If that happened, everyone would be picking through the garbage for anything still usable.
The pins-and-needles feeling filled her arms so suddenly, she dropped her carry bag and purse in order to scrub at her skin through all the layers of clothes. That prickling under her skin used to happen just before she was cut for a prophecy. Now that she was living in the Courtyard, it happened a lot. Sometimes it was a light prickling that went away after a minute. Sometimes it acted like a detector, easing or disappearing altogether when she went into a different room or stepped away from a particular person.
And sometimes the pins-and-needles feeling became a painful buzz that told her something was going to happen. And the only way to find out was to cut her skin to see the visions and speak the prophecy.
She stood outside waiting to see if the feeling would fade or intensify.
Then she heard the Crows cawing nearby. Jenni and her sisters, heading out to …
She cried out as the prickling became the painful buzz.
“Meg?”
She looked up and saw Vlad leaning out the open window of HGR’s upstairs business office. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Nathan racing around the corner of the Liaison’s Office.
“Meg?” Smoke flowed out of HGR’s window and down the side of the building. Vlad in his other form.
Meg closed her eyes, doing her best to ignore Vlad, who was now flowing toward her, and the Wolf who was crowding her.
In another moment or two, they would both shift to human form and demand to know what was wrong. Before she could tell them, she had to figure out what was wrong.
She’d been thinking about garbage, so she began recalling every training image that was related to garbage or collecting garbage or the containers for garbage and recycling. Something about metal garbage cans buried in snow or shiny in the sun? No. The black, wheeled totes like they had in the Courtyard? No, but … Garbage truck. The clang of cans, the sound of the brakes or hydraulics or whatever it was that made that distinctive sound you could hear a block away. Feathers and blood in the snow and …
“Jenni!” Meg screamed. When Vlad, now in human form, grabbed her arms, she grabbed fistfuls of his black turtleneck. “That was the sound. In the dream. The garbage trucks. That was the sound. The Crows have to stay away from the garbage cans, the trucks, all of it. If they go near them, they’ll die, Vlad. They’ll die!”
She jolted as Nathan suddenly howled. Moments later, he was answered from the Utilities Complex, from the Wolfgard Complex, from wherever the Wolves were taking care of business in the Courtyard.
“I’ll deal with this,” Vlad said. “Can you get into the office by yourself?”
“Yes, I—”
“No cutting, Meg. Promise you won’t use the razor. Promise.”
“I promise. For now.”
Not good enough. She saw that in his dark eyes even before he pointed at Nathan and said, “Don’t let her out of your sight.” Then Vlad ran to A Little Bite’s back door. Moments after that, she saw a Hawk flying away from the Courtyard and realized Vlad must have sent Julia Hawkgard to find Jenni.
Nathan bumped his head against her hip. When she didn’t move, he clamped his teeth on the sleeve of her coat and started pulling her toward the office.
“All right, all right, let me get my purse,” she said. “We can’t get inside without keys.”
He let her go but didn’t stop crowding her until she had unlocked the back door and they were both inside. Even then he stayed close enough to grab an arm or leg if she did anything he considered suspicious.
The prickling remained a torment as she unlocked the office’s front door and set up her clipboard for the day’s deliveries.
She’d given the warning. The prickling should be fading by now. The fact that it wasn’t fading made her wonder if the dream a few nights ago had been a real prophecy. After all, the skin that split along the curve of her nose hadn’t bled, and prophecies came from a cut that bled.
And she wondered if, by making that promise to Vlad not to cut her skin, the next warning would come too late.
After dropping Sam and some other pups at the Courtyard school, Simon drove toward HGR. When he heard the howling, he stopped the BOW and rolled down the window to listen as other Wolves took up the song. That first warning howl had come from the direction of the business district. Wasn’t likely to be John, so that left the Wolf on guard at the Liaison’s Office.
<Nathan?> he called.
<Meg warning! Meg warning!> Nathan howled. <Crows in danger!>
Simon shoved the door open and got out. Smarter to stay in the vehicle if he needed to move quickly, but he couldn’t stand being closed in until he understood what they were facing, especially since Wolves all over the Courtyard continued answering Nathan’s howl.
<An attack?> he asked.
Before Nathan could reply, Vlad cut in. <Meg says the Crowgard are in danger and have to return to the Courtyard now. But it’s collection day, and the damn Crows aren’t listening! I sent Julia after Jenni and her sisters.>
<How are they in danger?>
<Something about the garbage trucks.>
A chill went through Simon. The Crows who were killed in Walnut Grove had been picking around the garbage when the dogs attacked.
<Jenni!> he shouted. <Get back to the Courtyard now!>
<It’s collection day,> she replied in a greedy tone that said she would ignore him for as long as possible. <The humans on this street throw out a lot of good things. And Starr spotted some shiny in one of the cans at the curb.>
No, he thought. No. Every week the Crows checked out the neighborhood streets around the Courtyard to see what humans had left at the curb that might strike their fancy. Anyone planning an attack would know where to find them—and what to put out for bait.
Just like someone in Walnut Grove had known what to put out in order to attract the birds.
<Jenni …>
<And Crystal found a picture frame she can carry and Jake says there’s a box that might have pieces of the building set we—>
<Jenni!> Simon shouted. <Meg says you’re in danger! All the Crowgard are in danger! You promised to listen, Jenni. You promised!> She’d agreed to pay attention, which wasn’t the same thing. Right now, he was hoping she didn’t remember that.
<Our Meg says? But … shinies, Simon.>
<It’s bait.> And he was going to find out who had baited those trash cans. <Do you understand, Jenni? It’s a trap!> He swore silently and viciously. If he wasn’t getting through to Jenni, he wouldn’t get through to the rest of the Crowgard. So he’d stop trying to reason with them.
<I am the leader of this Courtyard,> he snarled, sending his words to every terra indigene within range. <And I say that any Crow who doesn’t return to the Courtyard in the next fifteen minutes will be driven out of Lakeside forever.>
<Simon!> Multiple cries now because the Crows knew he meant it. Give up the shinies and other treasures today, or be sent to terra indigene settlements in the wild country, where the pickings would be slim. And they knew him well enough to understand that he wouldn’t just ban them from Lakeside. If they disobeyed him, he would use his influence with every Courtyard leader in the Northeast Region to ban the Lakeside Crows from every human city in this part of Thaisia.
He didn’t respond to the arguments or pleas coming from various Crows. He got back in the BOW and drove as fast as he could to HGR. That’s where the Crows would expect to find him.