Chapter 93: Chapter 93: Reunion

It turns out the ambush was planned around a group of large trees, felled in the path of the train. While a small force, much smaller than when I left them, tackles the removal, Poppy fills me in on what's happened to them since Duet and I went our own way.

"We didn't make it far," she says as I bend over one of Chime's boys. His leg is bleeding, a rent gaping flesh to the bone. Tears track down his cheeks, but he doesn't move or flinch from me as I touch him as I feared he would. The wound heals under my hand, the tingle under my control. I feel weak, worn thin after being inside the calm for so long, but I have to help if I can.

"Why's that?" I smile at Poppy as I rise from the now smiling boy who scrubs his wet cheeks with both hands before scrambling off. I'm not watching him, not at all, only peripherally aware he's gone as I stroke Poppy's hair. The dog refuses to back away, sitting right next to me every time I stop at another injured child.