Simon nodded. He waited until she was out of earshot before turning back to Steve. “You had a feeling?”
“No, not that kind of feeling,” Steve replied. “But Dr. Lorenzo is on that task force regarding the cassandra sangue. He may not be able to have regular office hours, so you should consider having someone else working in the Courtyard’s medical office. Emily is interested.”
“Not many humans to look after.”
“I thought she could split her time between the Courtyard and this community. And she doesn’t have to treat humans exclusively.”
“We have our own bodywalkers.”
“Yes, you do. But it wouldn’t hurt for the terra indigene to become familiar with human healing. To learn simple things, like how one of our healers takes a person’s temperature, or uses a stethoscope to listen to heart and lungs, or measures blood pressure.”
He couldn’t see the harm in any of those things, especially now that he needed to consider how much human the terra indigene wanted to keep. “I’ll think about it.”
<Simon?> Nathan called. <Meg is getting itchy.>
“It’s time,” he told Steve. “Go on up. We’ll be there in a minute.” He fixed his gaze on Michael Debany, then walked away, expecting the human to follow.
“Problem?” Michael asked.
“Merri Lee is your mate. Why was she holding Meg’s hand?” He hadn’t known he’d felt angry, or even threatened, until he heard himself snarl the words.
Michael blinked, swayed a bit, but didn’t actually take a step back. “It’s a girl thing. Friendship. Comfort. Nonverbal communication.”
Simon narrowed his eyes. “You’re not female, and you hold Merri Lee’s hand. That’s friendship?”
Michael smiled. “That’s friendship. But with me and Merri, it’s also romance.”
Romance. Something to think about. But right now, there was something else he needed to know.
Hurrying to join the rest of the terra indigene and humans assembled, Simon focused on Meg.
“I wanted you to see this place as it is now,” he said. “And then I’d like you to tell us what you see as its future. We need to know what we can do here. Can you tell us, Meg?”
“It would be like what we did the last time you made a controlled cut,” Merri Lee said. “You had focused on the Courtyard that time.”
Meg nodded. Then she twisted her arm to reach a spot on her back. “I can’t make the cut.”
“I can,” Emily Faire said. “And I brought a first-aid kit with me.”
Meg pulled the razor out of her pocket. After a moment’s hesitation, she handed it to Emily before sitting on the blanket, her legs loosely crossed to avoid pulling the skin on the knee that was still tender. After another hesitation, she pulled off her top. The bra adequately covered her breasts, but the thin straps didn’t hide much of her back.
Simon heard Emily Faire suck in a breath. So did Steve Ferryman. Merri Lee and Ruthie paled as they looked at the scars already on Meg’s back.
A thousand cuts. Someone had figured out that was all a cassandra sangue had before the cut that would kill her.
He refused to count Meg’s scars.
After Meg explained how to make the cut, and Emily located the exact spot where the skin prickled with prophecy, and Merri Lee indicated she was ready with her notebook and pen, Simon went down on one knee and looked into Meg’s eyes.