Stephanie reached into herself, wondering if this extraordinary calm she felt was Lionheart’s doing, but she didn’t think so. She could feel him there, watchful, attentive, ready to intervene if she needed him, but the treecat seemed to have learned that there were things she had to deal with without the comfort he so easily offered.
“I…Talk to me…I’m confused.”
“Me, too. What do you want me to talk about?”
“Is there something wrong with me? Are you still my friend? Is Jessica? I…I feel like the universe’s gone through a blender and everything is all different shapes. I guess I’m glad you were honest. I know I am, but I can’t…” She felt hot, fat tears running down her cheeks. “Just talk to me.”
He did. Slowly at first, then with greater detail. Eventually, she started talking, too. Back and forth, back and forth. He still thought she was great. So did Jessica. Both of them were torn up….
Was there a point when Lionheart intervened, letting Stephanie feel just how lost and confused Anders felt? She didn’t know, but throughout it all the ’cat stayed close, wrapping her within the fluffy length of his tail.
* * *
Climbs Quickly did not need to understand mouth noises to figure out the reason for the emotional storms he was caught between. The next day, when he and Death Fang’s Bane went to the two-legs’ gathering place and met with Windswept and Dirt Grubber, his friend filled him in on the details he could not gather from Death Fang’s Bane’s mind-glow.
After showing him how Swimmer’s Scourge had assaulted Windswept and Nimble Fingers, Dirt Grubber said, <I had been aware that both Windswept and Bleached Fur had feelings for each other beyond what they were admitting. I had no idea how matters would be resolved. I know that none of those involved are completely happy right now, and the two-legs are certainly very different from the People when it comes to knowing their own feelings, far less anyone else’s. But I cannot help feeling this will all be for the best in the end.>
Climbs Quickly chewed thoughtfully on the cluster stalk he had been served. Maybe it was just being home, but it tasted so much better than it had in the Hot Lands.
<At least Windswept and Death Fang’s Bane have not parted in anger. If they can weather this, I think their friendship will be stronger than before. Now, tell me more about what has happened between Trees Enfolding Clan and the Landless Clan. I knew even in the Hot Lands that Death Fang’s Bane was worried and the moving images she showed me told me that it was because of events among the People, but that was all I knew.>
As methodically as he would have set one of his gardens in place, Dirt Grubber began with the finding of the body he now knew to have been Red Cliff’s and his first sensing of Keen Eyes. He interwove what he had later learned from Keen Eyes and Nimble Fingers, so that by the time Climbs Quickly had taken it all in, he actually had a better understanding of events than had any of those who had been more immediately involved.
<I will certainly speak with Sings Truly about all of this,> Climbs Quickly said. <And she will just as certainly insist on helping. And Death Fang’s Bane took me to examine her flying thing last night, which is how she tells me when she intends to take me to visit Bright Water. I believe she wanted me to understand that we will fly there tomorrow.>
<I have already spoken with Brilliant Images,> Dirt Grubber said. <Windswept has wanted to avoid Bleached Fur—I think she wishes to understand her own feelings better before seeing him again—so we made a long visit to my clan, and I used the opportunity to arrange matters. Now we need to see if the two-legs will take action as we expect.>
<If they do not,> Climbs Quickly said with confidence, <then we will find a way to make them take action. But I do not think we will need to go that far. I cannot speak with Death Fang’s Bane as I can with a Person, but I can taste when she is planning and plotting. Even in her grief, those sensations are present.>
He reached for another piece of cluster stalk, expecting Death Fang’s Bane to take it from him because he had already eaten over a hand of them, but she remained intent on her conversation with Windswept. He could only hope that some of it was about starving People and not all about one young two-leg with bright hair.
* * *
“Jessica commed me,” Karl said when he picked Stephanie up for their meeting with Chief Ranger Shelton. “So you don’t have to tell me anything. She said she talked to you, too.”
“She did,” Stephanie agreed. “We had shakes at the Red Letter Café a couple of days ago. We decided not to let a guy get in the way of our friendship. I mean, she’s not to blame for Anders’ feelings changing.”
Karl sighed. “Steph, I’ve never really told you about Sumiko, have I?”
Stephanie blinked, startled by the change of subject. “Well, I know a few things. She lived with your family, right? Some things Irina’s said…I think she was your girlfriend. And she…she died in an accident.”
Karl nodded. “Those are the basics. But I’m going to tell you something no one else knows—no one, not my mom or my dad or anybody.”
From the thin trickle of emotion flowing into her through Lionheart, Stephanie could tell this was very important to Karl, so she didn’t say any of the usual things, “If you really want to” or “I don’t want to pry”—all those “kind” things people say when what they’re really saying is, “Don’t take me into your pain.”
“Go on. I’m listening.”
“Sumiko came to live with us after all her family died in the Plague. My folks legally adopted her. Sumi and I were pretty close in age. I was just a few months older. Since our families’ freeholds shared a border, we’d known each other all our lives. For a while, it was just like having another sister, but as we got older….”
He paused and made an unnecessary adjustment on the air car’s panel. Stephanie held her breath, not wanting to break the moment.
“I’m not sure who started thinking we’d get married when we got older. I think it started with adults joking around the way they do when they think kids are too young to really take them seriously. The thing is, we did take them seriously. We’d talk about it when we were alone. Whether we’d live in the house her family had built or build one of our own, stuff like that….”
Karl swallowed hard. “When I turned fifteen, Sumi started getting really serious. Maybe it’s because girls mature faster than guys or something. I don’t know. She wanted us to get engaged or at least betrothed. I wasn’t against it. I mean, marrying Sumiko was as much a part of my future life as going to Landing for college. But I did want to go to college, and I didn’t want to get married and start a family before I was done.”
“Oh…”
Karl rushed on. “On the day Sumi and I took the kids sledding, we’d been fighting. She’d been hinting that she thought I’d be giving her a betrothal ring for her fifteenth birthday. I just told her flat out I wasn’t, that I thought eighteen would be better—we’d both be legal adults then. It wouldn’t be kids’ games.
“Sumiko was furious with me, said what she felt wasn’t kids’ games, that she loved me, and if I didn’t love her enough to give her a stupid promise ring, then…”
Karl’s fists were clenched tight, but the words came rushing out. “Normally, we’d probably have figured out a way to go off on our own, cool off. Then we would’ve made up. But we’d promised the kids, and so, still really mad, we went out. Looking back, we probably shouldn’t have. The tree branches were heavy with snow and we weren’t too young to know conditions were dangerous. But, well, if we’d backed off, it would have been like one of us was giving ground.