“Ask around,” Jack told him. “He gets some kind of kick out of pretending to be me. I think it’s because I was the runt of the litter, but in the end, I turned out stronger and smarter than he could ever hope to be.”

“And more humble, as well.”

Jack shrugged. “I know my limitations. But I know my strong points, too. I’m just stating the facts. I’ve never met you before. I don’t owe you anything. But if collecting what my deadbeat brother owes you is what it’ll take for us to close this deal, you’ve got it.”

“No, that’s all right,” Ayabe said. “I can collect my own debts.”

“So, will you help me?”

“I can try. But I don’t hold the sway over the cerva clans the way you might think I do, and Minisino’s never been one to take advice.”

“All I can ask is that you try. I’ve got a friend getting the word to Raven. Maybe the two of you together can convince him to let us find a better solution to the problem.”

“Raven, you say?”

“Is that a problem?”

Ayabe slowly shook his head. “No. I’m just . . . surprised to hear that he’ll be involved.”

“Don’t know that he is—not yet. But we’re working on it.”

Ayabe pushed himself away from the tree he was leaning against and straightened up.

“Well, if nothing else,” he said, “this should at least prove interesting.”

It’s not about whether or not it’s interesting, Jack thought. It’s about saving lives.

But he kept it to himself. At least Ayabe was on board. With any luck, maybe they could actually defuse this whole situation before it exploded and took all of them down.

Far from Home

Lizzie

That couldn’t have been Geordie, Lizzie thought, staring harder at the second-floor window of the battered old farmhouse where she thought she’d seen his face. How could it have been? Except, what was so implausible about Geordie suddenly appearing here? Hadn’t she already been shown that anything could happen in this place? Anything.

Real, not real. How were you supposed to know anymore?

She might have actually seen Geordie, or it might have been just another piece of this freak show she was stuck in—trapped in this stupid dream world inside Jilly’s head.

If you were looking for unbelievable, how was that for unbelievable? Not to mention totally unfair.

How had she ended up here anyway? Better yet, why had she ended up here? She’d never wanted very much out of life: the chance to play her fiddle, the companionship of travelling with her friends, trying to be a good person, maybe someday finding that special someone. But she’d have settled for just getting along without any particularly dramatic crises.