Crowbones

CHAPTER 77

Julian

Moonsday, Novembros 5

With Grimshaw in the passenger seat and both of them in need of coffee and breakfast, Julian drove away from the Mill Creek Cabins and Richard Cardosa, the remaining academic, who looked more like a sheep penned for slaughter than an educated man.

Considering everything that had happened lately, it wasn’t a harsh comparison.

When he reached the intersection that would take him to The Jumble if he turned right or Sproing if he kept going straight, Julian pulled onto the shoulder of the road and put the car in park.

“You forget something?” Grimshaw asked.

“No.”

“You want to check on Vicki before driving me to the station?”

He did, but he wasn’t sure it would do any good. After Michael’s call to tell him something had produced a reaction in Vicki that was violent enough to make her ill, he’d called and tried to talk to her, but all she’d given him were evasions and nonsense. He’d thought they were getting closer. Now he wasn’t sure.

The back door opened. Ilya slid in, closed the door, and looked at both of them. “Victoria was not forthcoming about the cause of her distress.”

“Yeah, we got put off too,” Grimshaw said.

“However, she called Natasha, asking her to tell me to call the Lakeside Courtyard.”

Julian twisted in his seat in order to see Ilya better. So did Grimshaw.

“I spoke to Vlad,” Ilya continued. “Apparently, Meg Corbyn called Victoria just before the blood prophet made a cut. Only Victoria knows the words of prophecy that were spoken.”

“And whatever was said is the reason Vicki wouldn’t say anything to any of us?” Grimshaw asked. “Because there was something in the prophecy about us?”

Ilya ignored the question. “Apparently Simon Wolfgard’s reaction to finding Meg is the reason for Victoria’s panic attack.”

“I can imagine how he’d react,” Julian said softly. He could easily imagine how Vicki had reacted to that male anger and distress if any of it was directed at her, even over the phone.

Ilya hesitated, then seemed to gather himself. “Nicolai Sanguinati is here.”

Grimshaw frowned. “You have a friend staying at Silence Lodge?”

“Not exactly. Nicolai was living in Bennett, a town near the Elder Hills, and was supposed to go to Lakeside. He ended up here. There is some speculation that he was directed here by a vision drawing.”

“Crap.”

Meg Corbyn was using cards for prophecy, at least most of the time. That meant . . . “Another blood prophet aimed this Nicolai toward Lake Silence?” Julian asked.

“Yes,” Ilya said. “A girl whose visions are quite accurate, regardless of how she reveals them.”

“Gods above and below,” Grimshaw muttered. “What is going on?”

“I don’t know.” Ilya opened the back door and stepped out. “But we need some answers soon.”

Yeah, they did need that.

When Julian and Grimshaw were once more heading for Sproing, Grimshaw said, “Did you notice how our Sanguinati friend didn’t confirm or deny that we were mentioned in that prophecy?”

“I noticed.” For him the real question was this: Was Vicki’s evasion about the prophecy because she was afraid of the men she had called friends a day ago, or was she afraid for them?