Vision In Silver

He’d rather eat fresh deer than fresh bread, but Meg should have bread whenever she wanted it.

Eve pulled a piece of paper out of her purse and handed it to Simon. “Anyway, that’s what Mrs. Tremaine would like for her house, but she wants to relocate soon to be with her son, so she’ll take any reasonable offer.”

Simon walked to the windows and studied the buildings across the street. he said to the other terra indigene.

Henry said.

He turned. “You. Handyman Eve. Could you live in that house?”

“The two-family? Sure,” Eve said. “Needs a little work, but nothing I couldn’t do. Of course . . .” She looked at Pete. “I doubt we could afford to rent a place that size. Not right now.”

“You wouldn’t pay rent. You would be the manager who took care of the buildings for us.”

Pete and Eve looked like a pony had kicked them in the head. He wished they didn’t look that way. He’d feel better about the plan that was taking shape if he was confident that their brains would keep working.

“You’re offering me a job as your property manager?” Eve finally said.

“Yes. And Pete could be our attorney when we have to deal with human matters.”

That came from Tess, Elliot, and Vlad. But not, he noted, from Henry.

“We will buy the buildings, and you will take care of them,” he said.

“What about tenants?” Pete asked. “Are you going to advertise that you have apartments for rent?”

He knew by the look in their eyes that he no longer passed for human.

“No,” he said. “We will choose who lives on our land.”

Pete blew out a breath. “In that case, let’s talk about what kind of offer you want to make for each building.”

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.”

“And the River Road Community?” Henry asked.

“I don’t want to lease any of that land to humans again, but having some humans living there along with terra indigene would give humans a reason to protect that land too.” He paused, then added, “And I’m going to increase the pay for all the humans who still work for us. They are all doing more work now, and different kinds of work. They should get more money.”

“You’re making a lot of decisions on your own,” Vlad said. “And you’re making a lot of changes very fast. Maybe too fast.”

“I am the leader,” Simon snarled. But Vlad did have a point. Once they had secured the River Road land and the human dens across from the Courtyard, everyone needed time to adjust to the changes. Including him.

A beat of silence before Vlad said, “Yes, you are the leader.” The Sanguinati glanced at the Grizzly.

“Floodwaters can trap you,” Henry said, looking troubled. “Sometimes there is a storm in the distance, and it looks too far away to matter until the water comes raging through your own territory, sweeping away what you thought was safe.”

Simon nodded. “A storm in the distance, but we’re starting to feel it here. Things between humans and Others have changed in the past few months. The Controller was making drugs from the blood of cassandra sangue. The fights between humans and Others that were caused by those drugs were the start of the floodwaters. Now humans are talking about being entitled to land, to water, to wood, to whatever they want. And there is that group calling itself the Humans First and Last movement goading humans into doing things that will turn the terra indigene against them. And bread is becoming a luxury. Why?”

“Maybe that’s something you should ask Meg the next time she makes a controlled cut,” Tess said.

Simon and Vlad snarled at her.

Her hair immediately turned red with black threads and began coiling. “Be careful, vampire,” she warned, looking at Vlad.

“Yes, the next cut should be a controlled cut,” Henry said. Though he spoke quietly, his rumbling voice drowned out the snarls. “It was different from the ones our Meg made when she was upset. It didn’t strain her body like the other cuts did.”

“How could you tell?” Vlad asked.

Henry smiled. “The weather has warmed enough that she opened the window in the sorting room when she started her work. I could hear her singing.” He thought for a moment. “Well, it was a happy sound anyway.”

“Fine,” Tess said, the black threads fading from her hair. “Humans aren’t the enemy anymore.”

“Oh, most of them are still enemies and meat,” Simon said. “But I think this plan will help us identify the few who aren’t.”