“There aren’t many entries in the book that are of interest to us, so I’ll just read those bits out loud,” Tess said.
“Diary,” Vlad said. “That kind of book is called a diary. Where did you get it?”
“I took it from Lieutenant Montgomery’s apartment. It was in a drawer with the Lizzy’s clothes, so it’s likely that this came with her—and after Nyx and I read it, we realized this was the reason someone is still after the girl.”
“The Lizzy is young,” Erebus said. “What could one so young write down that would have so many hunters on her trail?”
“The Lizzy didn’t write anything,” Tess replied. “Elayne Borden, on the other hand . . .”
<Read it,> Simon said, eyeing the diary as he would an angry rattlesnake.
Tess read the entries. When she finished, Simon waited to hear what the rest of them would say, but no one spoke . . . unless he counted Blair growling.
“This confirms what the terra indigene already figured out, but now humans in government should be told why their people won’t have enough food, why some possessions will be difficult to buy,” Henry finally said.
“You think the humans in government don’t already know?” Vlad sounded skeptical. “It’s the rest of the humans who need to know that, as far as the HFL movement is concerned, the humans who have first claim on food live in Cel-Romano, and the humans in Thaisia will get the scraps, if there are any. Hunger will push them into trying to take more land from the rest of Namid’s creatures.”
<I agree with revealing this to human governments,> Elliot said. <But how do we do that? How many copies of that diary can be made?>
“Most of what was written is personal,” Tess said. “I doubt it would be of interest to any human except Lieutenant Montgomery.”
“What is important to the terra indigene can be distilled into a couple of paragraphs that will confirm to our leaders which humans are responsible for the shortages of food and materials,” Vlad said. “That’s all human governments need to know too.”
<We should make two copies of the whole thing,> Elliot said. <Keep one copy for ourselves and give the other copy to the Toland Courtyard since they’ll have to deal with the part of the trouble that’s in their city.>
<It’s not our place to howl this information to humans everywhere in Thaisia,> Simon said. <That choice must be made by the terra indigene taking care of each region of our land. We make decisions for Lakeside.>
“We’ve been making decisions for a lot more than Lakeside lately,” Henry countered. “At the very least, the whole Northeast Region will abide by our decisions.”
<Well, if we’re making decisions for those who aren’t . . .> Simon stopped. Was Montgomery not quite their own, or was he part of the human pack now? <I think the original diary should be given to Lieutenant Montgomery. That Elayne died so that the Lizzy could escape the bad humans and bring the words to him.>
Silence as they all thought about this.
“Two copies of this diary will be sufficient,” Erebus said with a nod toward Elliot. “One for Lakeside and one for Toland. Vlad, when this meeting is finished, you will call Stavros. Tell him there are things he needs to know that cannot be discussed over the telephone.”
Vlad nodded. “I’ll call him and ask him to catch the next available train.”
<I still think we should tell more humans,> Elliot said.
<It doesn’t matter now how many humans know,> Simon said. <They lied to each other and tried to blame us in order to cause trouble. They deliberately did things so that their people will be hungry in the coming year in order to create more conflicts. Because of that, it’s the terra indigene in the wild country who will decide what happens next.>