Maybe. He’d see what Lieutenant Montgomery said about that.
Humans were starting to notice them, and it wasn’t smart to linger. Simon grabbed a couple of the carryalls piled around the females and tried to remember the things humans asked about travel. “Did you have a good trip?”
“It was just fine once we got seats,” Twyla replied. “We’d probably still be sitting in the station at Hubbney if Agent O’Sullivan hadn’t stepped in.”
“Oh?” Simon looked at O’Sullivan, who was also carrying a couple of bags that weren’t his own. Simon knew this because one carryall was black; the other two were bright pink and smelled like the little females.
“There has been some trouble with trains running out of Toland, so everyone is being funneled through Hubb NE,” O’Sullivan replied in a quiet voice. “Now that trains aren’t running after dark, to avoid incidents, there is a backlog of passengers, and those who could afford to ‘upgrade’ their ticket were being given the seats. Ms. Montgomery and her family had already been sitting at the Hubbney station for a full day when I arrived to catch the train to Lakeside. When I heard her son was a police officer, I stepped in and gave the railway a choice of putting us in the executive car or having me shut down the station while the ITF investigated the preferential treatment of some passengers over others.”
Simon smiled. “You have teeth, O’Sullivan, even if you are human.”
“Thanks.”
They packed the van with cargo and carryalls and humans. As he settled into the front passenger seat, Simon heard the distant sound of thunder.
Meg opened the gate and slipped inside Henry’s yard. Nathan was still in the Liaison’s Office, and Jake was perched on the wall between the delivery area and the yard, so she’d have plenty of warning if a truck pulled in.
She hurried up to the studio door and tapped on the frame. “Henry? Can I come in?”
The Grizzly stepped away from one of his sculptures and gave her a quizzical look. “When have you needed to ask?”
She went in and sat on the bench where she could watch him work without getting in the way.
“I’m glad you came. I wanted to show you this.” Henry picked up a piece of wood and came over to sit beside her. “What do you think?”
Not finished yet, but she could make out a tree in the center. In each corner of the box, touching some of the branches, was something that represented each of the seasons. “It’s wonderful. This is the lid for the box to hold the prophecy cards?”
He nodded. “When it’s time, you can help me stain the pieces. That way the wood will get to know you.”
She ran her fingers gently over the wood. “I’d like that.”
He took the lid and set it aside. “What’s on your mind, Meg?” He waved aside her excuse before she made one. “You wouldn’t come to visit during your work time if you didn’t want to talk while everyone else was occupied—and with the new visitors, everyone is occupied.”
“Henry? How much human is too human?”
In human form, Henry was a big man with shaggy brown hair and brown eyes, but he didn’t feel human. At least, not when she’d first met him. Now? Was it just that she’d gotten used to him, or had he lost some of the wildness in these past few months?
“That depends on who you ask,” he replied.
“The terra indigene who no one talks about. The really dangerous ones. Well, you’re dangerous too, but . . .” She stopped, afraid she’d insulted him. Then she pressed on, because she had to know. “Simon has brought more humans to the Courtyard. It’s Lieutenant Montgomery’s family, so it’s a kind thing to do, but will they think he’s becoming too human because he’s spending so much time with humans? Are you at risk? Did I cause this?”
Henry leaned forward and rested his forearms on his thighs. His expression went from puzzlement to amusement as he slowly shook his head. “Have you been saving up these questions, Meg?”
“You think it’s funny?”
“Funny? No. Amusing?” He tipped a hand back and forth. “There is always a danger of taking too much from a form, but I imagine that’s been true since the first terra indigene took the form of another predator in order to study its way of hunting and become an even better hunter than the original animal. But humans are an odd kind of predator, and most of what they fight over among themselves . . .” He shrugged. “Yes, we’ve become more entangled with humans, and not just in Lakeside. Yes, there’s a risk that we’ll become too involved in their concerns and forget who we are and what our own kind need. But I don’t think Simon will become too human, not in any bad way. You know why?”
Meg shook her head.
Henry smiled. “Because you won’t let him.”
She sat back and sighed. “Tess is kind of cranky.”
“Tess is Tess.”
“Do you think the Courtyard will still be able to buy those apartment buildings across the street?”
“We have bought them. The humans have to do their paperwork, but that’s a formality and should be completed anytime now.”
“Until then, where do we put everyone?” In the compound where she had been raised, every girl had her own cell. She didn’t have a training image that would help her visualize many people crammed into a room to sleep, even temporarily.
“Meg? You take your quiet time whenever you need it. You’re not responsible for Lieutenant Montgomery’s pack; he is.”
“Well, I’m not going to make the mistake of showing them the ponies!”
Henry’s booming laugh rang out. “As if Jester would let you near the Pony Barn with small humans after the last time.”
She’d made mistakes when she’d taken Lizzy to see the ponies. She had no reason to believe the other little girls would react the same way and want to ride the Elementals’ steeds, but she wasn’t going to take that chance.
They heard Jake cawing.
“Sounds like I have a delivery.” Meg stood. “Thanks, Henry. I like the box.”
She hurried out of the studio, ran the length of the yard, dashed out the gate, and rushed into the back room of the Liaison’s Office. She reached the front counter in time to see the deliveryman getting back into his truck. The packages and her clipboard, with the information filled in, were on the counter.
She took the packages into the sorting room, then turned on the radio. She wasn’t sure how long she’d been listening to the weather report when she realized that Tess had come in.
Meg tipped her head to indicate Tess’s coiling green and red hair. “You’re feeling tense.”
“So are you.” Tess looked pointedly at Meg’s arm, where her fingers were digging into skin. “Are you feeling prickles?”
More than that. Worse than that. “I haven’t made a cut in a few days.”
“It won’t tell us anything.”
“It could tell us if we’ll survive.”
Tess gave her a long look. “No, I don’t think it will this time.”
Simon led Captain Burke and Agent O’Sullivan upstairs to HGR’s second floor. “Vlad is checking e-mails, so we’ll talk in the office where he can hear us. Unless we should wait for Lieutenant Montgomery?” He felt restless and didn’t want to wait. You could dig a den in the earth to escape a bad storm or hide from fire if you couldn’t outrun it. But you could drown in that same den if the storm brought a flood or if the packed earth collapsed and trapped you inside. Shifters like him weren’t the target of the storms, but they were going to get hit just the same.
“No, the lieutenant needs some time with his family,” Burke replied. “I’ll relay the information to him once he gets everyone settled in the duplex.”