Anna Peregrine--The Conference of the Birds

Chapter Four

Once Noor was more steady and on her feet, we all went downstairs to the Mapping Department. There were so many shelves and ladders on the wheels that it would be a booklover's fantasy, if it wasn't just maps.
Between the stacks of maps, there were long tables where the maps could be spread out, e found Olive, Enoch, and Claire at one of the tables.
"We're nearly done with Oklahoma!" Olive told us when she saw us.
"Thank Hades," Enoch grumbled.
"Have you brought lunch?" Claire asked.
"This is no time for a break! Clear all these away, it seems we've been barking up the wrong tree," Millard said.
The three groaned as we got to work piling the now useless maps. Millard began giving orders like a drill sergeant, "Hugh, climb up and get every atlas from that topmost shelf there, and be very careful with the big one, it's a real Map of Days and it's in delicate condition. Anna, make a list of all the loops in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and Maryland with long rivers immediately to the north and west of them. And Noor, I have a special task for you."

Hours had passed, and there were atlases piled all around us. I had a long list of loops that I had no idea had existed.
"Anyone want lunch now?" Claire whined. "There's a stew restaurant at the bottom of Oozing Street that got two stars from the Muckraker's food critic."
"Two stars out of how many?" Hugh asked.
"Five. Though it's the only establishment in the Acre to have been rated above one, so . . ."
"I guess we do need a break," Millard sighed. "They say an army runs on its stomach."
"You guys should definitely get something to eat," Noor said.
"You're not coming?" Jacob asked.
"You go ahead. I'm not hungry."
"That's the spirit," Millard said.
Hugh slammed a book down, "If you all had only cared this bloody much about finding Fiona, we would've had her back by now."
I looked at him, "Oh, Hugh."
Before I could do anything however, he ran out, trying to hold back tears.
"I'll talk to him," Emma said, going after him.
"What just happened?" Noor asked.
"Our friend Fiona–," I said, "--who Hugh had long been in love with–went missing a while ago. She's presumed dead."
Bronwyn picked up the atlas Hugh had been going through, "Oh no. He was reading about Ireland."
"Enoch, you were supposed to be watching him!" Claire cried.
The kid rolled his eyes.
"Fiona is from Ireland," Jacob explained to Noor.
"I'm so sorry. This must be so awful for him," she said.
"You know, I had a dream about Fiona the other night," Horace said.
Our heads snapped to him.
"You did?" I asked. "Why didn't you say anything?"
"I didn't want to get his hopes up. Not all my dreams are prophetic, and it can take time to sort out which are which."
"What was the dream?"
Millard went back to his atlas, "I'm listening, but you know I don't put much stock in dreams."
"I know, Millard. You've only told me ten thousand times," Horace shook his head. "Anyway, in the dream Fiona was riding on a bus. There was a little boy with her, in a green tunic and a little hat with a feather in it. And she was frightened. I felt, very keenly, that she was in danger. It could mean nothing. But I wanted to tell someone."
"I think dreams contain lots of meaning," Noor said. "But that meaning doesn't have to be literally true."
"Just please don't tell Hugh," I said. "He'll have us checking every bus in Britain, and when we find nothing, he'll be even more crushed than before."

We searched for more hours afterwards. Emma and Hugh did come back, and Hugh did apologise for his outburst. We were in the department until closing, and were soon kicked out.
We made our way back home, and I felt the strain on my eyes from looking at maps all day. Maybe this would prove to the rest of the Ymbrynes that I was worthy of keeping my status.
My thoughts went to my mother and the other Ymbrynes who were stuck at the peace talks, due to the Panloopticon not working. I hoped they were alright, and were not being harm by the American Clan leaders.
Pulling me out of my thoughts, there were a few teenage girls who passed us, going the opposite way. They jumped and waved at Jacob with giggles. "Can I have your autograph?" one of them asked.
Jacob blushed. I looked away uncomfortable.
"Can I have a kiss?" another asked.
Oh God.
"Oy, I'll spare you a kiss!" Enoch called, but the girls ignored him and kept walking.
I glared at the girls. First of all, just to ask a celebrity to do that was just wrong. Second of all, maybe it was me still wanting a little bit to be with Jacob.
I looked behind me to see Noor and Jacob falling behind us. "Hey guys, I'm not mad, but please hurry up," I said.
We walked a little further, stopping to watch a group of telekinetics playing tug-a-war with a rope, which they were not touching.
"So, what is there to do around here at night?" Noor asked.
"There's the Shrunken Head–the public house on Stabbing Street," Emma said. "But they mostly serve embalming fluids and mice wine. And it gets crowded."
"There's the aforementioned hanging. Happens every night at six p.m. sharp by the docks," Enoch said.
"I really don't like hangings, Enoch," Olive said.
"Oh, fine. It's boring anyway once you've seen it a few times."
"The grimbear blood-sport ring got shut down after the wights were defeated, thank the birds," Hugh said.
"Most everything is shut down because of the stricter security rules. Plus there's a new curfew that starts at sundown," Bronwyn said.
"Which is fine. I think civilised people should be in bed by dark, anyway," Claire said.
I noticed Jacob looking up at the roofs of the building. I followed his eyes to see the home guard watching everything that was going on on the streets.
"That's the home guard," I explained. "New recruits-most of the old ones got wiped out in the hollowgast raids."
"Poor buggers," Enoch muttered.
"The Ymbrynes aren't taking any chances. I think they're quite scared," Bronwyn said.
Somewhat.
A group of people started chanting and marching in a circle in the middle of the square.
"What do we want?" one of them shouted.
"Loop freedom!" the others yelled.
"When we do want it?"
"Relatively soon!"
"Well this is something. Look: democracy!" Horace said.
I started to get uncomfortable, fearing the protesters seeing me.
"These are the muddle-brains we were telling you about back in Florida," Enoch said to Jacob. "Who want to stop living in loops and go join the real world."
"As if we wouldn't be burned at the stake. Didn't we all study the same peculiar history books?" Emma asked.
"Their movement is growing," Millard said. "If the Ymbrynes don't handle their business and get the wights under control, they'll lose support amongst the rank and file."
"But Ymbrynes are the reason we survived the twentieth century!" Claire said angrily. "Haven't they proven they know best? Without their loops we would all have been eaten by Caul's hollows!"
"Some are saying we could have been better prepared for the raids. And that we should have attacked their compound here in Devil's Acre long ago."
"Millard, I'm right here," I said quietly, annoyed.
"Sounds like Monday-morning quarterbacking," Noor said.
"Thank you, exactly. What's a quarterback?" Millard asked.
"Ungrateful sods!" Enoch shouted at the marchers.
I felt a coldness over me.
"We're meeting this Saturday. We'd love to have you come and speak to everyone."
I stood up and turned around to see Sharon. All seven feet of them.
"You're associated with those fools?" Enoch asked.
"I have a right to my own political beliefs. And I happen to believe it's time the Ymbrynes' long monopoly on power transitioned into something more equitable."
"We listen to regular peculiars' ideas," I said. "We have public forums!"
"You pretend to listen, nod your heads, then do whatever you think is best. You should know this better than anyone, Anna."
"Well, they're Ymbrynes," Bronwyn said.
"See, that attitude is precisely the problem," Sharon said.
"You're precisely the problem," Claire fired back.
Just then the ground began to shake. Someone in the crowd screamed, and several of the protesters fell to the ground.
"What was that? Another jailbreak?" I asked, annoyed.
"That's either a disaster or a breakthrough," Sharon said, putting a hand cupped to his hood, listening. "The new battery wasn't supposed to be fully charged until tonight . . ."
He quickly ran to Myron's house faster than someone his size should be able to.

When we returned home that night, I sat at the dining room table, pondering over what Sharon had said about the Ymbrynes. And those few words he said, "You should know this better than anyone, Anna".
I knew what he was talking about, but the Ymbrynes don't mean any harm towards other peculiars. Are we frustrating sometimes? Yeah, but it's for their protection.
Emma soon joined me, sitting down across from me, "So?"
"So, what?" I asked, looking up at her.
"What do you think about what Sharon said?"
I sighed, leaning back in my chair, lifting up the two front legs of it, "I don't know, Em."
"Well, I think I know what you think about what he said about you."
I sighed.
"Remember what I said to you when we were in Florida?"
"About me starting that revolution thing, yeah. It's just . . . I already almost cost me my status once. I don't want to do that again."
"I thought you didn't care what others thought of you."
I shrugged, "I don't know anymore, Emma. Sometimes . . . Sometimes I wish I could get away."
"What do you mean?"
"I wish I could get away from the rules of peculiardom. I wish . . . I wish I could be part of a peculiardom that wasn't as crazy strict."
"I don't think there is one like that."
"Maybe in another universe," I said.