Chapter 24Vredech looked at the child in his arms. He was holding it tightly to prevent the trembling that was threatening to overwhelm him.
‘Come on, young man, we’d better look for your parents,’ he said as comfortingly as he could.
‘I’m a girl and I was with my brother,’ the child exclaimed, and burst into tears.
Vredech resorted to a vague, ‘There, there,’ and an affectionate pat. ‘Let’s find your brother, then,’ he said.
But there were other demands being made upon him. Hands clutched at him. All around, wide, shocked eyes appealed to him. He was used to dealing with bereaved relatives and people suffering all manner of personal distress, but this had always been in circumstances of domestic intimacy, secure and sheltering. Here, the very familiarity of the surroundings and the bl
