*
Meg let Nathan out the back door of the Liaison’s Office and watched him hustle over to the back door of Howling Good Reads.
Reporting to Simon, naturally.
After closing the door, she went into the bathroom to wash her face.
Anger. Wariness. Distrust. She didn’t have any training images to identify emotions on a Wolf’s face, but she spent enough time around Nathan that she could interpret his expressions.
Had the cut been unnecessary? Everyone else thought so.
Meg turned on the taps, splashed water on her face, then remained bent over the sink.
The pins-and-needles feeling was irritating, often painful. But it was a kind of dowsing rod that had been evolving since she’d come to the Courtyard. So maybe if she had walked away . . .
No. No, no, no. There had been danger for someone at the Pony Barn. That painful buzz had been a warning about an enemy. . . .
Meg clenched her teeth against the sudden buzz that filled both her arms. She jerked upright and saw her face in the mirror above the sink.
The buzz faded.
Meg stared at her reflection.
“It was me,” she whispered. “I was the enemy.”
She took a step back from the sink, laid a hand over the bandage at her waist, and thought about what Merri Lee had said: And then Meg, the Trailblazer, should think about what you would want other blood prophets to learn from what happened today.
“No one else has the right to decide if or when we cut our skin, but if we don’t learn to interpret the warning signs that tell us if we really need to cut, we can become the enslavers as well as the enslaved. We can become our own enemy.”
That was the second lesson Meg, the Trailblazer, had learned today. The first lesson—the harder, more important lesson—was that she wasn’t the only one who was hurt when she cut.
*
Simon came around the desk when Nathan appeared in HGR’s office doorway.
“That didn’t take long.”
Nathan approached him slowly, reluctantly. Not typical behavior for the enforcer—unless he’d done something wrong.
Simon leaned over the other Wolf, but he didn’t have to lean far to catch the scent. “Why do you smell like Meg?” he demanded.
<She cried on me,> Nathan said. <I couldn’t understand most of what she said, but she cried until my fur was wet.> He sounded baffled and upset.
“I guess she feels bad about making a cut and scaring you. Scaring all of us.”
Nathan said nothing for a moment. Then, <There’s nothing in my fur, is there?>
Simon gave the other Wolf a careful look. “No boogers.”
<Good. I hate washing boogers out of fur.>
“Who doesn’t? What comes out of human noses is disgusting.” Simon sat on the floor, his back against the desk. Nathan sat next to him. “Do you want Blair to assign someone else as the watch Wolf for the Human Liaison’s Office?”
<No. Watching the humans is interesting, and I like Meg. But we need rules about the razor. Today . . . That was wrong. Meg was wrong, and the Lizzy was wrong. It wasn’t fair that I couldn’t nip either one of them when they both deserved it.>
“I know.” Simon closed his eyes and waited until he sensed the tension draining out of both of them. “Do you still think it’s a good idea to have some of the Addirondak Wolves visit the Courtyard? We’ve got humans doing work for us who don’t know how to behave, but we can’t attack them and drive them off like we would an enemy.”
<If it hadn’t pushed Meg into cutting, the Lizzy’s mistake would have been annoying but nothing more. And our pups make mistakes too.>
Of course, who could say how long it might have been before anyone discovered the jewels inside Boo Bear if Skippy and Sam hadn’t pulled off an arm and a leg? That had started some of the trouble. Then again, Burke and Montgomery wouldn’t have known why the Lizzy was in danger if the jewels hadn’t been found.
Simon climbed to his feet. “Go home. Go run. Tomorrow is Earthday, and we’ll pretend humans don’t exist.”
<Except Meg.>
“Except Meg.”
Nathan rose, shook out his fur, and left.
Simon shut down the computer, turned off the lights, and felt like a weight had lifted off him as he walked out of Howling Good Reads. He couldn’t shake off everything human. He wouldn’t shake off Meg, who waited for him at the back door of the Liaison’s Office, her eyes all puffy and skin all blotchy.
He ran a hand over her short black hair and gave her a scritch behind the ear.
“Simon?” she said in a small voice. “Can we go home?”
“Sure. Let me get the BOW.”
He found one of the bakery boxes in the back of the BOW. Since he didn’t think Meg had eaten much today, he welcomed Tess’s thoughtfulness.
As he backed the BOW out of the garage and waited for Meg to shut the garage door, he glanced toward the efficiency apartments, then shook his head.
He’d had enough. They’d all had enough. The Owlgard would keep watch tonight, but for the rest of this day, Lieutenant Montgomery would have to take care of the Lizzy on his own.
CHAPTER 29
Watersday, Maius 12
While Monty had been at his apartment dealing with the break-in, and Ruth Stuart had been watching Lizzy, his team had brought a mattress from one of the other efficiency apartments so that he wouldn’t have to spend another night in a sleeping bag on the hard floor. They’d brought enough food for him and Lizzy for the next couple of days. And someone had selected five movies that he hoped would be suitable for a seven-year-old human girl.
Distractions. Diversions. Care.
Monty sat in the stuffed chair and put his arms around Lizzy when she settled on his lap.
She looked at him with those big eyes. “I just wanted to ride a pony.”
Why was she so stuck on that? Of course, he wasn’t sure he could explain to a child how dangerous the ponies were when they shrugged off that harmless-looking form.
“Grandma Borden would have let me,” Lizzy said.
He knew what to say about that. “I don’t think Grandma Borden would have allowed you to ride a pony. She would have said they were smelly and you’d get dirty.”
But the woman might have raised a fuss because someone had denied her granddaughter, and denying a Borden anything was not acceptable. Fortunately, the family didn’t have the wealth or status to live up to their pretensions.
“And Grandma Twyla would have called you on being discourteous and making a fuss when Miss Meg had already told you the ponies were special and weren’t for riding.”
“But—”
“No, Lizzy.”
She pouted, and he noted the calculating look in her eyes, as if she was waiting to see what effect it would have.
Lizzy hadn’t done that a few months ago. She hadn’t been like that before he’d been transferred to Lakeside and had to leave her—had to leave both of them—because Elayne had refused to come with him.
But Elayne had been like that. Funny how he’d never allowed himself to see it. Oh, Elayne was far more subtle about it when she wanted to get her own way, but when the behavior was presented in a child’s broad strokes, he couldn’t deny that Lizzy was mimicking her mother.
Have to tell her, he thought. “Lizzy . . . You were very brave to ride the train by yourself and find me. Some bad people were looking for you and Mommy, and she did the right thing, having you ride the train without her.”
“Will Mommy be here soon?”
“No, baby.” Tears stung Monty’s eyes. “No. Mommy was hurt very badly and . . . she died. She can’t be with us anymore.”
Lizzy put her head on his shoulder. “Is Miss Meg going to die because I was bad?”
“No. Miss Meg will be fine in a couple of days.” How could he put this to her without scaring her too much? “One of the bad men followed you to Lakeside, so we need to stay in the Courtyard for a while.”
Her head came up. “What about Boo Bear?”
“He’s with Captain Burke. He’s helping the police with the investigation. He misses you, but he’s being very brave. Like you.”
She nodded, settling down again.
Did she understand? Maybe she understood as much as she could handle. Maybe it would be easier being in a place that held no reminders?
Gods, did he even have a photograph of Elayne so that Lizzy would have something?
“You’ll be safe in the Courtyard,” he said. “But staying here means brushing off your good manners and minding the grown-ups who are looking after you when I can’t be here.” He looked at her, his darling girl. “Do you know the difference between human police and Wolf police?”
“The Wolf police bite you if you’re bad?”
“Yes,” Monty said. “They bite you if you’re bad. Today you got off with what my captain would call a caution, meaning now you know you did a bad thing, so the next time . . .”
Lizzy clicked her teeth together to demonstrate biting.
Monty nodded. “That’s exactly right.”
“Daddy? I’m hungry.”
They ate sandwiches from Nadine’s Bakery & Café, then watched one of the movies. He wondered if whoever had chosen the movies had picked them because of viewing age or to show Lizzy a few truths about the beings who surrounded her. Whatever the reason, the story about the Wolf Team provided some sharp lessons for both of them.