have?” Iris asked, equally eager to keep Nell’s territory free to be given back to her in the future.
“I’ll be like a… squatter. And like any squatter, that means I have some rights. I don’t own the place, but it’s sort of almost mine. And anyone looking at the Territory from afar might not realize it’s unoccupied.”
“Will that fool Phaedra?” I asked Blondie.
“I have no idea,” she said, clearly unhappy even to be talking this way. “It might. It might not. But if she has or does figure out that Nell’s out of the picture… we’re screwed.”
We all looked at each other and I suddenly really, really wanted Anyan. He was always the one who came in at such moments and told us all what to do. I hadn’t realized how much he was our leader until right then. Someone else was going to have to step up.
“Okay,” I said, before clearing my throat. “Here’s what we’ll do. For now, Miss Carrol will begin the process and… squat. The rest of us will take patrols, trying to make sure nothing happens in the Territory. If it does, we call for Blondie. Do you have a cell phone?” I asked the Original, who nodded. “Great. Hopefully no one will notice that Nell’s not actually appearing anywhere. In the meantime, we need to be ready to act if something gets too big. That means, Miss Carrol, you have to be ready to take that last step, if we need you to. We can’t risk everyone’s lives, including Nell’s, just to save her place here.” At that, Trill made a funny noise that I assumed was protesting my giving Miss Carrol such a command.
“And what will we do?” Iris asked. “Besides patrol?” Trill made another strange sound. Maybe she was crying. Or she was really pissed.
“We’ll work on changing these two back,” I said. “We’ll work on figuring out what the hell is going on in Rockabill. We’ll work on—”
At that, Trill stood up. I was expecting her to argue with me. But my friend’s flat-featured face was oddly empty, as if the proverbial lights were on but everyone had snuck out back to the shed.
“The Signs protect destruction!” a voice very unlike Trill’s boomed out from the kelpie’s body. “The Signs protect destruction! The Signs protect destruction! The Signs protect…”
We all looked at each other, totally freaked out. But just as the Original took a step toward Trill, the whole cabin shook as if a missile had hit it. We grabbed onto the furniture around us while the ground shook and Anyan began barking like he was being pestered by rabid groundhogs.
When the shaking stopped, we all looked around to make sure our friends were unhurt. And we were—the only damage to the cabin a few books fallen off shelves or paintings off walls. Trill, meanwhile, was still muttering “The Signs protect destruction,” but when Caleb went and shook her gently, she came back to herself.
But Miss Carrol looked spooked. She was obviously afraid this meant an attack that would force her to bond with Nell’s Territory. And as I looked around, relief turned to fear on all my friends’ faces. None of us wanted to be a party to stealing Nell’s home.
All of us except for Anyan, of course.
He was chewing on one of his own paws.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Yeah, Jane. I’m sure you do want to talk, and we definitely have a lot of catching up to do. But now?” Blondie asked. I squinted at her, the low-lying light of the late-afternoon sun right in my eyes.
“Yes, now. It’ll take five minutes,” I answered, using my Resolved Voice.
“Um, sure. Fine.” Blondie peered around, as if to verify our privacy. Trill was inside, making Nell a bottle from supplies Amy had run over just a few minutes ago on her break from the Trough. When Amy left, she’d taken Gus with her into town so he could work his shift at McKinley’s. In the driveway, Anyan danced around Iris and Caleb, who were trying to load the big dog into Caleb’s SUV. Anyan was having none of it.
That left Blondie and me on the big wraparound porch, in relative seclusion.
“So what’s up?” she asked.
I thought about how to approach my questions, and then decided that diving right in was the way to go.
“I know I owe you my life. Everyone’s told me that, about a million times. But why should I trust you?”
The Original blinked at me. “Don’t beat around the bush, babydoll,”