They waited until Montgomery went across the hall.
“When do you want to meet the humans to tell them the rest?” Vlad asked.
“In an hour, if Captain Burke can get here by then. I want Nathan back here too,” Simon said.
“Tess needs to tend to her leg, but I will fetch Merri Lee, and she will help Nyx and me put Meg’s office back in order,” Henry said.
“As much as we can.” Nyx gave Simon a fanged smile. “The Elders ate all the Wolf cookies.”
He just sighed. What else was there to do?
After the rest of them went downstairs to deal with humans and sort out what needed to be done, Simon called the Pony Barn and felt relieved when he heard Meg’s voice.
“Simon? Is that you? Are you all right?”
“It’s me. I’m fine. Are you?”
“Yes. Something thought about entering the Pony Barn and . . . they laughed at us.”
They weren’t laughing at all of you. “They ate all the Wolf cookies in the sorting room too.”
“They . . . Well! Can you bite them for doing that?”
Even the thought made him want to hide under the desk. “No. But . . . they might have jumbled things up a bit when they were looking around. Henry, Nyx, and Merri Lee will straighten up the office, but I wanted you to know in case something wasn’t exactly right.”
“Then I’ll be prepared if something is different.” Meg didn’t say anything else for a moment. “I’ll check with Eamer’s Bakery and see when they can send more cookies.”
“You’re all right?” Her voice sounded tired.
“Jester, Sam, and I have been reading a Wolf Team story aloud for Skippy and the ponies. I’m the narrator and the human female who faints a lot.”
Meg sounded sour about that. Maybe he should invite some of the Wolf Team writers to spend a few days in the Courtyard. He’d bet a month’s worth of cookies that there wouldn’t be human females fainting in future stories if they did visit.
“Jester reads the parts of the bad humans and the Wolf Team leader, and we’re both helping Sam read the Wolf Team bits,” she continued. “We were just taking a break for drinks and snacks when you called.”
That explained her tired voice. “Stay there a couple more hours. Then I’ll pick you up and we can check out the Green Complex and the garden.”
“Okay. Do you need to talk to Jester? He says you probably already know what you need to.”
“I don’t need to talk to him, but I do have other calls to make.”
He hung up, wishing he could be reading the Wolf Team with her. But the sooner he dealt with the human things, the sooner he could take care of the things that really mattered to him.
“Henry?”
Henry stopped wiping off the table in the back room of the Liaison’s Office and considered the tone of Merri Lee’s voice. Not, Help, help, I’ve seen a mouse. More like, I made a rattlesnake angry. What should I do?
Dropping the rag on the table, he strode into the sorting room at the same time Nyx flowed in from the front room.
“What’s wrong?” Nyx said.
Merri Lee pointed at the two cards on the counter above the drawer that held Meg’s prophecy cards.
The first card was a beautifully rendered but terrifying representation of what Henry guessed was one of the Elders’ forms. Next was half a Wolf cookie. Last was a card that had a simple drawing of a smiley face.
“That is sooooo wrong,” Merri Lee said, shuddering.
“Yes, it is.” Henry picked up the cookie. “Leaving food on the counter will attract mice.”
She gave him a look that told him he’d missed the point.
“And the Elders shouldn’t have been playing with Meg’s cards.” Nyx opened the drawer and used the tip of her finger to nudge the cards inside. “It might interfere with her reading a prophecy.”
Now Merri Lee looked at Nyx. “I’m going outside for a minute to get some air.”
They watched her leave.
“She seems disturbed,” Henry said.
“Of course she is,” Nyx snapped. “Don’t you find that smiley-face card disturbing?”
Nathan watched the fog lift to reveal a blue summer sky.
<Nathan!>
<Marie?> If the Hawk was flying, did that mean it was safe to go out?
<Simon says you should come home now. The Elders have left the city.>
He howled out of happiness and scattered the humans who were clustered near the door as he dashed for Captain Burke’s den. The big human looked at him when he entered the room and shifted to pull on his clothes, but Burke kept talking on the phone.
“Looks like he got the news. If I’m delayed, I’ll let you know. Otherwise, expect us in an hour.” Burke hung up, walked to the doorway, and boomed, “We received the all clear. Go, go, go!”
Nathan watched the police officers moving out for their own kind of hunt.
Burke returned to his desk. “I’m expected at the Courtyard in an hour; I can give you a lift home.” Then he held out a piece of paper he’d taken from his desk. “What do you make of this?”
A message from the Shady Burke. Nathan read it, then handed it back with a shrug. “The humans weren’t going to hold any part of the wild country for long.”
“It’s the phrase ‘about to get some weather’ that interests me. Did we get some weather, Nathan?”
The question had a bit of Foxgard slyness. “We had wind, lots of rain.” Not to mention Namid’s teeth and claws roaming the streets.
“Have you ever seen a human doing magic tricks?” Burke dipped his hand into his pocket, took out a quarter, and held it up for Nathan to see. “Like making coins disappear or pulling rabbits out of a hat?”
When he was a juvenile, he had seen a magic act. He’d wanted to find a bunny-filled hat like the magician’s, but all the trading post had was a hat made of bunny fur. “That was a trick? The hat didn’t really hold a bunny?” How disappointing, but not unexpected from humans.
“Getting hungry?” Burke asked dryly.
“Yes.” Hopefully the humans hadn’t eaten all the meat in the Courtyard. He was bound to have work to do for the pack, and he wouldn’t have time to chase down a meal.
Burke moved his hands and the quarter disappeared. “Sleight of hand. Distracting the attention from one thing by drawing attention to something else.” Burke turned his hand and revealed the coin again. “We didn’t get anything like the weather that’s heading for Cel-Romano, did we?”
“Ask Simon. He might know.”
“Yes, most likely, he does know.” Burke looked at the quarter. “He has said more than once that the terra indigene learn from other predators. He wasn’t just talking about hunting techniques, was he?”
It didn’t sound like a question that needed an answer, so Nathan said nothing.
Burke pocketed the coin. “Well, I expect Commissioner Wallace wants to yell at me for being an alarmist and a pain in his ass, not to mention holding an entire police station hostage—more or less.” He walked to his office door.
Simon was the Courtyard’s leader and would tell the humans what he wanted them to know. But Nathan felt he should say something to Burke about keeping the police pack denned.
“Captain? You’re not an alarmist.”
Burke looked back at him and smiled tightly. “I know.”
CHAPTER 51
Earthday, Sumor 1
“. . .Major flooding in Toland, along with power outages and damage to roads and railways. In a bizarre twist to the storm, a severed head was found on the steps of one of the television stations. It is rumored to be the head of Nicholas Scratch, the motivational speaker for the Humans First and Last movement. It is also rumored that Scratch had taken a ship bound for Cel-Romano before the hurricane reached the Northeast Region of Thaisia. Initial examination by police medical officers confirm there are signs that Scratch had been in salt water at some point, but they refused to comment about whether the head had been severed by tools or teeth.”