The staff’s focus was on Crow Boy once they determined that the girls weren’t showing any signs of shock. They hooked him up to IV and monitors. A security guard appeared and swept them with a metal detector and collected the Swiss Army knife, to Louise’s dismay.
After several intense minutes, they were left alone as various trauma nurses conferred on the other side of the curtain. They spoke in a fast mix of medical terms and possible legal ramifications. In addition to being children without parental permission for medical treatment, the nurses were debating the wording of the treaty with the elves.
“But we really don’t know if they’re elves or not,” one nurse complained.
Another one answered with, “We have to assume that their baseline might not be normal to humans and work from there.”
In the examining area’s bright light, Louise could also see Crow Boy clearly for the first time. He eyed their surroundings with confusion. He’d been suffering from shock from pain and blood loss; he hadn’t been fully conscious through the whole discussion of where to go and arriving at the hospital. Despite the fact he was much taller than them, he looked only three or four years older. The idea that he was a ninth grader triggered a memory and she realized why he looked so familiar.
“What?” Jillian asked in Elvish. “You just got a ‘oh my god’ look on your face.”
“We’ve met Crow Boy before,” Louise whispered. “The day after the explosion, he was at the—” Elvish didn’t have a word for museum and she didn’t want to use any English around the hospital staff. “He was at the gift shop with the girls who were going to buy that snow ball.”
“Snow ball?” Jillian clearly wasn’t following.
“The snow thing.” Louise mimed shaking the snow globe. There might have been a word for “globe” in Elvish but she didn’t know it. “Tianlong Hao.”
“Oh! Yeah, he was there with all the kids.”
They turned to look at him.
“But he didn’t have wings then,” Jillian pointed out.
No, he hadn’t.
“I-I-I remember you now.” Crow Boy spoke in fluent Elvish. He frowned at the twins. “You were with a beautiful woman and you had your dog with you. I couldn’t figure out how you got the robot past security.”
They both squeaked with surprise.
“But where were your wings?” Jillian asked.
“I can dismiss them—if there’s magic. On Earth, we need to pass as human.”
“Were all those other kids tengu too?”
“Yes, I was escorting them to Pittsburgh. We’ve been sneaking our people to Elfhome where they could live free of the oni. We started within days of the first Startup, before even the oni realized the opportunity that Pittsburgh gave them. Years and years, carefully moving our entire race across three worlds. And then everything came crumbling down this spring. Shiroikage’s spy ferreted out where the yamabushi had hidden the Chosen line.”
Shiroikage was what Crow Boy called Yves. By “spy” did he mean Tristan? The half-elf had said he’d been bird-watching in California before coming to New York. “Clever crows,” Tristan had complained. Had Tristan really been searching for tengu? “In Pasadena?”
“Yes. We thought we could hide them among the masses in Los Angeles. I was guarding Keiko and Mickey as they attended school. I managed to get them to safety, but their parents…” He took a deep breath as if he was fighting off tears. “You should go. Leave me.”
That was what Tristan was doing? Or did he not know what happened after he found the tengu? Louise wanted to believe that Ming kept the slaughter from the half-elf. That Tristan was innocent by way of ignorance.
The curtain rustled back to admit a tall man in blue scrubs, ending all conversation. According to the ID badge clipped to his shirt pocket, he was Dr. Stefan Harmeling. He had a black afro cropped short into stubs, dark brown skin and tattoos tracing up his arms. “Jesus santisimo,” he whispered. He cautiously canted to the side so he could eye Crow Boy’s back. “Wings. Now I’ve seen everything.”
The children jumped slightly when the curtain rustled opened again. It was only a nurse joining the doctor in the area.
“It’s okay. No one is going to harm you.” Doctor Harmeling smiled reassuringly and cautiously closed the distance between him and Crow Boy. “Let’s take a look at you and see how badly you’re hurt.”
Crow Boy scowled at him and then focused back on the twins. “Do you have someplace safe to go? You should leave now. Protect yourself.”