Salt Storm: The Salted Series: Episodes #31-35 by Galvin, Aaron (top 5 books to read TXT) 📗

there in cages to get up and out of here with the city swarming with soldiers?”

“Could just let them all out,” said Brutus. “Every man for himself. As I said before, all of us fly out of here like rats coming up out of the sewers. We’ve enough numbers to give them and their catcher gangs fits for weeks now, especially if they’re all on about finding the king’s assassin and looking for the lost queen and princess too.”

“Maybe,” said Tom. “Or maybe with the king dead, then the Blackfin just orders all Selkie runners killed in the streets to save him time and effort. From the stories I’ve heard of him, he’ll slay our kind outright now and sort the rest later.”

Brutus scoffed. “Mayhap that’s what we should do with his kind now then, Tommy.” He gave a nod toward the train cars holding the hostage Orc soldiers from Bouvetøya. “Them recruits might be young, but they’ll be soldiers in the Blackfin’s armies one day. Mark my words. And the rest of those we brought back with us will kill us slow if their brothers-in-arms find us now.”

“We’re not killing them in cold-blood,” said Tom. “Not yet, anyway. If the true Painted Guard come down here, you can kill those hostage soldiers then, Brutus. Until that happens, we wait.”

“For what?” Brutus asked. “We’re back in the capital now, Tommy. Trapped right in the belly of the beast, so we are. I say we cut bait and run while we can. All of us take to the streets and every man for himself from here on out.”

“No . . .” said Lenny, his father’s teachings and his own experiences on the streets of New Pearlaya warning against such talk. “It’ll just lead me more slaughter for our kind and most of us ending up as slaves again.”

“Then what, Dolan? Eh?” Brutus asked. “You got a plan for these thousands we brung with us and the rest waiting on release here now?”

Lenny did not have an immediate answer for him. Instead, he searched his memory for the teachings of his father, a hallmark mantra of Declan Dolan coming to the forefront of his mind.

Move, Len . . . Declan’s whispered teachings called within him. Move or die.

Lenny snorted at the memory. Yeah, Pop, he wished he could argue with his father then. But you also always taught me that a catcher watches . . . waits in the shadows. So, which is it? Move, or wait?

The ghost of Declan Dolan had no answer for him there.

Lenny sighed, his mind frantic for an answer, his gaze scouting the faces of all those looking to him for an answer of Brutus’s question. He stared at the prisoners in their cages, their dirtied faces lined with more questions too at those who seemed of their kind and yet not. Hearing movement behind him, Lenny glanced back to see Jemmy T and his archers climbing down from atop the train car with no further threat in sight to thwart the Selkie cause.

Lenny grimaced then, the shadows of an idea formulating in his mind as he turned back to Brutus. “You’re right, pal. We’re right in the belly of the beast down here,” Lenny motioned to the cavernous, open area around them as he stepped forward to look up at Brutus. “And, for now, us Selkies own it.” He knocked his knuckles against Brutus’s armor. “Aye, and all of us watched over by the Painted Guard.”

Brutus frowned. “Don’t suppose that’ll last very long if the real Painted Guard come down, Dolan.”

“No,” said Lenny. “But, with the king dead, the Blackfin and his Orcs got bigger fish to catch. A place like this station might last the rest of us long enough to get by and help us to sneak out as many as we can.”

“Out, you say?” Brutus asked.

“Aye,” said Lenny. “Out. Above. Take your pick.”

Brutus snorted. “Mean to smuggle them all the way to the surface, then?”

Lenny nodded.

Brutus chuckled. “And how do you figure that tall order, little man? Them streets be crawling with Orcs, or so the boy said.”

Lenny glanced back at one of his father’s oldest friends. “Jemmy, you said this is your city, right?”

“Aye, little brudda,” he answered, his smile dawning in eager show. “And She be waiting on Jemmy T, mon. Aye, waiting to welcome Jemmy T back with open arms, yeah?”

Lenny nodded. “Think you and your friends around the city could figure out what to do with all of these we brought back? Where we could hide them if need be and get them out?”

“Some, but not all, little brudda.” Jemmy T clucked his tongue. “Aye, and Jemmy T can’t be helping them all the way from down here, yeah? We got to be going up, mon . . . aye, seeing what friends Jemmy T and my little brudda still have, eh?”

Lenny’s brow furrowed. “You want me to go topside with ya?”

“Aye, brudda,” said Jemmy T. “Who else but Lenny Dolan, mon? Ya been going out with Edmund on all them deliveries for Jemmy T before, yeah? Knowing all de stops, little brudda. We cover more ground and save time by splitting up to see what friends we still got hiding ‘round the city, yeah?”

Brutus bristled at the plan. “And what happens to the rest of us down here if you lads get nicked, eh?”

“Or what if we were already caught?” Lenny said, casting his eyes on Tom Weaver and his Painted Guard armor. “It’d make it easier to get around the city with an Orc escort, eh, Tommy?”

Tom Weaver sighed. “Told you before, Dolan. I mean to slip off and find my boy.”

“I know ya did, but what about all these here?” Lenny motioned toward those in cages, some of them families gathered together at the bars to look out on the other Selkie proceedings. “You just gonna leave them behind to slaughter?”

Tom frowned. “You can’t save them all, Dolan.”

I can try. Lenny thought to himself. For a