by Anne Bishop
He’d avoid telling her that bit of truth for as long as possible.
“If we don’t have Boo Bear to protect us, can the Wolf police come with us? Nathan has big teeth. Even bigger than Boo Bear’s.”
Ah, damn. “Honey . . .”
“Please, Daddy.”
Defeated, he said, “I’ll ask.” Then he retreated to the bathroom before Lizzy could think of something else she needed in order to give her statement.
CHAPTER 19
Watersday, Maius 12
Do not bite the messenger. If you bite him, he won’t work for you. Do not bite the messenger.
Sitting in the Business Association’s meeting room with Vlad, Henry, and Tess, Simon refocused his attention on Pete Denby and the excruciating list of papers that needed to be filled in or signed or some other such thing in order to purchase a building.
Why couldn’t they just give the human female a bag of money and then pee on the building so that everyone would know it was theirs?
This was one of the reasons a few terra indigene went through a human-centric education that exceeded what anyone wanted to know about the clever meat. But even having that education wasn’t sufficient for enduring such an irritating process.
“Title search. House inspection,” Pete said. “Those have to be done. Since you’re paying cash, we might be able to push the paperwork through and close the deal by the end of the month.”
“We could inspect the house ourselves,” Simon said. “Give it a good sniff.”
“You still need the paperwork. And from a legal standpoint, a good sniff just isn’t sufficient.”
Simon sighed. He’d rather be out with Meg, doing whatever she was doing.
“You get the papers we need,” Henry told Pete. “Then we will give the human the money and claim the house.”
“About that.” Pete smelled nervous. “When you say you’ll pay cash . . .”
“We will fill a bag with the correct amount of money,” Vlad said.
“You will not give Mrs. Tremaine a sack of money,” Pete said with a snap in his voice that made Simon growl . . . and annoyed Tess enough that her brown hair acquired broad red streaks and began to coil.
Pete raised both hands, a placating gesture. Not as submissive as exposing his throat, but sufficient that Simon didn’t feel a need to enforce his role as the Courtyard’s leader.
“We will do this the human way and give the woman money for her house,” Henry rumbled.
“Yes,” Pete said quickly. “I wasn’t indicating that you wouldn’t, or shouldn’t, buy the house in the human way. But . . .” He studied the four of them. “This money will provide Mrs. Tremaine with food and shelter for the rest of her life. It’s a lot of money. Giving it to her in a bag will leave her vulnerable to thieves. They might hurt her, even kill her if she tried to fight them. It’s not the proper way to buy a house, even when you’re paying in cash.”
“Then what do you suggest?” Vlad asked.
“I saw some kind of bank in the Market Square. It’s a legitimate bank?”
“Yes,” Simon said. Then he paused, uncertain. No one had ever asked that question before, but a bank was a bank. Wasn’t it? “The Business Association also has accounts at a human bank located in the Bird Park Plaza.”
“That’s good.” Looking relieved, Pete made notes. “That’s a regional bank, so there should be a branch in Hubb NE, which is where Mrs. Tremaine is going. If she also uses that bank, you can take money from your account and she can deposit it into hers. Safe and easy. Or we’ll get a cashier’s check. That would be even better.” He looked up from his note making. “Do you have enough money in those accounts to cover the costs of buying the house? The purchase price and the fees?”
“We should have enough,” Vlad said. “But we’ll make a deposit next week to take care of anything unexpected. What about the other two buildings?”
Pete frowned. “The owner tried to double his price once he realized the Courtyard was interested in the buildings. I told him you weren’t in a hurry to acquire the properties and would be willing to wait until the bank foreclosed and put the buildings up for auction. He’s behind on the mortgage payments,” he explained when the Others stared at him. “He doesn’t live in either building. It’s rental property that’s supposed to generate income, but he has no tenants. The last people in the buildings are packing up. And frankly, once it’s known that you own the building in between those two, it’s not likely he’s going to get any tenants. I made him an offer that matched his asking price, and I told him you were willing to pay cash. And I made sure the real estate representative also heard the offer.”
Tess had made no comments, but Simon noticed her hair was now a wavy brown, which meant she was no longer angry.
“We’re agreed,” he said. “We’ll buy that house and pay the human in the way you suggested.”
Pete made another note. “I’ll get the paperwork started on Moonsday. Oh. One other thing. Mrs. Tremaine is moving into a smaller place and is leaving a fair amount of her furniture behind. She said she’d call a couple of people who have tables at the stall market to cart the stuff away, but you might want to take a look before she does that. Personally, I think some of it is junk, but Eve thought a few things could be spruced up and look quite nice. It’s available for the asking, and it certainly wouldn’t hurt to look.”
“Junk?” Simon cocked his head. The Crows hadn’t gone out for their trash treasure hunts since the day some humans baited a street and tried to kill Jenni Crowgard and her sisters, as well as many other Crows. Meg’s warning had saved the Crowgard, but the experience had soured the Crows’ pleasure in finding bits of shiny among the trash humans set at the curb each week. Maybe this would be fun for the Crowgard? And they could discard whatever they didn’t want.
“We’ll look,” he said. Then he thought about Pete and his family packing up their car and escaping to Lakeside after Pete had helped Captain Burke search for the Controller. “You owned a house full of stuff.”
“Yes. Well, we rented a house.”
“But you owned the stuff.” He’d never seen the inside of a human house except on TV shows, but he had the impression a real house looked similar to the Crows’ shop, Sparkles and Junk—packed with all the bits and pieces humans couldn’t seem to live without.
Pete gave him a crooked smile. “Yes, we owned stuff. But stuff can be replaced.”
“What will happen to it?”
Pete shrugged. “The rent was paid through the end of this month. After that, I expect the landlord will haul everything out and put it in storage—or more likely keep the furniture and rent the house as furnished and sell everything else, claiming he couldn’t find me.”
As far as Simon was concerned, territory mattered because territory was about having a place to live that had plenty of food and good water, but a table was a table, a chair was a chair. As long as it functioned, one wasn’t any different from the other. But humans were more like the Crowgard. They collected stuff.
“Write down your address,” Simon said. “I’ll see if there is anything the terra indigene in that area can do about retrieving your possessions.”
Everyone—human and Other—looked at him in surprise.
“Appreciate that,” Pete finally said. He pulled out a ring of keys, removed two keys, and set them on the table. Then he wrote down the address and town. “If your friends have to choose what to transport, tell them personal things first—clothes, toys, the photographs. Those are more important to Eve and me than a piece of furniture.”
“I’ll talk to them,” Simon said. “Anything else you need from us?”
“No.” Pete put his papers in his briefcase and walked toward the door. Then he stopped and looked at them. “Thank you.”
As Pete walked out, Nathan Wolfgard walked in.
“The Addirondak Wolves want to know if they can send some of the pack to Lakeside for a visit,” Nathan said. “They’d like the Wolves who have studied how to interact with humans to have some day-to-day exposure to humans before taking an assignment in a Courtyard.”
“There are human settlements in the Addirondaks,” Henry said.
“Yes, but the settlements are small and have trading posts where the terra indigene go to buy human goods. I went to one of those places, and it had all the basic items we need when we’re in human form, but it’s a different experience than going into stores like the ones in our Market Square. The humans who live in those settlements and work in the trading posts are Intuits, and they’re polite, but they don’t really talk to the terra indigene, not like the humans are doing here.” Nathan shrugged. “We have things the Addirondak Wolves have only heard of.”
“Like our very own blood prophet squeaky toy?” Tess asked dryly.
Nathan squirmed.
Mine! Simon swallowed the thought—and the accompanying growl—when Henry shifted in his chair.
“We have our own human instructor who can show terra indigene details that humans learn when they’re young,” Henry said. He turned to Simon. “That’s why you hired Ruthie, isn’t it? So that more than the Lakeside Courtyard can learn what to look for in a human who could be a friend—and how to recognize behavior that indicates an enemy?”
“Yes,” Simon agreed. “We need to recognize both kinds of humans.” As soon as he could shift out of this skin, he’d give his fur a good shake—and take a quick run to find out what Meg was doing. “I’ll talk to the Addirondak Wolves. We have room for a few guests.”
That much settled, they went their own ways. Henry went to his studio. Tess went to A Little Bite. Simon and Vlad went downstairs to fill out book orders and open up HGR. They kept the Residents Only sign on the door to discourage humans from coming in, but more of the Courtyard’s residents were venturing in now for the experience of buying a book and having a small interaction with one of the humans in Meg’s pack.
“I’ll be back soon,” Simon said.
“If you have any sense, you’ll run away from the females, not toward them,” Vlad called after him as he walked into the stock room.
Ignoring Vlad’s laughter, Simon stripped off his clothes and set them on a chair near HGR’s back door. Then he stepped outside, shifted to Wolf, and trotted off to see Meg.
As long as he could outrun them, he wasn’t worried about dealing with the female pack.
CHAPTER 20
Watersday, Maius 12
The female pack—Meg, Merri Lee, Ruth, and Theral—met up at the Green Complex before walking back to the Market Square. It was an experiment to figure out what the cassandra sangue could absorb and what triggered overload. Since Merri Lee and Ruth were helping her write up notes for The Blood Prophets Guide, and Theral worked in the medical office and might need to know about the triggers, Meg had asked them to join her on a walk from her apartment to the Market Square.
She drove this road every workday and she often took walks with Simon and Sam. So the road was familiar and yet slightly different each time, but she didn’t remember experiencing her mind blanking out whenever something changed. So what did overwhelm cassandra sangue to the point of panic . . . and self-destruction?
She needed to find out because it wasn’t just about her anymore or about upsetting the Others in this Courtyard. The Guide wasn’t just Simon’s way of keeping the female pack busy. There were girls out there right now who wanted to live and might not survive because the people who wanted to help them didn’t know how to help them.
So she and her friends would walk, and she would look, and maybe they would find an answer to one question that would help some of the girls live a little while longer. Maybe even long enough for her to figure out the next answer.
“We took the Courtyard bus up to the Green Complex,” Merri Lee said as the women headed toward the Market Square. “Henry met us in the Market Square and told the driver that we were allowed to take the bus up to your apartment from now on.”
“I think a Hawk was driving,” Ruth added. “Or maybe it was an Owl. Anyway, just before the bus stopped at the Green Complex, I saw the big patch of overturned earth that must be the kitchen garden. And there were wooden stakes with string beyond what’s already turned, so it looks like the Others really are planning to expand it enough for all of us to have a share.”
“I hope we can all participate,” Merri Lee said. “But even if Mr. Wolfgard is only making that offer to tenants of the apartment buildings, the vegetables and fruits sold at the Market Square grocery store are always very fresh—and they cost less than in the human grocery stores.”
“What about the butcher shop?” Theral asked. “I went in to buy some meat a few days ago, but that shop seemed a little . . . strange.”
A hesitation. “Just remember to be specific about what you want,” Merri Lee finally said.
“Maybe that’s why my aunt said the beef tasted a bit odd, and why Lawrence turned pale when I said I bought the meat at the Market Square.”
“If it tasted gamy, it wasn’t beef, which isn’t always available,” Ruth said. “The grocery store is a bit hit-or-miss too. You can find a jar of spaghetti sauce and a box of pasta, but no boxes of cereal. Lots of things sold in canning jars that you’re expected to return, but not much sold in cans.”
“Canned foods taste like metal, and the terra indigene tend to eat fresh foods that are in season,” Meg said. The pins-and-needles feeling filled her cheeks, tongue, and jaw.
She stopped and studied a cluster of plants that hadn’t been in bloom a couple of days ago.
The other girls stopped too.
“How are you doing?” Merri Lee asked, eyeing Meg while Ruth took a picture of the plants.
“All right,” Meg replied. Now that they had stopped talking about food, the prickling faded. Should she mention that? Or would her friends feel uncomfortable about talking to her at all, afraid that they would trigger the need to cut?
“What kind of flower is that?” Ruth asked as Merri Lee waited, pen poised over a small notebook.
“Wildflower?” Meg offered. “I don’t recall a training image that matches it.”
“It is a herald of Summer,” said a female voice behind them. “What other name does it need?”
“Good morning, Spring,” Meg said, turning to face the Elemental. “Hello, Mist.”
“You are not working today?” Spring asked.
“I am. We all are. But we’re taking a walk first.”
“Very wise. It will rain later. Not a storm. A soft rain for all that is blooming. But some things need a small drink now.” Spring smiled at them before she and Mist cantered away.
Theral pointed to the spot where the Elemental and steed had been. “The road is wet there. Just there.”
“That’s because Mist was standing there,” Meg said.
The girls stared at her. Finally Merri Lee said, “So the ponies really are their names?”
“Yes.”
“Wow.”
Theral didn’t know the names of all the ponies and didn’t understand the significance, but Ruth and Merri Lee, who had witnessed the storm in Febros, looked a little scared.
“That explains some things,” Ruth said.
Meg didn’t remember much about the storm that struck Lakeside after she’d fallen through the ice on the creek. But she remembered being stuck in the hospital, along with Simon and Jester, because the whole city had been trapped by a record snowfall.
She also remembered waking up at some point to find Simon in Wolf form, scrunched into that hospital bed with her to keep her warm.
“Better get moving,” she said.
Crows followed them as they continued down the road. Hawks soared overhead or found a convenient observation perch. A couple of Owls, who should have been home by now, flew over their heads.
A small rabbit hopped across the road, watched by a Hawk. Would the Hawk have done more than watch if the girls hadn’t been passing his perch?
Grateful she didn’t have a new image of a bunny being killed, Meg looked at the flowers and grass and trees. Would Simon let her work in the garden? If she wore gloves and was careful to protect her skin, she could plant and weed like the other girls. Couldn’t she?
“Do ponies talk to each other?” Merri Lee asked.
Meg turned away from the flowers that had caught her attention and smiled. All the ponies except Mist were at the junction where the Courtyard’s main road met the road leading to the Pony Barn. Even Whirlpool, the newest pony, was there, although he still hadn’t quite achieved the “I’m a harmless, chubby pony” form.
Meg waved at them. “We have carrots for the treat today.”
“Is that significant?” Ruth asked when they were far enough down the road not to be overheard.
“Everyone comes for the treat on Moonsday because it’s sugar lumps,” Meg said. “But not everyone will show up for carrots.”
“Makes sense,” Merri Lee said.
“So does that,” Ruth said quietly.
A Wolf with a dark coat shot with lighter gray hairs raced toward them—big, fast, lethal. And happy. Maybe that meant the meeting had gone well? More likely, Simon was happy to be outdoors and furry, even if it was only for a few minutes.
“I didn’t bring the rope, and I’m not going to run and get all sweaty before starting work, so don’t even think about playing herd the human,” Meg said.
