The Others 03 Vision in Silver (32 page)

Firesday, Maius 18

S
imon reviewed the lists in his hands, then looked at the books on the shelves. Early in Maius, he’d asked the gaggle of girls and the police who had become part of the Courtyard—including Lieutenant Montgomery—what kinds of books they read and what authors they liked. They’d given him lists, and based on those lists, it was time to cull the stock.

Setting a cart within easy reach, he began pulling books off the shelves.

“Is this something I should know about?” Vlad asked, leaning against the shelves.

“We’ve closed the store to humans who aren’t part of the Courtyard’s pack, so it’s time to remove books that aren’t of interest to them or the
terra indigene
.”

Vlad pulled a book off the shelf. The cover showed a muscular male who was partially clothed, looked menacing, and was meant to be some kind of
terra indigene
. At the male’s feet was a partially clothed female, probably human, who, despite cowering, had her chin lifted in a defiant attitude and had her back arched in a way that displayed an impressive pair of breasts.

“Do you think humans will ever realize breasts have no attraction for us once we’re weaned?” Vlad asked, opening the book to a random page.

“Why should they?” Simon tipped his head toward the book. “None of us would be interested in that story, so none of us would think to mention it, and
terra indigene
publishers already know that cover wouldn’t attract us.” The better question, as far as he was concerned, was how had that book gotten on the shelves in the first place?

Vlad read a couple of pages, then put the book on the cart. “Some of us might read it if you shelved it as a comedy.”

Simon eyed him, then looked at the book. “Or put it in with the cookbooks?”

“Too obvious what our interest in the breasts would be.”

Laughing, he handed half the lists to Vlad. “These are books our humans enjoy reading. I want to keep those authors in stock, as well as similar books. It seems Heather was the only one who was interested in straightforward kissy books, but the gaggle likes romance thrillers or adventures. For now, I’m keeping one of whatever we have in stock, kissy books and all, and removing the extra copies. Henry can take his pick for our library, and we’ll pass along the rest.”

“What are we going to do with the shelf space?”

“Add books written by
terra indigene
. Instead of a shelf tucked way in the back or an occasional display in the front of the store, we’ll sell the books next to their human counterparts.”

“Simon? Is turning the Lakeside Courtyard into a kind of academy really a good idea? Especially now?”

“When humans came to Thaisia and we made the first bargains long ago, their settlements were small, and it was easy to study them despite little actual contact beyond what was owed to us for use of the land. That’s the way it still is in most places. Even the Others who keep watch over the largest human cities only interact with a handful of humans, and then it’s a formal meeting, or it’s with the Human Liaison, and that interaction is formal too. They can hide things from us now.”

“Like the compounds that held, and still hold, the
cassandra sangue
?”

Simon nodded. “We knew about the blood prophets for as long as humans knew about them. Maybe longer. But they slipped out of sight because we didn’t concern ourselves when humans dealt with humans. For the most part, humans have kept the peace, but they’re an invasive species—a two-legged kudzu—and will take over as much land as they can if they aren’t held to the agreed-upon boundaries. Now trouble is stirring everywhere because of that Humans First and Last movement.”

“You think the answer is learning to become more human?”

Simon pulled a few more books off the shelves. “Not exactly. I think the answer is learning to recognize the enemy when it’s hiding within the herd. Once we do that, we can kill the enemy and keep ourselves, and Thaisia, safe.” He looked at
Vlad. “We call them clever meat, so it’s easy to forget that the reason some of our ancestors learned this form was because the
terra indigene
recognized the first humans who came to Thaisia as a new kind of predator, something we needed to understand in order to remain dominant. Now we need to understand more in order to decide what kind of humans should be allowed to remain in Thaisia.”
While earth natives like you and me still have some say in that decision,
he added silently.

“I wonder how Lieutenant Montgomery would feel, or Kowalski or Debany for that matter, if they heard that.”

“There’s no reason for them to know, is there?”

“No reason at all.”

After Vlad went to the next group of shelves to pull books from his lists, Simon stared at the titles in front of him, seeing nothing.

He liked the humans who were interacting with the Courtyard. And he liked Steve Ferryman and the other Intuits he’d met at Ferryman’s Landing. But lately he’d come to realize that words could be a weapon as devastating as a gun, and that was something most of the Others didn’t understand yet. The
terra indigene
hadn’t continued to learn enough from humans because so much of what humans wanted held no interest for them.

Vlad returned, his hands full of books. “Simon, do you want to keep these?”

Before he could respond, Jenni Crowgard came rushing in from the stock room and said, “The Crows know why humans are running out of food!” She paused for a moment, then added, “Well, so do the rest of the
terra indigene
.”

“What do—” Simon snarled when the phone started ringing.

Vlad set the books on the cart and led Jenni toward the back of the store, saying, “Tell me what you’ve heard.”

Simon grabbed the ringing phone. “Howling Good Reads.”

“Simon? It’s Jackson.”

He froze for a moment. His friend sounded . . . odd. “Is everything all right?”

“Yes. Maybe.” Jackson hesitated. “The scarred girl drew a picture of me in the Rockies and you in Lakeside, with Talulah Falls in between us. Does that mean anything to you?”

“Maybe.” He thought about the land between Lakeside and Talulah Falls. He thought about the new community the Others and the Intuits would make together. He hadn’t thought Jackson would be interested in leaving the Northwest, but a lot of things were changing throughout Thaisia. The other Wolf might be
feeling it was time to move on. Would Jackson want to live in the River Road Community?

“She drew another picture.”

“Okay.” Did the scarred girl rub her skin the way Meg did when a prophecy started prickling and buzzing? Was that why Jackson sounded disturbed?

“A wheat field underwater. Sharks swimming over the field. A sunken ship. Mean anything?”

Simon looked toward the shelves of books and noticed that Vlad had returned alone and was watching him. Waiting for him. He repeated what Jackson said about the wheat field.

Vlad nodded.

“Yes,” he said, answering Jackson’s question. “It means the humans tried to send food across the water while claiming there wasn’t going to be enough food for the humans living in Thaisia. They lied to their own kind in order to cause trouble for us.”

“What can we do?”

“Wait. Keep watch. Let me know if the scarred girl makes other drawings that are visions.” After receiving an assurance from Jackson that he would be kept informed about the scarred girl’s visions, and promising to talk to Meg about the girl, Simon hung up.

“Are you going to tell Lieutenant Montgomery?” Vlad asked.

Simon shook his head. “The wheat is gone, and some foods will be scarce because of it. He already knows that.”

“He doesn’t know why.”

“Does it matter?”

“Wouldn’t you want to know why your pup will be hungry?”

“Yes, I would. But Montgomery isn’t going to have a say in any of this. Neither are we. There’s no point telling him the why until we can also tell him—and Captain Burke—what will happen next.”

Vlad took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “In that case, let’s make some decisions about these books. That much we can do.” He reached for the books he’d dumped on the cart, then stopped. “Oh, and Ruthie is going to talk to the merchants at the stall market tomorrow. If they’re agreeable about having some of us there, Ruthie and some other females will take the Crows shopping next Watersday.”

“Won’t that be fun,” Simon muttered.

Vlad smiled. “I’m glad you think so, since you’ll need to talk to Blair about who will be going with them.”

Simon picked up the book with the cowering, defiant, large-breasted female on the cover. Maybe he would tuck it in with the cookbooks after all.

Watersday, Maius 26

H
and in hand, Meg and Sam walked along the road from the Green Complex to the Market Square.

The Courtyard bus had left right after lunch to go to the stall market—the experimental field trip for Jenni, Starr, and Crystal Crowgard. Ruth and Merri Lee had invited her to join them, but they were quick to point out that the quantity of merchandise, not to mention the crowds and noise that were typical on a Watersday afternoon, might be overwhelming for her.

She took their word for it. Besides, taking a leisurely walk back to the Liaison’s Office—or as leisurely a walk as a human could have with Sam and Skippy for company—suited her.

“
Why
can’t I mark trees the way Skippy is doing?” Sam asked.

“Because you’re in human form,” Meg replied.

Skippy, who seemed to be paying no attention to their conversation, lifted his leg and gave them a Wolfie grin.

“Humans pee on trees too,” Sam said, glaring at Skippy as the juvenile Wolf trotted off to sniff at something else.

Unable to recall any training images that would confirm or deny that statement, Meg said nothing and kept walking. Tipping her head up so that she could see past the brim of her hat, she spotted the Hawk soaring above them, keeping watch. If Sam ran off to prove that a boy could pee on a tree, he wouldn’t be completely on his own, even if she kept walking. And, really, all he had to do
was follow the road to the Market Square, so it wasn’t like he’d get lost. They might have to hunt up his clothes later if he stripped and shifted to Wolf, but apparently finding abandoned clothes in the Courtyard was pretty common during the warmer months.

Not abandoned,
Meg reminded herself.
Left where they can be found again—as long as a human doesn’t come along and take the clothes somewhere else.

She’d learned
that
lesson yesterday when she spotted a pile of clothes near the road while making a few deliveries. Since they were coveralls and work boots, she dropped them off at the Utilities Complex—and then had seen a little too much of an annoyed Blair, who had come looking for the clothes he’d set aside when he’d shifted to Wolf to do whatever it was he’d needed to do in his furry form.

Maybe she should talk to Eve Denby since Sarah and Robert played with some of the Courtyard’s youngsters. After all, if Sam was going to grumble about not being allowed to pee on a tree when he was in boy form, would Robert grumble about not being allowed to strip off his clothes and run around naked just because he wasn’t going to shift to something with feathers or fur?

She had no training images that matched what young males of any species thought about or found interesting. Apparently such things were not considered useful knowledge when speaking prophecy.

By the time they reached the Market Square, Meg was warm and dewy—a phrase Ruth said her grandmother used because the old woman insisted that ladies didn’t sweat.

Ruth’s grandmother obviously never had Wolves for playmates. When you played with
them
, you weren’t dewy, you
dripped
.

“The whole Courtyard is here,” Sam said, sounding impressed.

She knew that wasn’t true, but it sure looked like every resident had crowded into the square.

Focus on one or two things,
she thought.
Let the rest be a busy background, as if you were seeing a vision occurring in a crowded place instead of a deserted place.

Feeling steadier after making that decision, Meg looked around and focused on Jester Coyotegard, who pointed to various stores and seemed to be explaining something to a man with red hair and a face that looked sufficiently Foxy not to pass for human. She hadn’t delivered any mail to anyone who was Foxgard, so this male was either a visitor or a new resident.

She noticed Blair, who looked like someone was chewing on his tail, which wasn’t likely because he was in human form. Then she forgot about the Wolf when she spotted Julia and Marie Hawkgard coming out of Chocolates and Cream, licking ice cream cones.

Had she ever tasted ice cream? She wasn’t sure. But she knew she’d never experienced eating an ice cream cone. And Sam hadn’t had ice cream in years, if he’d ever had any when he was a little puppy. They would go over to Chocolates and Cream, and she would buy ice cream cones for both of them. And Skippy too, so he wouldn’t be left out.

She looked at Sam. “Would you like to get . . .”

The harsh buzz began in her chest, quickly spreading to her left shoulder.

“Get what, Meg?” Sam tugged on her arm. “Meg?”

Meg looked at the Market Square. Crowded place. Too many people, too little room to move, to escape.

The Market Square looked familiar, but it didn’t
feel
familiar anymore. And the certainty that she needed to escape grew stronger the longer she stood there.

“Something’s wrong,” she whispered. She patted the right cargo pocket in her shorts. Empty.

How could it be empty? How could . . . ?

She pressed her hand against the left pocket and felt the shape of her folding razor. She’d put it there—and buttoned the pocket—so that the razor was with her but harder to reach.

“Meg?” Sam whined as he tugged on her arm again.

Meg worked to steady her breathing. She should turn around and walk away from the Market Square, walk back to the Green Complex or as far up the road as she needed to go until the painful pins-and-needles buzz under her skin stopped.

She looked at Sam and Skippy, intending to tell them they had to leave.

But what if the prophecy was about one of them? Could she take that risk? Could she live with the pain if either of them got hurt?

Be sure,
she thought.
The last time you didn’t walk away, you upset so many friends. You hurt Nathan. And Simon. Be sure.

She hurried away from the Market Square, intending to reach her office and call . . . who? Simon was at the stall market with Jenni Crowgard and her sisters. Nathan, Vlad, Henry, and the human pack were with them. Except Theral, who
was working at the medical office this afternoon because she didn’t want to go to a crowded place where her ex-lover might look for her.

Could Theral be the reason for the prickling? There had been no sign of
that man
since the flowers arrived as a way to confirm that Theral could be found in the Courtyard. But no human could reach Theral in the medical office. Especially not today with so many of the
terra indigene
gathered in the Market Square.

Crowds and the sting of sharp, unpleasant smells. Pushing and shoving. Shouts and screams. No room to escape if . . .

“Meg?” Sam said. “Where are you going?”

She ran to the Liaison’s Office.
Get inside and call 
. . . Blair, the Courtyard’s dominant enforcer. No, he was in the Market Square, close by. She would call Nyx. The Sanguinati would help her.

She stopped, barely able to breathe.

The buzzing had gotten worse, not better. She was moving
toward
the reason for the visions building in her skin, not away from it.

Can’t cut when I’m not in control. Can’t frighten Sam the way I frightened Nathan. Can’t. But the danger is here. I know it’s here.

Meg looked around, focusing on the buildings that surrounded her as she turned in a slow circle. The garages that stored two BOWs and also held various tools and equipment for seasonal work. The Three Ps and the access way that provided egress to the Main Street entrance to the Courtyard. The back of the Liaison’s Office and Henry’s yard. The back entrances to Howling Good Reads and A Little Bite.

Meg looked at the stairs leading to the efficiency apartments above the seamstress/tailor’s shop—and grabbed at her arms as the buzzing became brutally painful.

Four apartments up there. And this buzzing under her skin was the dowsing rod that would pinpoint which apartment,
which friend
, might be in danger. She would figure out which apartment produced the buzz, which people were the subject of the prophecy, and then she would run away until the buzzing stopped.

She could do this. She
would
do this.

“Meg?” Sam sounded scared.

Couldn’t do this with just the boy here. If anything went wrong . . .

She raised her head.
“Arroo! Arroo!”

Sam cocked his head. “What is that?”

“It’s a warning,” Meg panted. “Something’s wrong at the efficiency apartments. Bad wrong. Have to warn.”

“Arroo!”
Sam howled.
“Arroo!”

“Arroo!”
Skippy howled a moment later.

A moment after that, a deeper howl answered them.

Meg bolted up the stairs. Halfway up, she stumbled and fell, hitting her knee.

“Meg!”

She twisted around to sit on the stair, barely noticing Elliot as he ran toward her from the consulate. She stared at the torn skin on her knee as her body filled with the agony that was the prelude to prophecy.

Then Tess was beside her, one strong hand bracing the back of her head, and Elliot was on her other side.

“Have to,” Meg gasped. “Have to . . .”

“There’s no time to fetch paper and pen,” Tess said. “We’ll have to listen carefully and remember.”

Elliot nodded.

Tess turned Meg’s face so their eyes met. “Speak, prophet, and we will listen.”

A jumble of images. “Pink book, gold stars . . . secrets . . . apartment . . . thief, more thief . . . Lizzy book . . . train . . . train . . . shinies . . . man holding a length of pipe . . . Crows . . . bags of shinies . . . Run!”

Images scalded her mind, burned into her memory. Instead of the euphoria that would protect her from the visions, Meg felt fear gathering until it filled her—a different kind of agony.

Then she saw her own arm rise, stiff and straight. She saw her forefinger pointing and the thumb straight up. She saw the other fingers curling into her palm so that her hand looked like . . .
“Simon!”

*   *   *

As Meg collapsed, Tess cushioned the girl’s head with her hand and looked at Elliot.

“I’ll call Simon,” Elliot said. He leaped off the stairs and moved a few feet away, pulling his mobile phone out of his pocket.

“She fainted?” Blair asked.

Tess nodded. Not a surprise that the dominant enforcer would have come running, especially if he’d been close enough to hear those odd howls. Not a surprise to see Julia and Marie Hawkgard or Jester Coyotegard responding.
Rushing to join their little group were Lynn and Jane Wolfgard, the toother and bodywalker respectively.

“Simon is in danger?” Jester asked. “He needs help?”

“All the help he can get,” Tess replied grimly, hoping the Coyote would understand the kind of help Simon needed.

“I’ll tell the girls at the lake.” He looked at Meg and hesitated. “Our Meg will be all right?”

“We’ll take care of her,” Jane said. “I’ve dealt with one of her cuts before, and I won’t lick the blood.”

“You hear anything in what Meg said to indicate that they shouldn’t take care of her, that we need to wait for a human bodywalker?” Blair asked Tess.

“No,” she replied as Meg began to stir. In fact, everything she’d heard indicated they should get the girl away from this part of the Courtyard as fast as possible. “They can take Meg to the medical office and then to the Green Complex.” She studied the door at the top of the stairs, then looked at Blair. “You and I need to decide what to do about the efficiency apartments.”

Elliot returned, gave Meg a sharp, quick study, then pulled out a clean handkerchief and handed it to Jane. “So she doesn’t drip blood.”

Jane deftly wrapped the handkerchief around Meg’s knee. Then she and Lynn hauled her up and carried her to the Market Square.

“Simon’s on his way,” Elliot said.

The keening howls had been an annoying background noise that Tess had ignored while she concentrated on the warnings Meg struggled to convey. When the howls abruptly stopped, she realized who was missing. “Where are Sam and Skippy?”

“John grabbed Sam and took both youngsters to the Market Square,” Blair said. “They’ll go back to the Green Complex with Meg as soon as she’s fixed up. John will stay with them to keep the youngsters from worrying Meg’s bandages.”

“So that leaves us to find whatever is up there that someone wants to steal,” Elliot said, pointing toward the efficiency apartments. “I’m assuming that’s what Meg meant when she talked about a thief.”

Tess nodded, having assumed the same thing. “We take all of the possessions—everything our humans brought in that’s personal. Lizzy still has something that someone wants badly enough to enter the Courtyard. If we strip all
the apartments, the thieves won’t know for sure that
we
know they’re after Lizzy’s possessions.”

Besides, the thieves might be spiteful enough to destroy Merri Lee’s possessions when they didn’t find what they wanted, which was the main reason for taking all the personal items the Courtyard’s humans had brought.

The
terra indigene
didn’t need all that stuff in order to figure out what the thieves wanted. Meg had already told her what she needed to find.

“Both BOWs are in the garage here,” Blair said. “We’ll toss everything into the back of them and sort it out later.” He strode to the garage that held the first BOW.

By the time Julia ran up to Howling Good Reads’ office and fetched the keys for the efficiency apartments, Nyx Sanguinati had joined them. The four females split up. Julia and Marie packed up Merri Lee’s possessions; Nyx checked the apartment that Lorne from the Three Ps and Montgomery’s team of police officers were using; and Tess took the apartment Montgomery and Lizzy occupied.

Alone, with the door locked so that no one would walk in on her, she allowed her true nature to show through the human mask. Meg had mentioned a mask when she spoke prophecy at the Pony Barn a couple of weeks ago. Happy mask, angry face. Could apply to a lot of humans right now, but her own interpretation was that the image stood for deceit.

Simon was walking into some kind of danger at the stall market. There were thieves coming to the efficiency apartments at the Courtyard. Two kinds of threat happening at the same time. Coincidence or intentional? Was one meant to be a deception that was supposed to pull their attention away from the other threat until it was too late?