Freedom Fire, page 4
“Um …” Magdalys said. “Is this what I think it is?”
“Your trike impression is garbage, Octave,” said a boy who looked a year or two younger than Cymbeline. “Let Big Jack do it. His dino impressions second to none, my man.”
“Nobody asked for your opinion, Hannibal,” the man named Octave snapped back. “And it’s Corporal Cailloux who told me to be the trike, talk to him.”
A middle-aged guy with a dashing mustache shook his head. “Stop breaking character, Octave. And anyway, we need Jack for the tyrannous. Didn’t you kids say there was a tyrannous there?”
“GRAWRAWRAWRAR!!” a huge bald-headed man with bulging muscles yelled, jumping out of the crowd with Mapper on his scar-lined back. Everyone gasped and then burst into hoots and hollers.
“Too good,” Cailloux said. “He’s too good at this.”
“Could put a shirt on though, is all I’m saying,” Hannibal said.
“Tyrannouses ain’t wear no shirts,” Big Jack growled.
Everyone laughed.
“Get back into character!” Cailloux yelled.
“Did they wear pants that were five sizes too small for them?” Octave asked.
Big Jack stomped toward him. “If they were in the Union Army they probably did, yeah.”
More raucous laughter.
“Um, guys,” Mapper said, “can we get back to the action? This is the cool part.”
Big Jack spun back around and leapt at Octave and Sabeen with another terrific roar.
“Aren’t you one of those sniveling little orphan brats from the asylum I burned down in the Draft Riots?” Mapper crowed in what was actually a pretty good impression of Magistrate Riker, the man who had tried to kidnap Magdalys and all her friends and sell them into slavery.
“Charge!” Sabeen yelled, making her usually squeaky voice a little deeper and plastering an exaggerated scowl on her face.
Magdalys smacked her forehead. “I can’t believe this is happening.”
“Relax, champ,” Amaya said with a chuckle. “You’re a hero.”
Octave gave another sorry growl and lurched forward, almost toppling Sabeen. He smashed into Big Jack but only came up to the man’s midsection. Big Jack chuckled.
“And then,” Two Step said, stepping out in front of them, “a huge shadow fell over the prison yard.”
“What was it?” a scrawny soldier with a goatee yelled.
“Shut up for five seconds, Sol,” someone else called, “and we might find out.”
Two Step stretched his hands all the way out to either side, his eyes blinking with the passion of the moment. “A HUGE PTERANODON!!”
“How huge?” Cailloux asked.
“Like, twelve times bigger than the tyrannous!”
“Whoa!” the whole crowd exclaimed.
“Wait,” Cailloux said. “We ain’t got nobody bigger than Big Jack.”
“A person bigger than Big Jack don’t exist,” someone pointed out.
“I just mean from a theatrical standpoint,” Cailloux said, shaking his head, “how we gonna —”
“CAROOO!!” Hannibal yelled from on top of another man’s shoulders. They wobbled into the middle of the semicircle.
“Do pteranodons say caroo?” someone wondered out loud.
“They still ain’t as tall as Jack,” someone else pointed out.
“Whatever, just keep going,” Cailloux said. “We’ll work with it.”
“Arr!” Mapper exclaimed, wisely drawing everyone’s attention back to himself before saying his line. “Aren’t you that girl Margaret Rocheford who can talk to dinos with your special mental powers like the dinoriding warriors of old?”
Magdalys shook her head. “If I hear that phrase one more time,” she whispered. “What does ‘of old’ even mean?”
“Old-timey,” Amaya whispered back. “Shush!”
“Was this guy Riker a pirate?” Sol asked. “Why he saying arr?”
“Quiet, Sol!” about five different people yelled.
“My name,” Sabeen said defiantly, “is Magdalys Roca!” Then she slo-mo punched Mapper, who fell limp on top of Big Jack with an elaborate “Oof!”
Everyone cheered.
“Then the giant pteranodon swooped down,” Two Step exclaimed, eyes wide, hands gesticulating wildly, “and snatched up the tyrannous in her beak!”
“Uh,” Hannibal said. “That might be difficult.”
“Did you say ‘her beak’?” the guy beneath him asked.
“Yeah,” Two Step said. “Stella.”
“Aw, man!” the guy moaned, putting Hannibal down a little too quickly. “I can’t play no girl dino!” He stormed off.
“Bradsbee will play the bottom half of a giant dino but it’s the fact that it’s a girl he has a problem with,” Cailloux sighed. Everyone guffawed.
“Pteranodons are actually pteros,” Sol pointed out as groans erupted around him.
“I’ll take his place,” Cymbeline said, stepping into the circle. Magdalys tensed. Everyone got very quiet. “But I’ll have to ask the good Private Hannibal if he’ll switch places and take the bottom half, as I’m not sure I can support his weight.”
“It’s a lady,” someone whispered.
“Put a shirt on, Jack!” someone else yelled.
Big Jack just blinked at Cymbeline.
“That really won’t be necessary,” she laughed.
“Wait,” Cailloux said, stepping forward. “Are you Cymbeline Crunk? The Shakespeare actress they talk about in the colored papers?”
She bowed elaborately. “The same.”
“Fellas, we are performing our sad little spectacle in the presence of theater royalty!”
Various oohs and well hey nows erupted from the crowd.
“Why, it’s not sad at all,” Cymbeline said. “Although, while me and the young folks were all there to witness, you might want to consult with the young lady who was actually at the center of it all.” She nodded toward Magdalys, who was already shaking her head as the crowd peeled off to either side around her with an awed gasp.
“Uh, no … I …”
“Magda Lee the Rock!” Big Jack yelled.
“It’s Magdalys,” Sabeen said, but Magdalys was pretty sure no one heard her.
Cailloux shook his head. “Well, well, well.”
“Tell us what happened!” Octave called.
Magdalys felt tiny. All these eyes on her, each with a different expectation and idea of who she was, all based on some goofy story the others had told them. Ridiculous! And terrifying. Even if the story was pretty much true. “I …” She shook her head, no words forming. “I just …”
“Don’t be shy!” Cailloux said.
“It was all Stella really,” Magdalys said. “She’s the one that ate Riker.”
“Ohh!!” everyone yelled amidst wild applause.
“And my friends,” Magdalys said. “These guys were fighting it out in the prison the whole time while I faced off with the magistrate.” She nudged Amaya beside her, then looked at Sabeen (who still sat on Octave’s shoulders), Mapper (who’d gotten down from Jack’s), Two Step, and finally, grudgingly, Cymbeline, whose eyes were sad behind her bright smile. “I’d be dead if it wasn’t for them.”
“Can you really talk to dinos?” Hannibal asked.
Magdalys raised one shoulder all the way to her ear without meaning to. “I mean I —”
“TEN-HUT!” a booming voice called, and all the men snapped to attention, backs straight, chins up, arms at their sides. Magdalys blinked. It had happened in seconds: They’d formed perfectly ordered rows from an unruly crowd without even a word exchanged. “Do you know what time it is, soldiers?” Corporal Buford strutted in front of them, his eyes narrowed. The fire behind him lit a shimmering line to the edges of his otherwise shadowed form, and Magdalys had the distinct impression that he had done that on purpose.
“Half past two in the morning,” Mapper said.
Magdalys groaned inwardly. Why could that boy never let a question slide by unanswered?
Buford whirled on him. “Are you a member of the Louisiana Native Guard Mounted Artillery Unit of the Union Army, young man?”
Louisiana Native Guard? Magdalys almost yelped. Montez had been assigned the Louisiana 9th. They had to have crossed paths!
“Not that I am aware of, sir!” Mapper said, dropping his voice a few decibels and straightening his back like the others.
A few of the troops snorted back laughter.
Buford looked like he didn’t know who to curse out first. “Perhaps,” he finally said, eyeing Mapper, “you would like to be.”
“Perhaps so, sir. They seem like pretty cool fellas.”
“Aay!” a few soldiers crooned appreciatively.
Buford spun around. “That’s quite enough! Soldiers, you were supposed to turn in hours ago, unless this young man is incorrect in his timekeeping skills.” He paused, letting the crackle of the bonfire and a far-off dinohoot fill the night for a few moments. “Which I highly doubt!” he finally said, as if he’d just wrapped up a stunning prosecution and the case was closed. “This is a military bivouac, not a cheap saloon for revelry and shenanigans. Also,” he added with a sly look on his face, “your payments have come in, and I expect you’ll be eager to receive them?”
“Sir, no sir!” the troops hollered as one.
Buford shook his head. This seemed like a routine they’d been through before. “I can’t promise the Senate will approve an equal pay measure any time soon, men.”
No one stirred.
“I’m sure you have wives and families that need any help they can get….”
Silence.
Buford seemed to sag. “Very well. Get to your quarters immediately. Dismissed.”
He turned to Magdalys and the others as the men hurried off into the darkness of the camp. “If you will follow me, children, I will escort you to your sleeping quarters.”
“I HOPE THIS WILL be suitable,” Corporal Buford said, standing outside a large tent and ushering them forward.
“Whoa!” Two Step said, stepping inside.
“Definitely beats the cold hard ground,” Mapper agreed, following him.
“Blankets!” Sabeen yelled.
“Thank you, Corporal,” Cymbeline said, giving him a salute.
“You are most welcome, Agen —”
Cymbeline cut him a sharp look.
“Ah,” Buford corrected himself. “Young lady.”
Cymbeline shook her head but smiled and then ducked into the tent. Buford turned to Magdalys. “The major general would like to see you in the morning, young lady.” Then he nodded and headed off into the night.
“What was that about?” Amaya asked.
Sabeen came back through the flaps and shot Magdalys a concerned look. “What was what about?”
Magdalys shook her head. “Long story. You guys want to take a walk? I gotta see if we can find the dino quad so I can check on that dactyl.”
“Sure,” Amaya said.
Sabeen motioned toward the tent. “Why don’t we ask —”
Magdalys shook her head before Sabeen could finish the thought. “Just come on,” she said. “I think it’s over this way. And if nothing else, we can just follow our noses.”
Combined with that mulchy forest scent from the surrounding trees, the crisp campfire freshness almost, almost covered the undodgeable assault of dinopoop stench. Magdalys knew it well. It came on like a fast-moving wall of foulness, overran any attempt to block it, seemed to dive directly into her very pores in a relentless deluge. “Guh,” she muttered, waving at the air in front of her nose. “Over here.”
“Ooh yeah,” Sabeen said. “I noticed.”
They made their way along the outer row of tents toward an open area where large shapes shifted in the shadows.
“I like those guys,” Sabeen said.
“Who, the soldiers? Me too.” Magdalys smiled.
“I don’t think any of ’em are Native,” Amaya said. “So I don’t know why they’re the Native Guard, but I like them too.”
“They remind me of David and the folks at the Bochinche,” Magdalys said. When they’d escaped the riots in Manhattan, Cymbeline had taken them to a small bar in Dactyl Hill, Brooklyn. There, they’d been taken in by Miss Bernice, David Ballantine, and Louis Napoleon — members of the Vigilance Committee, a group that helped rescue black New Yorkers from the clutches of Magistrate Riker’s Kidnappers Club.
In the short time Magdalys and her friends had spent in Dactyl Hill, the Vigilance Committee had become like a family to them.
“Yeah,” Sabeen said. “But scary as things got in Brooklyn, it’s wild to think that where we are now, we could just get overrun at any moment by an army of people who think we don’t even deserve to live.”
“Girl …” Magdalys told the other two about the dire situation Sheridan had laid out for her earlier that night. They were surrounded and cut off from the rest of the Union forces: a total catastrophe waiting to happen.
“Are you gonna help them?” Sabeen asked, and Magdalys appreciated that her friend seemed to put no weight in the question, no pressure or guilt. It was just a question.
“I guess I gotta,” Magdalys said, feeling tears start to well up in her eyes without warning. “I just …”
“I know,” Amaya said. “You didn’t come here for this and you don’t like being pressured into things.”
“Exactly!” Magdalys said, sniffling and feeling a little better already, just on the strength of someone understanding without her having to explain herself. “And I hate that Cymbeline … that …”
“You gotta talk to her about that,” Amaya said. “Otherwise the anger’ll eat you up from the inside.”
“You guys aren’t mad?”
Sabeen shook her head.
Amaya shrugged. “I kinda figured something like that was going on, and …” Her voice trailed off but she didn’t have to finish. Her father, the great General Cuthbert Trent, had been letting her down and keeping things from her for Amaya’s whole life. She still hadn’t opened that letter from him, but Magdalys wasn’t about to press her on it twice in the same night.
“Who goes there?” a surly voice called out from the shadows.
“It’s uh … we’re …”
Amaya saluted. “Members of the Dactyl Hill Mounted Regiment, sir!” she barked. “Here to check on one of our mounts that was brought in earlier.”
Magdalys tried not to let her eyes go wide. Amaya had spat that lie out like a pro.
“Oh,” the soldier said, stepping into the torchlight. He was a tall, slender fellow with bushy, bright red sideburns and a dirt-spackled uniform. On second thought, Magdalys realized, that probably wasn’t dirt, considering where they stood. “Of course! How lovely! The Dactyl Hill Mounted Regiment, you say? I haven’t heard of that one, but goodness knows we need some air cavalry support these days. I’m Lieutenant Knack. You three seem a bit young and er … female … to be in the corps, you know.”
“Oh, we don’t serve in battle, of course,” Amaya said without missing a beat. “We travel with the menfolk and take care of the mounts. You know, women’s work.”
“Right, right,” Knack said, nodding. “Come this way, my dears.”
Magdalys nudged Amaya as they fell into step behind the lieutenant. “How did you do that?”
Amaya smiled and wiggled her eyebrows. “If you talk like them, you can say almost anything you want and they’ll go along with it. Trust me, half of these guys don’t listen to anything anyone’s saying; they throw in a word or two that was said to make it sound like they were paying attention and then do whatever they were planning to do anyway.”
“What’s that?” Knack asked without looking back.
“Sir, nothing, sir,” Magdalys said in her best impression of a gruff, military voice. “We were just discussing the lovely smell of dinopoop.”
“Dinopoop, you say? Ah, yes, lovely, lovely.”
They followed the lieutenant past a few makeshift paddocks. Magdalys thought she recognized the wide barrel chests and long horns of triceratopses, and beyond that the tall, shield-covered backs of stegosaurs. The raptors and other carnivores were probably housed in a separate area to keep them from munching on these guys. Grunts, growls, and squeals rose in the night around them.
“Ah, here we are.” He stopped at the edge of a large tent. “You know, the strangest thing happened earlier tonight.”
Magdalys barely heard him. Her whole mind had filled with a different sound: the gentle, concerned fubba-fubba-fubba of a whole squad of pterodactyls.
MAGDALYS BLINKED, BOTH her eyebrows raised.
Before her, nine of the dactyls that had left New York with them perched on metal bars around a wooden table. Under the dactyls’ watchful gaze, four black men in aprons labored away with scalpels and bandages at something large behind a bloodied sheet hanging in front of the table.
“I believe this is the fellow you’re looking for,” Knack said. “Although you’ll notice several of the others are suffering from various minor injuries. They showed up a few hours ago and refused to accept treatment until our surgeons stabilized the worst off of them, I’m afraid. Which seems to be what’s happening just now. Isn’t that right, Dr. Pennbroker?”
“Right indeed!” one of the men called back. “Then maybe we can get these old boys on out of the operating room.”
One of the dactyls squawked at him and Dr. Pennbroker went back to what he was doing. “They’re sort of … persistent,” the surgeon said with a chuckle.
Magdalys felt like someone had lit a candle inside of her. Her friends had survived, most of them anyway. And they’d come to look out for the one that had saved her life! What noble, loyal animals they were. A few looked up and seemed to acknowledge her with those inscrutable squinting eyes before turning their attention back to the surgery in progress.
