Vision in Silver(123)

            Simon nodded. “If they’re willing.” He stood. “I’m going to check on Meg. Then I’ll pay the girls at the lake a visit.”

            “Tonight?” Tess asked.

            “Yes.” He looked at the three of them. “Will you be here?”

            Henry and Tess nodded. Vlad said, “I need to visit Grandfather Erebus, but I’ll wait until you get back.”

            He went upstairs and found Meg on the sofa, sound asleep, despite the television being tuned to the show she watched every Earthday. Crouching, he ran a hand over her fuzz of hair. She couldn’t growl about it if she didn’t know.

            Fairly sure she wouldn’t wake anytime soon, he stripped out of his clothes and shifted. Then he left her apartment and ran to the Elementals’ part of the Courtyard.

            Except for Winter and Autumn, who slept during the warmer seasons, all the girls were around the lake. They watched him approach. Air rustled the leaves in the trees. Water lapped the bank, flowing over Earth’s toes. Fire, Spring, and Summer sat a little farther away from the lake’s edge.

            “Is something wrong with our Meg?” Spring asked.

            <No. She had fun today. She’s looking forward to planting more seeds and tending what grows.>

            “No planting tomorrow,” Water said. “Rain is coming from our kin who live near Lake Superior.”

            “Since our Meg is happy, what does the Wolfgard want?” Fire asked.

            <I want your help. I think you and your kin can find answers to some questions.>





CHAPTER 33



The questions were the pebble dropped in a pond, and the ripples were whispered in the wind to the Elementals throughout the continent of Thaisia. They flowed through the Great Lakes and down the streams and rivers, and they were part of the rain. They became a scent in the earth that was picked up by more than the shifters and Sanguinati willing to reside near human settlements.

            That scent did not please the earth natives who lived in the most primal, and pristine, parts of the wild country.

            And when the ripples became surf, Ocean took the questions into herself and sent them far beyond Thaisia.





CHAPTER 34




Moonsday, Maius 14


“Simon, it’s Tess. Blair is driving me up to Nadine’s Bakery and Café. She said she can sell me some of what she has ready, but she would prefer we pick up the order before she opens for human customers.”

            Simon growled at the answering machine and continued to rub a towel over his hair. He’d heard the phone ringing when he got in the shower. The damn phone had done nothing but ring from the moment he’d turned on the water. But Tess could have used the terra indigene way of communicating to tell him she was leaving the Courtyard and chose not to, preventing him from voicing an opinion.

            “Simon, this is Steve Ferryman. Remember me telling you about the woman who showed up to work with the girls? I’d like to hire her if I can figure out how to stretch the village budget to pay her. Anyway, I’d like you to meet her. And I wanted to go over some things about the River Road Community. Any chance you could come up to Ferryman’s Landing today?”

            “How should I know?” he grumbled. “I’m not even dressed yet.” And if he didn’t get moving, Meg would growl at him for making her late for work—or leave without him.

            “Simon, this is Pete Denby. I need to talk to you about the two-family house you want to purchase. And I wanted to ask . . . do you have a spare desk and computer in one of the offices that I could use?”

            Humans. Couldn’t be satisfied with being considered not edible; they also wanted to talk to him. And talk. And talk.

            He took two steps away from the answering machine when the phone rang again.