“Oh, crap,” Joe told him. “I’m really sorry about what happened to Anwatan. I only just heard.”

Walker nodded. “Thank you.”

“Now, I don’t want to be crass,” Joe went on, “but unless we want a repeat of that, we need to track down these women. What do you know?”

“Only what I’ve just been told by your friends,” Walker said.

That crazy gaze of Joe’s turned to me, and I couldn’t repress a shiver. There was always something going on in his eyes, but today they looked positively feral.

I gave him a quick introduction to the others and after I’d filled him in on what we knew, he told us what he’d learned at the fairy court.

“I’m sorry about your girlfriend,” he told me, finishing up, “but she shouldn’t have tried to stonewall me like that.”

“She’s not my girlfriend.”

“Whatever.”

“And,” I added, “I’m not particularly happy with her at the moment, either. She seemed way more concerned about the politics of the court than in helping us find Jilly.”

Joe shrugged. “She’s a fairy—what did you expect?”

Walker nodded in agreement. His reaction was expected, all things considered, but I was a little surprised by Joe’s attitude. I’d never gotten a sense of animosity towards fairy from him before. But I guess I understood. While I felt a little guilty, siding with them instead of with Galfreya, she’d brought this on herself. My first loyalty was always going to be to Jilly, not to the fairies or their court.

“Do you trust them to actually help us?” Cassie asked.

“Don’t know,” Joe said. “But I’m not hanging around to find out. I left Jack and Grey back at Tatiana’s court. If something comes up, Jack knows how to find me.”

“Last night,” Walker said, “we held the second blessing ceremony for Anwatan.”

Joe nodded. “Like I said, I only just found out what happened to her.”

“That’s not why I’m bringing it up. I just thought you should know that cousins from the buffalo clans were in attendance. Many of them.”

“I’d heard she was close to Pijaki-tibik’s son—he still their chief?”

Walker shook his head. “He got voted out at their last clan gathering for being too moderate. Minisino’s their chief now and he’s more hard-line—like the Warrior’s Society up on the rez.”

“Considering what happened to your daughter,” Joe said, “they’ve got my sympathies.”

“I know I should be feeling the same,” Walker said. “Moon knows, I want those bogans brought to some kind of justice. But with the buffalo clans mustering under Minisino . . . this could lead to a war.”

“Maybe, maybe not,” Joe told him.

But Walker wasn’t finished.