"When you've got twelve hollows you don't need surprise." {Jacob Portman, pg 340 book 3}
"First I want to know who's unaccounted for." Miss Peregrine said drawing everyone's attention. "Things will get out of hand when we open that door, so if there are peculiars elsewhere in this compound who need rescuing, I want to keep them in mind as we go into battle."
They began with a roll call, all of Miss Peregrine's wards were accounted for – minus Fiona, then they did a head count of the people who had been snatched from Miss Wren's. The clown had been thrown into the chasm outside the wall for refusing to take orders from the wights, the folding man had been shot and killed at the train station. Melina and the brothers were in an upstairs compound unconscious and being drained while the plain looking boy from the circus and the snake charmer had been led off to another part of the prison where no doubt more peculiars were being held. Lastly they counted the ymbrynes, there was Miss Peregrine, Miss Wren, Miss Glassbill, Miss Avocet who, after the hollow had pulled her from the house and attacked the children, had been able to crawl away to the shore only to be captured by the wights submarine. Miss Bunting, Miss Treecreeper and another six ymbrynes were all there fussing over each other and checking for serious damage. There was one more person who had yet to be named, the small bearded man who had been rescued with Addison, he stood silently by the ymbrynes watching through dark glasses.
"I am heem." He said with a thick Italian accent as he pointed to a large leather bound book on the table next to him as if that should explain his identity.
"Oh Birds." Millard cursed under his breath drawing Aurora's attention as she scratched Mira's head. He was up on his feet again, though those feet and up to his knees was now invisible again.
"Millard, you know who that is?" she asked.
"Darling, that is history's foremost temporal cartographer."
"You mean?"
"Mm-hmm. Perplexus Anomalous."
"Buongiorno." Perplexus greeted, "How do you do?"
"It's an honor to meet you." Millard said as Perplexus offered his hand and Millard shook it hesitantly, "I'm your biggest fan. I have all your maps. . . "
Aurora couldn't help but try and hide a giggle behind her hand and she heard Jake whisper something about fangirling which she didn't quite understand. Perplexus only smiled and said, "Grazie."
"What's he doing here?" Jake asked, "And how is he still alive?"
"Caul found him living in some fourteenth century loop in Venice that no one knew existed." Addison explained, "He's been here two days though, which means he could age forward very soon."
"But none of that explains what he's doing here." Emma said.
"Perplexus wrote about finding the Library of Souls in his journals." Millard said before Addison jumped in again.
"Caul tracked him down, kidnapped him and made him tell where it was."
"I made oath of blood to never say anything!" Perplexus said miserably, "Now I am cursed forever!"
"We should get Perplexus back to his loop before he ages." Millard said approaching Miss Peregrine, "I won't be responsible for the loss of peculiardom's greatest living treasure!"
"We'll do our best dear." The Bird assured him, then from outside the door there was a terrible boom and the room trembled and pebbly bits of rock rained from the ceiling again, "But we've got other things to see about first."
oOo oOo oOo
The escape plan was simple, they threw open the door and let Jake and his hollows clear the way. They did a good job and they were expendable, better lose one of them then one of their own. As they fought it seemed Jacob's connection with the beasts had grown stronger which was good if they were going to make it out of the compound alive. Many of the others wanted to hunt down Caul and make him pay for what he'd done - and if they ran into him he would have hell to pay - but the priority was escaping with their lives.
There were screams of agony as the hollows dispatched the guards then Jacob shouted for them to follow him into the hall. He and Emma led the group heading out the way they'd gotten in. Unfortunately, around one corner at the end of the staircase there were more wights waiting for them, they rained down bullets on their group of rebels but the bullets seemed to stop in midair. Then Aurora realized they hadn't stopped they'd hit the hollows that were leading the charge. Behind them was Jake, Emma, Enoch and Olive. Behind them were the ymbrynes and Perplexus and bringing up the end was everyone else, the young, timid and injured. As they ran by the fallen wights Aurora counted seven guards who had been killed and she heard Jake say something about losing two hollows. Those were good odds but how many more wights were there in the compound? Forty, fifty? Jake lost another hollow as it opened the hatch at the top of the stairs, the creature had been ambushed. The next hollow took its place and dispatched a few more soldiers while the rest fled. When Aurora and Millard got to the top of the steps they were both so horrified that they immediately felt sick to their stomachs. Lining the room were several hospital beds with peculiars who were being drained of their souls. Their group spread out and made quick work of unhooking the poor captives from the needles and machines. Millard had frozen on the spot and Aurora had to tug his arm to get him out of his trance. She knew what he was thinking, this was the same state they'd found him in only now he was experiencing the other side of it. She took his hand – one of them completely invisible while the other was missing a few fingers – and squeezed it reassuringly.
Jake had his monsters chase the remaining wights toward the building's exit as they fired their guns blindly behind them. They found one wight who was trying to arm a bomb but another hollow took him out just as it went off, one more wight down and one more hollow lost. Aurora never thought she'd be glad for hollows but she thanked her lucky stars that she hadn't been able to return all of Caul's friends to their more human forms. As wights they'd be useless to them, as hollows they were Jacob's puppets and were giving them an advantage they sorely needed.
"Do we use the hollows as cover and run for the tower?" Jake asked, "Or do we keep fighting?"
"We can't stop now." Enoch said wiping blood from his hands.
"If we run they'll just keep chasing us forever." Millard said from beside her.
"No we won't!" said an injured wight who was cowering on the floor, "We'll sign a peace treaty!"
"We tried that in 1945. It wasn't worth the lavatory paper it was written on." Miss Peregrine said, "We must keep fighting children. We may not have such an opportunity again."
Olive raised a flaming hand, "Let's burn this place to the ground."
Jacob smiled and sent his remaining hollows out into the courtyard, they were ambushed again and another hollow was killed bringing their number down to seven. Their biggest problem was that they didn't know where the wights were which is what made them so dangerous. Emma volunteered to be their eye in the sky and after they secured a rope to her waist and unlatched her shoes she began supplying them with intel the hollows never could have gathered.
"There's a couple to the right, past the little white shed! And another on the roof! And some running toward the big wall!"
Bronwyn collected loose bricks to hurl, Olive shot fireballs, Enoch tried to reanimate some of the fallen wights, taking advantage of the mad scientists lab they'd taken over. Outside, the courtyard was fifty meters of wide open ground except for one small building that Emma said all the wights were fleeing to. One way or another they'd have to flush them out.
"What are they doing in there?" Hugh asked.
"Trying to lure us out into the open no doubt." Millard said keeping an arm wrapped securely around Aurora's waist.
"No problem. I'll just send the hollows." Jacob answered.
"Won't that leave us unguarded?" Olive worried.
"I don't know that we have the choice." Jake explained, "Emma counted at least twenty wights going in there. I need to send enough hollows to overwhelm them or they'll just get slaughtered."
They followed Jake out of the medical building and into the courtyard. There was a small wall they stayed partially crouched behind while Jacob sent his hollows tiptoeing forward. The small building had three doors and Jake stationed two hollows on each door then he was silent as he used the hollowgasts hearing to listen in, then he muttered something about hostages inside.
"More peculiars?" Aurora asked.
"No, birds. The room's full of ymbrynes!" he exclaimed in horror.
"Where are the wights?" Enoch asked.
"I don't know."
"That can't be!" Miss Peregrine said, "All the captured ymbrynes are right here."
"Then what are these birds?" he asked then they all heard a faint song playing.
'. . . he'll get by without his rabbit pie. . . so run rabbit, run rabbit, run!'
"HIT THE DIRT!" Jacob shouted and Aurora was pulled down by Millard until they both hit the ground and raised their arms over their heads. There was a loud BOOM that hurt Aurora's ears and in that single second the building and the hollows had been obliterated. The only beast they had left was the one Jacob had been riding. When they stood back up they were all covered in dirt, coughing and many of them were checking over their closest friends for holes.
Then from beyond their protective wall came the sound of many voices shouting together like a great rising battle cry and with it a stampeding of boots. They all rose to peer above the wall's edge and Aurora felt her veins turn to ice as she froze in horror at what she saw. A horde of wights was charging toward them from across the still smoking ground. At least twenty of them in a cluster running with rifles and pistols raised and their white eyes shining. They were unscathed by the explosion having escaped, she assumed, into some underground shelter. Their group had been lured into a trap – or at least the hollows had been. Now that their best weapon had been stripped from them the wights were making their final assault. Meanwhile, the others began to panic not too sure what came next.
"What do we do?"
"We fight!"
"We can't afford to lose another peculiar life!"
"We've come too far to give up now."
As the others scrambled to form a plan Aurora felt herself being gently pulled back by Millard's grip on her hand.
"Aurora." He called softly as she turned and saw half of his neck gone. He looked worried as his invisibility was near taking over completely and she moved closer to him and rested her free hand on his chest. He tried to muster up a smile, "At least this way I'll be more useful in the fight."
Aurora brought both her hands up to cup his face her eyes shining with tears and worry, "You'll stay near me?" she asked. She'd been keeping him in her sights since she'd found him again and it was hard to let go of that protective nature. After all, this was the battle of all battles and even if he was right by her side she wouldn't be able to tell as easily as now. His small smile grew into an ear to ear grin as her question reminded him that she didn't care if he was visible or not, she just cared that they were together.
"Always." He replied simply and Aurora did her best to memorize his bright smile knowing she wouldn't see it again. She pulled him close and kissed him with all the love in her heart. He returned the kiss with equal tenderness and when they pulled away she opened her eyes and saw nothing but a grey shirt and pants that looked like they'd been starched into place.