Marked In Flesh

CHAPTER 25

Windsday, Juin 20

The Lakeside Wolfgard knew how to hunt deer together, and they knew how to fight together to defend the Courtyard, but they didn’t know much about hunting bison until they tried to round them up. After chasing one of the yearlings, the pack made it clear that this wasn’t an animal they wanted to hunt unless they were very hungry and had no other choice. In fact, the only Wolf who really wanted to chase bison was Skippy. The juvenile’s suicidal enthusiasm was one reason that Simon decided to send four of the bison to Talulah Falls as a gesture of friendship to the terra indigene currently living there.

Unlike the Wolves, who didn’t know how to hunt bison, the bison already knew how to defend themselves against Wolves. But they weren’t prepared for a Grizzly dressed in a T-shirt and jeans to jump toward them and roar, and when faced with a small tornado that trotted after them, they stopped fighting the Wolves’ efforts to herd them into the truck.

Tired and thirsty, Simon watched Jerry Sledgeman drive away with the bison. he said when Blair joined him.

Blair shook out his fur.

Simon sighed.

Simon headed for the Pony Barn, where Meg had watched the “roundup” from a safe place.

Blair said nothing for a moment.

He could accept for himself being hungry some days. But not Sam. Not Meg. Not the other terra indigene young who lived in the Courtyard.

Of course, hunger could drive out sense. But that was a maybe problem. Food of all kinds was growing in the Courtyard, and there was plenty of meat, even if things like pork and beef were in short supply until they received the next delivery from a terra indigene settlement that raised a few of those animals. And how the human pups drank milk! He’d run out of milk for Sam, and Meg didn’t have any either until the earth native truck made the next delivery. They couldn’t ask for more from their current sources, so they would all have to make do with a little less.

Except Sam and Meg.

Blair said.

He’d like to do that too, but he headed for Meg when she stepped out of the Pony Barn, and Blair went on without him.

“You must be hot,” Meg said, tunneling her fingers through his fur.

Yes, he was.

“Where is Blair going?”

This was one of Meg’s tricks: asking questions when he couldn’t answer because he was in Wolf form.

Jester Coyotegard stepped out of the barn, grinning. “He’s going for a swim.”

Meg looked at Simon. “Don’t you want to go for a swim?”

Of course he did. He was hot and his fur was dusty. He gave her a hopeful look.

“No. I’m not hot, and I don’t want to do the Squeaky Dance.”

Simon sighed. This day was full of disappointments.

“I’ll wait for you here,” Meg said.

“Which is convenient,” Jester added, “since your clothes are in the back of Meg’s BOW.”

Grumbling to himself, Simon trotted to the swimming hole. The cool water tasted good and felt even better. And since there weren’t any human females nearby to get all squeaky about it, when he’d paddled around enough as a Wolf, he shifted to his human form and enjoyed floating on his back while cool water played over sun-warmed skin.

Meg returned to the folding chair that Jester had set out for her. She picked up another deck of prophecy cards that she’d brought to show the Coyote. Then she sighed. “Simon really wanted to have bison.”

“Your seeing and his wanting made it happen.” Jester repositioned the other chair and sat beside her. “That brought the bison here, where they’ve done a lot of good. The terra indigene in Talulah Falls are talking to Ming Beargard and the Steve Ferryman because the bison meat is the first thing that has made them happy since they came to the Falls to control the humans. Henry, Elliot, Vlad, and Nyx have gone to Talulah Falls with Jerry Sledgeman to deliver the Courtyard’s bison, and the Steve Ferryman and Ming are going to join them there for a meeting with the terra indigene leaders and some humans.”

“How do you know who is going to be at that meeting?”

“I have my sources.” Jester winked at her. “I think Talulah Falls will be under new management soon. Isn’t that the phrase humans use? So you showed me the city deck, which isn’t so interesting, and the nature deck, which I liked. What’s that one?”

Stuck on the image of a sign saying UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT hanging over the road leading to Talulah Falls, it took Meg a moment to catch up to Jester’s change of subject. “This is a deck of fantastic drawings—imaginary creatures.”

Jester’s smile faltered. “Can I see the cards?”

She handed him the deck. “They’re just make-believe. I don’t know how the Intuits would read them, but I don’t think they’ll be useful to the cassandra sangue. Why would we speak prophecy about something that doesn’t exist?”

She thought about the cards of city skylines that she had put aside because she didn’t think they would be needed. And she watched Jester’s ears shift to Coyote, watched fur spring up on his neck and hands as he looked at the drawings. He let most of the cards fall into his lap, but a few he handed to her.

“Jester?”

“Who else knows about these cards?”

“I don’t know. I think Jesse Walker has the same decks that she sent to me.” Jester slanted a look at the cards in her hand. “Don’t tell anyone about those cards. You should keep them. Learn them. But don’t talk about them with anyone else.”

Meg studied the cards that upset Jester. The creatures walked upright, but that was all they had in common with humans. The cards weren’t intended to convey a blended form of terra indigene. Or if they were, she didn’t recognize the animals these creatures had absorbed.

Separated from the rest of the cards, the drawings frightened her—and made the backs of her legs prickle.

“Promise you won’t tell anyone about these,” Jester whispered. “Put them in with the nature cards and hope you never see any of them again.”

“But these are just something someone imagined.”

The prickle became a burn when Jester said, “Or remembered.”

She realized the Coyote was shaking. Her fingers tightened on the cards in her hands. “They’re make-believe.”

“No. They’re not.”