CHAPTER 23
Watersday, Maius 12
“‘The terra indigene demanded full disclosure of the whereabouts of these so-called blood prophets, publicly exposing already troubled girls who, according to medical experts, require the quiet life of private institutions. And once these institutions admitted to having some of these troubled children, the Others removed the girls from sheltered environments and took them to undisclosed locations. Everyone willing to stand up for human rights and human dignity should insist that the government in every village, town, city, and region in Thaisia demand the same full disclosure from the terra indigene that they demanded of us. If the Others truly mean these girls no harm, let us see them, let us know they’re safe. And let humans take care of humans without fear of reprisal.’
“Nicholas Scratch’s speech was heard by a standing-room-only crowd at an HFL fund-raiser in Toland. Closer to home, Mayor Franklin Rogers told reporters that he would assist Governor Patrick Hannigan in creating a medical task force for the Northeast Region. The task force will be charged with inspecting all facilities that care for at-risk girls who have life-threatening addictions.”
“Turn that off,” Burke said as he drove up Main Street toward the Courtyard.
Monty turned off the radio. “So-called blood prophets. Do you think someone like Nicholas Scratch doesn’t know about the existence of cassandra sangue and what those girls can do?”
“The Cel-Romano Alliance of Nations has developed an airplane—a new form of transportation that gives humans an expansive look at the land around them. The Humans First and Last movement bursts onto the scene in Thaisia, coming over from Cel-Romano. A speaker for the movement arrives in Toland to spread the message that humans should come first, last, and everything in between when it comes to having the resources available in this world. Drugs show up in various human communities and either render the user completely passive or so aggressively violent that self-preservation isn’t a consideration. Is it a coincidence that all these things have happened in such a short time? I don’t think so. Developing an airplane would take months, even years. Now that there’s a machine that works, it would be time to put the other pieces in place. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that Scratch had had contact with the Controller or men like him. I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that the drug problems in Thaisia were tests of potential weapons. The last message I received from my cousin, Shady Burke, indicated that Cel-Romano still shows signs of preparing for war. Living in the human part of Brittania, he’s concerned that Cel-Romano’s leaders may decide that it’s too risky to fight the terra indigene and will attack other human-controlled parts of the world in order to acquire more land and resources.”
“And Brittania is the closest place.” Monty bobbed his head. “Either way, having some idea of what the future might look like and being able to adjust military plans could make the difference in winning or losing a battle.”
“Drugging troops to turn them berserk is also helpful when facing an enemy that humans have feared since our first encounter with the terra indigene.”
“Do you think the Others found all the blood prophets who were taken away from compounds and breeding farms?” Monty’s stomach did a slow roll as he considered the possibilities. The drugs gone over wolf and feel-good were made from the blood of cassandra sangue. Wouldn’t Cel-Romano leaders want to have the source nearby if troops needed to receive a dose just before battle?
Maybe that was something he should mention to Simon Wolfgard. Ships were the only way to cross the Atlantik. If the girls were being taken from Thaisia, they would have to travel by ship. And what eastern city had ships coming and going daily to ports in other parts of the world?
“You think the Toland police know where Scratch is staying?” Monty asked.
“I’d be surprised if they weren’t the ones providing protection,” Burke replied. “And if you’re looking for someone to stir up trouble, Scratch is a persuasive bastard. He’s got everyone so focused on what’s happened to the cassandra sangue over the past few days that no one is asking what had been happening to those girls for generations. As for this medical task force, the terra indigene might allow unknown doctors to go into the settlements where the girls are residing. Letting them leave is a whole different story.”
Monty watched a white car turn into the Courtyard’s Main Street entrance. “I think that’s Dominic Lorenzo’s car. Must be his morning to work in the Courtyard.” Or Meg Corbyn needed medical treatment and Lorenzo had been summoned.
Burke turned into the Courtyard and continued down the access way. Pulling into the employee parking lot, he parked in a space beside Lorenzo’s car.
“What brings you here this morning?” Burke asked as the three men walked toward the back door of Howling Good Reads.
“I need to talk to Simon Wolfgard about the medical task force,” Lorenzo replied.
“You’re not going to try to convince him that letting doctors into settlements tucked in the wild country is going to be beneficial?”
“May the gods help me, yes, I am.” Lorenzo looked uneasy. “As of this morning, I’m the task force for Lakeside and the surrounding area. I’m on paid leave from Lakeside Hospital in order to gather information and provide medical care for blood prophets. I’ve been given a grant from Lakeside’s government to hire one assistant. I’m hoping I’ll be allowed to make use of Ms. MacDonald’s administrative skills in exchange for sharing anything I learn with the Others. Right now, I’m one of four doctors covering the entire Northeast Region.”
“Couldn’t you decline the appointment?” Monty asked.
“I could have. I didn’t. Helping these girls will have an impact on everyone. And thanks to my exposure to the Others here, I have a little experience dealing with the terra indigene, which is something the other doctors can’t say.”
“At least you won’t spend half your time traveling across the whole region.”
“Not in the beginning, anyway. First we have to locate the girls, and I doubt we’ll be successful unless the terra indigene choose to help.” Lorenzo eyed Monty. “You okay?”
“Been better.” He hesitated, but there was a medical office in the Market Square, and Lorenzo was here. “After you talk to Wolfgard, I’d appreciate it if you could give my daughter a quick checkup.”
“Is she sick?”
When Monty hesitated, Burke said, “Lizzy’s mother was murdered in the Toland railway station yesterday. The girl boarded the train on her own to come to Lakeside to be with Lieutenant Montgomery.”
“Gods,” Lorenzo breathed. “Sure, I’ll take a look. The girl wasn’t injured?”
“No,” Monty said. Then he tipped his head toward HGR’s back door. “Doctor, you go ahead. I need a word with the captain.”
Burke raised his eyebrows and waited.
“Someone close to Elayne and Lizzy slipped a bag of jewels into a stuffed bear that was seldom out of Lizzy’s reach,” Monty said.
“Unless it was Elayne herself, the short list is her mother, her brother, Leo, and Nicholas Scratch,” Burke said.
“Using Boo Bear was a desperate choice or hasty one. Scratch strikes me as being smarter than that.”
“Maybe. But if Leo playing doctor with Boo Bear and Lizzy meant operations—opening seams and sewing them up again—then planting the jewels in the bear had been part of a plan all along, although I would guess that the jewels had been hidden somewhere else in the apartment most of the time.”
“It doesn’t explain where the jewels came from,” Monty said. “Elayne’s family is sufficiently well-to-do, but I don’t think they could afford that many jewels unless they liquidated all their assets.”
“Not an impossible action if her family is committed to the Humans First and Last movement and is willing to support it to that extent. The other possibility is the bag of jewels represents contributions from many families or supporters.” Burke opened HGR’s back door. “And you’re forgetting the third possibility—that the jewels were stolen and Scratch or Leo Borden is involved.”
Instead of going forward, Monty rocked back a step. Despite the years he and Elayne lived together, and despite being in the same city, he’d never gotten to know her family. There was a coolness whenever he made an appearance at a family gathering that had kept him at a distance. Could he say with any certainty that her family wasn’t involved in stealing jewels?
“If the jewels were stolen . . .” Monty swallowed hard.
“Using Lizzy as a courier would have made Elayne the fall guy if something went wrong—especially if the investigating officer didn’t want anyone looking at Nicholas Scratch or other members of HFL. But Scratch hadn’t anticipated Elayne throwing him out for sleeping with another woman, and he hadn’t expected her to run.”
“Thaisday night, when I called Elayne, someone answered the phone. Just heavy breathing. I thought she was messing with me.”
“Someone could have been sent to retrieve the jewels,” Burke said grimly.
“If Elayne and Lizzy had been home . . .” Monty couldn’t finish the thought. “Would the Toland police tell us if any jewels had been stolen recently?”
Burke gave him that fierce-friendly smile. “The police aren’t the only ones who have an information network. And we know people who know people, don’t we?” He walked into HGR, leaving Monty to follow.
On busy days, HGR had had more humans in the store than there were right now, but they hadn’t been gathered around the counter wanting to talk to him.
“What?” Simon growled, eyeing Burke, Montgomery, and Lorenzo.
He decided to take the same approach as he’d take with vultures covering a kill: scatter them.
He pointed at Monty. “Meg asked the girls at the lake if the Lizzy could see the ponies, so Meg, the Lizzy, and Nathan have gone to the Pony Barn and should be back soon.” He pointed at Dominic Lorenzo. “Merri Lee, Ruthie, and Theral are at the Liaison’s Office, watching for deliveries and making notes to add to The Blood Prophets Guide. If you want to talk to them, I’ll have Henry go over with you.”
“That’s fine,” Lorenzo said. “I would appreciate any information. But I did want to talk to you about the task force that’s now responsible for ascertaining the mental and physical well-being of blood prophets in Lakeside and the surrounding areas.”
Stay human, Simon told himself. Tess had finally calmed down enough that she wanted to talk to him. It wouldn’t help anyone if he damaged the one doctor he was willing to have around Meg.
Besides, Vlad had just slipped into the front part of the store.
“I don’t think the task force will have a problem around here as long as you are the doctor making these visits,” Vlad said with a smile that showed a warning fang. “I think we can arrange for you to visit Great Island and talk to the people who are taking care of the blood prophets. Then you can assure the humans who didn’t care a week ago that the girls are being looked after properly. Make your report about their physical and mental condition. Just remember that it would be very unhealthy if the girls’ location ever showed up in a report.”
“One of the things I’ve been asked to decide is if a girl is an alleged blood prophet or a girl with other problems that manifested as some kind of self-harm,” Lorenzo said. “I’d like to talk to Meg Corbyn and get any insights she can offer.”
“Steve Ferryman might have someone who can provide you with some insights,” Vlad said.
A few weeks ago, a man named Phineas Jones had tried to reach Great Island to find girls who might be cassandra sangue. He had been an enemy. The Controller was dead, and so was Phineas Jones, but other men running compounds could have sent other humans to find the girls.
Simon realized the humans had been watching this silent exchange, knowing something was being discussed. “If the woman who came to Ferryman’s Landing is acceptable to us, then you can talk to her.”
He didn’t think Lorenzo liked having decisions made for him, but an Intuit who hadn’t lived in one of their communities might understand outside better than individuals who had been accepted for their abilities their whole lives. And that was the person Lorenzo should see.
The lattice door between A Little Bite and Howling Good Reads opened. Tess gave no sign of noticing the cloth Simon had used to cover the lattice. Her wildly curling hair had streaks of brown, green, red, and black, as if she didn’t quite know how she felt.
Since he suspected her hair had been the death color an hour ago, Simon took all the other colors as a good sign that the rest of the Courtyard most likely would survive.
“When you’re done talking with each other, there’s something I want the four of you to see,” Tess said, looking at Vlad, Montgomery, Burke, and finally Simon. Then she retreated into the coffee shop.
“I’ll go over to the Liaison’s Office now, if that’s all right with you,” Lorenzo said. He looked at Montgomery. “If I finish up there before your daughter returns from visiting the ponies, you can find me in the medical office.”
Montgomery nodded.
“That takes care of the doctor,” Simon said. “Now what do you two want?”
Burke turned to Vlad. “We would appreciate a little more information from your kinsmen in Toland.”
“Ah.” Vlad looked at Monty. “We’ve heard nothing more about the death of your former mate.”
“I’m wondering if they’ve heard anything about stolen jewels or jewelry,” Burke said.
“Wouldn’t the Toland police have heard about such things? Why can’t they tell you?”
“The Toland police captain I talked to doesn’t like me, so I doubt he’ll tell me anything,” Burke replied. “Unlike the police captain, I don’t think the Sanguinati have any interest in the jewels that were found in Boo Bear. That makes them an unbiased source of information.”
Simon studied Burke. The police captain thought the Others would be more honest than his own kind? What did the Sanguinati think about the police in Toland?
“I’ll give Stavros a call and see what he or Tolya has heard,” Vlad said.
“I’d like to stay in the efficiency apartment with Lizzy one more night, if that’s all right with you,” Montgomery said.
“We set one apartment aside for the police, so you can stay,” Simon said. When the humans didn’t speak, he added, “Shall we find out what Tess wants to show us?”
He walked into A Little Bite. Vlad and the two policemen followed him.
Tess stood behind the glass display case, her hair now solid red coils. Angry again. But why?
He glanced at the food in the display case—the pastries, cookies, sandwiches, and other items that were delivered that morning. When he leaned down for a closer look, he understood, and shared, Tess’s anger.
Spoiled. All of it. Mold on the bread. Dried-out or moldy cheese in the sandwiches. Even with the lesser human sense of smell and the glass between him and the food, he could scent meat going bad.
“Is something wrong with your refrigeration system?” Burke asked.
“No,” Tess replied in a rough voice. “Something is wrong with the humans in this city.”
The bakery they had been dealing with had stopped making deliveries a few weeks ago. Trying to give the humans another chance before informing the mayor that the agreements between humans and terra indigene had been broken, Tess had contacted another bakery in Lakeside that provided the kinds of foods she sold in A Little Bite.
“This is what I was given this morning,” Tess said. “It was packaged in a way that I couldn’t see the rot, so I paid the invoice in cash, as required.” She came around to the front of the display case and jabbed a finger toward the food. “Would you eat that? Would you feed that to your child?”
“No,” Montgomery said.
“We’re not open to humans who aren’t connected to the Courtyard anymore,” Simon said.
“That’s not the point,” Tess snapped. “That was never the point. The agreements with the city are clear enough: we are entitled to anything available to humans. If they can buy it, so can we.”
“And if we can’t, neither can they,” Simon said.
“Are a few pastries and sandwiches that important?” Montgomery asked, sounding alarmed.
Simon looked around. “This coffee shop was modeled on the ones humans use. It provides the same beverages and foods. Most of those shops don’t bake their own products; they buy them from bakeries. So we did the same in order to understand why such a place would have any value. When the bakeries all close tomorrow because the agreements with the terra indigene were violated twice with regard to supplying food for the coffee shop, how important will the lack of those pastries and sandwiches be to the humans who go into those coffee shops?”
“I’m not sure the government will tell the bakeries to close or require the police to enforce those closings,” Burke said, sounding as wary as a coyote who’d just caught the scent of a grizzly.
“You won’t have to enforce anything,” Tess said. “The Elementals can take care of closing the bakeries. I’m sure Fire would oblige once I show her what the monkeys sent us as food for Meg and the other girls.”
Simon blinked. Ask one of the Elementals to burn all the bakeries in the city? That seemed . . . harsh. Better to burn down the troublesome ones, especially the one that sold Tess rotten food to give to Meg.
Burke and Montgomery looked shocked—and sufficiently afraid.
Vlad smiled. “Or, rather than burning down all the bakeries, we can redirect the food grown in terra indigene settlements and offer it only to human businesses that will honor the agreements they make with us. That would cut the food supply coming into this city.” He looked at Simon. “Perhaps we can build our own little bakery and hire someone to make what we need.”
“Steve Ferryman said the bakeries in Ferryman’s Landing would sell to us,” Simon said. “And we will need to adjust supply allotments for Ferryman’s Landing anyway to accommodate the Wolf cookies they’re already making. Redirecting the food is more practical than burning down buildings.” But he would give some thought to asking Fire to visit that one bakery.
“Would you be willing to try one more Lakeside bakery?” Montgomery asked. “There’s a place on Market Street that I frequent. I’ll talk to the owner and see if she would be interested in supplying items for your coffee shop.”
Simon hesitated. None of the Courtyard’s stores were going to be open to the general public anymore, but the coffee shop would still be a useful learning experience for the terra indigene who didn’t have access to such a place—or a chance to interact with humans like Meg’s pack.
“All right,” he said. “One more. If that doesn’t work, we’ll give our business to Ferryman’s Landing—and give them the extra supplies as well.”
“We’ll do that now,” Burke said. “The lieutenant needs to stop by his apartment and check his mail anyway.”
“I’ll tell Jester that Meg and the Lizzy should come back now,” Simon told Montgomery. “You can wait for her at the medical office.”
“Do you mind if I take a quick look around the bookstore?” Burke asked.
“Go ahead.” He watched the men go through the archway before turning to Tess. “What?”
“Even if that food had been good, I wouldn’t have placed another order with that bakery,” Tess said.
“Why?” Vlad asked.
Black threads appeared in her hair. “Because Jake Crowgard noticed an HFL decal on the delivery van’s back window.”
ТЕЛЕГРАМКанал с обзорами, анонсами новинок и книжными подборками
Книжный Вестник
Бот для удобного поиска и скачивания книг
Книжный Бот
Свежие любовные романы в удобных форматах
Любовные романы
О психологии, саморазвитии и личностном росте
Саморазвитие
Детективы и триллеры, все новинки
Детективы
Фантастика и фэнтези, все новинки
Фантастика
ВКОНТАКТЕ