Marked In Flesh (The Others #4) - Anne Bishop Page 0,78
to dairy foods from terra indigene farms,” Simon replied. “Don’t need cows here. Besides, bison don’t need tending as long as they have food and water. And in another year, one of them can feed the whole Courtyard for days.”
“You think humans in Lakeside are going to continue to let earth native trucks reach the Courtyard to supply us with beef, eggs, and milk?”
“You think this city will survive if they don’t allow those trucks to reach us?” Simon countered.
“No. Fortunately, there are those in the Lakeside police who understand that too.”
They didn’t speak for a minute. Then Simon said, “You’ll keep an eye on Meg?”
Vlad nodded. “Henry is working in his studio—or, more precisely, he says he’s sanding a piece and is working in his yard. With the sorting room window open, he’ll hear enough of what Meg and the other girls are saying about the decks of cards Jackson brought—and what they think of the sketches Hope made for Meg.”
Blair passed them but didn’t stop, giving Simon a few more minutes before he reached the Market Square and had to deal with the next task.
• • •
Meg opened one deck and laid the cards on the sorting room table in rows.
“Lovely artwork on these fortune-telling cards,” Ruth said. “It’s almost like the illustrations make up an entire fantasy world.”
“Lovely, yes, but not realistic,” Meg replied.
“The art is supposed to be symbolic of what the cards represent, not realistic.”
“That’s the problem, isn’t it?” Merri Lee said, watching Meg. “You’re not going to see visions about people or events in that fantasy world, so you need a picture of fire, not a picture of a dragon that represents fire.”
“Yes,” Meg said. “And we need to call the cards by a different name because saying we’re telling fortunes sounds like a kind of entertainment, and we’re trying to use the cards as a tool for prophecy.”
“Then that’s what we’ll call them—prophecy cards.” Merri Lee swept the rows of cards into stacks, her movements hampered by the splint on the left index finger.
“How much longer?” Ruth asked, pointing at Merri Lee’s hand.
“Hopefully the splint comes off tomorrow after Dr. Lorenzo checks the finger. Gods, I’ll be glad to have both hands to wash my hair.”
“At least it was a simple break. It looked . . .”
“Like the bone was sticking through the skin. Lucky for me it was a shard of bone china from all the dishes that had broken during the fight at the stall market. Sure looked like bone, especially since my finger hurt.” Merri Lee blew out a breath. “Most of us were lucky.”
Meg didn’t say anything. Girls had come and gone in the compound where she’d been raised and used, but she hadn’t known any of them well enough to feel the loss—not the way she felt the loss of Lawrence MacDonald and Crystal Crowgard. They had been friends.
I don’t want to lose any more friends, she thought as Ruth put the deck into its box and opened the next deck.
The next deck didn’t appeal to any of them, but the third . . .
Meg’s hands tingled lightly as she touched the cards. Realistic illustrations. She pulled out all the pictures of water—lakes, streams, waterfalls, surf.
“Here’s an illustration of the Great Lakes,” Merri Lee said, setting the card with the ones Meg had already culled.
“Specific and general.” Meg went to a drawer and took out the postcards she had gotten from Lorne. She pointed to one of the prophecy cards. “A waterfall would be a general image that could be anywhere.” She laid a postcard of Talulah Falls under it. “But this would mean a specific place.”
“How many specific places did you learn?” Ruth asked. “We had the impression that you were taught one image to represent a particular thing, like one image to stand for small dogs and one for large dogs, but no particular breed of dog.”
“But Talulah Falls is a distinctive landmark,” Merri Lee said. “Maybe different combinations of cards could mean different things. Meg, what does seeing these two cards together mean to you?” Merri Lee set the postcard of Talulah Falls on top of the card illustrating the Great Lakes.
“Lake Etu,” Meg said as soon as she placed her fingers on the cards, surprised that she didn’t have to think about it at all.
“It could also mean Lake Tahki,” Ruth said. “A third card might be needed to narrow down the location.”
“That’s a good point.” Merri Lee handed Meg a card that showed