about? Were you one of the ones who beat them up?”
“Of course not,” Justin said. “But what I did was just as bad.”
“So you knew it was going to happen,” Dad said.
“No,” Justin said. “But—somebody—asked me for Cody’s cell number, and I gave it to them. I didn’t know why they wanted it.”
“Still, you could probably guess it wasn’t to invite him to your next meeting,” Dad said. “Unless that was one of your meetings, of course.”
I didn’t feel sorry for Justin, but I could see he was practically falling apart.
“Tell him the rest, Warrener,” Gregor said. “You are leaving out the best part.”
“You tell him,” Justin said, and hung his head.
“I will explain it,” Ileana said. “I am the highest here.”
She was so tiny and so beautiful, and she was acting like I wasn’t even there.
“Mr. Elliot, you know that there are old hatreds between the jenti and the gadje of New Sodom,” Ileana said. “What you do not know about, because we do not speak of them to outsiders, is the hates between the jenti, and how old they are. Justin descends from a line that goes back to the Kingdom of Mercia, which was in England more than a thousand years ago before it disappeared. Gregor and I descend from the Burgundians, who disappeared on the Russian steppes five hundred years before the Mercians were lost to history.
“The last Burgundians made their way to Mercia, looking for refuge. It was refused them, and they were forced to leave, and take their chances among the gadje of Europe. No one knows why anymore, but this cruelty the Burgundians have never forgotten.
“Then, over a hundred years ago, the Burgundian jenti began to arrive in America, along with other central Europeans. We found New Sodom, a place where gadje and Mercians were living together in peace, if not in love, and we stayed. This time, the Mercians could not drive us out, because we came in such numbers. And we did not try to force them to leave, because we feared they and the gadje would combine against us.”
“Fascinating, Ileana,” Dad said. “But what does it have to do with anything?”
“It has this to do with anything, Mr. Elliot,” Gregor said. “I have put that mill in Crossfield under my protection. The Mercians know this, and they wish to prevent it.”
“Why?” Dad shouted. “What is so damned important that my son is lying beaten half to death? What matters that much?”
“That I do not know,” Gregor said. “But there is something more than an old grudge at work here. Some deeper thing.”
“Well?” Dad asked Justin.
“I don’t know what it is,” Justin said.
“Do you think you might be able to find out?” Dad said slowly, trying to hold his anger in.
“Nobody’s going to tell me if I just ask ’em,” Justin said.
“Let me tell you something without your asking,” Gregor said. “You Mercians crossed a line last night. You beat a marked gadje. That is an unforgivable insult to our princess. To all of us. If you want war, you shall have it.”
“No,” Ileana said. “I forbid that. It is true what the Mercians did was despicable. But we must not go to war over it.”
“What mark are you talking about?” Dad said.
“Ileana marked me the first day of school last year,” I said. “To protect me. It’s supposed to mean no jenti can touch me.”
“And now we see how much it means to the Mercians,” Gregor said. “That was your mark, my princess. If you think this is not worth fighting over, what do you propose to do instead?”
Ileana bit her lip. Then she said, “Justin, you must tell the Mercians that my mother, the Queen of the Burgundians, demands a meeting with them.”
“Ah, a meeting.” Gregor sneered. “That will solve everything.”
“I’ll tell them,” Justin said.
“Princess, my people will not be satisfied with a meeting,” Gregor said.
“Your people are my people, Gregor,” Ileana said. “We are all my mother’s subjects.”
“We will see whom they follow now,” Gregor said.
“Do nothing, Gregor,” Ileana commanded. “We will settle this.”
Gregor came over to my bed.
“I will avenge this crime,” he said. But he was looking at Turk when he said it.
She looked away, and Gregor left.
“Justin, we must go,” Ileana said.
“Right,” Justin said. “I’ll set things up.”
“So that’s it, then?” Dad said. “You kids just walk away and go on playing your jenti games?”
“Mr. Elliot, it is no game,” Ileana said. “There is great danger in New Sodom now. More than there has been