Henry looked at Simon and nodded. After a moment, so did Tess and Vlad. Elliot wasn’t part of the Business Association, but he would have to deal with Lakeside’s government. When the Wolf nodded, Simon focused on Pete and Eve. “Yes, let’s talk.”
* * *
After agreeing with what Pete and Eve needed to do next in order to purchase the buildings, Simon walked them to the Market Square, where they collected their children and then drove away. When he returned to HGR, he wasn’t surprised that Vlad, Tess, and Henry followed him up to the office, but he hadn’t expected Blair Wolfgard to slip in behind them.
“You can tell me about this later,” Blair said. “I just wanted to let you know that Nathan is on his way home and wants me to pick them up at the train station this afternoon.”
“Them?” Simon said. Human ears just didn’t prick properly to show interest. “Nathan found a mate?”
Blair hesitated. “Didn’t sound like it. But he is bringing someone with him.” The Courtyard’s primary enforcer walked out of the office, closing the door behind him.
“Is it wise to become so entangled with humans?” Henry asked.
“Our terra indigene ancestors allowed some humans to settle in Thaisia. Were they wise?” Simon countered. “Maybe not. But they made that choice, and we have to find a way to live with the humans who are here now.”
“They have to find a way to live with us,” Tess said. “While some pieces of the world belong to humans, Thaisia was, is, and always will belong to the terra indigene.”
“I agree,” Henry said. “And it is the humans who are trying to live with us who are under discussion.”
“So what choice are we making for Lakeside?” Vlad asked.
“Balance,” Simon said. “Talulah Falls has been reclaimed, and the terra indigene are now in control of that town. They allowed the tourists who survived the reclaiming to leave. They also allowed the students who were attending the university to leave. But they’re holding the adults who live in Talulah Falls responsible for the explosion that killed several Crows and for the insane human who killed one of the Sanguinati. Those people are working, and living, in fear.”
“You could say that most humans in Thaisia are living in fear, except those who live in the largest cities and are willfully blind to the truth of what it means to be a human living on terra indigene land,” Vlad said.
“This is different. There has never been so much anger toward humans that we held some captive.” He saw the small, uneasy movements they all made. The terra indigene killed humans as meat or killed them as enemies or rival predators. They destroyed cities when humans became too much of a threat. But they had never held humans captive within a town before the troubles in Talulah Falls.
Simon rubbed the back of his neck, trying to ease tight muscles. How human was too human? There was always a risk of absorbing too much of a form. Is that what happened to the Others who accepted the task of controlling Talulah Falls? Had they absorbed too much human behavior?
They’re behaving with those humans the way the Controller behaved with Meg and the other blood prophets.
He shook his head, as if that would shake out the thought before it had a chance to burrow. “The Wolves, Crows, and all the other earth natives who live in Courtyards are the buffer between humans and the rest of the terra indigene. The humans who are being branded Wolf lovers are a buffer between us and the rest of the humans.”
“There aren’t that many of them, so it’s not much of a buffer,” Tess said.
“But those who are trying to work with us are being driven out of their dens,” Simon said. “If we don’t help them, someone else will offer them what they need for themselves and the young they’ll have. Someone else will offer food and shelter and give those humans a reason to feel loyalty.”