The next morning after breakfast Jonathan and Abigail were in the room where she had drawn out the contract ritual working to clear it off the floor in preparation for setting up a new summoning circle when the bell hanging in the front hall began clamoring.

Jonathan froze for a moment in disbelief. That was… "The perimeter alarm! Abigail, run upstairs and make sure no one is up there! Bring anyone you find down to the back yard immediately!"

She gave him a startled look, then dropped the wet rag she'd been using to wipe up the chalked ritual drawing and sprinted out the door. Jonathan followed right behind her. As he ran toward the kitchen, a worried looking Kylus emerged from the bathrooms.

"Jonathan, was that—?"

"Yes, the alarm! Where are the other kids, we need to get everyone to the fallback!"

Kylus' gaze unfocused briefly, then sharpened on Jonathan again. "Sandra says she, Ethan, Bethany, Yanni, and Jamilah are in the back yard."

"Sandra—" Oh, right, they must be communicating with those illusions. "Do either of you know where Chris is?"

"Jonathan, I could only find Chris!" Abigail appeared at the top of the stairs with panic in her voice, Chris on her heels.

"Good, he's the only one missing! Come on, hurry!"

Jonathan herded the kids through the kitchen and out the back door, pausing only to grab the cast iron pan and kitchen knife. They weren't much in the way of weapons, but better than nothing. Plus they might come in handy if he needed to cook anything while they were at the fallback.

"Jonathan, what is happening?" Yanni accosted him soon as he and the other three entered the back yard, the other kids close behind and looking scared.

"The alarm went off. Everyone follow me to the fallback, okay? We're going to camp out there for a bit today until we're sure the orphanage is safe. Yanni, I'm sorry, I can't hold your hand right now. Jamilah, can you help, please?" She stepped forward and grabbed Yanni's hand. Bethany already had a death grip on Ethan's hand and was half-hiding behind his leg.

Jonathan turned to Sandra. "Sandra, Kylus, I need one of you to go ahead while the other sticks with the main group. Please let me know if you notice anything amiss, and if you see anyone you don't recognize run back to us immediately! Can you do that?"

Sandra nodded, and without any obvious consultation with Kylus headed into the woods.

"Good, the rest of you, come along, we need to go. I want everyone to stay quiet as they can, but let's travel together, okay? I know I said we should try to move in small groups, but I don't want to risk anyone getting lost."

No one had any objections, and the group followed Sandra into the trees.

Jonathan was so busy trying to make sure they didn't leave too obvious of a trail behind them that he didn't realize until they reached the fallback the group was one child shy.

"Shi—" he barely aborted his hissed whisper as he grabbed Kylus' arm. "Where's Chris?!"

Kylus looked confused. "He told me you wanted him to scout out who was coming."

"No, I didn't—damn it!"

The other kids were starting to look back toward Jonathan and Kylus. Jonathan could only think of two possibilities; either Chris had decided to scout things out on his own, in which case he was quite possibly in danger, or else he had some sort of deal going on with the Petty Baron. Jonathan hadn't forgotten that Chris had been the one to go with Ethan to Eldridge in the ill-fated trip that started this all. If he was betraying Ethan, it was possible that he'd tipped off the Baron about their whereabouts then.

Jonathan hated the thought, but he honestly didn't really know Chris. He had a hard time guessing what the quiet boy might or might not do.

But either way… "I have to go back for him. Damn! Everyone, get into the fallback, okay? Ethan, come here."

Ethan pried Bethany off himself and approached, looking worried.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"Chris lied about me asking him to scout out whoever tripped the alarm. Do you think he's in danger, or—" Jonathan cut himself off, still conflicted, but Ethan's look darkened.

"Chris would never work with the Baron. But uh—he doesn't really mind taking risks, and he's been kind of chafing with life here at the orphanage, so—yeah, I could see him running off on his own to do some scouting."

"Small favors," muttered Jonathan. "Okay, here's what we're going to do. Ethan, I need you to be in charge here at the fallback. I'm going to head back towards the orphanage and see if I can find Chris. Kylus, would you or your sister be willing to come along? I'd really like to be able to stay in contact with everyone."

"Sandra says she'll do it."

"Great." Sandra ducked out of the entry to the fallback at that moment, and Jonathan gestured to her. "Let's go, Sandra. I have no idea how to sneak through the woods, so we're just going to have to try and be careful and hope we aren't spotted. If anyone sees us, just run. Try to lose them in the trees before you head for the fallback, though."

He turned away from Ethan and Kylus with a final wave, and he and Sandra headed into the woods at a trot.

Jonathan kept his voice low, although he was reasonably certain no thugs would have followed them into the woods. "Where do you think Chris would go if he's trying to scout this group?"

Sandra pondered the question for a few moments. "Maybe Mr. Geiller's yard? Or perhaps the forest near where it enters the road."

"That's a good thought. Actually, if I have to grab Chris and run, I'll head up the road and try to lose any pursuit at the stream. That will hopefully throw them off enough to allow us to make it to the fallback. Sandra, when we get a little closer, I don't want you anywhere near to the edge of the woods. Stay close enough that you can keep an eye on me, but not so close that if I get spotted, you'll be compromised, too, okay?"

She nodded.

Ugh, he really hoped they were able to find Chris. He wasn't sure how he could patrol the edge of the forest without being noticed from the orphanage by any thugs that might be casing the place.

A while later, Jonathan slowed down—not that he'd been able to move very quickly given the number of obstacles to dodge and the difficult footing. "Sandra, do you think we're getting close to the orphanage?"

She nodded and responded in a low voice. "Yes, we just passed one of Kylus and my markers."

"Good. You fall back a bit, and I'll see if I can get close enough to make out what's going on and hopefully find Chris. Once I'm close enough to see the yard, I'm going to try and make my way toward the road. If we can't find him there and whoever triggered the alarm is still around, then I'll work my way back through the woods and try to circle the back of the property to get to Mr. Geiller's yard."

Sandra nodded once more and slowed down, stepping partially behind a tree and crouching down. Shoot, that was a good idea; the underbrush and low-lying bushes would go a long way towards breaking up his silhouette.

Trying to sneak around in the woods was going to suck.

Jonathan spent an uncomfortable several minutes moving in a partial crouch and trying to do his best not to disturb anything too much or make too much noise. He felt like an elephant attempting to sneak into a yard full of fallen leaves doing it, though.

When he finally got close enough to the edge of the trees to see the yard, he stopped altogether for a little while, crouching down behind a bush as he tried to assess the situation.

His vantage wasn't very good, but what he could see of the yard was empty. He carefully worked his way around the nearest tree, trying to stay low and avoid rustling the nearby bushes, but he didn't see any trace of either Chris or any potential Petty Baron-sponsored home invaders.

Jonathan started working his way through the woods parallel to the yard, his desire to take his time and ensure he wasn't spotted warring with the sense of urgency he felt to find the missing kid.

As he drew even with the corner of the orphanage a pair of strange men stormed out of the back door and stomped across the yard to the edge of the woods, where they stood staring balefully at the trees.

Jonathan froze, and slowly lowered himself to the ground. The men weren't looking his way, but no point in tempting fate.

One of the men snarled and kicked a rock into the woods, which hit a tree trunk with a muted thock. "What does Richard expect from us? Obviously, the little bastards ran into the woods, but how are we supposed to find them? I'm not a cursed woodsman, are you? Anthrax's balls, I grew up on the docks. Closest I've been to a tree was when they used to ship the logs down the river, and that hasn't happened for years."

His partner slapped him on the back. "We just gotta show willing. Richard isn't expecting us to actually find anything, but he's gotta be able to tell the boss we tried."

"Waste of our time," growled the first man. "We should be trying to figure out how they knew we were coming."

"Yeah, yeah." The second man clapped the first on the shoulder and pushed him toward the woods. "Let's go. Sooner we start, sooner we can go home."

The two forced their way into the woods, and started meandering along. Jonathan tensed up as they did, but fortunately instead of paralleling the property, they were just sort of wandering away from it at an angle. He pushed himself back into a crouch, heart in his mouth, and started working his way along the side of the orphanage with a fair bit more speed. He was pretty sure he'd hear them coming—he thought he could hear the first man cursing under his breath even from this far away—but if they did turn around the work their way up toward the road, they could easily surprise him. The haphazard way the trees had grown meant it was really difficult to tell when a sightline could unexpectedly open up. He needed to find Chris and get the hell out of here.

On the plus side, at least now he was reasonably sure that Chris hadn't tipped the group off about anything, and also hadn't been captured.

Small favors. He hoped Sandra was safe; he hadn't been able to spot her recently, although he admittedly hadn't really been looking, either.