Chapter 8 - The Hunters Arrive
Mrs. Hart’s warning followed them home.
Felix replaced the front latch while Betsy put away the groceries. He checked the windows, then walked the yard to look for fresh tracks. By dusk, clouds had gathered over the fields.
Apollo grew restless at supper. Betsy fed him while Felix stayed beside the stove. The baby drank, but the tiny gold warmth under his skin seemed stronger than before.
“Can you feel it?” Betsy asked.
Felix nodded. “He may be growing into whatever this is.”
“Will that make him stronger?”
“I hope so.”
A vehicle turned off the county road.
Felix heard it before the headlights appeared. He rose and moved to the window. Two trucks came down the farm track, followed by a van. They stopped beyond the gate.
Betsy carried Apollo upstairs. From the landing, she could see Felix step onto the porch.
Five people climbed out of the vehicles. Three carried bows. Two wore dark coats with a silver emblem sewn near the shoulder. Their leader, a gray-haired man with a narrow face, approached the gate.
“Felix of the north farm?” he called.
“This is my farm,” Felix replied. “State your business.”
“We’re looking for a child.”
“Try the county records office.”
The man did not smile. “A boy with horns. We’ve been told he’s here.”
Felix’s ears tipped back. “Who told you?”
“You don’t need to know.”
“Then you can leave.”
One of the archers shifted his bow. The leader raised a hand to keep him still.
“My name is Commander Vale,” he said. “I’ve been tasked with taking the child into protective custody.”
“By whom?”
Vale reached into his coat and showed Felix a metal token. An eagle was pressed into it, wings spread around a small thunderbolt. Felix had never seen the token before, but he understood whose symbol it borrowed.
“Custody,” he repeated. “Is that what you call taking a baby from his mother?”
“An omen of this kind cannot be left unattended.”
“He has a name.”
Vale glanced toward the upstairs window. Betsy stepped back before he could see her.
“The child could endanger this town,” Vale said. “Help us bring him out peacefully.”
Felix descended one porch step. “You’re standing on my land with weapons. You’re the danger I can see.”
The men behind Vale spread slightly. Felix counted five, then saw another shape in the passenger seat of the van.
From upstairs, Betsy whispered to Apollo. The baby reached toward the window, his hand bright for an instant beneath the blanket.
A soft clap of thunder rolled across the distant fields.
Vale heard it and looked at the sky. “We have instructions to act before his power grows.”
Felix’s stomach tightened. “Who gave you those instructions?”
Vale put the token away. “You’ve had your chance to cooperate.”
He signaled his people back toward the vehicles.
“You’ll leave?” Felix asked.
“For now.”
The trucks turned carefully in the yard. Felix stayed on the porch until their lights disappeared down the track.
Betsy came downstairs. “They know about him.”
“Yes.”
“Zeus sent them?”
“His symbol was on their token. I can’t say who placed it there.”
She held Apollo closer. “What do we do?”
Felix checked the gate from the window. “We prepare for them to return.”
They moved through the house together. Betsy filled containers with water and packed food in a bag. Felix brought an old storm lantern from the cellar and showed her the back stair that led to the kitchen door.
“If I tell you to leave, take the truck,” he said. “The keys are on the hook.”
“Where will you be?”
“At the front.”
“I don’t want us split apart.”
“I don’t either.”
He set his hand over hers on the truck keys. “I want you to know your options.”
Apollo’s eyes opened. The faint gold beneath his skin faded when Felix touched the blanket.
They waited through the evening. Once, a car passed on the road without slowing. Later, the rain began, light at first, then steady.
Betsy laid Apollo in the cradle upstairs. She left her bag by the door and found Felix standing in the front room, looking out at the dark yard.
“You can’t watch every side alone,” she said.
“I know.”
“Then let me watch with you.”
She took the chair near the window. Felix remained by the door. Between them, the lamp burned low.
Shortly before dawn, engines sounded beyond the rain. More than three this time.
Felix glanced back at Betsy. “Take Apollo.”
She ran upstairs.
May you like
By the time she returned, carrying their son tightly against her, headlights filled the yard. Felix stepped outside and closed the door behind him.
He stood before it, broad shoulders sheltering the house, while armed figures emerged from the vehicles in the rain.
