They weren’t laughing at all of you. “They ate all the Wolf cookies in the sorting room too.”

“They... Well! Can you bite them for doing that?”

Even the thought made him want to hide under the desk. “No. But... they might have jumbled things up a bit when they were looking around. Henry, Nyx, and Merri Lee will straighten up the office, but I wanted you to know in case something wasn’t exactly right.”

“Then I’ll be prepared if something is different.” Meg didn’t say anything else for a moment. “I’ll check with Eamer’s Bakery and see when they can send more cookies.”

“You’re all right?” Her voice sounded tired.

“Jester, Sam, and I have been reading a Wolf Team story aloud for Skippy and the ponies. I’m the narrator and the human female who faints a lot.”

Meg sounded sour about that. Maybe he should invite some of the Wolf Team writers to spend a few days in the Courtyard. He’d bet a month’s worth of cookies that there wouldn’t be human females fainting in future stories if they did visit.

“Jester reads the parts of the bad humans and the Wolf Team leader, and we’re both helping Sam read the Wolf Team bits,” she continued. “We were just taking a break for drinks and snacks when you called.”

That explained her tired voice. “Stay there a couple more hours. Then I’ll pick you up and we can check out the Green Complex and the garden.”

“Okay. Do you need to talk to Jester? He says you probably already know what you need to.”

“I don’t need to talk to him, but I do have other calls to make.”

He hung up, wishing he could be reading the Wolf Team with her. But the sooner he dealt with the human things, the sooner he could take care of the things that really mattered to him.

•••

“Henry?”

Henry stopped wiping off the table in the back room of the Liaison’s Office and considered the tone of Merri Lee’s voice. Not, Help, help, I’ve seen a mouse. More like, I made a rattlesnake angry. What should I do?

Dropping the rag on the table, he strode into the sorting room at the same time Nyx flowed in from the front room.

“What’s wrong?” Nyx said.

Merri Lee pointed at the two cards on the counter above the drawer that held Meg’s prophecy cards.

The first card was a beautifully rendered but terrifying representation of what Henry guessed was one of the Elders’ forms. Next was half a Wolf cookie. Last was a card that had a simple drawing of a smiley face.

“That is sooooo wrong,” Merri Lee said, shuddering.

“Yes, it is.” Henry picked up the cookie. “Leaving food on the counter will attract mice.”

She gave him a look that told him he’d missed the point.