Trickster s Girl - By Hilari Bell Page 0,57

could find someone else to help him, the police would confiscate something as unusual as her medicine bag, and probably destroy its contents making sure it really was dirt, and not some new illegal drug.

Kelsa was doing the right thing. It only felt like theft, and abandoning a partner in trouble.

Sometimes towns like Deese Lake weren't even part of the security grid, but Kelsa got well outside it before she pulled off the road into a picnic area, and then into a deep grove where no one could see her from either the road or the air.

Raven could find her; she had no doubt about that. He would sense the magic of the medicine bag or her presence through the ley, or find her the same way ravens located their prey. Then they'd cut across country to avoid the roadblocks the police would set up ahead of them.

All Kelsa had to do was wait. She didn't expect him to show up before morning, at the earliest. But only a few hours later the bushes rustled, and a large otter waddled into the glade and began to change, broadening, thickening, till a naked elderly woman raised her graying head and regarded Kelsa with dancing brown eyes.

This wasn't Raven. Kelsa was reaching for a rock when the woman's laugh pealed out, warm and merry.

"I shouldn't laugh. You're right to be wary, my girl. But I'm the one who's going to help you heal the ley between here and the Alaska border. Because it's going to be hard for that reckless boy to travel in Canada for a while, now isn't it?"
CHAPTER 10
LAUGH LINES CRINKLED AROUND THE old woman's eyes, though she rose to her feet with an ease that belied the sagging breasts and wrinkled skin. The warmth in her expression reminded Kelsa of her grandmother, who now lived in D.C., but who'd made cookies with her, played d-games, and still sent exactly the right presents at Christmas.

The old woman clearly had Raven pegged. Kelsa let go of the rock.

"Raven sent you?"

"Of course. He had to give me the sense of that medicine pouch, or I wouldn't have been able to locate you. And heedless as he may sometimes be, he knows it's not safe for you to travel alone."

Relief flooded in. Kelsa hadn't wanted to admit how frightened she'd been. "He said he had allies, but he never told me who they were. Will he be able to get away from the police?"

"If that isn't like him." The old woman shook her head. "Raven's heart's in the right place, most of the time, but I wonder about his head! Suppose you got separated, like now? Suppose you needed help? You need to know who his allies are."

Kelsa couldn't have agreed more.

"Eagle and I are foremost among them," the old woman went on. "And Fox, Salamander, and Wolverine. I'm Otter Woman, though you've probably guessed that already."

The woman seemed completely unconscious of her nudity, but the wrinkled skin was beginning to show goose bumps. She looked to be about Kelsa's size, and while therma knit and rainwear weren't as good as tempcontrol bike gear, they were much better than nothing.

"Raven's way too arrogant." Kelsa dug into the bike's pack. "I kept telling him I could work better if I had information. But he will be able to get away, right?"

"Of course," the old woman assured her. "But it might take a while. He could shapeshift through those bars anytime, but before he does that he'll have to dominate one of those policemen into turning off the security cameras - and that's not something they'd ordinarily do. I expect he'll catch up with us sometime after we cross into Alaska. But you still have the catalyst, don't you?"

"Of course." Kelsa handed Otter Woman a stack of clothing, then pulled out the medicine pouch to show her.

After a blink of surprise the old woman began to put on the shirt. "Well, I'm glad Raven wasn't carrying it! That would stop us right here. Would you like me to keep it safe for you? If we lost that little bag..."

Catastrophe. But Kelsa had been carrying the pouch for so long, she was reluctant to give it up. The control-freak side of her, but still...

"Raven said carrying it would make it easier for me to use," she said. "And after all, he's the one who ended up in jail! But I'm glad he won't be there long. I wouldn't like to leave him in trouble, even