Summer Break – 13.9 | Pale

“If you can give us delivery within the next two days, it can count double,” Avery said, “unless it’s something that takes prep time.  If you give me a practice about tying more complicated knots, it’s gotta get delivered soon enough I have time to tie those knots and do other stuff.”

“What’s happening in two days?” Jude asked.

“Local stuff,” Avery said.  She was in the woods with Snowdrop, Zed and Brie, and Zed had brought his computer.  An image of Nicolette was cast in flickering blues of varying shades, while the four Garricks were portrayed in amber shades.  Brie was in the background, cooking.  She ate some meat off a skewer that was white hot.

“Lordship battle?” a man asked, behind Jude.  A note-taker, blond, like Jude, wearing more regular clothes than some members of the family.

“No,” Avery replied, shaking her head a little.  The light from the computer was recording her, and kept flashing too bright when she moved her head.  “It’s… kind of in that direction, though?  Or scale?”

“It’s not really important either,” Nicolette said.

“Right,” Avery said.

“Back,” a man said.  A fifth man stepped into the scene.  He wore what looked like business wear, but the top buttons were undone, chest hair was visible and drawn out in flickering orange-gold lasers, and it, in combination with the heavy duty mustache, gave him a faint car salesman image.  Avery thought she remembered him from the visit to the Promenade with all of Jude’s family around, but couldn’t place him perfectly.  He might’ve had gear on then.  A hat like Jude’s.  With voice distorted by the signal, he asked, “Back.  Recap?”

“Promenade clue, painted as pretty major,” Jude said.  “We’re bartering, she asked for a hundred and twenty thousand dollars, or some equivalent in knowledge or gifts.  If we can give her knowledge or gifts within forty eight hours-”

“Dependent on time to activate, perform rituals, yadda yadda,” Avery interrupted.

“Yeah,” Jude said.  “That’ll count double, cheaper for us.”

“Why?” the man asked.

“Something big happening,” the Aunt said.  “She wants to get ready.”

“Shouldn’t impact you guys,” Zed said.  He paused.  “I really hope it doesn’t reach as far as you guys.”

“More to the point, it’s not especially relevant to this deal,” Nicolette added.

“She won’t tell us what the information is?” the man asked.

“Brilliant idea,” Snowdrop said.

“Be good.  And yeah, no, that’d defeat the point,” Avery said.  “Sorry.  I like you guys, I’m trying to be fair, I’m coming to you first.  But I’m not going to tell you what the clue you’re buying is before you pay.”

“We’re supposed to buy sight unseen?” the man asked.

“I’ve worked with you before, I know Nicolette has had contact with you as well,” Zed said.  “It’s been explained to us in detail.  I can say it’s good info, going by what I know.”

“Avery Kelly is local to you, isn’t she?  You got to her location without too much trouble?” the man asked.  “Do we need to worry about bias, Mr. Sadler?”

“I don’t think so.”

“She could have given you incomplete or skewed information about the path we’re working on.  You can say it’s good info if a partial picture was painted for you.”

Zed frowned.  “If you want to try informing me about the Path, I can swear to secrecy, as I did with her and the information that’s for sale.  I won’t sell that information to other Finders.  I won’t use it.  I know enough about practice I shouldn’t get caught with my pants down, but I don’t care enough about Finding to use it myself.”

“And here I thought you made a point about the free flow of information.”

“That includes valuing good information,” Zed said.  “This is good information, Walt.”

“So you say,” Walt groused.

“Do you think we shouldn’t trust Zed and Nicolette?” Jude asked.

“Shhh,” the Aunt said, to Jude.

Walt shook his head.  “For that kind of money or valuable knowledge?  For all we know, Wonderkand is going to make a push against us, and this is the last ditch effort to milk us before we get raided.”

“Wonderkand?” Avery asked Zed.

“Biggest Finder group we know of.  Suits, ties, move up to a certain level and you get fancy, over-the-top, powerful clothes from a certain path.  Whiteboards, company culture, Lost on the employee floors, company elevators go all the way up to some common Paths, all the way down to retention areas with captured and bound Lost you can’t keep on staff, and the items you can’t keep in pocket.”

“Don’t forget the performance metrics,” Nicolette said.  “Also evil.”

“The performance metrics are also evil or the company is also evil?” Avery asked.

Zed frowned at Nicolette, then said, “Both.  For a certain meaning or idea of evil.  If you’re in the bottom percentage points for performance, you go ‘red’.  You get put on the front line for testing the new and dangerous paths or items.  They will barely bat an eyelash if you don’t make it.  They’re not murder happy or anything, but hostile takeovers?  Theft?  Sabotage?  Yeah.”

“Alexander didn’t deal with them,” Nicolette said.

“I think Ray might’ve,” Zed replied.  “Not sure.”

“Take from that what you will,” Nicolette told Avery.

“I think I see what you’re doing,” Walt said.  “Go on a big monologue about our biggest competitor, while we’re negotiating… I don’t believe you’re actually unaware of those jerks.”

“I legit didn’t know,” Avery said.

“No agenda, but like, hey guys, can I ask?  Why doesn’t she know?” Zed asked.  “Jude?  Come on, guy.  You seem decent, Avery vouched for you.  You haven’t warned her what’s out there?”

“She has really patchy knowledge on some of this.  It’s hard to know what she knows or doesn’t know without telling her everything from scratch.  Uhhh,” Jude hesitated.  He looked back at his family.  “They’re out there.  You might see one of ’em once a year or so if you’re doing Paths regularly.  Not on the Promenade though, I hope.”

“We really hope,” a woman said.  Jude’s aunt, maybe.

Jude went on, “Listen for the English accents, that’s common.  Look for, uh, nice suit, seemingly low equipment load?  Or something like a practitioner walking the Paths with three thousand ruffles on her ankle-length dress, carrying a parasol, guy with a… whatsitcalled?  Fancy silk neck thing that’s wider than a tie.”

“Ascot,” Walt said.  “You need to hit the books, Jude.  That could be something that saves your life on a Path.”

“Yessir,” Jude said.  He refocused attention on Avery.  “Uhhh.  Yeah.  Stuff like that, y’know?  Overdressed for a tea party with the Queen.  Just let them go about their business.  Let them cut in line, whatever.  They usually don’t mess with the likes of you or me because we’re all potential recruits.  Or a family like ours sells them information on something like the Promenade for life changing money.  Or we don’t sell and they raid us, they take everything, and they leave us unable to walk a Path ever again.”

“Jude has it about right,” the Aunt said.

“So we’re not talking just about what might be two years of your time.  We’re talking about you guys being able to get a lock on this thing before they find it?”

“We’re talking about a lot of things,” Jude said.  He double checked with family again, then said, “We’ve already got a bit of a lock on it, just so you know.  Adding conditions and things to the ritual for entry.  That deal you agreed to before we brought you in?  It’s to protect you.  Don’t go for a visit without us, or the landing on arrival might be rough.  Or lethal.  Us finding the Promenade secures us against them, more than anything.”

“Unless they think they can extort the information on how to get in from us.”

“Walt,” the Aunt said, warning.

“Got it,” Avery said.  “Well, I’m planning on sticking to that deal, so no sweat.  I want to help you guys out, but the Other that gave me the intel deserves to get paid for the trouble, and I don’t want to be taken for granted or looked over.”

She thought of her family, and the recent babysitting.

“A hundred and twenty thousand is a big ask for not being taken to granted,” Walt said.

“I want the power and info more than the money.  I mean, the money would be nice but… might raise questions when my parents look at my junior savers bank account.  Things might get hairy soon, and I want to be ready.”

“She’s friendly and fair, she’s been cool so far,” Jude said.

“I know you think she’s friendly and fair, Jude,” the Aunt said, in a sympathetic tone.

“It helps us if we keep her alive and well,” Jude said.  “More allies out there?”

Avery shifted her footing.  It felt a lot like if it was just her and Jude negotiating, there wouldn’t be any issues.  Maybe she wouldn’t get a chunk of cash or a ton of practices, but things would be cool and maybe, just maybe, if everyone acted like that, just staying allies, sharing freely, doing this because of passion about the world, the world would be better off.

But it wasn’t.  There were hostile groups out there like that Finder company.  There were paranoid- maybe justifiably paranoid Walts out there.

“May I?” the Aunt asked.

Jude fell back a bit as she stepped forward.  She was a woman with short hair, who had three different loops of rope around her hips, only really attached at one side of her belt, so the three coils came to rest at different points at hip, upper leg, and lower leg.  She otherwise dressed a bit like a mechanic, coveralls and tank top.

She leaned over, talking to Walt.  The other member of the family hung back, older than Jude but younger than 40-something Walt, not clearly read by the camera or portrayed by the projected lasers, and seemed to be taking notes.

Avery looked aside and she saw Miss leaning against a tree, only a bit of one side of her body visible.

The Aunt asked, “How would you like everything?  Full access to Garrick records, dip into funds as if you were a family member, free access to our knowledge about practices?”

Avery folded her arms.

“Uh, Avery?” Zed asked.

“This is a prelude to you guys proposing marriage?” Avery asked.

“Ah, you got there already,” Zed said.

Jude sagged, head hanging.

“It doesn’t have to happen now, it doesn’t have to happen soon, even.  We could set the date for when you’re twenty or twenty-five.  We’d need a promise, or a staggered series of commitments, do you understand what I’m saying by that?”

“I… hmm…” Avery paused.  “I find it odd you think I’m equipped to get this offer, but not smart enough to understand staggered commitments or whatever.”

“We’d want to talk to your guardians.  Or do Zed and Nicolette qualify?”

“Don’t steamroll her,” Nicolette said.  “She hasn’t expressed interest.”

“Of course,” the Aunt said.  “It wouldn’t have to be Jude.  We have a number of young bachelors of an appropriate age.  You’re thirteen?”

“Don’t steamroll her,” Nicolette repeated.  “Asking questions to treat this like something that’s going to happen, without giving her a chance to get thoughts in order.”

My thoughts are in order.

“I’d say just say no now,” Zed said.

“Do you have-” Avery started, before she saw Jude with arms partially folded, making a small, sharp, and discreet drawn-line movement at his neck.  No?  Don’t go there, maybe?  Was he doing that for her sake, or for his?  “No, I think… let’s do this deal right now, without the marriage tacked on.  If there’s something that could happen in that direction later, knowing that we were able to do a business deal in a nice way would… hm…”

“Sets a good standard,” Zed said.

“Yeah,” Avery said, glad to have the backup.

“Is there a chance something could happen in that direction later?” Walt asked.

If you have a Finder cousin of Jude’s who’s a girl or woman? Avery thought.  “Slim, if I’m being honest.  Very slim.”

“Right,” Walt said.  His tone of voice had changed, and somehow not for the worse.  “I still worry about the bias here, Mr. Sadler.  Ms. Belanger.”

“We’re back to that?” Zed asked.

“That, as you put it, was a valid point of concern.  It doesn’t go away because the conversation moved on.”

“Maybe… would a member of your family be willing to swear an oath?” Avery asked.

“What oath?” Walt asked.

“Not to share to the rest of your family, not to hint, not to help you guys know by any means that isn’t from me, or finding out legitimately on your own?  The oath would end if we come to a business deal… hmmm… and no forswearing like usual.”

“Oh?” Walt asked.  “Bit of a curveball at the end there.”

“Don’t like it,” Avery said, quiet.  “If the information is let slip, if you do cheat, or if the family cheats, that’s bad.  But the forswearing part of the broken oath can be skipped so long as a Garrick gives me… one hundred and eighty thousand dollars or practice and information worth that, or sets up and maintains a plan I agree to, to get me that stuff over a fair amount of time.”

“The value of practice and information would be decided by someone neutral,” Zed said.  “The price of the neutral arbiter, if any, gets fairly factored in.”

“So you get paid either way, Avery?” Walt asked.

“Unless your family member can honestly say your family doesn’t need or want the info and your family doesn’t try to cheat to get the info out of them somehow, recording it, changing them into something that isn’t the person who made the oath, who has the memories.”

“Who even thinks of something like that last bit at her age, Sadler?” Walt asked.

“There’s two more of them around here,” Zed replied.

“I know there’s two more of them there.  Saw ’em hanging back on the Promenade.  Raw, no mentors, they don’t know nearly enough about some of the dangers out there, but they’ve got some power.  Is that right?”

“Not relevant to this deal, and I’ve sworn oaths to not disclose certain particulars,” Nicolette said.  “So has Zed.”

“Okay,” Walt said.  He sighed audibly.  “Gotta ask something.  Muting you.”

The call went silent.  Walt turned and said something to the Aunt, then the note-taker.

Walt looked back their way, his hand fizzling out of existence as he reached for something outside of the camera’s field of vision.  “Sound on?”

“Yeah,” Zed replied.

“Okay, alright, let us go talk this over.  Can we call back?  We might find someone and have them call.”

“The holograms might not work if you do,” Zed said, “but sure.”

Walt hung up.  The Garricks fizzled out, leaving only Nicolette.

“Thanks, Nicolette,” Avery said.  “Thanks Zed.  For the backup.”

“I did nothing,” Snowdrop said.

Avery put both hands on Snowdrop’s head and mussed it up.  “A few comments, sure, but I like the emotional support.”

“I’m not some emotional support animal,” Snowdrop said, trying to keep her balance, as Avery moved her head this way and that, in increasingly exaggerated ways.

“Do you want food?  I’ve got grilled veg and meat,” Brie said, behind them.

“I never take food from strangers,” Snowdrop said, ducking out of Avery’s grip.

“What do you think they’ll say?” Zed asked Nicolette.

“No idea.  I’ve barely dealt with them.  My first interaction with them was this spring.  Using the dollhouse to snatch up Snowdrop.”

“Ah, yeah,” Avery replied.

“Should I not mention that?  Do we pretend it doesn’t happen or do we acknowledge?”

“Acknowledge,” Avery replied, then amended, “awkwardly, I guess.”

“You didn’t pay for it at all,” Snowdrop said, chewing on meat.  “You’re still due some payback.”

“There’s that,” Nicolette replied.

Avery nodded to herself.

“How are you doing, Miss?” Avery asked, raising her voice to be heard, calling out to Miss, who stood by the tree, way off to the side.

“I’m doing quite well, the usual concerns aside.”

“Concerns about this, or just Kennet and-”

“Kennet, and what might unfold in the coming three days.”

“Sorry I didn’t go straight for the price Toadswallow suggested.  Used that for the penalty, instead.”

“It’s fine.  I think they might try to negotiate to come to you, see your setup and get a sense of who you are.”

“That’s a no,” Avery said.

“I’m glad I don’t need to elaborate on that, then.”

“Already way too much on Kennet’s plate right now, without surprise guests.  Maybe after- after this summer.”

“May I have a word with you and Snowdrop alone, before things resume?  I’ll ask Zed and Nicolette not to pry or spy.  Nothing too dangerous, more a question of privacy and delicate information.”

Zed nodded.

Avery walked over, Snowdrop following.

“What’s up?” Avery asked.

“Some mention was made of another Finder group.”

“Wonderkand?”

“Yes.”

“Do you know them?”

“No, I don’t think I’ve ever crossed paths with them.  A good thing, it seems.  But it was mentioned that they have a uniform.  The Garricks do as well.”

“Ear flap hat?”

“Yes.  I recognized the look by what Jude was wearing.  There might be a power in that, in being recognizable as a presence greater than one person, when traversing the Paths, or being able to ask if a Lost has seen someone with an outfit resembling yours.  A cost, too.  I should let you know, before any incident arises, I do believe I’ve crossed paths with a Garrick.  Between when you were rescued from the Forest Ribbon Trail and when I returned nearly a month ago.”

“Was it a good crossing of paths?”

“No.  In the man’s defense, he was turned around and struggling to find his way in very foreign, very dangerous territories, he was desperate, and it is very hard to know who you can trust.  He defaulted to mistrust.  It narrowed things down to a choice between me being bound and him dying.”

“You’re not bound, so…”

“He must be alive,” Snowdrop said, dead serious, just behind Avery.

“Maybe it’s the fact that patterns and being caught up in patterns worries me,” Miss said.  “But I may come into this with bias.  Take what I say with its pinch and parcel of salt.  If the earflap hat is a common uniform for them, then there could be a pattern to their behavior as well.  From what I heard, the Wolf’s arrival on the Promenade was a disaster.  They panicked.  My encounter with the Garrick in the Stuck-In Place was similar.  If that’s a through-line for the Garricks, I’d worry what they might do in their panic if disaster struck closer to home.”

“Like… what?” Avery asked.

“Depending on the enemy, they might give you up to an enemy.  You’ve been free with information.  Or they might start thinking that you have power, they’re in a pinch of whatever sort… financial, outside enemies, a schism in their group.  What if they decide they need that power and demanding it from you is their best option?”

“I think that might be a bit paranoid.  Like, Walt’s a bit overly wary like that, y’know?”

“Maybe.  I did say you should take this with its parcel of salt.  Use your best judgment, but while you’re using that judgment, do keep in mind… I’ve survived this far.  Walt is still there, after however many years.  Wary overthinking may be necessary.”

“Yeah.”

“You’re doing a fine job, Avery.  You too, Snowdrop.  Continue keeping Avery in good shape and better spirits, okay?”

Snowdrop shrugged.

“Wye’s words to you resonate with me,” Miss said.  “I was told what he said.  He said he had money, he could see things, but neither of those talents lent themselves to the problem before him.”

“Yeah.”

“I can be elusive.  I can see things from angles that let me see their innate qualities, or how they interface.  On the Paths, it’s essential.  It helped me pick you three.  I’m not good at… this.  I did what I could, I put you three in motion, but being elusive and deflecting the enemy doesn’t work when the enemy has landed here in Kennet.  I don’t know what I could see that Wye or someone else on our side couldn’t.  I can only counsel, advise, and empower.”

Avery nodded.

“I hope this empowers you enough.  It would have been too much a matter of months ago.  I don’t think you would have been ready for this conversation with the Garricks.”

“I hope it empowers me enough too,” Avery said.  She looked back at Zed, who was talking on the phone.  With Garricks?

God, the paranoia was catching.

“Today and the next few days are likely to be difficult.  I think, even if John were to seize his seat without any issues, they’d be difficult for you.  Leaving.”

Avery sighed.

“You’re not alone in feeling the difficulty, or in feeling the weight of what’s happening.  I picked you as three for a reason.”

“Yeah.  But that goes both ways, doesn’t it?  We add each other’s strengths, but we add each other’s weaknesses?  ‘Cause like, gosh, I definitely feel Verona’s stress, and Lucy’s worry.”

“I hope that doesn’t hold true when it counts,” Miss replied.  “I think Zed is ready for you to come back.”

Avery looked.  “I’ll check in with you after, Miss.”

“Call me when you need me.”

Avery walked back to Zed.

“Everything okay?”

“Some context stuff and just-in-cases.  Who were you talking to on the phone, and about what?”

“Garricks, making sure the hologram works.  Just nice to have.  Lasers are cool.”

“Couldn’t disagree more,” Snowdrop said.

The man who was drawn up in lasers was about twenty, long haired.  He didn’t have a pilot’s earflap hat, but he had big aviator goggles and headphones.  The strap of the aviator goggles pinched long hair close to his head, making it fan out more below.

“Clay Garrick here,” the guy said.  “We think I know enough about the Paths and the Promenade to make the judgment call here.  I’ve helped with some sales before, it’s my dad’s primary role.”

Nicolette addressed them, “Is it alright if I handle the terms?”

“Please,” Avery said.  “I might have to jump in with clarifications.”

“Nicolette’s pretty good at this,” Zed said.

“She really is,” Brie murmured, behind him.

Zed walked back a few steps, bringing his laptop, and sat.

Nicolette spoke, voice clear, if a bit distorted around the edges by the call.  “Clay, can you confirm for us that there’s no recording devices, trinkets, magic items, mundane items, practices, parrots, or other means of putting the information in question to record?”

“My memory.  Fingernails and skin.”

“Memory is allowed, of course, you’ll need that.  We’ll ask you keep your hands in plain view and still.  Don’t go clawing the words into your flesh.”

“Then there’s nothing else I can think of.  The room is empty except for some spare furniture.”

“No ears at the door?”

“No.” Clay said.  He went to the door, disappearing from view.  He returned.  “They’re down the hall, talking.  Nobody listening except the people on the call and the ambient spirits.”

“If there is something in play that you’re unaware of, that would constitute a breaking of the oath, to be paid for by you and-or your family.”

“We don’t do things that way.  I think we’re safe.”

“The oath we ask you to swear is made with agreement that should you break the oath, the oathbreaker or his family pays a penalty of a fine of one hundred and eighty thousand American dollars, or items or practices of equivalent value, to be agreed upon later.  At Avery Kelly’s discretion that penalty may be softened to amounts given out over time, in good faith, with minimal interest.  Brazen refusal to abide by the oath or to pay the resulting fine is cause for forswearance.  I think all parties involved want to avoid that.”

“This has been explained to me, I agree.”

“By the terms of the oath, you’re not to give any guidance, information, or act any differently than you would if you didn’t have the clue about the promenade.  If your actions or inaction specifically lead to the Garricks or their allies discovering the information, except by way of Avery Kelly, that’s a breach.   If you cheat, if you alter your Self in an attempt to slip the oath, if you’re tortured or forced to say by some alternate means, that will still constitute a breaking of the oath.”

“It stays with me.”

“Until such a time as a bargain is struck, where the Garricks buy the information from Avery Kelly.”

“Yes,” Clay said.  “That’s more convenient for sure.”

“Should there be any disagreement about monetary value of practice or items provided in penalty or the honest agreement, it is to be decided by a neutral party, determined by spirit, greater power, or negotiation between the Garricks and Avery Kelly, whichever both parties agree on.  I, Nicolette Belanger, or Zed Sadler, will make ourselves available for quick and possibly inexpert value assessment, if so desired, we assume that given our relationships to both you and to Avery Kelly, we’re in the ballpark of neutral.”

“Agreed, and that’s my understanding about you two.  If it gets contentious, we go back to something higher-level or hired neutral parties.”

“Anything else?” Nicolette asked Avery.

Avery shook her head.

Clay added, “The information is to be provided in a coherent, whole manner.  Don’t give us half and then demand more money for the rest.  Don’t hide it in a riddle or anything.”

“Agreed,” Avery said.

“I’m told you set the value at a hundred and twenty thousand?”

“Or something equivalent,” Avery said.  “That’s the starting point.  Penalty’s higher than what you’d get by dealing fair, at one-hundred-and-eighty-thousand.  You can decide the Garrick’s starting point after hearing.  This is just my best guess about the value.”

“Say estimate, not guess,” Nicolette said.

Avery nodded.  “I trust the people who gave me guidance on figuring out the value.”

“Okay,” Clay said.

“So sworn?” Nicolette asked.

“So sworn,” Clay replied.

After all that preamble, Avery expected a shuddering of the trees or something.

“Lay it on me,” Clay said.

Avery checked her bead bracelet to make sure there were no listening ears.  Nicolette and Zed had already made their oaths, which were way less convoluted and broad than what Clay had sworn.

“The Promenade can’t be traversed directly from start to finish.  You will, at a certain point, find that there are no moves available.”

“The value in this information is that we won’t waste our time trying?”

“You can traverse it by getting on a train.  You’ll want a ticket from someone already on the Promenade, you’ll want to barter, buy, or do a favor for them.  Be careful, some will want you to get them off the Path.”

Clay was nodding slowly.

“While you have the ticket, get on the appropriate train, walk the Path that train takes you to, could be five steps, could be having to walk that entire Path, but you’ll run into tracks, a tightrope, a road, something intersecting the path.  Wait.  don’t take your eyes off it, don’t close your eyes for longer than an eyeblink, or the track will disappear.  It will come.  It takes you back to the Promenade, should deliver you further up than you were.  Resets some movement patterns, the population of Lost should be less dense.  There’ll be a pattern of movement that can take you through.  Don’t believe it.  You need to do the same thing again.  You have to run a second path, that relates to the first you walked.”

“And the Wolf?”

“No idea,” Avery said.

“Damn,” Clay said.  “We were ninety percent sure you’d figured out what brought him there.”

“Sorry.”

“Okay.  That’s a fair bit of information.  I’m not sure if we can use it though.”

You frigging know you can use it, you’re trying to play hardball, Avery thought.  Whatever.

“I don’t know all the combinations of paths you can pair together for a way through, but the Cakewalk first, followed by the Watched Way should give you a clear route.”

“The Cakewalk is a Finder killer.”

“Good to know, I guess.  I’m just repeating what I know.  There are other combinations, apparently.”

“If this Lost navigated Cakewalk-” Zed started.

“The Cakewalk,” Clay replied.

“-Is there a chance you could get information on it?”

“Maybe.  I don’t want to go straight to that because that’d be its own negotiation.”

“I could argue that knowing that is part of this package of information we’d be bartering for,” Clay said.

“Avery agreed to tell you what she knows,” Nicolette said.  “It’s not part of what she knows.”

“I don’t want to get you guys killed,” Avery said.  “I can ask and pass it to Jude.  I won’t ask a lot.  Maybe I’ll ask for a follow-up to something you guys offer in the deal.”

Clay didn’t look happy, even with that concession.  “So… this is a purported solve?  Missing a big piece with the Wolf part not included.  Get a ticket from an Other by buying, bartering, doing a favor-?”

“Errand, depends on the shop you go to.”

“Errand.  We’d get the ticket to the Cakewalk, we’d go to the cakewalk, run some or all of it, until we find an intersection, we wait, we go back to the Promenade, get another ticket to another Path, the Watched way, we run that, and…?”

“And the numbers should thin out, Others reset patterns, you should have a route you can navigate to get through to the far end.  You could get both tickets before boarding the first train.  The boons are apparently strong.”

“Okay.  Okay, fuck me sideways, this is a lot more complicated than the napkin math we did on what we’d pay to be rid of the Wolf.  I’m going to call them over.”

“Okay.”

Clay stepped out of sight.

“This is fun,” Nicolette said.

“Yeah?” Avery asked.

“I like this part of the practice.  Maybe I picked up a bit of Alexander’s love for seeing practitioners working together.  That negotiation of an uneasy fit.”

“Cool,” Avery said.

“What are we thinking?” Walt asked.

“Eighty thousand,” Clay said.

Jude whistled.

I expected to meet them at something like sixty thousand, after negotiating.

“Eighty thousand, we can get you nine thousand dollars in cash today,” the Aunt said.  “That counts double?”

It makes some things easier, and I did say.  “Sure, counts double, but… I don’t want to come down that far.”

“A hundred thousand?” Clay asked.

“A hundred and twenty thousand, like I said,” Avery replied.  “We did our own napkin math, the time saved…”

Jude, the Aunt, the record keeper and Walt were looking at Clay, the guy who’d sworn the oath.

Clay winced, then nodded.

“Guess you got a deal,” Walt said.  “Clay knows he’s going to get in trouble if he’s wrong about something this expensive.”

“Clay’s handled the selling of some of the lesser goods, and his parents hire outside talent sometimes.  He should have a good sense of this,” the Aunt said.  “Okay, we’d be giving you a hundred and twenty thousand dollars in cash or Finder knowledge.  Related knowledge?”

“That should be okay too.”

“Nine thousand, as I suggested, spending money, not enough to draw notice from the bank?”

“It’s probably going in a secure locked box or something,” Avery said.  “My parents look at my bank statements.”

“You’ll want to take it out of the box and put it in a bank in five years or so,” the Aunt said.

“Can you make it a straight twenty thousand?” Avery asked.  “Uh, except cash means you’d deliver it in person?  I’m not sure I’m okay giving my exact location.”

“We know your general location.”

“Okay, well… still.”

“If you transfer me the funds,” Zed said, “I’ll divvy it up.  If everyone trusts me?”

Avery nodded.

“Counting double, that leaves us with eighty thousand.  Texts go for five hundred to five thousand…”

“Send me a list of what you’re willing to provide,” Zed said.  “Ray runs the Atheneum.”

“Of course.  Email?  Spreadsheet?”

“Yes,” Zed said.

“Poppy never made it to the Forest Ribbon Trail, did she?” Walt asked.

“Shane and Esme might have a sentimental attachment to the kit.”

“What’s this?” Avery asked.

“Collection of knick-knacks, items, and things we were going to give one of the kids, when she got old enough to walk the trail,” the Aunt said.  “She didn’t get that far, bless her heart.”

“What happened?”

“Leukemia,” Jude said.

“I’m not sure I want to-”

“Is this going to save us lives?  Time?  Money?” Walt asked.

Clay kept his mouth shut, eyes on the ceiling.

Walt shook his head a little.  “We came into this thinking we’d pay fifty thousand to have the Wolf off our backs.  Clay seems to think this is worth more than fifty thousand, so… that’s a thing.  It’s not just the Wolf?  Fuck it, I’ll talk to Shane, if this helps save lives, I can’t think of a better way to respect Poppy.”

“Make sure the family knows that what we’re getting, we’d be getting because Poppy provided the items, bit of remembrance,” the Aunt said.

“What are the items?” Nicolette asked.

“Blowdryer with a cut cord, set it to on, it’ll pin down whatever you’re pointing it at.  Blow it around a bit, but won’t blow it away.  Has to be a certain size, certain amount of strength or raw power can rip it away, but… handy.  Stapler, does the opposite, crack that baby open and give it a squeeze, catches ’em and flings ’em back, can even staple something or someone to a wall if you catch the edge of them and throw ’em back enough.  Eyeliner keeps your vision clear of dust and sand, but makes you colorblind while you’re wearing it.  Yo-yo string, tie it around something, throw that something away, it’ll come back to you within twenty-four hours.  Glass crowbar, lighter than a regular crowbar, more effective too, but it breaks on use, or breaks if you break it, fixes itself the next day.”

“Finder things are such a pain to price,” Zed muttered.

“You equip all your newbies like that?” Nicolette asked.

“Poppy was sick.  We thought we’d make it easy on her.  She was weak, we thought if she had a good day and she could run the path, she’d need stuff that didn’t need her to be strong,” the Aunt said.

“I’m not sure I want a dead girl’s things, especially if it’ll hurt her parents,” Avery said.

“We’ve been overly nice, letting them keep her room intact, stuff on the end of the bed,” Walt said.  “It’s been six years, those are items we could use, stuff that helps all the rest of us.  Maybe it’s an easier pitch, bartering it away, so Shane and his wife don’t have to see the items in use.  Is knowing what you’re going to tell us something that saves lives?”

Clay kept his mouth shut, eyes down.

Avery answered instead, “Paths are dangerous, knowing this should mean you don’t spend as much time fumbling through them.”

“Yeah, sure,” Walt said.  He gave Clay a long look.  “It’s the tidiest unclaimed collection of items we’ve got in stock that we’re not having to rip out of the hands of our own, or scrounge for.  That’s five items I can give you in a neat package, most of the rest of it’s going to be like pulling teeth.  People like having tools in their toolboxes.”

“Five hundred each for the five items,” Nicolette said.

“Fuck off,” Walt retorted, with a shocking amount of emotion.  “Two thousand each, very least.”

Avery felt like Nicolette had stepped on toes, pricing the items that low, when it was sentimental.

Nicolette replied, “A lot of them do what ordinary items do.  A crossbow covers the bases for both the hairdryer and stapler.”

“Yeah if you want to risk damaging what you’re shooting.  Crossbow’s harder to carry.”

“Than a hair dryer?”

“One thousand each?” Avery asked.

Walt frowned.

“If you can get them without upsetting Shane and Esme too much,” Avery said.

“Okay,” the Aunt said.

It felt weird, arguing about money in these quantities, when Avery didn’t really have a good grasp on that.  Maybe it was better to let Nicolette do the arguing, but Avery wanted to meet them halfway.

“Avery,” Zed said.

She walked over and ducked under a branch to crouch down to see where Zed had his laptop situated on a stump

There was a spreadsheet with a list of tomes and books, with various numbers, checkboxes, and notes beside them.

“Ones highlighted in blue are ones we have at the Blue Heron.  I know you’re not a student, but it’s easier for you to request them through Ray than get them for cash, I think.  I’d call a lot of them filler.”

“Verona said a lot of the main library texts were like… ads for the real texts.  Like, if you want to know more, contact this family for the volume with the actual ritual in it.”

“Yeah, you run into that.  A lot of those are blue here.  Other ones I’ve marked as blue are ones where they re-released a volume, basically the same text as an older work by an author, but new title.  I’d skip all of those.  Ones in red get shaky reviews.  Some are rare, that’s cool for rarity’s sake, but you’d want to be careful.  Some are written by people with mental illness, less of a grasp on the practice than… anyone here, I’d say.  Or just not coherently written for other reasons.  Gold highlight is seminal, good foundational texts to use.  Green is good reviewed, solid texts.”

“Do they have Finders 101?  Because I’ve apparently got gaps in my knowledge.”

“Guys?” Zed spoke up.

The Garricks had been talking to one another.

“Yeah?”

“Include Essentials, your Dramatis Personae, other introductory stuff.  Let’s get Avery the basics while we’re at it.”

“We’d want to redact,” the Aunt said.  “Nothing major, but a good contact is valuable.”

“Mostly I want Dramatis Personae for the notes it’d have on groups like Wonderkand and the other Finders she might run into.”

“Okay.  Limited redactions where appropriate for business… emailing.”

“You can send the PSBN numbers where it’s easier.”

“Got it.”

“Dramatis Personae is different for every family, more like a notebook or contact list where you keep track of friends and enemies,” Zed told Avery.  “Just about every practitioner’s got one.”

“Thirty three thousand, seven hundred for all the books?” Avery asked.  Forty-two texts and tomes from the Garrick archives.

“Hold on.  You guys have a column of checkboxes.  Column headed PC?” Zed asked.  “Clarify for me?”

“Photocopy.  Printed out and bound into a binder.”

“You gotta bring the price down for that,” Zed said.

“I’m not sure I care,” Avery whispered.

“You want a nice library further down the road,” Nicolette told her, which suggested the whisper hadn’t really done its work.  “When you’re twenty-something or you’re entertaining a marriage prospect who knows the practice, a nice library of leather backed books or old texts is a really nice look.”

“Uh huh,” Avery replied.

“Trust me.  You don’t care now but you will later.”

“I feel like I’m being corrupted on some level,” Avery replied.

“Make it a solid twenty thousand,” Zed said, “After the added beginner stuff, dramatis personae?”

“You’re putting quite a premium on a nice looking book.  Most of our kids don’t care about the texts being photocopies in binders,” the Aunt said.

“Then you won’t care if you send us original texts?  Give Avery enough to have a nice shelf to start with,” Nicolette said.

“Here.  Sending… there.  Amended list, we can send some originals.  Enough for a nice shelf.  Those are books you’re going to be reading a lot, you’ll appreciate having a nice tactile experience while you’re at it.”

“Uh, while I’m being weird, can I maybe ask for no leather?  I’ve kinda been a vegetarian since the Forest Ribbon Trail.”

“Got stranded, if I remember right,” Jude said.

“Yeah.”  By Nicolette.

“That’d make anyone quirky.”

“I don’t think I’d classify it as ‘quirky’,” Avery replied.

“Don’t sink this, Jude,” Walt said.  “Let it go.”

“Sorry.”

“Amending.  Sent.  There.  Twenty-seven eight hundred for the texts, with nice covers.  No leather.”

“Round it down to twenty-five, let’s keep the numbers tidy, it makes life easier,” Zed said.

“Round up to thirty?” the aunt asked.

“Down to twenty five, we can revisit, how’s that?”

“Might be a hard-fought revisit, but sure.  We’ll talk broad strokes to start.”

“One-twenty to start, minus twenty in cash that we’ve doubled to forty for speedy delivery.  Brings us to eighty thousand.  Minus five for the items brings us to seventy five thousand…”

“Are items arriving before tomorrow’s out?” Nicolette asked.

“Could,” Walt said.

“Better not.  Just… give Shane time to come to terms with it.  By the end of next month,” the Aunt said.

“Brings us to seventy-five thousand.  Twenty-five thousand for forty tomes and texts, twelve that should look nice on a shelf.”

“That’s enough books for a tidy little office like mine,” the Aunt said.

“Yeah, uh, I don’t know what I’m going to do with forty tomes and texts, honestly,” Avery said.

“Read,” Nicolette said.

“Spacewise, living with my mom.”

“Read fast?” Snowdrop asked, smirking.  Avery wiped her hand down Snow’s face.

“We can stagger out the deliveries.  Send you the essentials and things you’re most interested in.  Later, you can request the rest, or find a space to stick ’em ad request them all.”

“Okay,” Avery said.

“Fifty thousand left to negotiate,” Zed said.

“Can we mute?” Avery asked.

“We’ll take a minute talk about what we have for offer,” Walt said.  “Go ahead.”

They muted.

“Miss?” Avery asked.  “You wanted half.  Ignoring the cash, that’s fifty thousand for me, fifty for you.”

“I wanted the half in principle more than anything.  So you’d be here, asking for this, instead of passing the information to Jude for little else.”

“Well, what do your principles want?” Avery asked.

“Do they have Others bound?”

“Ah.  Hmmm… If they do?  Release?”

“Find out what it would take for them to release them.  Into the wild here, if they’re safe for humans, or back onto the Paths.”

“Maybe might want to leave the especially dangerous Path predators bound?  I know some stuff can get pretty intense,” Avery said.

“Use your discretion.  Do what you can, use the remainder, get some standalone practices for yourself.  I’d rather you’re capable and able to defend yourself.”

Avery nodded, then she turned to Zed.  “Unmute?”

“Unmuting.  We back?”

“You’re back,” Walt said.  “And?”

“Bound Lost?”

“We have a fair few.  There was a time, my great grandfather and grandfather’s day, back when we called ourselves Dreamers or Dream-walkers, we thought if we bound enough we could depopulate the Paths, less dangerous Others to run into.”

“That’s… hm,” Avery found herself lost for words.  “Not great?”

Walt explained, “We paid for it.  One slipped the binding, he let a bunch of others free.  We paid a price.  There’s still a few bound, we still bind when it keeps ourselves safe…”

“But once bitten, twice shy,” the Aunt said.

Good?  Ugh.

“How many can you safely let go?” Avery asked.

“You want to spend money on this?” the Aunt asked.

“I want to like you guys, I want to keep up the arrangement, secure this deal, secure ones like it.  I think I can get you some information on a dangerous path.”

Miss nodded, and though her head wasn’t visible, Avery got the gist of it from the movement of hair.

“…yeah.  I told Clay I’d make that cheap, because I don’t want you guys dying.  And I have some information on the stores on the Promenade.  Other stuff.  So you know, just going to say, hmm… the amount you fight me on freeing these bound Others, the price you ask, it’s going to change how nice and cooperative I am going forward, the prices I ask for the other tidbits.”

“We don’t have a neat and tidy catalogue of that stuff.”

“Meaning?” Nicolette asked.

“We’d have to go into the back rooms, dig through records, maybe call one of the older family members who remember the old days to refresh ourselves on who some of those Others are.”

“They’ve been caged this long and they’re, what, gathering dust?”

“Sleeping.  Inside objects, books,” Jude said.

The Aunt said, “We’d have to do a fresh tally, get back to you.”

“How many do you have, ballpark?” Avery asked.

“A hundred or so, I’d guess,” Walt said.  “But only thirty or forty that survived the great escape back in the old days, and of those… twenty, twenty five might be safe to let out?  The recent ones are scary.”

Like the guy Miss thought was scary?

Maybe that was something to work out later.  Tie it to the Cakewalk info, or the store info.

“A thousand per?” Avery asked.  “For every one you let go, you can take it off my asking price.  Fill out the remainder with some practices I can use?”

“Going by the value of books, the stuff on the Atheneum Arrangement,” Zed said, “Seven fifty for a solid practice Avery can use?”

“They’d be in pages, not nicely bound.”

“That’s expected.  Just make sure it’s legible, in order, and that it works.”

“Some of that’s going to be family practices.  There’s a value in putting a text out there, making it part of a greater pattern, but there’s something to be said for having it in-house.  The releases, the shorter practices, that’s stuff we’d have to have family meetings over.  That’s harder to do.”

Nicolette and Zed looked at Avery.

“If you’d swear to deliver some combination of all that, or items, or something, we can finish off this discussion later,” Avery said.

“Counts double if we get it to you soon?”

“Yeah.”

“Releases too?”

“I…” Avery hesitated.  Miss was gone when she looked.  “…I don’t think that helps me here, it’s definitely a good faith thing I’ll remember though.  Let’s say yeah, but it depends.  I’d rather see more innocent Lost free than less of them free faster.  Especially if they’re asleep and not, like, suffering.”

“We’re not monsters,” the Aunt said.

“Then, if we’re good, if the transaction as outlined is fair, fifty thousand dollars in goods, services, releases, and knowledge to be negotiated still, are we decided?” Walt asked.

“Yes,” Avery said.  “Particulars of that future stuff that we’ve gotta sort out will impact negotiations, further deals, whatever else.”

“Marriage?” the Aunt asked.

“How you guys approach what’s left might change how future negotiations go,” Avery said.  “Depending on a lot.  Like I said, slim shot.  I don’t want to be dishonest.”

“Mm hmm,” the Aunt replied.

“We’ll provide the goods to the best of our ability, so sworn,” Walt said.

“Then, by the deal struck… I can tell you.”

Avery told them.  The same deal she’d told Clay.  Clay nodded throughout.

“Fuck me,” Walt said.  “A solve?”

“Near solve,” Clay said.  “Some finer details to be worked out.  Like the Wolf.”

“Fuck me,” Walt said.  He paced a little, nodding.  As he passed Clay he clapped a hand on Clay’s back.  “Good.”

“Yeah, because I was nervous enough I thought I’d get a piss-dribble down my inner thigh for a bit there.”

“Gross,” Jude said.

“It’s good, Clay.  Okay.  You’ve been fair, Avery Kelly,” Walt said.  He seemed happy.  “We’ll get you set up.”

“She said she might have some tips on the Cakewalk.”

“I said I’d make it cheap,” Avery said.

“Fuck,” Walt said.  “What the fuck are we going to give you, kid?  We’ve gotta bring you into the family.  Polish up our eligibles.  Who or what are you looking for in a partner?”

Jude gave his head the smallest of shakes.  This time the Aunt saw it.

“What are you up to, Jude Garrick?”

Jude froze.

“Trying to milk yourself for value?  Avery gets a little more, you get to look good in front of the family for reeling her in?”

“I’d really rather not be referred to as being polished or milked,” Jude said.

“We’ll talk, young sir,” she told him.  To Avery, she said, “I think us Garricks should jump straight into a family meeting.  Talk about options, see what we can send her.  There’s a financial incentive to getting this done fast, if we get the discount.”

Avery nodded.

“I think we’re going to let you go so we can do that.  Zed, can we use the Atheneum, digital access to the texts as a short-term method?”

“I think so.  Just a question of exchanging permissions on the digital bookshelves.  If Avery’s okay with keeping texts on her laptop?”

“Yeah,” Avery said.  “As a temporary thing, at least.  The Atheneum’s sorta annoying to log into and use.”

“Item deliveries will come.  Money will be transferred bank to bank, Zed’s handling that…”

“Five thousand to Nicolette, Five thousand to Zed,” Avery said.  “For services today.”

“Okay.  Should I finagle that or-”

“I can,” Zed said.  “With Avery’s okay.”

“Yep.”

“We’re going to let you go and wrangle the family.  People will be excited,” the Aunt said.

“Don’t go selling this info to Wonderkand before we can use it,” Walt said.

“Wouldn’t know how, and that’s not how I do things,” Avery said.

“Yeah.  Oh, this is a good day.  We asked a lot of Others, most were unable, unwilling to say, the rest were cryptic, and they weren’t even pointing us in this direction.”

“I think I might’ve had a slight hint from one.  I wouldn’t have put the pieces together,” Avery said.

“This is how Paths get discovered,” Walt said.  “Gotta find it, figure out a reliable means of getting in, fling yourself at it a few times, scared as hell, maybe you unravel it, usually you don’t.  Then you get the right information from the right Other, or a clue, put two pieces of information together, find the tool that gives you a clear idea of what’s up.  Then you got it.  Still got a lot to figure out, but this?  This is good.”

Jude gave her a thumbs up.

Then the call ended.

“Well,” Zed said.  “Minor details still left to resolve, but there you go.”

“There it is,” Avery said.  “I’m a little… almost dizzy from how that went.”

“Hey,” Zed said.  “I think with this info and stuff you’re getting, you just moved up from beginner Finder to intermediate.  Maybe even getting toward Advanced.”

Avery got whole-body chills from that.

Snowdrop, beside her, got sympathetic full-body chills by way of the familiar bond.  She held up her arm where Avery could see the hairs standing on end.  Then she quickly became an opossum, while the effect was still there, her entire body bristling.

“Goof,” Avery told her, picking up the opossum.

“Do you want lunch?” Brie asked.

Snowdrop made sneezy noises about six times in quick succession, excited.

“I- I shouldn’t,” Avery said.

“To go?”

“Sure,” Avery said, grunting as Snowdrop went from being an opossum cradled in her arms to being a twelve year old kid, tumbling to the ground perilously close to the fire.  “Snowdrop too, I assume.”

No time, she thought again.

Her phone beeped.  Some preliminary stuff was being sent her way.  It beeped again, then again.  She put it on vibrate.

She’d spent so much time on this.  She hoped it counted, in the long or short run.  They didn’t have much time, and there were other things she needed to do.

One and a half days.

Lucy and Verona stood by while Avery drew in the dirt with chalk.

“We need stencils to help with this sort of thing,” Lucy said.

“Agreed,” Avery said, concentrating.

“I was working on some, really meditative to cut them out,” Verona said.  “Letters, numbers…”

“Exactly what we need here.”

“Yeah.  Then my bag got trashed.”

“Frick,” Lucy muttered.  “Imagine holding that over his head in an argument.  Something like, ‘Kennet crumbled because you ruined my bag, we were that close!”

“Except you know, like, Kennet might actually fall?”

“Stay positive, I think if we make it through this, it’s by the power of positivity,” Lucy said.

“Blahhhhhh.”

“Blahhhhh,” Snowdrop echoed Verona, which prompted Verona to do it again, more exaggerated.

“Really not helping my concentration,” Avery said.

“Put a rock down for the A and then pick it up later.  Should leave a hole in the middle.”

“Gimme one?”

Verona handed one over, then stood over the diagram, arms folded.  “Argumentative, illustrative…”

“Standing in my light.”

Tashlit, standing guard, walked over to help drag Verona out of Avery’s required sunbeam.  She stretched skin and pulled it over Verona’s eyes and forehead, the back of Verona’s head resting against Tashlit’s eyeball-patterned arm, the eyes squinting shut.

“Thank you.”

Thumbs up from Tashlit.

“Okay,” Avery said.  She stood back, checked her phone.  “Hope it’s good enough.  They said I should do the first one.  That it was a good thing, I should get it started.”

“If it’s that good a thing why didn’t they do it sooner?” Lucy asked.

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure it’s them trying to sound nice and encouraging,” Avery said.  “Silence, please.”

Tashlit, mute, clapped a hand over the mouth she didn’t have and never used.  The others fell silent.

“Freak and Squeak went down to the creek, to spy on Mr. Cotter.  The pair had cheek, to sneak a peek down there by the water.  The old man shrieked, and Squeak was meek, and ne’er a chase was hotter.  But Freak could sneak and violence wreak, and kill’d the man who’d slaughter’d.”

“Terrible,” Lucy said.

“There are like twenty of these, some longer, there’s apparently a random chance that they work, but the chance goes up for each one you do.  Ummm… “Freak and Squeak-”

The circle shuddered.  They all backed up.

The dirt crested, bulging, then broke away.  It tumbled into a loose ring, just past the bounds of the circle.  The lines of the diagram and the appellation surrounded it.

“Guess they wanted out,” Verona said.

“Shh,” Lucy shushed.

Freak and Squeak were two Lost, standing in the circle.  One was a girl, about eight or so, with silken blond hair, straight and so fine it looked hard to manage, falling into pure, untangled lengths.  She wore a dress that was white, with lacy pink down the front, sandals with flowers in them, and similar flowers in her hair.  The flowers were perpetually unfolding and blooming, shedding petals, making room for others to bloom.  Her hands clutched at her dress.  Long eyelashes had flower petals caught in them.

The other was about nine feet tall, hairy, and bug-eyed, eyes pointing in different directions, with drool leaking between fangs, a tongue hanging down.  It was a kind of fairy tale, storybook kind of monster though, with colorful white-pink fur that took a red tint at the tips.  Tufted fur did a bad job of hiding dangling genitals, and uneven limbs gave him a perpetual lean to one side.

The girl scuffed the circle with her toes, touching chalk lines without breaking them.

She hiked up her dress to the knees for the ability to freely move her legs, wheeled on the spot, and proceeded to kick the hairy guy in the knee.  The leg bent the wrong way, he tumbled, staying within the confines of the circle, and he bray-squealed as she kicked him again.  She kicked him in the chin and fangs bit down on the dangling tongue, prompting him to wave his head around, tongue bloody.

“Stop!” Avery said.

“Fuck you!” the girl retorted.  “Shut your fuck mouth or I might shut it for ya.  Kick you between the legs so hard you spit piss.”

“I don’t think I like her much,” Snowdrop said.

“I guess she’s Freak?” Verona asked.  “The big guy’s Squeak?”

“Fuck yourself,” the girl said, applying some vague accent to the swear word for emphasis.  “Yeah, I’m Freak.  This loser doesn’t even deserve a shit name like Squeak, but he’s got it.”

Squeak pawed at the invisible wall of the diagram, before making a feeble sound.

“Shut up, get up!” Freak told him.  “Get up or I’ll make you eat a literal brick along with the teeth I break shoving it down there.  Then I’ll make you eat it off the ground again when you’re done squeezing it out!”

Squeak got up.

“And pick me up!”

Squeak gently put heavy claws around her middle, lifting her into the air.

“Don’t manhandle me, oaf!  I’m a lady!”

The strike against Squeak’s face was audible.  It sounded like it broke something.  He whined.

She’s strong.  He’s… not especially.

Avery looked at the notes, while Squeak put Freak on his shoulder.  “They’re one Other, even though they look and act like two.”

“Are we sure we want to release them?” Lucy asked.

“Release?” Freak asked, looking down at them, pausing in her tugging on Squeak’s ear.  “He doesn’t deserve it.”

“Yeah,” Avery said.  “We’d need to make sure you’ll be good, we could use some help in the short term, but… that’s a karmic thing, maybe a bit of good karma as thanks to help you on your way.  If you want to tell me to fuck off, but you’re willing to agree to be good, I can let you go.”

“Define good, because this loser thing is good for nothing!” Freak exclaimed, reaching for one of Squeak’s eyeballs and dragging fingernails down his face until she got a grip on a lower eyelid.  She hauled his face closer to her and then kick-scuffed her sandals along one side of his snout.  He waved his head around as much as he could, trying to avoid the kicks and scraping edges of the wooden sandals.

“Don’t hurt anyone, don’t betray innocence, don’t steal anything that isn’t like, bread when you’re starving or whatever.  Just y’know, live your best life.”

“Can’t go anywhere with this goon tagging along with me everywhere,” Freak said.  “Doesn’t let me get up to much.”

“Is that a yes?”

Squeak crouched, making Freak sway on her seat at his shoulder, then cupped hands, extending them out, closer to the ground.

“Pleading…?” Verona asked.  “Begging?”

The cupped hands went flat, pushing toward them.

“I think he’s asking What do you want, help-wise?” Verona asked.

Tashlit nodded.

So did the big guy.  Freak reached for a branch, snapped it off, and speared his ear canal with it.  He reared back, eyes pointing in even more opposite directions, flailing, banged into one invisible wall, and nearly threw his passenger off, before catching her with a surprising gentleness.  She proceeded to haul the stick out of his ear and smack him across the face with it.

“If they’re one and the same, is that self-abuse?” Lucy asked.  “I don’t like it.”

“Guys,” Avery said.  “Can you be nice to… yourself?  One another?  Whatever?  No extreme violence, at least?”

“Fuck!” Freak raised her voice.  She threw down the stick.  She rubbed one arm all the way along her nose, leaving a shiny track of snot on it, then rubbed it on Squeak’s fur.

Which was… at least not violent?

“We need strength.  Muscle, backup,” Avery said.  “More of it.  Gotta deal with some scary people, practitioners.  I’d understand if you weren’t up for it.”

Squeak lurched forward, then nodded vigorously.

“What are you doing!?” Freak shouted.  “No, stop that!  Don’t agree!  I’ve gotta stick with you to make sure you don’t ruin everything.  You’re incompetent!”

“Apparently he is incompetent,” Avery said.  She flipped through pages on her phone.  “All the rhymes have him messing up.  Lots of violence from her, I guess.”

“That’s me,” Freak said, jabbing a thumb at her chest.  “Ludicrous violence like water from a water pump.”

“Really strong Lost to call on, but a little uneven,” Avery noted.

“That’s his fault,” Freak said.

“Are we sure about this?” Lucy asked.

“We’ve got Tash, do we have John?”

“Talked to Toadswallow and John earlier, they think it’s best we keep John out of trouble.  We don’t want him getting hurt before things kick off,” Lucy said.

“We don’t want him to be part of things at all,” Avery said.

“We need muscle, just in case,” Verona said.  “And this is muscle?”

“Yeah,” Avery said.

Lucy sighed.

The little girl seated on the monster’s shoulder flexed an arm, petal-dusted eyelashes squinting shut as she smiled wide.

“The goblins are going to hate her,” Snowdrop said.

“Damn straight goblins like me,” Freak said.  “I even scared the literal poop out of some, going all out on some doofus Abyssal.”

“Don’t, uh, go all out, without the a-ok?” Avery asked.  “If we let you go, you help, you keep quiet, keep Squeak from making any major mistakes, just… rein it all in…”

“Kick ass when we tell you to kick ass,” Lucy said.

“Yeah.  Are we talking dented ass, caved-in ass, ass given a new shape that alters your feelings on buttholes and accompanying parts forever?  That’s me taking it to a three.  I can take it to five.”

“We’ll let you know,” Avery said.

The little girl pulled a flower from the hair arrangement, and pushed it toward Squeak’s snout.  He whined, pulling away, snot dribbling and eyes turning red.  She laughed.

“We have a deal?” Avery asked.

“We have a deal.  Shake her hand, you wimp?”

Avery paused before reaching across the circle, then took the giant claw in her hand.  She gave it a light shake.  Then she scuffed the chalk circle.

“Sixty years,” Freak muttered, as she rode Squeak out of the circle, pulling on his hair and ears to steer him.  “Sixty years we were bound.”

“I heard it was a while,” Avery said.  “You were sleeping?”

“Like a coma.  This guy can tell you about comas.  I’ve put him in…”

She started to count on fingers, stuck out toes, then reached down to pull on arm hair, until he lifted up claws for her to count on.

“…A bunch.  Only way I get any peace.”

“We’re going to handle some sensitive stuff,” Avery said.  “Look, if you can’t be still, be good, if you’re going to cause a commotion-”

“I’ll make sure he’s good.  He knows what happens if he doesn’t listen.”

“I’m worried about you too.”

“Enh,” the little girl grunted.  “Dedicating all my attention to him means I don’t get to have much fun.”

“That doesn’t mean she won’t cause trouble,” Snowdrop said, like she was confiding in them.

“Rule of discourse?” Avery asked.

“Nah.”

Squeak put out a claw, and Snowdrop looked back at Avery, who gave her a wary nod.

Snowdrop was lifted up to Squeak’s other shoulder for a ride.

Frig.  Frig frig frig.

There was only so much time left.  She’d used up a chunk for… for this.  For Finder knowledge.  Stuff she’d work on overnight.  A suite of tricks, a summon, other stuff that would pay off later.  She had so many notifications on her phone about granted permissions on the Atheneum Arrangement that she literally had not scrolled through them all.

Which meant they had to do some tricky stuff with the time that remained.

“Good to go?” Avery asked.

Lucy nodded.

She and Lucy donned their masks, and all three had capes and hats on.  Only Verona didn’t have the cat mask.  Some of the stuff was silly, but wearing any of the stuff they’d awoken with was an advantage, however small.  All of that stuff put together?  It might be the difference between being an eight and a half out of ten and a ten out of ten.

They cut through the woods, with Squeak making a fair bit of noise for something that was supposed to be meek and subdued.

Cherrypop was sitting on a tree branch, overlooking the path they were taking, rock tucked under one arm.  She stood, swaying while holding onto a branch, and seemed to realize she didn’t have an easy way down.

Squeak picked up Snowdrop with one hand, lifting her, and raised her up enough she could pluck Cherry off the high branch , before returning the two of them to one shoulder.

Cherry panted for breath.  “Aaaa!”

“Aaaaa!” Snowdrop replied, before plopping Cherrypop down on Squeak’s head.  The hulking Lost swung a head around to look at Snowdrop, tongue lolling, rivulets of drool swinging down to stick to chest in quarter-circle shapes, and nearly flung Cherrypop off.  She managed to hold on.

“They’re-” Cherry panted for breath.  “They’re waiting.  At the perimimeter.”

“Perimeter,” Verona said.

“Parryameter.”

Because time was short, and because there were so many bases to cover, they were covering two at once here.  They didn’t want to split up, especially this close to the event, which meant they couldn’t divide focus like they had been.

They advanced through the woods, Avery walking down the path, leading the way, Lucy and Verona behind her.  She was wearing the deer mask, and today it felt a bit like she’d earned it.  But just like the Other that followed behind, well, the wolf wasn’t far off.  Violence wasn’t far off.

She swung her bag around, caught it, and got the water bottle from inside.  A wooden ward-like symbol was attached to it by butcher’s twine she’d snagged from the kitchen.  She’d washed the arrangement of wood in clean water.

Uncapping it, she poured the water out slowly between her fingers.

A triangular bit of ceramic dish came out, landing across her fingers.

Carefully, she pressed it into the wood.

She tossed it up, and a hand caught it.

A signature rune arranged in a way evocative of how Dish’s shrine was, but in twigs and twine.  Washed in Dish’s water.

The spirit floated around them.

Verona did something similar, with a very different arrangement of twigs, calling Legs out of the perimeter to help.  Lucy pulled on a spirit of something driven by fire, and produced smoke and flame.

They’d spaced out the ones they were calling on, so the boundaries wouldn’t be weakened too much.  The perimeter mostly got used at night, against the wraiths and spirits that got more active when the innocents fell asleep.

Legs crawled from Squeak to Tashlit, then onto Verona’s shoulders.  Spidery, many-legged, Legs seemed like it should be heavy but it was apparently as light as air.

Lucy’s spirit hung close to her.  She had papers and it was paying attention to those.  She had her weapon ring and necklace in one hand.

And they weren’t alone.

As they advanced, the goblins were waiting.  Perched at the treeline.

Avery gave a long, curious look to Bluntmunch.  Bluntmunch, who might be working against them.  Gashwad was there.  So were Tatty, Bangnut, Peckersnot, Doglick, Butty, Nat, Biscuit, Kittycough, and Ramjam.  Of all the goblins, only Toadswallow wasn’t present.

She could see Wye in the window.  He said something.

The door opened.  It was Raquel.

“We thought you might be the Witch Hunters,” she said.

“They’ve been around?” Lucy called out.

“Constantly.  Shot up the cabin.  We had to make the glass bulletproof.  Rigged up traps.  Did other stuff, just so you know.  Attacking us would be dumb,” Raquel called out.

She stepped outside.  A number of Musser’s Others stepped out from behind her.  One with eyes and hair that glowed like embers.  One with pale skin and black hair, a shiny top.  The raincoat Other that Lucy had mentioned.  A guy dressed in black, lanky.

“Uncle described it as a siege.  Striking at odd hours of the night, trying to distract us, find an opening, make us make a mistake.”

Wye stepped outside as well, arms folded.

“Can we talk, Raquel?” Avery called out.

“Aren’t we talking?”

“About serious stuff.”

“Brought an army for a chat about serious stuff?”

Lucy replied, “Brought an army because we sorta figured it’s the only way your uncle would pull back a bit and hear us out.  Seems to respect strength.”

“Numbers don’t necessarily mean strength.”

“Come on,” Lucy replied.  “You saw us at the Blue Heron.  You know we have power.  We’re pretty strong as practitioners go.”

“If you’re that strong, you don’t need the army.”

“Bit circular,” Verona said.

“It doesn’t matter that much,” Avery said.  “Is your uncle around?  Sleeping?”

“None of your business and none of your business.”

“Are you the Musser candidate, Raquel?” Avery asked.

“Ah, you heard?”

“Fliers are plastered all over town,” Avery said.

Verona dropped her bag, reached inside, and flipped through pages.

Breastbiter had a hype ad.  There was a new one for John, like a kind of action movie.  There was one for something called Cagerattler, bogeyman.  There was one for a goblin like thing with no face, just an ear with blood coming out of it, gibberish name.  There was one for the wolf, like an environmental preservation ad with the language twisted around.  Another one for John.  Another for Cagerattler.  One for a giant face with uneven teeth peering out of the trees, eyes wide, smiling like it didn’t know how human faces smiled.

And the Mussers.  They’d collected three.  They’d talked about it earlier when discussing coming here and Verona had gathered the pages together.

Verona drew on the back of one page, then made notes on the other two.  She cast them into the air.

The wind picked up the pages.  Pages arced and twirled toward Raquel-

Shadows and teeth caught them out of the air.  The man wearing mostly black, the tight-fitting black tee, the skinny jeans, the spiked belt, slight slouch.  He grabbed the papers and turned them over, checking the runes.

Then he handed them to Raquel.

“Weird.”

“It’s an event,” Verona said.  “Are you the mystery Musser that applied?”

They hadn’t wanted to let the Mussers know Wye had reached out.

“What does it gain us to let you know?” Raquel asked.

“We know you made it out okay, the night the sky turned red,” Avery said.

“Sure,” Raquel replied.  “And?”

“We know how.”

“Do you?” Raquel asked.  She looked at Wye.  “You going to tell my uncle about this?”

“Only if he asks.  And if he asks, he already knew.”

“Okay,” Raquel said.  “Guys, if you want to help… fuck off.  I was up all night keeping watch for Witch Hunters, I could use the opportunity to nap.”

“Are you the Musser candidate?” Avery asked, again.

“Oh my god.  You girls suck.  Would-”

The Other in black started walking down the stairs.

“Rabbit Killer,” Lucy murmured.

“Stop, come back,” Raquel ordered.

The Other didn’t listen to her.

“Me?” Freak asked.

“Are you sure?” Avery asked.  “He’s strong.”

Freak hopped down from Squeak’s shoulder.

Avery watched Raquel, instead of watching the Lost kid approach the shadow-manipulating Other of unknown type and origin.  She caught a hint of exhaustion in Raquel’s features.  A hint of- of something Avery had come very close to running into in the past.

“Raquel?” Avery called out, across the span of grass that separated cabin from treeline.

Rabbit Killer lunged- not for Freak, but for Avery.  The shadows reached, faster in crossing a hundred feet than Avery could take a step.

Freak hurried forward, and something in how she moved made Rabbit Killer take that grasping hand of shadow that moved across the ground and sweep it at Freak.  An arm, a hundred feet long, bristling with teeth, moving like shadow crept across ground, swatting her, rolling over her.

Rocks tipped over and fell into the shadow.  Some caught on the teeth at shadow’s edge.  Others disappeared into black void.

Freak, eight and tiny, scrawny, was only half submerged.  Rabbit Killer tilted his head as he looked at her.

She began wading toward him, like she was walking through thick mud.

Rabbit Killer turned his head swiftly, like he’d seen something or realized.  Looking at Squeak, who huddled and cowered, one razor-sharp claw pressed over his eyes.

They’re one and the same.  They’re attached.  Can’t eat one without swallowing the other, any more than you can eat a brownie in one bite by biting off half.

Avery had to find the opportunity to ask.  This was a dual-purpose mission.  On the one hand, they checked on Musser.

On the other, they checked on the goblins.

Snowdrop had climbed down from Squeak’s shoulder, drawing closer to Avery.

“Goblins, you guys ready if this becomes a fight?”

There were murmurs of agreement.

“Can I hear it from you?  Words loud enough for them to hear?” she asked, indicating Musser’s group.

Goblins cheered.  They were ready, eager.

“Are you ready to moon them like they’ve never been mooned before, if this doesn’t become a fight?” Verona asked.

The goblins cheered with just as much enthusiasm.

“You have our back?” Lucy asked.  “You with us?  All the way?”

And there, like they’d planned, that hesitation.  Even a goblin, foul as it could be, had to give its respect to the truthful word.

Bluntmunch said nothing, only smashing a meaty paw of a hand against chest, loud enough it matched any goblin’s voice, his eyes forward, not meeting hers.

Not Ramjam, not Biscuit.  Did that come later?  Would he bully them into going against the three of them when everything counted?

Bluntmunch glanced back over his shoulder at them.  And it was casual, like he was making sure Cherrypop was where she was, or checking there weren’t Witch Hunters behind them.

But he checked on them.

Like he knew, or suspected.

“Can I suggest a truce?” Wye asked.

Freak was very close to Rabbit Killer.  Both looked intent on tearing the other to shreds.  Avery had no idea what that would look like.

“Call each other’s Others off?”

“Is Raquel capable?”

“Rabbit Killer!” Raquel raised her voice.  “Uncle gave you orders.”

Rabbit Killer paused.  Then the shadows retreated.  Freak stumbled and found her footing on grass, then tensed, like she, small child, flowers in her hair, petals scattered on hair, eyelashes, and clothes, might lunge forward.  Goblins jeered.

“Back!” Avery called out.

The girl turned, marching back toward them.

“I don’t think it serves any of us to have this altercation,” Wye raised his voice.

“I think that was strong Others testing each other,” Lucy called out.

“Musser isn’t here.  Neither is Reid.”

“Where are they?”

“Preparing.  Reid’s getting a crash course in what Musser thinks will help him win.”

“He picked Reid?”

Wye nodded.

“He won’t win,” Raquel said.  “It’s a way to get rid of an inconvenient failure.  If Reid goes home with a scarred face, attends any events with Uncle, it’ll look bad.”

Avery paused, then she ventured away from the treeline, onto the grass.  She kept a careful eye on the Others.  Musser’s familiars who weren’t so familiar.  Some of the others followed her.  Lucy.  Verona.  Snowdrop.  Tashlit.  Freak and Squeak.

“You weren’t talking like that when you thought he might give you the job,” Wye said.

“Would’ve been nice, wouldn’t it?  Maybe the longest of long shots.  Get power, get… position, right?  Be someone who can’t be ignored or looked down on?”

“I don’t think it’d work that way,” Verona said.  “Sometimes you can’t ever please them, or fix it.  You’d just destroy yourself trying.”

“I don’t have any friends anymore.  I don’t- family’s barely family.  School’s awful ever since Uncle became headmaster.  I’ve been so busy working on trying to catch up or get ahead that I- I get told I have to watch the cabin, he makes his familiars clean because I can’t clean well enough, and I basically have free time.  No books to read from school, no tools, nobody to talk to except Wye…”

“I don’t mind the talks,” Wye said.

“…I have the time to myself in what feels like the first time in weeks, maybe months or years.  I don’t know what to do with myself.  I don’t know what I enjoy doing.  I don’t understand the shows on TV, they all seem to expect you to know the storyline, or they’re… they’re so stupid.  So asinine, so obnoxious.  The ads.  No, I- I can’t watch TV.  I can’t read fiction, it all feels so fake, the rest of it’s so dull…”

“You need to find your own place, your own path,” Avery said.  “Run, escape.  Get somewhere better.”

Raquel shrugged a shoulder.  “I thought if I was picked I’d have a point.  Just for a short, stupid moment, I’d have something I could do, with people behind me.  I thought I might apply anyway.  Without my uncle’s power behind me.”

“You’d die,” Lucy said.

“But I’d at least, I think if I did it right, if I timed it, used weaknesses, really put my all into one moment, one fight, I could beat Reid.  He’s broken, but Uncle still picked him.  Wouldn’t it- can you imagine the look on Uncle’s face?  If little me stood victorious over Reid?”

“He can’t watch.  No spectators,” Lucy said.  “Beside-”

“But- but,” Raquel replied.  “But… I think he’d know.  Someone could tell him.  I can imagine the look.  I could feel that victory and that feeling, the imagining… that’s enough.”

“It’s my experience,” Lucy told her, “that those bittersweet moments are a heck of a lot more bitter than they are sweet, once you get down to it.  Ignorant people won’t have a wake up call.  They’ll invent reasons.”

“I’ve already messed up enough.  I said all this here, his familiars will tell him.”

“I got the impression it doesn’t matter,” Verona said.  “If you do it all right, you get three nights out of seven a week where he’s shitty to you.  If you screw it up, you get five or six or seven.  But it doesn’t change anything in the end.  Three nights or seven, still does a number on you.  What you gotta do is change it up, get away.”

Raquel shook her head.

“Do you want a hug?” Avery asked.

“From any of you?  No.  God, my uncle might actually kill me.  Consorting with the enemy.”

“I’ve kinda been where you’re at, in a way,” Avery whispered.  “And to me, back then, it kinda felt like not getting that hug might kill me.”

Raquel swayed on the spot.  Avery was willing to close the gap.

“I swore an oath to hold the fort.  Please leave, or I’m going to order the familiars to attack,” Raquel said.

Avery reached into her pocket.  She scribbled on the blank spell card.

“If that’s a practice-”

“It’s not,” Avery said.

She crossed no-man’s land.  Closer to dangerous Others.  Her eyes were down on the card.

Through Snowdrop, she was aware of how tense many of the goblins were.  How tense Verona and Lucy were.

“If you hug me I’ll have one of these Others tear your head off,” Raquel whispered.

“Okay,” Avery said.  “Let’s not do that then.”

She held out the card.

Raquel took it.

“That’s our emails.  I’ve been in touch with a bunch from the Blue Heron.  Just like, saying hi, keeping one another up to date.  That’s me, Verona, and Lucy.  Write an email, send Verona a cute cat picture, ask for a movie recommendation.  I dunno.  Send me pretty much any email, just so I have your address.  Even if you don’t know what to say.  That’s all you have to do.”

“Uncle and Reid get back from the Abyss pretty soon.  Getting to the location takes a day of travel, but it’s shorter if you’re close.  I think Uncle Abraham wants Reid to do the walk for the symbolism of it.  The momentum.”

“Do we interrupt?”

“Do whatever,” Raquel said, crumpling the paper in her hand.  “I have to guard this property or I’ll violate my oath.  Get going so I don’t have to sic my uncle’s Others on you, okay?”

“Before I go, want a laugh?” Avery asked.

“I’d be surprised if you could get me to smile,” Raquel said.  She looked so tired.  Avery felt the impulse to hug her but she was pretty sure Raquel would follow up on tearing her head off.

“You know how they bleep out curse words with asterisks?” Avery asked.

“Sure.”

“Want to see the longest bleeped out curse word around here?”

“How do you see-?”

Avery pushed an impulse at Snow.  Snow gave the signal.

All the assembled goblins, lined up more or less at the treeline, bent over, hands at butt cheeks, and displayed the ‘asterisks’ that were their buttholes.

“Gross,” Raquel said, turning and shielding her eyes.

But as she turned away, there was a smile on her face.  She tried to hide it.

Then she went inside.  The Others remained, familiars standing guard.

“That’ll do, I think,” Wye said.

“Will it?  You asked us to-”

“Save them.  Maybe that works for Raquel.”

“And Reid?  Do we intercept?  Is that possible?”

“Reid might have been impossible to save, from the moment Abraham Musser made the decision to put one of his children to the contest.  I might’ve asked the impossible.  It’s okay.  Thank you for reaching out to Raquel.”

“Sure.”

Avery backed up, not turning her back on some of the more dangerous looking Others, like the tall one in the raincoat, the young woman with the colors around her, or Rabbit Killer.

“That it?” Lucy asked.

“Guess it’s going to have to be,” Avery replied.

“She needed to get away,” Verona said.  “If she doesn’t leave today, why would she leave tomorrow?”

“I don’t know.  But she swore an oath to stand guard.  I think that helps him keep her in his grasp.”

“Ugh,” Verona replied.

“Yeah.”

“We’re swiftly approaching the one day mark.  One day, seven hours to go?” Lucy asked.

Avery checked her phone.  “Give or take a bit.”

Then, under her breath, she whispered, “We should do something about Bluntmunch.”

Lucy, with her earring, caught it.  She nodded.

She’d pass that to Verona.

Were Ramjam and Biscuit not part of it, then?  Kittycough?  Tatty wasn’t really a threat, was she?

Would Bluntmunch come alone?

The group was spreading out.  Freak was talking to Tatty, Cherry, and Biscuit, regaling them with a story about some vicious beatdown she’d given someone.  Tashlit stuck close to Verona.  Bluntmunch was on his own, giving orders to goblins.

“We’ll go from here to the perimeter, do a walk,” Bluntmunch said, voice deep.  “Look for those pansy wolves and shit.”

Avery nodded.

She glanced over at Gashwad.

Gashwad hadn’t really formed a group with many of the gangs.  He sometimes hung with Nat, or Butty, or Doglick.  Sometimes he was with Toadswallow, sometimes Blunt.

But where Cherry and the hulking Bluntmunch had signed on to Toadswallow’s thing about teaching kids, something that they’d lost some interest in as things had gotten more interesting in Kennet, Gashwad had never bought into that.  His name wasn’t sanitized, and he kind of did his own thing, attacking the baby tree god thing that had attacked Lucy and Guilherme.  Messing stuff up around the Blue Heron.

He was only a little bigger than the average, stooped over, nose like an axe blade, perpetually glaring, hair wiry and coarse atop his head, more like pubes than anything.  In a lot of ways, a very typical goblin.  In other ways, he had specialized talents.  He was a blasphemer, or whatever Toadswallow had called him.  He was good at wrecking stuff, poisoning it.  He’d made the Thorn in the Flesh they’d used a few times to poison practice.  Verona had used the thorn to turn the exploding rune on the door against Edith.

“Give us a minute, Doglick?” Avery asked, as she approached Gashwad.

Doglick yipped.

“Whaddyawant?” Gashwad asked.  “Can’t be asking me to be a familiar.  You’ve already got the best one.”

“Heh,” Avery replied.  “Snow’s cool, yeah.”

“What do you want?” Gashwad asked.  “Got a job for me?”

“Just a question.”

“Shoot.”

“Can we trust you?”

“I’m not dumb ya know,” Gashwad said.  He scrabbled up a tree to a branch, to get to a better vantage point to look at her and talk to her without having to crane his head all the way up.  Avery waved for the others to move on.

“Not dumb?”

“I know why you’re asking.  You’re wondering if I’m gonna turn on ya.”

“Are you?”

“Nah.  Nah, figured out what was going on, Edith asked, y’know?  Before you got her.”

“Did she?”

“Thought ya knew, catching her.  Nah.  She asked, but I figured it was too clever.  See, you ask a goblin like me to bash someone’s face in, and the person asking’s a goblin?  They’ll be all why haven’t you bashed that face already!?  Right?”

“Uhhh, sure.”

“If they’re a human, or human-ish, like Edith?  Will you bash that face?  Please?  But she didn’t ask like that.  She was cagey about it.  Bash that face at a future time, blah blah, except it wasn’t even bashing faces, it was specific talents, poison a practice.  You three’s.  I asked some questions about it, Edith didn’t know, like it wasn’t her idea.  Asked if I could bash faces while I was at it, and it was excuses, blah blah…  stank of fae bullcrap.”

“Would you have, if it didn’t?”

“I’m not a joiner like that.  Screw that.  I’m going kick top shit and I’m gonna do it myself.”

“You didn’t tell us this?”

“Halfway figured you all knew from Edith.”

“And the other half?”

“Huh?”

“Of the halfway?”

“Fuck if I know, I was kicking shit around and beating up wraiths.”

Avery frowned.

He jerked a thumb over his shoulder.  “We going to follow the rest of ’em?”

“Can I trust you, Gash?”

“Yeah,” Gashwad said.  “Sure.”

“You have any idea what they’re planning?  What’s going on?”

“Fuck if I know,” he said.  “But when Edith was asking about shit, she asked about the school.”

“The Blue Heron?”

“What I did, what was where.  I had a map.  Showed her.  Chance ta brag, yeah?  I did fuckin’ good, right?”

“You did pretty darn good back there.  We appreciated you coming.”

“Gonna go with the others.  Good luck not getting offed.”

“Yeah.  You too, I guess.”

Gashwad hopped down from the branch, scrambling through underbrush to catch up with the others.

Blue Heron?

She dialed Nicolette, breaking into a jog to catch up with the others, passing Gashwad as she ran.

“Hello?”

“Hey, no big, but Edith James, you remember her?”

“Yeah, yeah.”

“She was asking some Others about the Blue Heron, and I don’t know what she did with that info, but-”

“She did something?”

“Are you saying that like you’re asking, or because you know, or-?  I’m just worried because I think that’s where Charles is.  Maybe redouble security, let Ray know to watch out more than usual?”

“It is where Charles is.  He’s secure, though.  You think Edith passed on information about the Blue Heron to the Faerie you’re worried about?”

“I don’t know.  Might be Lis, or- other agents of Maricica’s?  Gash meddled with security, but-”

“That explains a lot,” Nicolette interrupted, “about the stuff going on.”

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