Raging Star (Dust Lands) by Moira Young

Author:Moira Young [Young, Moira]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: kickass.to, ScreamQueen
ISBN: 9781442430020
Amazon: 1442430028
Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books
Published: 2014-05-13T04:00:00+00:00

NIGHT FIVE

IT’S ANOTHER NIGHT OF RUMPUS IN THE SKY. THE STARS chase about in f iery disorder. We came by the f ieldways, around the edges, in the shadowland. But we probly could of took the roads, checkpoints an all. After dark in starfall season, most people bolt the door. They won’t answer a knock fer fear of the shades on the roam. Lurkin here behind the stables, with our pale faces an dark clothes, we might well be mistook fer haunts. Beheaded in life maybe, searchin fer our lost bodies. Essept ghosts don’t breathe fog on a chilly night.

On the left there, at the front, Jack whispers. That’s where the women stay. The birthin room’s on that side too. There’s a hallway divides the buildin in half. Runs straight from the front door to a door at the back.

Nursery’s on the right, says Mercy. Plus beds fer the midwife an wetnurses. To the rear’s Tonton quarters an a kitchen. Outside’s a well, a privy an a woodstore. They’ll git a food delivery every couple of days. That’s it.

How d’you know all that? I says. You didn’t midwife here.

They lay out all the babyhouses ezzackly the same, says Jack. An it’s always four men on duty. A commander an three grunts. Four horses in the stable here. That means they’re all inside.

We left our own horses in a scrubby hollow a half mile north. I’d be happier with ’em nearby but we didn’t have the choice. There ain’t no cover hereabouts to be found.

The babyhouse stands by itself at a f lat crossroads. It’s edged on three sides by little poplar whips. But it’ll be years before they’re high enough to make a windbreak, let alone one thick enough to hide in. This place is raw an new. Built only a few months ago, accordin to Jack. It’s a low one storey with a bark an sod roof. Walls of board, mud an strawbale sprawl low an long. There’s a sturdy barred door in the middle. Two windows eether side with narrow iron bars. They’ve closed the wood shutters inside, but light trickles out between the slats. I check ’em out through the looker, but cain’t make out a thing. Here behind the stables, we’re maybe f ifty foot from the house.

Babyhouse, says Cassie. Baby prison, more like. D’you really think you can bluff us in there, Jack?

Oh, I can do that no problem, he says. It’s what comes after that I’m worried about. Seein how we got no idea what comes after. He smiles his lopsided smile at me.

He seems more like hisself tonight. I’m mightily relieved, if none the wiser. I don’t think I could of took no more of his cool distance. Tonight—unlike last night—he does have his Tonton gear on. An, fer the f irst time, I’m glad to see him in it. When I told him so, he jest raised one eyebrow. The fact is, he’s our only chance of gittin into this place.

Mercy’s padded Cassie with a pretty decent halfways along baby belly.

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