Stuck on the image of a sign saying UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT hanging over the road leading to Talulah Falls, it took Meg a moment to catch up to Jester’s change of subject. “This is a deck of fantastic drawings—imaginary creatures.”

Jester’s smile faltered. “Can I see the cards?”

She handed him the deck. “They’re just make-believe. I don’t know how the Intuits would read them, but I don’t think they’ll be useful to the cassandra sangue. Why would we speak prophecy about something that doesn’t exist?”

She thought about the cards of city skylines that she had put aside because she didn’t think they would be needed. And she watched Jester’s ears shift to Coyote, watched fur spring up on his neck and hands as he looked at the drawings. He let most of the cards fall into his lap, but a few he handed to her.

“Jester?”

“Who else knows about these cards?”

“I don’t know. I think Jesse Walker has the same decks that she sent to me.” Jester slanted a look at the cards in her hand. “Don’t tell anyone about those cards. You should keep them. Learn them. But don’t talk about them with anyone else.”

Meg studied the cards that upset Jester. The creatures walked upright, but that was all they had in common with humans. The cards weren’t intended to convey a blended form of terra indigene. Or if they were, she didn’t recognize the animals these creatures had absorbed.

Separated from the rest of the cards, the drawings frightened her—and made the backs of her legs prickle.

“Promise you won’t tell anyone about these,” Jester whispered. “Put them in with the nature cards and hope you never see any of them again.”

“But these are just something someone imagined.”

The prickle became a burn when Jester said, “Or remembered.”

She realized the Coyote was shaking. Her fingers tightened on the cards in her hands. “They’re make-believe.”

“No. They’re not.”

To: Erebus and Vladimir Sanguinati

The remaining terra indigene have left the Toland Courtyard. Some of the Crowgard and Sanguinati will remain near the train station to keep watch and report any suspicious activity or any sign that an unusual number of humans are leaving the city.

I and a few of our kin will watch the ships leaving Toland for a while longer. The Elementals promised to help keep watch—and to warn us when the taste of the storm touches the beaches and fills the air so that we, and other terra indigene along the East Coast of Thaisia, have time to move inland.

—Stavros Sanguinati

Recognizing the superior might of the human race, the Others have abandoned the Toland Courtyard, giving us much-needed acres to grow crops and provide pastures for some domestic animals. Some people think a few acres is not a significant victory. I say it’s the first step in acquiring all the land and resources we deserve.

—Nicholas Scratch, speaking at Toland’s city hall

To: Greg O’Sullivan

Humans were indirectly responsible for our decision to close the Toland Courtyard, but it is not accurate to say humans forced us to leave the city, as Nicholas Scratch would like you to believe. We left because human behavior has made it prudent for us to get out of harm’s way.

—Stavros Sanguinati

To: Simon and Jackson Wolfgard

Wolfgard throughout the northern Midwest and Northwest are howling about bison being killed and left to rot for a second time. We have lost more bison from the Prairie Gold herd, and Tobias Walker reported that some cattle have disappeared from the ranch. He says this is called rustling. Since we didn’t find horns or hooves to indicate the Elders ate the cattle, I think Tobias Walker is right but don’t know how to find the thieves. The Prairie Gold Wolves are keeping watch, looking for scents beyond the town that don’t belong to the humans we know. Tolya Sanguinati continues to watch Prairie Gold as well as Bennett. He says there is a bad feel in Bennett—poisonous smiles—and he thinks something will happen soon.

Jesse Walker says nothing but continues to buy extra supplies for her general store. Tolya is lending her money to do this. She rubs her left wrist when she thinks no one is watching. Tobias says that is a sign of trouble.

Has Meg or the Hope pup been itchy?

—Joe Wolfgard

CHAPTER 26

Windsday, Juin 20

Vlad sat back and let Steve Ferryman and Elliot Wolfgard do the talking. Or, more truthfully, let them be the focus of the humans and the terra indigene from Talulah Falls who were attending this meeting.

Maybe he’d never been so close to a source to see how much influence small things could have on the fate of so many. Simon had hired Meg, who was a cassandra sangue. Her combination of childlike sweetness, the prophecies she’d seen, and her desire to learn and live shifted enough of the terra indigene’s perception of humans that the humans working in the Lakeside Courtyard reacted by becoming a little more friendly to the Others. Lieutenant Montgomery’s efforts to forge a connection between the Courtyard and the police also gave both sides more opportunities to interact without hostility.

He saw the results of those actions. The Talulah Falls humans hadn’t brought government officials—if there were any who had survived. They brought a supervisor from the hydroelectric plant and a police captain. Vlad could hear Captain Burke’s influence in the way the Falls captain expressed his concerns about how to keep the peace for the humans who would remain in Talulah Falls, and how to release the humans who wanted to leave. The captain, at least, understood the danger that faced anyone who wanted to flee from the Falls: with the friction building between humans and the Others in so many regions, the towns and cities still under human control provided only the illusion of safety.