Greatly discouraged, the children glided down from the tower to the relative shelter of the densely canopied park below. Lyra was exhausted and grabbed hold of Orion's foot for fear of the angry gusts of wind blasting her into the side of the building as they descended. Orion didn't know what to do about Lyra's hesitation to glide on her own. There were still a good many blocks between them and the lakeshore, not to mention an eight-lane freeway that was illuminated like a football stadium, and he now realized that finding Alexander by chance while gliding up and down the lakefront would be like finding a needle in a haystack. He knew he couldn't keep both of his sisters in the air for more than a couple blocks at a time, especially while trying to effectively dodge the Dragoni gang. Though he suspected Lyra would be physically strong enough to glide independently, she was not yet confident enough to let go of that tether.
The three children wandered anxiously through the park until they found a large, concrete play structure that was shaped like a beehive and took shelter in it from the bitter wind and the eyes of occasionally passing humans.
"Well," Orion said disheartenedly as Bonnie studied the collection of profane graffiti on the inner wall of the beehive like an archeologist examining a particularly fascinating cave painting, "What's next?"
"I thought we were looking for Alexander," Bonnie replied, looking over her shoulder uneasily, "I want to find him! I want to see Adelpha!"
Orion's looked up at her suddenly. In all the chaos, he had forgotten that Alexander had brought Adelpha to Chicago as well. Even though he had no idea where she was, and realized that she was completely unaware that she and the children were in the same town, it was still comforting to him to think of her being so near.
Suddenly, they heard some loud voices and scuffling sounds, and the shadows of a large, rambunctious group of humans crept into the opening of their refuge, prompting them to huddle together in the back, hoping no one would peek in at them. After a tense moment, he crowd of humans passed, their boisterous voices fading into the hissing sound of the highway in the distance.
"Ori?" Lyra asked in a hesitant tone.
"What?" he replied irritably.
"Maybe we shouldn't look for Alexander tonight?"
"Yes!" Bonnie fussed, clearly outraged by her sister's suggestion, "Yes, we should! We have to find them! I miss my mother!"
"We all miss her, Bonnie," Lyra continued, "But, maybe instead, it would be better if we found a safe place to spend the night? Then, in the morning, we can look for help? We could find a library and email Alexander."
"Probably not," Orion pointed out, "Unless we have a library card."
"Well, maybe we can find someone who will let us use theirs?" she argued, "Or …we can go to the police station."
Bonnie whimpered at this suggestion.
"Uncle Angelo said they would put us into foster care!" she cried.
"Well, I don't think so!," Lyra replied scornfully, "I think they would help us get home."
"We'd make trouble for the clan that way," Orion told her, "There'd be too many questions. It would take hours for them to contact anyone to come and get us. And then the sun would set and…who knows what would happen."
Lyra leaned back against the inside of the beehive, looking on the verge of tears.
"We need some help!" she whispered.
"Don't worry, Lyra," Orion consoled her, feeling bad for shooting down her ideas, "I'll take care of you guys. We'll find some way to contact Alexander or Brooklyn. We'll get home!" He placed his arm around her shoulder and they curled up together, listening to the sound of the wind outside.
"It sounds like a dragon out there,!" Bonnie declared and she imitated a roar.
"It's called the 'Windy City'," Orion explained, "I suspect the wind comes in from across the lake."
"It's a dragon city!" she replied in a tone that was more awe than complaints, "Listen! I hear one coming!"
Indeed, they did hear the sound of heavy footsteps traveling at a frantic pace.
"Aw, man! What if we missed them?" asked an anxious male voice.
"They can't have gone far," a low voice replied, "I caught them on the security cameras less than five minutes ago!"
"Yeah! But they got wings!," another voice reasoned, "They probably took off!"
"Yeah, bro!" replied a third voice, sounding as anxious as the first, "We're probably just wasting our time at this point."
"Listen you piss-pantsed cowards!" the low voice grunted, "When the Dagoni's sent the word out that they were offering fifty-grand a piece for one of these monsters, I damn near laughed my ass off! Then the next thing you know, a whole flock of them comes sweeping across my security monitor! I figure we got a couple of hours at best, before the rest of the city starts taking this seriously and then we'll be drowning in competition. For fifty grand? Yeah, I'm willing to risk wasting a bit of time!"
"Wait?" Lyra whispered to Orion, "Are they trying to ransom us or kill us?"
"I don't know," he replied, "But let's get out of here, quick!"
Slowly, Orion crept to the opening and peeked out at the playground around them. He could see the men disappearing down a path that led toward the street.
"Come on!" Orion whispered, gathering Bonnie in his arms and bolting toward the path on the other side of the playground. Once well out of sight of the hitmen, he set the squirmy hatchling down and they all ran on all fours, racing toward the opposite end of the park. As they went, they got closer and closer to the highway, which thundered high above the edge of the park, letting off an eerie glow from its intense streetlights.
At one point, they saw a couple cyclists approaching them and Orion, quickly pulled his sisters into the bushes so they wouldn't be seen. They waited there a moment, until the bikes had passed, then Lyra shouted,
"Ori, look!"
Following her gaze, Orion saw a large sign, standing at an angle like a lopsided table.
"A map!" he exclaimed, and after a hesitant glance up and down the path, they raced across the path to study it. Their excitement fell, however, when they approached and noted that much of the face of it was scratched, covered in stickers, and spray painted over. Someone had adhered a sticker with a QR code on the corner of it, promising access to an interactive map online. A small wooden box hung on one side of the stand, painted with the words 'Maps. Take One", but Bonnie opened it to reveal nothing but wrappers and a bag of dog poop.
"Well, that's not helpful," Lyra grumbled.
"I think this is us here," Orion replied in a hushed tone, not giving up on interpreting the vandalized map, "I think this path loops around the way we came…and that path looks like it leads to an underpass that goes under the highway!"
"Do we want to go under the highway?" Lyra asked.
"I don't mind putting a highway between those guys and us," Orion reasoned, "Come on!"
They raced down the path to the right, and soon came to a wide tunnel that disappeared into an embankment that supported the massive interstate above them.
"Well, that's creepy!" Bonnie observed, peering into the greenish-lit tunnel, "Do we have to go in there?"
"It'll get us to the lakeshore," Orion argued, "Then we can work our way downtown. It'll be easier there. There's more skyscrapers that we can move between without risking being seen."
They hurried into the tunnel, praying they would meet no one along the way, but halfway through, Lyra pulled Orion to a stop.
"What?" he demanded, his voice echoing off the tiled walls and Lyra pointed to a sign ahead of them that read, "Smile. You're on camera." Above the sign was a black dome that they were sure contained a motion sensing camera.
"Oh, great!," Orion muttered, but Lyra grabbed his backpack and began riffling through the contents.
"Hey, what are you doing?" he demanded.
"What does it look like I'm doing?" she retorted as she yanked out a slingshot and a bag of stones.
"You brought that along?" he asked in amazement.
"Sure did! I was born at night, but it wasn't last night!"
She drew back on the slingshot and expertly hit the camera dome with no trouble. A second shot killed the lens with perfect precision.
"Nice shot!" Bonnie encouraged her.
"There's going to be security cameras all over the place, so we'd better keep an eye out," Orion told them, and they hurried on through the tunnel.
On the other side, they were greeted by the sound of the lake, washing up onto the shore with great force.
"A beach!" Bonnie squealed with delight, "Just like in Alexander's photo!"
Orion and Lyra exchanged an eyeroll, but both had the sense not to say anything to dishearten their sister. They turned to the left to follow a concrete path up a steep ramp, when they saw something in their way. A group of men, wearing tattered clothes and bundled in old coats and sleeping bags, were taking shelter on the ramp next to the tunnel. One of them had started a fire in a metal trash can. Slowly, the children backed down the ramp.
"There's no way to get past them without them seeing us," Lyra told Orion once they were sure they were out of earshot. Orion sighed.
"I know," he replied, "We'll have to go back."
They turned back into the tunnel, and were about halfway through when they heard the loud sound of a motor ripping through the tunnel from the other end.
"Quick!" Orion directed them as he yanked the metal grate from the front of a large air vent, "Hide in here."
The three of them quickly squirmed into the pipe and he bent the metal covering back into place. They were able to peek through the holes in the grate and watch three armed men hurry past them on motorized bikes.
"Were those the same guys?" Lyra asked.
"I'm not sure," Orion answered truthfully. It dismayed him a bit that all the human grownups were beginning to look the same to him. They crawled out of the air vent and crept up the ramp just in time to see the three men arguing with the encampment of vagrants, who argued loudly that they had a right to be there as long as they weren't sleeping. The men, who Orion now assumed were some form of park security, informed them that no one was allowed to set fires on the beach, especially in park property, and dispersed the group.
The children ducked behind some trash cans as the vagrants headed past them into the tunnel. The security men followed them slowly on their bikes. One of the officers looked the way of the children suspiciously and Orion ducked and covered his sisters with his wings as the man approached the trash cans. He took a heavy piece of driftwood from the ground and banged the side of the metal cans till the vibrations seemed to rumble inside Orion's chest, but none of the children dared cry out or flinch. Satisfied, the security man moved on.
The children climbed out from behind the trash cans and walked up the ramp. There were several terraces of giant stone steps along the lakefront, and a path that seemed to head in the direction of downtown. A few steps into it, they found a sign that named several destinations, one of which included 'The Loop'.
"I think this is where we should go. We'll be able to see anyone coming near us here," Orion considered out loud, "And if we do see anyone, there's plenty of wind to lift us up over the lake."
Lyra nodded, but looked unconvinced. She preferred the wooded area with plenty of places to hide.
As they made their way toward 'The Loop', they began to hear a strange voice singing. They approached and saw a man a level above them, dancing around on the ledge to music that only he seemed to hear. Both his clothes and skin were dark, so dark that he seemed almost like a lively shadow puppet in the lamp light that glowed directly above him. The only parts of him that stood out in the darkness were his silver hair and his eyes, which looked white and milky with age or injury. Most of his song seemed incoherent and even belligerent as he chanted,
"Bring it down! Bring it down!
You hear this Siren?
Bring it down! Bring it down!
Trouble's on the way!
Don't you shun me, bigshot,
I am more than what you see!
All the lies you tell yourselves,
Don't mean nothin to me!
I am the Siren, the warning,
Trouble's coming for you!
I am the oracle, the omen,
I know what you should do!
I see it all! I see it all!
Truth and Fate are mine.
The Siren is a teacher,
But will you learn it all in time?"
Orion spread his wings as if to leap into the wind, but Lyra stopped him.
"He can't see us," she whispered, gesturing toward the man's strange, corrupt eyes and the piece of cardboard propped up beside a broken sand bucket which read, "Blind and Hungry. Please Help!" in poorly scrawled letters. Understanding, Orion silently led them past the dancing vagrant on the lower level, but the man cried out toward the sky,
"Who's that creepin by,
This cold and windy night?
Ain't no stars to guide you here, child!
You gotta come into the light!"
Lyra cringed at his words, which she took as an admonition.
"He's not talking to us, Lyra," Orion whispered, "He's just rambling. Come on!"
But Lyra wouldn't come. She continued to look at the strange dancing figure with distress. Suddenly, she pulled on Orion's backpack.
"Hey, what are you doing?" he hissed anxiously, as she dug into the bottom and pulled out the cans of ravioli they had smuggled there on the train.
"We're gonna want that later!" Orion warned her, but she didn't listen. Instead, she climbed up the side of the cement step and planted herself on the heavy black sleeping bag the man had laid out on the cold concrete.
"Excuse me, sir," she beckoned, "I have some food for you!"
The man turned around to face Lyra, though his gaze fell far above her head. He reached for the light post, where his hand found a thin, white cane, which he then swished back and forth before him like a fencing sword, until it came to land on Lyra's tin can offering. Then with a sudden savage swiftness, he pulled a tool from his pocket and plunged it violently into one of the cans, prying the lid off in one jagged piece and then using it to scoop the raviolis ravenously into his mouth.
Lyra watched this display of horrific table manners for a moment, then slowly began to crawl away.
"Wait, baby girl!" the man cautioned, his sightless eyes seeming to glow in the darkness, "I got something pretty for you."
The man dug into his pocket and pulled out a delicate golden chain that shimmered in the lamp light.
"The Siren found this outside a church in the city," he explained, "Look at the medal on it."
"It says, 'St. George'," Lyra replied.
"St. George, the dragon slayer, pray for us!" he added, "That there's a relic!"
"What's a relic?" Lyra asked.
"It done touched somethin real special," the man explained, "Somethin pure. Somethin powerful."
"How do you know?" Lyra asked suspiciously, "If you just found it laying on the ground?"
"The Siren always knows, girl," the man replied gruffly, "When a thing touches something that powerful, it wants to keep a little of that power with it."
"So, it's like a talisman?" Lyra asked and the man made an incredulous humming sound.
"You're a smart little girl!" he exclaimed, "But that's no talisman! A talisman holds its own power, but that relic will draw out the special powers you already been given."
"Lyra has powers?" Bonnie asked excitedly as she climbed up to join her sister.
"Sure she does!" the man replied, "And you do too! So does your brother. We all been given powers, some of which you ain't even used yet. You just need the eyes to see them and the courage to let them shine. That's what old St. George discovered."
"Is this St. George on this medal?" Lyra asked him, examining the detailed etching, "Why is he fighting a dragon?"
"St. George is known as the dragon slayer."
"But why kill the dragon?" Lyra demanded. She was notably suspicious of any story where humans killed a magical thing, simply because they didn't understand it.
"Because this particular dragon was haunting a small kingdom. It had started off as the prince's friend. It protected the realm from marauders and the prince's enemies, and the people brought it offerings of food. But then the dragon got greedy. It began to demand two sheep every day, or it would abandon the prince and his kingdom. The people knew they couldn't afford such a huge sacrifice, but they didn't know what else to do. They needed the dragon's protection.
But then it got worse, for the dragon developed a taste for man-flesh, and was no longer satisfied by sheep. At first, the prince selected villains to be tributes to the dragon. Killers, thieves, and tyrants that no one wanted. But they soon ran out of unrighteous victims and the dragon began to demand innocent lives, and threatened to choose them himself if the people didn't deliver them to him. By this point, the dragon had grown so powerful, the prince and the people didn't know what to do. They thought the dragon was invincible and they had no choice but to let it devour whoever it wanted.
But then St. George came along and said they must stop handing over the innocent to be killed and stand up to that dragon instead. The people laughed at him but St. George asked the prince to send him as the next tribute. The prince thought he had no chance against the power of the dragon and he would be eaten in half a minute, but St. George fought that dragon with courage and faith and was victorious!"
"He was?" Bonnie asked with a squeal of delight.
"He sure was, baby girl!" he replied, "Because he believed in those special gifts he knew he had been given."
Lyra seemed to consider the moral of the story for a while.
"Siren?" Lyra asked finally, "Is one of those gifts being able to find your way, when you're lost?"
"Sure is," he replied, "Look out there at that lake. What do you see?"
Lyra turned to face the water.
"There's so much," she said in frustration, "And nothing really."
"Close your eyes, girl," Siren said, "Close them tight and think about the ones you love. Then just ask."
Lyra closed her eyes and, clasping the 'relic' to her chest, she began to whisper.
"When you're ready, open your eyes and see what you see."
Slowly, Lyra opened her eyes and looked out across the water.
"I see it!" she exclaimed, "I see it! There's a reddish light, glowing on the horizon!"
"I see it too!" Bonnie shouted joyfully. Orion scanned the horizon skeptically. He saw a million lights, many of which were red. He hoped this man's craziness wasn't rubbing off on his little sisters.
"But it's so dim and far away!" Lyra complained.
"But it's there," Siren told her, "And when you're all together and ready, it will be there to guide you."
Orion studied the horizon again, trying to find a red light that stood out among the others.
"What do you mean, 'when we are all together'?" he asked, turning over his shoulder to face the blind man. But to his surprise, the strange figure had vanished.
"Siren?" Lyra called, looking around for the man, the cane, the sign, or the sleeping bag. But the only thing left was the tin can full of ravioli sauce, which was being investigated by a curious raccoon.
Bonnie laughed at the sight of the raccoon and ran forward to try to pet it, but it hissed at her and sauntered away. So she picked up the empty can and dutifully ran down the path to deposit it in an overflowing trash can.
"He's gone!" Lyra exclaimed disappointedly, "But now at least we know which way to go."
Orion sighed. He wasn't certain that they should trust the advice of strangers who disappeared into the dark, but he figured north was as good a direction as any.