive my family. I’m in.”

Tad nodded. “Good. Then let’s all meet back here in two nights. Try to stay safe until then.”

“If there is such a thing as being safe any more,” Trevin sighed. Tad winced at the thought and watched as they each left. He stood there for a few more moments, thinking. Then he too headed home.

***

Moments after the kids left the grove, two shades stepped from their shared hiding place. The one spoke in a soft hiss, “So, the master was right. Mere children are coming to finish him off.”

The other responded, “The master is usually right about such things. As you serve him longer, you will come to know this.”

“So he has been hunted by children before?”

“Oh yes, several times. He has found that it’s the best way to get the best and most vital children. Any one of these children is likely to provide him with the vital essences he needs for a few months. Maybe more.”

“As opposed to most children, who only keep him satisfied for a few days to a week?”

“Exactly.”

“So why do I sense an unease in your being?”

“Because this time is different. If the master is right, one of these children could be the one.”

“The one who could destroy him?”

“Exactly. So this time, there is a real danger to the hunt. And we must take extra care as a consequence.”

“Then why chance it? If this one child could destroy him, why not destroy that child first?”

The other shade let out a hissing laugh. “Because that which makes the child so dangerous makes that same child so alluring. While the others might supply the master with vital essences for months, this one could keep him going for years. Maybe even decades.” The shade paused before adding, “Even forever. There’s no way to be sure.”

“I see. So the master’s hunger overcomes his sense of survival.”

“I would not put it that way, but you are correct in essence.”

“Then we play a truly dangerous game.”

“We do. But go now. Report to him what we saw. Let him know that his secret quarry will set out to find him soon. He will want to prepare.”

“Very well.” The shade disappeared, leaving the other alone. It stood for a moment musing.

“Yes, a dangerous game indeed. It will make this time far more interesting than all the others, I think. It’s been centuries since I’ve known true entertainment.” With that, the second shade faded away.