A moment of startled silence. <I will watch. If asked, I will repeat your words.>

“Go soon,” he told the men. “Get back to your own village before nightfall.” He hesitated, his instinctive distrust of humans warring with his choice to work with the Intuits who lived in Sweetwater. “When you get back, you should inform your Intuit contacts that lines of communication may be severed between regions. I think we’ll be able to use telephones and send telegrams within each region, but we’re going to be isolated.”

“For how long?”

Forever? “I don’t know.”

“In that case, one of us will stay behind and start sending out the alert.”

Nodding to the men, Jackson walked into the communications cabin and greeted the Crow on duty. Maybe Simon already knew, or knew even more, and was already making plans for the Lakeside Courtyard. But the Wolfgard youngsters in Prairie Gold were vulnerable. And the Intuit village there was much like the one here—a small community that might not survive long if it was cut off from everyone else.

He removed the drawing from the mailing tube and studied the storm clouds in the half-finished drawing. Then he rolled it back up and reached for the phone. He would try calling Simon first, then Jesse Walker and Tolya Sanguinati. If he understood the Hope pup’s vision drawing, it wasn’t just the Elementals who were going to rip Thaisia apart.

To: All Intuit Villages and Settlements

Oncoming storms may sever lines of communication for an indeterminate time. Recommend that three or four villages with the best chance of surviving the storms become message hubs for their region. Also recommend that each village send a brief report to its designated hub daily to confirm status.

Protect your supplies and livestock as best you can. May the gods watch over all of us.

—Dispatcher at Sweetwater, Northwest Region

To: Pater

Hurricane coming up the East Coast. Support of HFL rapidly diminishing. Taking the last ocean greyhound leaving Toland this evening. Will be with you soon to celebrate Cel-Romano’s victory.

—NS

CHAPTER 45

Watersday, Juin 30

Simon barely had time to finish the phone call with Jackson and relay the information to Vlad before Steve Ferryman rushed in from the stock room of Howling Good Reads, dodging Vlad when the Sanguinati tried to block him.

“Have you seen this?” Steve set a piece of paper on the checkout counter.

Simon read the warning, then pushed the paper toward Vlad. “Haven’t seen this, exactly, but I just talked to Jackson Wolfgard, and he basically said the same thing.”

Steve blew out a breath. “Penny Sledgeman has appointed herself dispatch coordinator for our area.”

“As the mayor of Ferryman’s Landing, aren’t you supposed to make such appointments?” Vlad asked.

“Penny and my mom have been helping me deal with the deluge of requests for information about the cassandra sangue. This is going to be even more work. My mom and dad are working the barge to bring supplies to the island side of the village; my brother is moving as much as he can on the ferry. So if Penny wants to take this on, may the river bless her. I’m trying to get everyone warned in time to prepare.” Steve paused. “You think we’re going to lose power lines as well as phone? Well, no way for you to tell, is there? Uprooted trees can take down lines and knock out power in a whole area.”

Thinking about the cards Meg had selected in answer to a question, Simon looked at Vlad. To some degree, they would all feel the storms, but he had no reason to believe that the Intuit villages would face Namid’s teeth and claws, so why frighten Steve with too much truth?

<We should tell him something,> Simon said.

Vlad leaned on the counter. “It’s possible that power lines will come down if the storms become severe. But those can be fixed. The loss of communication between regions should be thought of as long-term, and the Intuits and terra indigene should consider how to compensate for that.”

They watched Steve consider the implications, and saw the moment when he understood, as they did, that the shape of Thaisia was about to change.

“What about radio?” Steve asked. “What about television? Those are forms of communication.”

<Do you think the Elders considered those?> Vlad asked Simon.

<No,> he replied. <And there’s no reason they will. It’s easy enough for the Elementals to silence those things if they become troublesome.>

“If used with care, those forms of communication probably will remain intact,” Vlad said.

“All right.” Steve rubbed the back of his neck. “I’ll head to the River Road Community now and make sure all the people working on the houses get everything closed down and secure. We’re using the old industrial building to store supplies except for food. Oh, and a couple of the new residents arrived yesterday. A Roy Panthergard? I gather he’s an enforcer for the community?”

“He’ll deal with problems if any come up,” Simon said vaguely. Steve could figure out for himself the end result of a problem meeting Roy’s claws. “Who else arrived?”

“Two pairs. They both said they were Lynxgard, but then one pair said they were Bobcats and the other said they were Lynxes.”

“A gard name can be specific to one form, but sometimes it serves as an umbrella for terra indigene who took their forms from related animals,” Vlad explained. “Beargard includes all kinds of bear forms. Panthergard includes what humans would call panthers, cougars, mountain lions, jaguars, leopards, and probably a few more names.”