Wild Country (The World of the Others #2)- Anne Bishop Page 0,40

another thought as she remembered Barbara Ellen was in the saloon.

He sighed.

That made her smile.

She felt her hair relax from coils to loose curls, knew the black and red were changing to mostly gold and blue.

Feeling calmer but not quite calm enough to go out among the rest of them, Scythe reviewed the inventory of alcohol that had been brought in from the uninhabited houses.

* * *

* * *

Tolya guided Jesse Walker to the sofa in his office. He wasn’t sure if the previous occupant of the office had used the sofa for informal talks or to take a nap—or to mate with one of the females working for him, which was something human males who held a position of authority often did. At least that was something the Sanguinati had heard about human males.

If he asked Virgil to sniff the sofa, he would find out all kinds of things he didn’t want to know, so he hadn’t asked.

“Are you sure you don’t want to lie down?” he asked for the third time. Jesse Walker had downed two whiskeys before leaving the Bird Cage Saloon and had insisted that they needed to talk in private.

“Are you concerned about Madam Scythe?” he asked.

Jesse shook her head. “She’s dangerous.”

“Yes.”

“More dangerous than you.”

“Yes. She is a Harvester.” He’d already told her about Scythe. “It’s not Scythe who troubles you.”

“No.” Jesse pushed her hair back with a trembling hand. “What do you know about Joshua Painter, about how he came to live with the Panthergard?”

“Almost nothing. He was found and a Panther chose to raise him, help him survive. He wasn’t taken, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“No, that’s not what I’m asking.” She hesitated, then turned to face him. “Tolya, we need to know about Joshua Painter.”

“Do we? Why?” He waited, wondering if she was about to confirm what he suspected about the boy. When she hesitated again, he added, “This will stay between us until we both agree to tell others.”

Her body sagged with relief.

“You think he’s an Intuit?” he asked. It was a reasonable question. Saul had said the boy had a strong sense of the world.

“He’s an Intuit, but not quite in the same way that I am. I think …” Jesse hesitated again before saying quickly, “I think his mother was a blood prophet.”

CHAPTER 12

Firesday, Messis 10

Jana stowed the cheap carryall in the overhead rack and took a window seat, setting her daypack on the seat beside hers to discourage anyone from joining her until she had time to think. The carryall, which she’d purchased yesterday at a store near her hotel, held the clothes and toiletries she’d need during the trip. Her two suitcases and three boxes of belongings were in the baggage car, along with the possessions her fellow travelers were bringing with them to Bennett.

Karl Kowalski hadn’t been there to see her off, but Michael Debany had been waiting for her. Or maybe he had been assigned as the police presence that morning to make sure no one caused trouble for any terra indigene who might be boarding the train that day. Either way, she’d spotted him scanning the crowd and realized he’d been looking for her.

“Karl did a little digging on that phone number you gave him. The captain shut him down fast when a name popped up.”

“Why?”

“This guy is out of bounds. You don’t ask questions about him unless you want some powerful people paying you a call. And by powerful, I don’t mean human.”

“Gods, I’m sorry. I just wanted to be sure someone at the academy wasn’t screwing with me. I didn’t mean …”

Debany took a step closer—almost close enough to feel uncomfortably intimate. “Man out of bounds. A cryptic message. Karl and I figure he’s getting some girls to safe houses. You know what I’m saying?”

She nodded. Blood prophets. There had been a lot of talk at the academy about those girls. At least, there had been a lot of talk about them until the war between humans and the Others eclipsed every other topic.

But … Didn’t someone have to ask a question before a girl spoke prophecy?