That night, Anya dreamed. It began, as it always did, with Master Henderson addressing the class, just after the early lunch bell. "Now, I know many of you are nervous about certain events," he said. "You are not alone. Certain persons on the staff have said we should halt our classes and evacuate the campus. I told them that the business of Eden is to go on, raising young minds into wisdom and dignity. Also know this: In 500 years, no ball or shell or bomb has ever fallen on the Founder's Hall of Eden." As his speech ran down, an air raid siren sounded from across the nearby canal.
"Everyone stay inside!" Damian Desmond said as the students rose in panic. A klaxon blared in the courtyard outside. "Mr. Henderson is right. Nobody would dare bomb Eden."
"Yes," Henderson affirmed. "It is odd, however. The school alarm is tied directly into the Berlint air defense network. If there is a general alarm, it should have sounded without delay. Be careful, Master Desmond."
Damian had made his way to the door. "Don't worry," he said with a smile. He was still smiling when a blast ripped through the courtyard. He was flung back against the wall. He slid to the floor, leaving a trail of blood. A shape sailed overhead, before a thunderclap shook the building. There was a receding roar for another moment, before a greater but more distant blast shook the ground.
"Boss man!" Ewen and Emile both cried out. They both rushed to Damian's side. Henderson leaned over both of them. At one look, he shook his head. Anya stared out through dust and smoke. The west tower of the burning center of the Founder's Hall was gone. Two of the triple archways crumbled to the ground. On the stairs, a cylindrical object lay broken into several parts. The founder's statue was fallen, its head crushed by a cartoonishly proportioned missile. From the hill where the Imperial Hall stood, smoke, flame and flying debris bubbled up. Anya considered the visibly flattened nose of the missile. "Squash… head?" she said aloud.
Henderson gently pulled her back. "Inelegant," the master said. A new sound could be heard, like the patter of falling leaves. As the haze cleared, they saw scores and hundreds of bright red objects descending to the courtyard. Each consisted of a cylindrical core the size of a marker and two stubby wings. More spilled out of the nearest segment of the cylinder.
Bill Watkins of Wald Hall rushed to the door, from the direction of an adjoining building. At 7 years old, he was 1.6 meters tall. "The west courtyard is full of 'em too," he said, "an' a plane hit Imperial Hall!"
"What are they?" Anya asked.
"Area indertiction munitchins," Becky answered. "Mines from the air." She sniffed. "They asked my Daddy to build them. He said it was uncivilized."
"But it must be a mistake!" Bill said. "The plane wiped out because it had ranged for a different target. All we need to do is stay here till my Daddy comes to get us."
"No," Anya said. She shuddered at the feel of a mind stronger than she had ever sensed before, radiating a pure hate that was like the cold and dark of space. "There's a bad man out there. He knows who we are. An' he's after Becky an' Bill!"
There were gasps from the class. Becky only gave another sniff. "Now you're just spazzing, Anya," she said. "Besides, what did I ever do?" That only drew nervous glances.
George Glooman spoke. "No," he said. "She just knows things sometimes. We've all seen it. Nobody could make a mistake about a place like Eden. The mines are there to keep us inside while they slow down enough to hit us with precision."
No sooner did he say it than two long, thin projectiles sailed overhead, in the direction of the dining hall. There was a thunderclap and a visible flash beyond the remaining tower, and what Anya felt as a single, staggering scream of pain. More objects of varied sizes crisscrossed above. One burst in a cloud of smoke to the east side. Another broke into flaming streaks like a swarm of very angry fireflies. On the far side of the courtyard, a blast flung tiny bodies like rag dolls. An objective observer would have recognized a calculated herding into the Founder's Courtyard. For the students of Eden, there was only death within and death without.
"Run, children!" Henderson shouted. "I will follow." The children scrambled for the door, still in good enough order to follow the edge of the courtyard where the mines were few. Above, there was a crashing of walls blown through other walls.
"Wake up, Boss Man!" Ewen said. He tugged at Damian's arm.
Emile turned to Henderson. "We can't leave him," he said.
"No," the master said. "It would not be elegant." Anya looked back as George pulled her through the door. She beheld Henderson rising to his feet, holding Damian in his arms. Emile and Ewen clung to his legs. Henderson closed his eyes and smiled. She was sure he mouthed the word, "Elegance," just as the roof came crashing down.
"Hurry!" George said. The children were beginning to mill about, unsure of the way to safety. The path was further obstructed by a scaffold a maintenance crew had left. A girl grabbed a discarded length of drainpipe and prodded a mine on the walkway. It went off, taking half her arm and the other hand. George pulled at Anya again. "There!" He pointed to an open sewer grate at the foot of the scaffold.
"Becky!" Anya called out. Her friend was with Bill, already past them, still looking for a clear path. From overhead came a roar, already growing louder. Then another sound started, like the gnashing teeth of a thousand demons at once, accompanying a column of blue-white fire. At the rear of a scrabbling group on the other side of the courtyard, a girl who turned back for a maimed companion looked mutely down at a ragged hole where her chest had been. The same stream of shells swarmed into the midst of those who tried to forge onward. They seemed to melt away like candles in a furnace.
The roar faded, only to grow louder still. George pulled Anya after him into the muck of the sewer, now dark red. She finally heard aloud what he murmured through his sobs: "Good boy, Anya's safe, you're Mama's good boy…" A glance upward showed Becky and Bill running back toward them. Behind them, a long, thin object banked sharply. Becky was barely a meter away with Bill right behind, but the distance might as well have been a thousand kilometers. At the far end of the courtyard, the roof of an outlying building disintegrated as if chewed in the demons' chatter. Directly above, the scaffold came crashing down. In the middle, Bill wrapped himself around Becky as half a dozen shells struck his massive body.
Then, somehow, Anya willed herself to move. Bill was motionless, but Becky looked out from beneath him. She coughed on blood when she tried to speak. Anya read the words in her mind: "Anya, why don't I die?"
Still, Anya reached out through the remains of the scaffold. "No, Becky, I can save you!" she shouted. Becky strained forward, unable to pull free. Anya reached further, and their hands entwined. Then Bill shook as if returned to life. Anya already knew it was the shells in his sturdy body bursting one by one. She felt the searing pain as the exiting shrapnel tore Becky inside out.
Anya struggled as George pulled her back below the level of the pavement. But he looked up at the sound of wrenching metal. The gates of Eden went bouncing across the courtyard, scraping away the mines like stubble before a razor. They both stared at the figure standing where the gates had been, clad in sea green. "Anya!" Mama shouted. "I'm here!" Surveying the scene and the terrified students, she called out, "Children, come to me!"
With new hope, the students rushed for the gate. From above came a sound like a spiteful growl. Mama bounded forward, wielding an iron bar longer than she was tall. The plane above descended at a fraction of its original speed, enough for Anya to make out the needle nose and the barbed arrowhead of the wings. She had an absurd thought that it was just like the toy rocket Papa bought her that she barely played with, and that led to a desperate wish, that this was all a silly, morbid story that she and Becky were acting out with their toys. Mama raised the shaft in a fighting stance atop the base of the founder's toppled statue, as the chattering resumed from two directions. Then the jet came crashing down, obliterating all traces of the statue. The wreckage slowed to a halt just short of the gate where the children of Eden Academy poured down the steps to the streets of Berlint.
And as Anya awoke on a dampened bed, she cried out, "Bond! I went back!"