“We already buy from them,” Vlad said. “They don’t publish that many books.”

“They can expand a little to publish more. Besides, if Ocean is going to strike out for killing some of the Sharkgard—and dumping poison in a part of her water—there may not be any books in Toland left to buy.” He looked at Stavros. “What about you? Do you...” He stopped. Despite being the Courtyard’s leader, he wasn’t the one who should offer Stavros a place here at Lakeside. Not when Erebus was sitting right there.

Erebus smiled. “There will be many in the days ahead who would like a place in Lakeside, but too many predators in the same land causes strife. However, I would like Stavros to have a place here when he is not in Hubb NE, keeping watch over the human government. I think they will need careful watching in the days ahead.”

Simon drank the rest of the lemonade in his glass. Was it his imagination, or had it gotten a little more sour while it sat? “You’re not going to tell any of the humans, are you?”

“Why should we?” Stavros replied. “They brought this on themselves.”

“Not all of them.”

“There are no sweet blood in Toland now,” Erebus said. “Stavros and the government agent, O’Sullivan, removed them.”

“I wondered if Lieutenant Montgomery has family there.”

Silence.

“Ah,” Erebus finally said. “The helpful policeman. What could you tell him?”

Simon thought about that. No way to know when Ocean would strike. If too many humans tried to leave Toland, where would they go? Except for the human farms that supplied food for the city, there wasn’t any human-controlled place between Toland and Hubb NE, which was an hour’s train ride away. There was only wild country and the terra indigene, who, like Ocean, had less and less tolerance for the clever monkeys.

“I don’t know what I could tell him,” Simon said.

“Captain Burke’s cousin is visiting all the way from Brittania,” Henry said. “It would not be strange to ask if any of Lieutenant Montgomery’s kin were planning to visit him and the Lizzy.”

“Meg should ask. Otherwise Montgomery will wonder why we’re suddenly so interested in his kin.”

Everyone agreed that was a good idea. Meg asked questions. She talked to humans about all kinds of things. She might already know if Montgomery still had kin in Toland.

Nothing more to say. Not tonight. Simon wanted to shift to Wolf and run for a while in the moonlight. He wanted to curl up next to Meg while she watched TV or read a book. He wanted humans to go back to being annoying instead of a real threat.

Nothing more to say. Except...

“There’s trouble here too, but we’re not leaving Lakeside.”

“No, we’re not,” Erebus agreed.