that’ll give us diarrhea. Or it could have gra . . . giar . . .” He looked at Gunnar. “It could have a parasite that comes from beavers and other animals pooping in the water.” He looked at Katy again. “We can only drink from a spring, and then only from where it bubbles out of the ground.”
Gunnar wanted to know if there was a reason the kid always looked at him when he was explaining something.
“It’s giardia,” Katy said, rolling to her knees and standing up. “And I promise to find us a nice clean spring, hopefully close by.”
“Or,” Gunnar said, “you and Shiloh could find that spring on your way to Inglenook, while I have a little nap waiting for you to come back and get me—preferably on something that has four wheels and isn’t afraid of bears.”
“But you can’t stay here all by yourself,” Shiloh said in alarm. “It’s gonna get dark soon. Do you know how many predators come out at night to hunt?”
Okay, the kid really had to stop watching nature shows and spend more time actually in nature. Although Gunnar guessed having a real live bear charge out of the woods at them more or less reinforced those television-induced fears.
He noticed Katy wasn’t voicing an opinion, instead scanning the trail in both directions before plopping down on the ground again with a heavy sigh. “I’ve been half expecting we’d come across the horses by now.” Her gaze darted between Shiloh and Gunnar, until she suddenly threw back her shoulders. “Okay, Mr. Fox,” she said brightly, belying the worry Gunnar could still see in her eyes. “I think it’s time we call on some divine help. So why don’t you ask that big shiny angel of yours what we should do.”
Shiloh gasped hard enough that he nearly fell off the rock. “Katy,” he hissed, darting a quick glance at Gunnar before leaning forward. “You promised not to tell.”
“It’s okay. Mr. Wolfe is one of us. Go on,” she added with a nod. “Ask your buddy if he knows of a clean spring nearby, and if we should leave Mr. Wolfe here or press on together.”
One of us, Gunnar silently repeated. One of us what?
“He can see angels, too?” Shiloh whispered, eyeing Gunnar suspiciously out of the corner of his eye. “Then tell him to let me see his.”
Katy blinked, clearly flummoxed. “I . . . I’m not sure mythical warriors even have angels, because . . .” She shrugged. “Because they’re mythical.” She looked at Gunnar. “Do you have a guardian angel, Mr. Wolfe?”
Well, damn. “I, ah, have always assumed I do.”
“I don’t even know what a mythical warrior is,” Shiloh whispered.
Hell, neither did he.
He did have a firm rule about not lying to kids, though, even for the sake of calming their fears. He could be an ass to adults because they usually deserved it, but kids . . . well, one, they never forgot—or forgave—an adult who lied to them, and two, they deserved better. Besides, kids usually handled the truth better than adults. Instead of wallowing in worry, the not-yet-jaded little optimists often started looking for silver linings—and usually found them.
“Have you ever heard of the lost island of Atlantis, Shiloh?” Katy asked, apparently deciding to further compound her lie.
The kid gasped again. “I just saw it on the news! Only it’s not lost anymore because they found it yesterday morning. Mom got me out of bed to watch what everyone is calling a historical event.”
More like hysterical, Gunnar was thinking.
“The newscaster said a huge land mass the size of Rhode Island,” Shiloh continued, “just suddenly appeared right in the middle of James Bay overnight.” He stopped and looked at Gunnar. “That’s in Canada, at the bottom of the Hudson Bay.” He looked at Katy again and frowned. “All the scientists are baffled because there wasn’t even an earthquake that would have made it rise up from the ocean floor.” He leaned forward again. “You know, like the one that happened here five years ago,” he whispered, “and moved all the mountains and turned Bottomless Lake into a sea.”
Gunnar inwardly snorted. Another hysterical event that still had scientists baffled. But at least there’d been an earthquake to account for the mountains . . . moving.
“Geologists from all over the world went to see the land mass,” Shiloh continued, “and last night, the news showed a video they took of all the towns and villages they found scattered all over the island.