“I’ll do that. We didn’t have any trouble with bison being killed around here, but if trouble is heading west, I’d like to know about it.”

“Let me know when you’re coming. We’ll meet the train and arrange transportation.” He’d make a call to Jerry Sledgeman on Great Island and see if Sledgeman’s Freight could haul livestock.

“Our Hope and your Meg,” Jackson said. “They could be wrong.”

“One of them, maybe, but not both.” Not when Jean was seeing a Thaisia cleansed of so many human cities. “Vlad has a number for the motel where Nyx and Tolya are staying. He’ll call her so that she knows you’re coming.”

“All right. Simon? Tell Meg we’re doing our best to keep Hope well.”

“I’ll tell her.” As he ended the call, Simon thought about Jean’s prophecy and what it meant to the Others. He looked at Vlad. “We can’t trust humans anymore.”

“Did we ever trust them?”

“No. But we counted on their desire to survive being stronger than their greed. I don’t think we can count on that anymore.”

Dear Jean,

Earthday in the Courtyard is a day when the stores are closed and the Others stay feathered or furry for the entire day because they don’t have to interact with humans. But it was hot and humid today, and Henry said he and the Wolves usually spend time around the swimming hole on a day like this. It’s not a hole full of water; it’s actually the small lake in the Crowgard’s part of the Courtyard. Anyway, Simon invited some of my human friends to come with us. It was a test, I think, to see how they would behave in a part of the Courtyard that was usually off-limits to humans besides me.

Theral MacDonald rode in the BOW with me and Simon. Merri Lee, Michael, Ruth, and Karl rode bicycles. I’m not sure if the Others had never seen bicycles before or if they had never considered them as a useful form of transportation, but something about the bicycles made the Wolves quite excited. There was a lot of sniffing once we reached the lake, but everyone was polite and didn’t pee on the tires.

The lake is one of three that, along with the creek, supply a lot of the fresh water in the Courtyard. The Others drink it, swim in it, and catch fish to eat. Michael and Karl wanted to know what kind of fish, but no one was interested in shifting to human form to tell them, and I didn’t know, so that’s something they can discuss tomorrow.