But what if something bad happened, something her warning would have stopped?
What if the something was actually a good thing?
“I think something is going to happen tonight,” Meg said.
Simon took a bite of his sandwich and studied her as she raised her leg and rubbed the calf, trying to relieve the prickles.
“Blair and I will go back to the Market Square and keep watch,” he finally said. “Nothing bad will happen to the Sierra and her pups.”
The prickles faded. Her words had been vague but, apparently, they had been enough. Or had the prickles faded because Simon promised to keep watch?
What did that mean for herself, for the other blood prophets, if a vague warning sometimes could be enough because someone really listened?
Simon picked up her sandwich and held it in front of her mouth. “If you’re going to bite something, bite this.”
She did. And because her teeth scraped one of his fingers when she bit down, she had to hold her own sandwich for the rest of the meal.
? ? ?
In Wolf form, Simon trotted back to the Market Square. Allison Owlgard, Vlad, Blair, and Elliot were already in position to watch the Sierra’s apartment and the area around the building. If Meg hadn’t been itchy, none of them would have been out there watching a human they didn’t like.
The Wolves had been keenly aware of the odd silence filling the Market Square since the Sierra had challenged him. Did the Elders understand that firing her was a human way of asserting his dominance as the leader of the Courtyard? Maybe he should tell them to make sure they understood this kind of dominance since they might see it in other places where humans lived.
<Anything?> he asked when he joined Blair and Elliot in the shadows of the customer parking lot.
<Montgomery is still awake and sitting on the porch,> Blair reported. <Vlad said the Sierra is awake too. That Cyrus and his mate haven’t left their den this evening. A little while ago, they were either fighting or mating—he couldn’t tell which—but there are no sounds coming from them now.>
<Simon?>
<Jester?> The Coyote was supposed to be at the Green Complex, asleep in his own den.
<The girls at the lake want to know why you asked Nyx to watch over Meg tonight.>
A breeze suddenly ruffled his fur. Blair and Elliot looked at him in surprise.
<I promised Meg we would watch the Sierra tonight, but she was itchy earlier and I didn’t want her to be alone,> he told Jester.
<Ah. I can sleep on Meg’s porch.>
With all the windows open to let in the cooler night air, Jester would be able to hear if Meg got up in the night—or opened a dresser drawer. He would alert Nyx, if she didn’t understand the significance of that sound. <Thanks.>
Nothing else to do, so Simon and the others settled down to keep watch.
? ? ?
Shortly after daybreak, before most of the humans were awake, a taxi pulled up in front of the stone apartment building.
The Wolves and the Sanguinati watched the Sierra carry luggage to the curb, watched the taxi driver quietly load the carryalls into the trunk. They watched her lead her pups to the taxi and tuck them in the backseat. They watched her return to the building just long enough to close the outer door very quietly.
They watched the taxi drive away.
<Can you follow her, find out where she goes?> Simon asked Air when she ruffled his fur.
<Why?>
<So I can tell Meg what happened to the Sierra. So she knows why she was itchy.> And to tell Montgomery and Miss Twyla, but that wouldn’t be important to the Elementals.
<I will follow.>
Lights were on in Nadine’s den. In a few minutes, she would come over to A Little Bite to start her baking.
Kowalski stepped out on the top porch of the two-family house across the street, yawning and rubbing his head but looking around in a way that made Simon think the human wasn’t as sleepy as he appeared. Had Kowalski heard the taxi and come out to investigate? Or did he do this every morning?
Kowalski spotted the Wolves who were watching him and froze. After a moment, he raised a hand in greeting.
Simon raised a front paw in acknowledgment but didn’t add a friendly arroo. No reason to wake up everyone yet.
Vlad, in smoke form, flowed across Crowfield Avenue and joined the Wolves.
<Montgomery is awake,> he said.
Quiet voices in Miss Twyla’s efficiency apartment. Simon eased to the edge of the parking lot and cocked his head. Radio. Maybe television. Ah. Weather report. As if a human knew more about weather than the girls at the lake.
Time to go home and catch a quick nap. He had a feeling there would be a lot of howling from the humans today.
Dear Douglas,
Here in Brittania, it’s business as usual, which, for us humans, feels surreal. Fishing boats go out and bring back a catch. Hunters trade some goods in order to enter the wild country and bring back a deer or two to sell at market. While we aren’t receiving the same quantities of foodstuffs from Thaisia, ships are coming in to our harbors with needed cargo, the manifest carrying both the signature and seal of the harbormaster overseeing the point of origin as well as the signature of the terra indigene assigned to approve any shipment of food. We’re even receiving shipments from the human territories in Afrikah and Felidae, as well as merchandise from Tokhar-Chin. No one mentions Cel-Romano. It’s like there is a big hole in the world that we’re all working around as it fills in and takes a different shape.
Some Cel-Romano refugees have made it to coastal villages on the continent—human places that were established in the wild country outside the Alliance of Nations and have been allowed to exist for generations. The refugees call the war the Destruction of Cel-Romano and the Alliance of Nations. The Others I’ve talked to call it the Thwarted Human Invasion of the Wild Country. A truth seen through different eyes. The invaders were not only stopped; they were hamstrung so that they will have no time for anything but survival.