Vlad read a couple of pages, then put the book on the cart. “Some of us might read it if you shelved it as a comedy.”
Simon eyed him, then looked at the book. “Or put it in with the cookbooks?”
“Too obvious what our interest in the breasts would be.”
Laughing, he handed half the lists to Vlad. “These are books our humans enjoy reading. I want to keep those authors in stock, as well as similar books. It seems Heather was the only one who was interested in straightforward kissy books, but the gaggle likes romance thrillers or adventures. For now, I’m keeping one of whatever we have in stock, kissy books and all, and removing the extra copies. Henry can take his pick for our library, and we’ll pass along the rest.”
“What are we going to do with the shelf space?”
“Add books written by terra indigene. Instead of a shelf tucked way in the back or an occasional display in the front of the store, we’ll sell the books next to their human counterparts.”
“Simon? Is turning the Lakeside Courtyard into a kind of academy really a good idea? Especially now?”
“When humans came to Thaisia and we made the first bargains long ago, their settlements were small, and it was easy to study them despite little actual contact beyond what was owed to us for use of the land. That’s the way it still is in most places. Even the Others who keep watch over the largest human cities only interact with a handful of humans, and then it’s a formal meeting, or it’s with the Human Liaison, and that interaction is formal too. They can hide things from us now.”
“Like the compounds that held, and still hold, the cassandra sangue?”
Simon nodded. “We knew about the blood prophets for as long as humans knew about them. Maybe longer. But they slipped out of sight because we didn’t concern ourselves when humans dealt with humans. For the most part, humans have kept the peace, but they’re an invasive species—a two-legged kudzu—and will take over as much land as they can if they aren’t held to the agreed-upon boundaries. Now trouble is stirring everywhere because of that Humans First and Last movement.”
“You think the answer is learning to become more human?”
Simon pulled a few more books off the shelves. “Not exactly. I think the answer is learning to recognize the enemy when it’s hiding within the herd. Once we do that, we can kill the enemy and keep ourselves, and Thaisia, safe.” He looked at Vlad. “We call them clever meat, so it’s easy to forget that the reason some of our ancestors learned this form was because the terra indigene recognized the first humans who came to Thaisia as a new kind of predator, something we needed to understand in order to remain dominant. Now we need to understand more in order to decide what kind of humans should be allowed to remain in Thaisia.” While earth natives like you and me still have some say in that decision, he added silently.
“I wonder how Lieutenant Montgomery would feel, or Kowalski or Debany for that matter, if they heard that.”
“There’s no reason for them to know, is there?”
“No reason at all.”
After Vlad went to the next group of shelves to pull books from his lists, Simon stared at the titles in front of him, seeing nothing.
He liked the humans who were interacting with the Courtyard. And he liked Steve Ferryman and the other Intuits he’d met at Ferryman’s Landing. But lately he’d come to realize that words could be a weapon as devastating as a gun, and that was something most of the Others didn’t understand yet. The terra indigene hadn’t continued to learn enough from humans because so much of what humans wanted held no interest for them.
Vlad returned, his hands full of books. “Simon, do you want to keep these?”