“Crops were lost in the Midwest,” Pete said. “At least, that’s what the news reports are saying.”
“The Elementals weren’t interested in farmland. The enemy wasn’t hiding in the fields. They struck what they intended to strike.”
Another look exchanged around the table.
Pete leaned forward. “They’re saying we’ve lost a lot of our surplus crops because of damaged silos. We’ve lost feed for animals, and some livestock has died because of it. There’s talk of shortages of flour and grains for cereals.”
“The ration book had coupons that allowed a family to buy a dozen eggs per month at a fixed price,” Kowalski said. “When my mom went to buy eggs the other day, the same coupon is now for half a dozen eggs for the same price.”
“I heard bakeries will get dibs on ingredients like flour and sugar in order to stay in business, and everyone else will only be able to buy a pound bag of each per month, if it’s available,” Debany said. “That means families won’t be able to bake their own bread or make biscuits.”
“A bakery down the street from us told Theral each household needs to register with certain businesses to guarantee the availability of some items. Anyone registered with that bakery will be guaranteed one loaf of bread each week,” MacDonald said.
Debany nodded. “Doesn’t mean everyone who registers will be able to afford to buy a loaf a week in six months’ time.”
Monty listened, becoming more and more uneasy. Had all of this escalated in the past couple of days while he was focused on Lizzy’s arrival and Elayne’s death?
Simon seemed to be wondering the same thing. “That doesn’t answer the question. Last year, there was enough food. Why isn’t there enough this year? The terra indigene haven’t reclaimed that much land, and what needs to be grown is still being grown.”
Pete Denby shook his head thoughtfully. “I haven’t heard of any infestations that would account for lost crops.”
“There has been one,” Vlad said. “The Humans First and Last movement.”
Simon nodded. “We hadn’t caught any scent of them last year. This year, they’re howling everywhere about everything.”
“Maybe we should pay more attention to what they’re saying,” Tess suggested as her hair turned green and began to curl.
“Maybe we should,” Simon agreed.
Monty suddenly had the feeling his team really wanted an excuse to leave. He looked hard at Kowalski. “What aren’t you saying?” It wasn’t a good question to ask, not with the Courtyard’s leaders present, but information was also a crop to be tended.
Kowalski winced. “I’ve been hearing from other officers that some of the butcher shops and bakeries will display an HFL decal. Customers who want limited items will not only have to register at a particular shop; they’ll have to show their HFL membership card.”
“And if they don’t have a membership card?”
“I don’t think nonmembers will be welcome. Or safe.”
Something to tell the captain in the morning, assuming Burke didn’t know about it already.
Simon, Vlad, Henry, and Tess looked eerily calm.
Then Simon shifted in his chair. “Enough. It’s time to rest.”
“I’ll second that,” Pete Denby said.
They agreed to let Tess store the remaining food and bring it to A Little Bite in the morning, since most of the humans would be working around the Courtyard anyway. Kowalski, Debany, and MacDonald headed out together, and their voices mingled with those of the women who were still sitting outside.
After bidding the Others good night, Monty and Pete walked over to the social room to fetch their children.
“They say the eye of the storm is the safest place to be,” Monty said.
“Is that where we are?” Pete asked. “The eye of the storm?”
“Maybe. We’re going to be able to feed our families, and that’s not something everyone will be able to say.”
“You think the Others are responsible for the shortages?”
“No. And that’s a worry, because if it’s not them . . .”
“Then it’s us,” Pete finished.
Monty pushed aside the grim feelings, but he didn’t need to put on a smile for his little girl. The children, and Jester, were sprawled on furniture, sound asleep. Only Theral was still awake, and she gave them a distracted wave before turning her attention back to the Wolf Team movie.
“Almost over,” Theral whispered.
Jester jerked upright at the sound of her voice and blinked at Monty and Pete. With a grunt, he scrubbed at his hair and sat back when Theral hissed a warning for him to be quiet before he had a chance to speak.
So they all stayed quiet.
Not a human-made movie, Monty thought as he watched the Wolf Team’s successful attack and rescue—and listened to Pete suck in a breath as the Wolves dealt with the bad humans.
“Are there more of these movies?” Theral asked, turning down the volume as the credits began to roll.
“A few,” Jester said. “You might have to put your name on a list at Music and Movies since the Wolf Team is very popular. There are books about them too.”
Nodding, Theral stood and stretched. Then she yawned. “Is Lawrence ready to go home?”
“I think he forgot you were up here and is looking for you,” Monty said, smiling. He picked up Lizzy, then waited for Pete to pick up Sarah and shake Robert awake enough to have the boy follow him back to the car.
As they walked outside with the children, Monty glanced toward the summer room. No light, so he couldn’t be sure Simon Wolfgard was still in there. But the Others wouldn’t need a light.
“Where’s Meg?” he asked.
“She went up.” Merri Lee tipped her head to indicate Meg’s apartment. “She’s tuckered out. So am I.”
They piled into the cars they’d left in the visitors’ spaces across the road from the Green Complex. Kowalski and Ruth dropped off Merri Lee and Debany, as well as Monty and Lizzy.
Bidding them all good night, Monty climbed the stairs and went to the efficiency apartment he was using. He woke Lizzy sufficiently for her to use the toilet and put on pajamas. As he tucked her in, he wondered how long Merri Lee and Debany would stay outside, and if Merri Lee would come in alone.
* * *
No need for a candle or lamp. The terra indigene saw quite well in the dark.
“What do you want to do?” Vlad asked quietly.
“We’ve never concerned ourselves with the human ships that travel on the Great Lakes or what those ships bring to the port here,” Simon replied. “Our supplies from other regions are brought in on earth native or Intuit ships. Humans will notice if we start sniffing around their ships now.”
“A few of the Sanguinati who live in the Courtyard often hunt around the docks. They might know something they didn’t think would be of interest to Grandfather.”
“Ask them. But there’s one form of terra indigene who can find out more.”
“If they’re willing,” Henry said.
Simon nodded. “If they’re willing.” He stood. “I’m going to check on Meg. Then I’ll pay the girls at the lake a visit.”
“Tonight?” Tess asked.
“Yes.” He looked at the three of them. “Will you be here?”
Henry and Tess nodded. Vlad said, “I need to visit Grandfather Erebus, but I’ll wait until you get back.”
He went upstairs and found Meg on the sofa, sound asleep, despite the television being tuned to the show she watched every Earthday. Crouching, he ran a hand over her fuzz of hair. She couldn’t growl about it if she didn’t know.
Fairly sure she wouldn’t wake anytime soon, he stripped out of his clothes and shifted. Then he left her apartment and ran to the Elementals’ part of the Courtyard.
Except for Winter and Autu
mn, who slept during the warmer seasons, all the girls were around the lake. They watched him approach. Air rustled the leaves in the trees. Water lapped the bank, flowing over Earth’s toes. Fire, Spring, and Summer sat a little farther away from the lake’s edge.
“Is something wrong with our Meg?” Spring asked.
“No planting tomorrow,” Water said. “Rain is coming from our kin who live near Lake Superior.”
“Since our Meg is happy, what does the Wolfgard want?” Fire asked.
CHAPTER 33
The questions were the pebble dropped in a pond, and the ripples were whispered in the wind to the Elementals throughout the continent of Thaisia. They flowed through the Great Lakes and down the streams and rivers, and they were part of the rain. They became a scent in the earth that was picked up by more than the shifters and Sanguinati willing to reside near human settlements.
That scent did not please the earth natives who lived in the most primal, and pristine, parts of the wild country.
And when the ripples became surf, Ocean took the questions into herself and sent them far beyond Thaisia.
CHAPTER 34
Moonsday, Maius 14
“Simon, it’s Tess. Blair is driving me up to Nadine’s Bakery and Café. She said she can sell me some of what she has ready, but she would prefer we pick up the order before she opens for human customers.”
Simon growled at the answering machine and continued to rub a towel over his hair. He’d heard the phone ringing when he got in the shower. The damn phone had done nothing but ring from the moment he’d turned on the water. But Tess could have used the terra indigene way of communicating to tell him she was leaving the Courtyard and chose not to, preventing him from voicing an opinion.
“Simon, this is Steve Ferryman. Remember me telling you about the woman who showed up to work with the girls? I’d like to hire her if I can figure out how to stretch the village budget to pay her. Anyway, I’d like you to meet her. And I wanted to go over some things about the River Road Community. Any chance you could come up to Ferryman’s Landing today?”
“How should I know?” he grumbled. “I’m not even dressed yet.” And if he didn’t get moving, Meg would growl at him for making her late for work—or leave without him.
“Simon, this is Pete Denby. I need to talk to you about the two-family house you want to purchase. And I wanted to ask . . . do you have a spare desk and computer in one of the offices that I could use?”
Humans. Couldn’t be satisfied with being considered not edible; they also wanted to talk to him. And talk. And talk.
He took two steps away from the answering machine when the phone rang again.
Pouncing on the phone, he picked up the receiver and snarled, “What?”
“Arroo!”
“Sam?”
“Uncle Simon! The Wolf pups are going on a field trip with Miss Ruth!”
Simon blinked. “You’re going on a trip to see a field?”
Sam laughed. “No. We’re going to visit Howling Good Reads and learn how to buy a book!” A pause. “Can I stay with Meg after the field trip? Nathan gets to stay with her.”
“Nathan’s the watch Wolf.” Since the Lizzy was still in the efficiency apartment with Montgomery, he’d have to check and make sure Nathan was going to be in the office with Meg. The enforcer was still upset with the Lizzy for misbehaving and causing so much trouble on Watersday.
“Uncle Simon?”
“Okay, sure. But don’t whine if Meg doesn’t have time to play with you.”
“See you later!” Sam hung up.
Simon put the phone down and ran up to his bedroom to get dressed. Then he let himself into Meg’s apartment through her kitchen door and found her with her hands braced on the table.
“Meg?” He hurried over to her.
She blinked at him. “I am so sore. Even my butt muscles are sore. I didn’t do anything with them. Why are they sore?”
“Don’t know.” He hadn’t done as much snoozing as he usually did on Earthday, but he felt just fine.
He ran his hand over her puppy fuzz hair. When she didn’t growl at him, he wasn’t sure if he should be pleased or concerned.
“Did you eat breakfast?” he asked.
“I tried to reach for the milk. It was too far.”
He gathered up her work things and then gave her a quick once-over to make sure she was sufficiently dressed for the office. That much accomplished, he herded her out her front door and was entertained by watching Meg whimper her way down the stairs.
She wasn’t sick; she wasn’t injured. Before he called Dr. Lorenzo to come look at her, he’d see if the other females were whining this morning.
Probably best not to point out that the human males and the Wolves had done the digging yesterday, which was harder work than planting. And none of them were whining.
Well, the Wolves weren’t.
He waited until they were driving to work before he mentioned the morning field trip.
“Why do a field trip?” Meg asked.
“Because someone untied its shoes?”
Meg frowned. “That makes no sense.”
“It makes as much sense as most human jokes.”
“That’s true.”
Simon carried Meg’s things into the Liaison’s Office, then wondered if he should offer to carry her. But she came inside on her own, so he put the BOW in the garage and walked over to Howling Good Reads to tell Vlad about the field trip—and find out if anything else wanted to bite his tail that morning.
* * *
Meg sagged against the front counter and stared at Nathan, who was stretched out on the Wolf bed under one of the big windows.
She felt relieved to find him in the office. After upsetting him so much when she’d made that cut—or, more honestly, forced him into making the cut because she’d been out of control—she wasn’t sure he’d be willing to work as the watch Wolf anymore.
She eyed him lying there, looking so lazy and comfy.
Of course, “work” could be a flexible word.
“If Earthday is supposed to be a rest day, why did we all work so hard yesterday?” she asked.
He raised his head just enough to look at her, grunted, then flopped back down on the Wolf bed.
She watched a delivery truck pull in. “It’s Harry.”
Letting out a gusty sigh, Nathan rolled onto his belly, then stood up and performed the stretch that, in her Quiet Mind class, was called playful wolf, although Merri Lee had told her that the move was usually referred to as down dog.
Meg watched him for a moment before bracing her hands on the counter and stepping back far enough to perform a modified version of the stretch.
Nathan changed positions, now stretching his back legs and hips. Then he gave himself a good shake.
“Show-off,” she muttered.
He just yawned, displaying all his teeth.
Harry walked in with a couple of packages, looked at the two of them, and grinned.
“Guess everyone was working outdoors yesterday,” Harry said. “The wife and I turned the soil and planted some vegetables. Then she wanted to have a couple of pots of flowers for some color, so we went to the garden center. You couldn’t turn around there without making new friends.”
She didn’t know what that meant and was too tired to ask.
“We planted some vegetables too.” Meg took out her clipboard and slowly wrote the information for the delivery.
“You should take aspirin or something to help those sore muscles,” Harry said. “And remember to drink plenty of water.”
“I’ll remember.” She waited until Harr
y drove off, then wandered into the sorting room to see if there was anything she could do that didn’t require standing, bending, lifting, sitting, or reaching for something.
Drink plenty of water? She didn’t think so. Drinking meant peeing, and peeing meant getting her thigh muscles to bend enough so that she could sit on the toilet. She’d already done that once this morning. She wasn’t eager to try it again.
“Meg?” Merri Lee walked in from the back room, carrying an insulated container from A Little Bite and a small bag. She opened the container and set the food on the sorting table. “Coffee, sandwich, and a couple of cookies.” Then she opened the small bag and removed two bottles. “I wasn’t sure if you usually took aspirin or acetaminophen, so I brought both.”
“I don’t think we were ever given anything like this in the compound,” Meg said, taking a moment to recall training images of medications.
Merri Lee looked thoughtful, then opened the bottle of acetaminophen and shook two pills into Meg’s hand. She went into the back room and returned with a glass of water. “They probably didn’t give you aspirin because that reduces blood clotting. Wouldn’t be the best idea for a cassandra sangue.”
Meg swallowed the pills and drank all the water. “Don’t you hurt?”
“I don’t hurt, but I’m plenty sore, which is one or two levels below hurt. And being sore is why I made an appointment with Elizabeth Bennefeld today to get a massage. I made an appointment for you at four fifteen, when you finish the afternoon shift here. Ruth and Theral also made appointments. And Eve Denby did a butt wiggle when I told her there was a massage therapist who worked a couple days a week in the Market Square.”
“What do I do in the meantime?”
“Stretches. Just don’t overstretch. I have to go. Ruth is bringing the Wolf pups to HGR as a field trip to learn about bookstores and the proper way to behave when you’re in one, and I’m working the checkout counter today.”
As soon as Merri Lee left, Meg bent forward. In Quiet Mind class, she could touch her fingertips to the floor. Today her fingers dangled just below her knees.