Jesse looked at all the terra indigene in the room. “What does he smell like to you? Why would a Panther, seeing a human, not see prey? Why did none of your kind make use of the … meat … left in that place of death?”

Noticing the sharp way Tolya looked at her, Jesse thought, He knows why I’m asking about the boy’s smell. And he suspects the same thing I do.

“If Joshua survived, could there have been other boys in other places who survived because they were raised by someone other than the humans who had been their original keepers?” she asked.

“You’re wondering if other male offspring who were at the breeding farms somehow escaped when they were taken away to be slaughtered,” Tolya said.

“Yes,” Jesse replied.

“Why kill the males?” Stazia Sanguinati asked. “Wouldn’t you want them to breed with the sweet bloods?”

“One stallion with the traits and bloodlines you want can cover a lot of mares,” Jesse said.“And based on what I saw yesterday at the saloon, Joshua has too dominant and aggressive a personality to be easy to handle and would have caused too much trouble at a breeding farm. I have a feeling that was true of any male toddler who managed to escape.”

Silence. She felt their anger crawling over her skin like bugs she couldn’t see. So many of their forms mated for life or raised the dominant pair’s young as a pack effort. She’d heard about the abandoned cassandra sangue, had even entertained the idea of fostering one or two of the girls who had been rescued. And everyone had heard about the callous treatment of the infant boys.

“You think Joshua is an Intuit,” Tolya said. “And yet you’ve seen him many times in town with Saul and said nothing about this until now.”

Neither did you. “I didn’t get a feeling about him until yesterday when he said that Simple Life man was a marsh. I knew what he meant. Treacherous. Dangerous. And I had the feeling that women of a certain age and look wouldn’t be safe around that man.”

“Like Barbara Ellen and Lila Gold?” Tolya asked.

She nodded. “Joshua sensed it moments before I did. But I hadn’t sensed Joshua’s nature, which is why I think he’s not Intuit in the same way that I am.”

“Does it matter?” Virgil asked. “He sort of smells like you under the scent of Panther. Well, smells more like you than us.”

Jesse studied the Wolf. “Smells like me?”

Virgil thought for a moment. “Not quite like you. You smell like prey. He … doesn’t.” He looked at Saul.

Saul shrugged. “He didn’t smell the same as the humans at the trading post, but we just figured it was because he was ours.”

“The cassandra sangue don’t smell like prey,” Tolya said. “The terra indigene don’t drink their blood or eat their flesh because they are Namid’s creation, both wondrous and terrible. Their blood was used to create drugs a few months ago; drugs that could make someone so passive they were helpless or make someone so aggressive they would attack and kill without provocation.”

“I remember hearing about gone over wolf and feel-good,” Jesse said. “I hadn’t realized those drugs were made from the blood prophets’ blood.”

“They were—and they affect humans and terra indigene alike.” Tolya looked at the rest of the terra indigene gathered in the room. “I met Meg Corbyn, who lives in the Lakeside Courtyard. Her scent is unlike any other kind of human. She is not prey, despite the allure of her blood. Joshua doesn’t have the same allure, but …” He turned to Saul. “Did your aunt react to Joshua’s blood when she licked a cut or scrape?”

“Not that I remember.” Saul frowned. “I remember her being happy that she had a cub again, even if he wasn’t Panther.” He focused on Jesse. “Why does it matter?”

Jesse’s right hand tightened on her left wrist until it hurt, until she knew there would be a bruise, as she struggled to explain what she was feeling. She usually didn’t have feelings about people she hadn’t met. “If one boy was saved, maybe there were others who escaped, who were found, who were saved by terra indigene who could make room for a young human in their family. Maybe an Intuit family or a Simple Life family found a lost boy and raised him as their own. Maybe someone has found boys like that in the past few months.”

Tolya suddenly tensed, and she knew she’d finally said what she needed him to understand.

“Saul’s family accepted that Joshua sensed things about the world that they could not, and that acceptance may be true for any terra indigene who finds a child like him,” Jesse said. “But it might help them to know that these boys might be the children of cassandra sangue, might claim to see things that make no sense. And I think Intuit and Simple Life communities should be told as well. An Intuit boy adopted by someone in an Intuit village? His abilities won’t be unusual.”

“But an isolated Simple Life community might feel threatened by a child who senses things, who warns of danger before it happens,” Tolya finished. “The humans might think it’s a sign of illness or madness if they don’t know it’s normal.”

Or they might think the child is evil and kill him, she thought. “It could still be a sign of illness or madness, but it might not be. And it might give comfort to the people who found the dead children, who found the blood prophets who had been left to die, that not all of the unwanted children died. They just followed their instincts to a better place.” Jesse looked at Saul and smiled.

He studied her and nodded, finally satisfied that she posed no threat to his human kin.

“I will send word to the terra indigene,” Tolya said. “Can you contact the Intuit communities?”

Jesse nodded. She was part of a group of Intuits who received information about the cassandra sangue through Steve Ferryman, who lived on Great Island. She would send an e-mail to everyone on the list. The people in the Midwest would receive her message. So would the Intuits manning the communications cabin that could transfer messages to the cabin that was just across the Northeast border. They would send it on to Steve.

“Speaking of Simple Life, what do we do with the howler I put in jail yesterday?” Virgil asked.

“The other men insist they only know what he told them, that he asked to join them at the border station so he wouldn’t have to travel alone,” Garnet said.

“He had a ticket and clothes in a carryall,” Virgil said. “The clothes smelled like him and matched what he and the other Simple Life males were wearing. So he is what he says he is.”

“Being Simple Life doesn’t mean he’s a good man,” Jesse said.

“I’ll call the train station closest to the border and see if anything happened near there recently,” Nicolai said.

“Ask if there was a news report involving women of a certain age and look,” Jesse said. “The man might have needed to disappear quickly if he had behaved badly.” A lame way of talking about assault … or worse … but she didn’t know what the terra indigene thought about such things.

Virgil snarled. “Well, I’m not calling human law and asking about this human.”

“Then what should we do with him?” Yuri asked.

“We could just eat him,” Virgil replied. When Tolya said nothing, the Wolf growled, “Fine. We don’t eat him, but I’m still not calling any humans. When is that deputy going to show up?”

“She’ll be arriving on Sunsday,” Tolya said.

“I’m going to have to deal with that human until then?”

“Why don’t we put him on the northbound train?” Nicolai said. “The westbound train coming in this afternoon follows a route up to the border of the High North regions.”

“That’s just passing along the problem to someone else,” Jesse protested.

Nicolai smiled, showing a hint of fang. “Not really passing along a problem.”

It took her a moment to realize what he meant. Not passing along a problem; passing along a meal.

Bennett’s town council didn’t want to start a panic among the new arrivals by killing a man when they didn’t have a better reason than they didn’t like him. But they also knew it wasn’t likely that he would survive long enough to reach another human settlement where he might pose a threat to the females living there.

The meeting ended with the agreement to send the Simple Life man north, and the terra indigene headed off to their various businesses and tasks. Only Tolya remained, watching her.

“Your distress is a scent in the air,” he said quietly. “Predators are attracted by scents like that because they signal prey that is, perhaps, easier to bring down.”

Jesse opened her right hand and stared at the bruise on her left wrist. “Are you going to have a token human on the town council?”

“No. The terra indigene reclaimed Bennett. We run this town. The Elders won’t tolerate this place continuing to exist if we don’t.” Tolya leaned toward her. “And if you, who should know you are safe when dealing with us here, feel distressed by our ways, then how would a human who hasn’t earned our trust going to survive being in a room with us?”

“I wasn’t distressed about being in the room with all of you. I was distressed by the subjects we were discussing.”

“The reason doesn’t change the scent or our reaction to it,” he said gently. “But I will keep your question in mind, and if we find one or two humans who can earn our trust as you have, we will consider having them speak to us about human concerns in an official capacity.”

That was more of a concession than she’d expected—until Tolya added, “And you could attend such meetings as Prairie Gold’s representative. As you’ve pointed out many times, your town and your people have a stake in Bennett’s survival.”

Now, that was more like what she’d expected.

CHAPTER 13

Earthday, Messis 12

Jana repacked her toiletry kit and left the public showers in the train station. She handed the attendant the washcloth and towel, along with the ticket that confirmed how many items she had received, so that she could get back the deposit she’d had to put on the darn things—as if someone would want to take a threadbare washcloth and scratchy towel.

Then again, those things might be a luxury for some people at this point. At least she’d thought to bring some of her own soap in a waterproof container and didn’t have to use the bar soap that was supplied for everyone’s use.

She was grateful that she didn’t have to spend money on a hotel room in order to take a shower, which some of her more fastidious fellow passengers had done, but this hadn’t been something she had considered about the reality of traveling a long distance. Their car had toilets and small sinks to wash your hands and splash water on your face, but that didn’t alter the fact that after two days of travel, everyone was starting to smell a bit ripe.