“Which will teach me not to leave the room just before a vote is about to be taken by the village council.” Steve gave them all an easy smile. “Welcome to Great Island and Ferryman’s Landing. As you can guess by the name, my family has been working the river since my ancestors came to this part of the Great Lakes. And this is Ming Beargard and Flash Foxgard. They’re a couple of the island’s peacekeepers. Since Mr. Wolfgard indicated on the phone that you all wanted to talk about the police on the island, I asked Ming and Flash to join us. I also reserved one of the rooms in the government building for us.”
Steve waved a hand. A moment later, an open carriage pulled by a horse arrived at the dock. “One of our village taxis.”
“We’ll meet you there,” Ming said, indicating himself and Flash. “Henry? Want to stretch your legs?” When Henry agreed, he and the Great Island earth natives strode off.
Monty and Burke climbed into the forward-facing seat. Simon and Steve took the seat behind the driver, whom Steve introduced as Jerry Sledgeman. As soon as they were seated, Jerry clucked to the horse and the carriage headed away from the dock.
“You don’t have cars?” Monty asked.
“Sure we do. But we don’t use them much around the village proper,” Steve replied.
“We have a regular taxi and a small bus for village stops,” Jerry said over his shoulder. “And there’s the bus that makes a couple of runs out to the Simple Life folks and the terra indigene complexes each day. It also provides special transportation to the island’s athletic and community centers. “
“Since each half of the village is only a few blocks in any direction, those of us who are young enough and fit enough tend to use our own feet to get around,” Steve said. “Or we ride bicycles in the summer. Jerry just put away the sleighs that are part of our winter transportation.”
This half of Ferryman’s Landing was almost identical to the business district on the other side of the river. Most of the same businesses and stores. Monty had the impression this side was a little bigger, had a little more of everything—which made him wonder if the island residents were cut off from the mainland by weather for parts of the year.
“Government building is exactly that,” Steve said when Jerry pulled up in front of a long, two-story stone building. “Police and court, what there is of it, on one end. General government in the middle. Post office on the other end.”
“That’s handy,” Burke said politely.
“It is,” Steve agreed. “Especially since the post office is the part of the building that gets the most use.”
When they walked into the building, Ming, Flash, and Henry were waiting for them. They went upstairs to a room that had a Reserved sign hanging from a hook on the wooden door. Steve removed that sign and replaced it with a Do Not Disturb sign that he took from a rack on the wall.
When they were all seated around a table, Steve looked at Simon and said, “It’s your meeting.”
“You heard what happened in Jerzy?” Simon asked.
“Everyone has heard what happened in Jerzy,” Ming growled. “We received your warning about the sickness and the signs to watch for if it comes to the island.”
“That’s good,” Simon said.
Something’s not right between them, Monty thought as he studied Simon and Steve.
“A policeman in Jerzy who came to the aid of the Crowgard has to relocate,” Simon said.
“Everyone in Jerzy has to relocate,” Steve countered. “At least, that’s what we heard on the news.”
“This policeman is known to Captain Burke, who says the man would like to relocate here.”
“Is this policeman who wants to live here one of us?” Steve asked softly.
“No,” Simon replied.
Steve tipped his head to indicate Burke. “Does he know what we are?”
“He knows you are Intuit. I don’t think he truly appreciates what that means.”
Steve studied Burke, then looked at Simon. “Can he be trusted?”
“These two can be trusted,” Simon said.
Monty released the breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding.
Steve sat back and gave Burke a sharp smile. “We were persecuted by your kind of humans, driven out of the settlements we helped build when we weren’t killed outright. Many generations ago, we fled into the wild country to make our own bargains with the terra indigene and build our own communities. We attend your universities and technical colleges for the knowledge, and we risk working for some of your companies for a few years in order to acquire experience and necessary skills that we bring back to our own people. But for the most part, we have kept ourselves apart from you in order to survive. That is still a prudent choice. So, you see, having a non-Intuit human living among us would be … unprecedented.”
“You have the Simple Life folk living on the island,” Burke countered. “How is that different from someone living among you in the village?”
“Simple Life is a chosen way of life,” Steve replied. “It doesn’t fit with your cities, but it does mesh fairly well with our little villages. The Simple Life folk tolerate our ways, and we tolerate theirs. And the terra indigene tolerate the presence of all of us.”
“You earn your place here,” Ming said.
To Monty, that sounded like high praise coming from a terra indigene Bear.
“In Brittania, where my ancestors hail from, I believe your ability would be called second sight,” Burke said to Steve. “A knowing that can’t be explained. Would that be accurate?”
“Close enough,” Steve said.
“Prophecy?” Monty asked.
“No.”
The forceful denial startled Monty. But it seemed to confirm something for Simon Wolfgard, who tensed.
“Intuits don’t have visions; we don’t see images of the future,” Steve said, sounding a bit too insistent. “We just get a feeling for good or ill when something is happening around us.”
“And now?” Simon asked. “What are you feeling now?”
Wolf and Intuit stared at each other.
Then Steve looked at Burke and Monty. After a moment, he said, “I have a feeling that there’s a storm coming, and maybe it would be good to have an official police officer living among us, even if he isn’t one of us.” A hesitation. “Intuits make use of technology, but we’ve also made choices that keep us in harmony with the terra indigene. Those aren’t choices most humans want to make. Would this policeman be easy with that? With us?”
“I think Roger would be able to adjust,” Burke said carefully.
Steve sat back. “Does this Roger know how to ride a horse?”
“I don’t know. Will he need to?”
“It would be handy. What about sports?”
“He played hockey when he was in school.”
“Baseball? Volleyball? Anything like that?”
“I don’t know.”
“He’s supposed to be a police officer, not fill vacancies in your sports teams,” Henry said.
“No reason he can’t do both,” Steve replied. He exchanged a look with Ming and Flash, then nodded. “All right. We won’t be able to pay him much, but we’ll give Roger a chance to make a place for himself here.”
“Thank you,” Burke said. “If there is anything I can do to help, let me know.”
“Some suggestions for how to purchase an official police car would be helpful. We don’t have one.” Smiling, Steve pushed back from the table.
Simon gave the table three sharp taps.
Steve settled back in his chair, his smile fading. “Why don’t you take a look around the village? Mr. Wolfgard and I will catch up to you.”
Monty and Burke followed Henry and Ming out of the room, with Flash bringing up the rear. He looked back as Flash closed the door—and he wondered why seeing Steve and Simon lean toward each other made him uneasy.
“When you sent word the other day, saying you were coming to the island, I wondered if you wanted to get away from the Courtyard for a couple of days,” Steve said. “Coming here would be a good choice. It’s close but not your responsibility. And you’re not opposed to our way of life, which is more than can be said for the Talulah Falls Courtyard.”