River looked away from Hawk to her grandfather. His breathing was ragged, and sweat soaked his clothing. She moved over to a bucket of water, wet a rag, and wiped his brow carefully.
“I know the rules,” she said. “No adults can be Ghosts. I didn’t want to leave him alone, but I didn’t want to leave the Ghosts, either. I didn’t know what to do. I went back to check on him when I could, but sometimes I couldn’t even find him. Sometimes I thought he was dead. He wasn’t, but I thought so. It was okay until now. It was a little like having him live next door. I could still go see him. I could pretend he was still a part of my family.”
“You should have told me, River,” Hawk said softly. “You should have told someone.”
She shook her head, her lips compressing into a tight line. “No adults, you said. Only kids could be members of our family. Ever.”
The words felt like a condemnation. He had said it because he blamed adults for so much, said it because he didn’t want the Ghosts ever to be dependent on adults again, said it to keep them from even thinking that adults had a place in their life. It was easy to say it when they were all orphans and street kids and there wasn’t any real family left and no one wanted anything to do with them anyway.
“I found him two days ago, lying in his bed here in the shed. He’d been well for three years, but the sickness has returned, same as before. I still didn’t know what to do.” She looked at him, her eyes solemn and depthless. “What if he dies?”
“We won’t let him die,” Hawk said at once, even knowing it was a promise he could not keep.
“In a way, he already has,” she whispered. Tears ran down her cheeks, and she wiped them away quickly.
“I said no adults in the Ghosts, but I didn’t say we wouldn’t ever help an adult if one needed it. I didn’t say that.” He tried to think of what to tell her. “River, remember when I went down to the docks maybe a week ago? I went down to speak to your grandfather about the dead Lizard, to see if maybe he knew something. You know what he did? He asked me to take him with us when we left the city. Like he knew we were going.” He hesitated. “I told him I would.”
She stared. “You did? You said that? Did you mean it?”
Did he? He couldn’t remember for sure. He thought about the way the Weatherman had asked him, almost as if it was an afterthought, a throwaway. He lifted one eyebrow at River. “Sure, I meant it. I was thinking, though. Maybe, somewhere deep inside, he still knows who you are. Otherwise, why would he have asked to go with us?”
She seemed doubtful, but didn’t disagree. “Can we give him some medicine?”
He nodded. “But we have to ask Owl what to do for him. Maybe one of her books will tell us what sort of sickness this is and how to treat it. She knows a lot. Let’s go ask her.”
But River shook her head. “You go, Hawk. I don’t want to leave him all alone.”
Hawk considered arguing the matter, then decided against it.
Instead, he reached into his pocket and handed her one of the precious viper-pricks. He left his prod leaning against the shed wall as he moved to the doorway.
“I’ll be back as soon as I can,” he promised. He gave her grandfather a final glance as he went out. The old man looked like a bundle of sticks lying beneath the thin blanket. “It will be all right,” he said.
But in his heart he felt that maybe it wouldn’t.
*
WHEN HE GOT back to the underground, he told Owl what he had discovered about River and the Weatherman. Owl did not recognize the form of plague that the old man had contracted, but she began searching her medical books immediately to see if she could find a sickness that matched what he was describing. He watched her from across the room, absorbed in her work. They had medicines for some plagues, he thought. Or they could get others from Tessa, just as they had done for Persia.
Thinking of Persia, he was reminded that Panther had not yet returned.
Leaving Owl to her reading and Cheney to his nap, he went back up the stairs and outside into the streets to wait. Soon Panther reappeared with Chalk and Fixit, his dark face radiating anger that Hawk could detect from fifty feet away.
“What happened?” he asked as the other came up to.
“Didn’t nothin’ happen, Bird-Man. We got there like we was supposed to, stood around waiting for those *cats to appear, and no one showed. We waited more than an hour ‘cause I knew you’d say we didn’t wait long enough otherwise.
Whole thing was a frickin’ waste of time.”
Hawk blinked. Tiger wouldn’t have missed this meeting unless he physically couldn’t come. Even then, he would have sent one of the others.
Persia was too important to him. He would do anything to protect her.
Something was wrong.
“Wait here while I get Cheney,” he said. “We’re going back out.”
Chapter TWENTY-ONE