Chapter 25 #15
Sorry. So sorry, the adult Llamalidians signed.
His face burning, Colin accepted the seven unrolled condoms and the still-rolled one that had been the reason for the commotion. He shoved them in his pocket and tried not to think about them.
The adults signed and hummed too fast for him to get a sense of what they were saying.
“They appreciate the gifts you gave the cria and would like to give you gifts in return,” Tia said.
Two of the Llamalidians held out beautifully woven vests.
Rubbing his hands on his shorts to make sure they were clean, Colin touched the vests. Surprisingly lightweight and so soft. Made sense in this warmer weather.
He almost accepted the vests as a way to sweeten the sting of his wanting to stay a while longer. Then he thought about it and stepped back.
A sad hum from the Llamalidians followed by a groan.
“The vests are wonderful,” Colin said, glancing at Tia, who nodded and began to translate even though most of the Llamalidian adults understood human speech. “But if I sent them to my mom and sister, other humans would ask questions about where to buy them. That might cause trouble?”
More hums that sounded like agreement. Colin Boy came from a place where the vests would be too unusual.
Colin looked at the scarves displayed on a rack and the basket that held skeins of yarn. He pointed to them. “Scarves are worn in my neighborhood. They would be welcome gifts.”
He selected three long scarves. When he understood the exchange was for an equal number of items to match the T-shirts he’d given the cria, he pointed to the skeins of yarn, Tia helping him explain that his mother liked to make things from yarn and would be happy to have them.
Pleased that he was sharing these items with his family herd, the Llamalidians left the trading post to go about their business.
“You did well,” Tia said as she put together a box and carefully packed the scarves and yarn.
“I wear T-shirts, too, but I never thought to exchange them for the yarn or clothing, since I know what a T-shirt costs outside of Wyrd and what that yarn costs. I guess I’ll place an order for T-shirts and see if there’s continued interest.”
“Maybe colored ones?” Colin said, glancing at the shoulder of her white T-shirt.
She thought for a moment, then nodded. “That could be the attraction.”
He got the feeling that she didn’t think that was the reason, but he didn’t ask.
“You should think of what else you want to put in the box before I seal it up for shipping,” Tia said.
“Like what?”
She stared at him. “Like a letter letting your folks know you’re doing a foreign student exchange deal and why you’re sending them scarves and yarn?”
“Oh. Yeah.” And he should ask Mom to send him more T-shirts for his own use.
Later that evening, Colin paged through the language primer.
The printing and binding weren’t like anything he’d seen before, but whoever created the primer showed how hoof-hand and ear position equaled a human phrase and how to reply given the human body’s limited range of movements.
Basic questions and answers, beautifully illustrated.
And sketches of the Llamalidians’ daily life that helped match the phrases to an activity!
Tia had said the trading post had been a fixture in this neighborhood for a long time, and she was just the latest person to run it. Had the artist who created the primer been someone who needed to step away from their own place and people for a while?
Colin looked at the stylized A in the right-hand corner of the daily life sketches and wondered if he would ever know who the artist had been—and why that person thought making a connection with another race of beings was so important.
22
Beth Fahey tried to push her feelings of horror and disgust aside while she typed the report of the team’s latest investigation.
Not that the incident actually fell within the parameters of the team’s investigations.
She and Ian Kuhn had driven to the town of Carter in Northwood County to review the information the detectives there had about a murder where a python was the murder weapon.
Or would it be considered manslaughter? Not for her to decide. What she had told the Carter detectives—and Kuhn thankfully backed her up—was that the incident had nothing to do with the Isle of Wyrd or its residents.
Captain Forrester came out of his office.
He didn’t look like he’d slept much in the past few days, and she understood why.
There was no way to know if the suitcase he’d sent to his son had reached the boy.
Even Lucas Frost didn’t know for sure, but he’d pointed out that people across the river—meaning the humans—expected overnight deliveries and instant communication these days, and those were two things that didn’t happen in Wyrd.
Frost did promise to send word if he heard anything from Colin Forrester or Tia Downing.
Forrester approached Beth’s desk, joined by Ian Kuhn.
“Anything we need to deal with?” Forrester asked.
“Doesn’t appear to be,” Kuhn said.
“No,” Beth said.
Both men looked at her. Kuhn wanted to be more cautious about drawing a line under the possibility of Wyrd being involved.
He’d said as much on the drive back to Penwych.
He also pointed out that they didn’t know enough about how moon gates worked to be sure this wasn’t like the other recent incidents.
It wasn’t like those other incidents. And the team did know enough about the moon gates—or they would. She’d made the phone call and asked Ashley Laxton when the woman answered Frost’s office phone.
Beth drew in a breath and tried not to sigh. That phone call would be another reason why the team had become uneasy working with her.
“We weren’t able to talk to the family directly, but this is what the detectives in Carter were able to put together,” Beth said.
“Chloe Peterson was at a sleepover at a friend’s house a few days ago.
Late night, lots of giggles—and some playing around with what was described as ‘sympathetic magic.’ That is, putting the energy of a wish into an object so that something will happen. ”
“Words have power. Intentions matter,” Forrester said. “I could see someone connecting sympathetic magic to Wyrd if they didn’t understand how bargains were made with the Arcana.”
Beth nodded. “The next time the older brother tried to pressure her into ‘being a good girl,’ Chloe screamed at him that he was a snake, which gave him the idea of borrowing a friend’s pet python and putting it in her bed to make her think he really could turn into a snake.
“Fortunately for Chloe, she’d taken to sleeping in a hidden storage space inside her closet, hiding from her brothers.
Unfortunately, the other brother, who came home very drunk after being out with his friends—none of whom are anywhere near the legal age for drinking—decided it was his turn to visit his little sister and got into Chloe’s bed.
” Beth sighed. “The python squeezed the life out of him.
The parents found him in the morning when Chloe emerged from her hiding place and started screaming.
“When the detectives questioned why the brother was in his younger sister’s bed, it came out that Chloe was being sexually abused by both of her brothers—something her parents vigorously denied even after the girl was removed from the family home to protect her from the surviving brother.”
Kuhn said, “The detectives wanted to know if this was a transformation.”
“It wasn’t,” Beth replied sharply. “The brother who put the snake in Chloe’s bed is alive and well, and had spent the night at a friend’s house in order to claim he had no idea how the snake got into Chloe’s bed.
Besides, moon gates don’t work that way.
A person can’t transform another person.
” That wasn’t quite true. Some of the Arcana could transform a person into something else without needing a moon gate, but a human telling someone he’s a snake wouldn’t do anything except, perhaps, make a person feel like they were defending themselves against an abuser.
“No teenagers have been on the ferry since the last incident with those boys, and no children have been on the ferry, alone or with an adult. Since Carter is located at the north bend of the Fate River, I suppose someone could have taken a boat and landed somewhere on Wyrd, but it’s long odds that they would have found a moon gate and gotten back out. ”
“How do you know that?” Kuhn said.
“She asked,” Forrester replied quietly, studying Beth.
“Yes, I asked,” Beth acknowledged.
“So did I, and I didn’t get that much information,” Kuhn said.
“Let it go,” Forrester warned. He looked thoughtful.
“What we have is a sexually abused girl who did some ‘magic,’ in the hope of turning one of her abusers into a snake. We have that brother putting a snake in her bed, either to scare her or kill her if he thought she might tell someone who would believe her about the abuse. And we have the other brother getting into her bed and passing out, not realizing he was in bed with a python, which killed him. Does that cover it?”
“Yes, sir,” Beth said.
“All right,” Forrester said. “Mayor Bang wants me to give her a report about this in person. Penwych has the only official place to cross the river and visit Wyrd, so she’s feeling some heat about continuing to make the island accessible to people on this side of the river.”
“Captain?” Tom Castelletti walked into the team’s area of the precinct. “There’s a package for you coming in on the next ferry. Officers Monkton and Reynolds are currently patrolling the area. Do you want them to pick it up and bring it here?”
Beth watched Forrester pale and knew they were all thinking about the last time the Arcana delivered a box to the police.
“Yes,” Forrester finally said. “Have them bring it here.” He walked out.
“I’m getting coffee from one of the food trucks,” Castelletti said. “Either of you want anything?”