There was a stirring among the men seated on the floor. The small boy started to cry. The father rose and left the apartment with his child. The crying faded in the corridor and then was heard echoing in the stairwell. Wing stared grimly into the fire.
Nordel said “We all hollered when we heard that. We hollered No, you ain’t takin’ our women. And we cussed. And the women started wailin’. And we waved our fists. And we made to charge forward. A few of us even took a step. But none of us did charge forward. ’Cause them crossbows was still pointed at us.
“In a minute we settled down a little. Then Freeway comes forward, to one side of the group of us. He nudges Burnaby here away from the group with his sword.” As he said that, Nordel reached out and touched the arm of a grey-haired man seated near him. “Moves him maybe fifty feet away. Then he comes back and stands in front of us and points at us one by one with his sword. And soon we are all off in a group with Burnaby, and the women and kids are there in their own group, with nothin’ between them and Langley’s soldiers but forty feet of muddy ground.
“Langley says, ‘Send the kids over.’ The women were quiet by now. It’s like they had made up their minds, like they knew the best thing was to stay calm and do what they were told. For the time bein’, anyway. So little Skytrain comes runnin’ over and his dad scoops him up. That’s them that went out just now. And Willow brings her baby over and hands it to Mitchell. Her and Mitchell just look at each other for a second, then she walks back. But she don’t get half way before she starts to collapse. Two of the women run out and help her. It’s lucky the soldiers didn’t shoot the three of them.”
Nordel paused and said “Frost, could someone find a place for Surrey here to lay down. He’s more wore out than he looks.” Nordel gestured toward the boy who Will had been sitting beside.
Jessica made her way to the boy. She was big, like her man Daniel Charlie. Her hair hung down her back in a thick white braid. Surrey took her hand, and they went out. Nordel waited a minute before resuming. “There was one more child. But I guess Langley didn’t think she was a child. Her name was Snow.”
Frost looked down at Will, who still had his thumb in his mouth and seemed to want to bury his head in his grandfather’s side. Frost bent and whispered “Why don’t you go and see if Surrey is getting on all right.” But Will just shook his head, a single quick motion.
Nordel had been watching them. Now he said “She was — I mean she is — twelve or thirteen. Her mom give her a little push, and she starts over towards her dad. She’s lookin’ down at the ground and walkin’ fast. Annacis — that’s her dad — he says, ‘Come on, Snow.’ He says it quiet and in as calm of a voice as he could manage. We’re not watchin’ Snow, though. We’re watchin’ Langley. And Langley shakes his head. And Freeway sticks out his sword to block her way. And he says, ‘Nope.’ And he pushes her back with his sword. And now Snow is walkin’ backward, with Freeway pushin’ her along with the side of his sword. And she just stops. And she’s still lookin’ down at the ground. And she screams, ‘Daddy.’”
Nordel sighed heavily. He waited, then said “Can someone else tell this?” There was no sound but the rain driven in gusts against the glass, and the hissing of the peat in the fireplace. So Nordel cleared his throat and went on “When Snow screamed that out — when she screamed, ‘Daddy,’ there was some bumpin’ and wrestlin’ behind me, and someone shouted ‘No!’ and ‘Grab him!’ But Annacis busted loose. He heads straight toward Langley. He’s got his head down and he’s roarin’ and he’s movin’ fast. For a second I thought he’d make it. I thought he would wring that bastard’s neck before they got him.
“But some crossbows went off. I don’t know how many. Three or four. Maybe more. They went off with kind of a snappin’ sound. There was arrows flyin’ everywhere. We heard them zippin’ past us, and we tried to duck. But they didn’t shoot no more. Annacis is on the ground on his back, and he’s screamin’, and he’s got hold of an arrow that’s stickin’ out of his side.
“Langley shouts, ‘Hang on to them dogs.’ Freeway drops his sword and grabs Snow and holds her ’cause she’s gone wild and is screamin’. Some of the soldiers put down their crossbows and take out their swords and come forward and make a circle round the women. They’re all screamin’ too now, and we’re cussin and callin’ out to Annacis. And young Surrey, he’s in our group and he’s screamin’, ‘Daddy, Daddy’.
“The rest of the soldiers make a circle around us. There’s nothin’ we can do. A soldier grabs Snow from Freeway and pushes her in with the women. Our dogs have gone crazy, and we’re havin’ trouble holdin’ them.
“Then Langley walks over and looks down at Annacis. Langley’s face is all red, and I never seen no one look so mad. He gives Annacis a hell of a kick in the side, and Annacis shouts out. Then he kicks him again. Then he turns his back on Annacis and all the rest of us and he walks back to where he was before. And he stands there in the rain, lookin’ away toward the bridge and pickin’ at his face. Then… Then Freeway picks up his sword and goes over to where Annacis is layin’. And he takes his sword in two hands… He takes his sword and he….”
“Never mind” said Frost.
The rain beat steadily against the window now. The wind blew smoke back down the stovepipe and through the gap in the glass of the fireplace and into the room. Will released his hold on his grandfather and stepped through the men seated on the floor and he crouched at the fireplace. He pulled open the fireplace doors, and the fire drew air from the room, and it glowed a little brighter, and the smoke was sucked up the stovepipe again. Will sat down beside Wing and put his hand on his shoulder.
Nordel said “I’ll tell you somethin’, if ever you have to fight Langley.”
Tyrell’s voice burst again in the hallway, as if the very concrete of the building were cracking. “Oh, we’re going to fight him. Don’t you worry about that.”
Nordel continued “Well, it takes ages to load them crossbows up again. If they’d of all shot at Annacis we could of grabbed our swords and spears and turned the dogs loose while they were loadin’ up again, and might of drove them off or might or at least killed Langley. But most of them didn’t shoot. So we had to stand there and watch Annacis dyin’ on the ground in front of us.
“The soldiers with the bunch of women started off with them toward the bridge. Langley climbs into his wagon thing. He calls out — I could just hear him over the wailin’ of the women — he calls out, ‘The deal’s off, Wing. I don’t like the way you do business.’ Four soldiers sling their crossbows on their backs — they got twine for that — and they pick up the shafts of the wagon thing and start out too. Then one of the soldiers keepin’ guard on us points this way, down the river. ‘Get movin’,’ he says. What could we do?
“They followed us for a ways. Langley called out again in the distance — his voice is even higher and whinier than before — he says, ‘Tell Frost I’ll swap this farm for his one. I like his location. So close to Town. I like his farm better than Fundy’s. I like his house with all them stovepipes. It’s cozy. Then you and his lot can all come back here and grow spuds till you’re blue in the face. And I’ll grow what I’m good at growin’. I think a cash crop is what they called it. When there used to be cash. Tell Frost that’s my business deal. Tell him that’s Langley’s proposal.’
“We kept lookin’ back. Langley and the women and the soldiers were still headin’ toward the bridge. The rest of the soldiers were standin’ there watchin’ us, blockin’ the way back. Two soldiers were out tryin’ to find the arrows that they’d shot off. Annacis and Digger were layin’ alone there on the ground.”