Ned was waiting for Riley at the base of the trail when she walked up there for dinner. He took her hand and tugged her up the hill behind him. “Come with me, young lady! We have a lot to discuss.”
“We do?”
“Yes. You need a job. The University has granted you permission to continue your classes from here, but that still leaves a lot of down time... summers and holidays and such. Our young people normally work then. And since you can’t leave camp to find work, we have to find work for you here.”
When Jane saw Riley step inside the cabin, she crossed the room and wrapped her arms around her.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I’m so sorry. About everything that's happened!”
“Thank you.” She loved that Jane said only that.
A full minute later, Riley sat down beside Ned, and Jane brought food to the table.
“You know,” Riley said, “I’ve been thinking about work since I first came to Greenwood. There are lots of things I can do to help around here. But I’m not sure any of those would translate into an actual job.”
Ned nodded. “That’s what I’ve been running into as well. What ideas did you come up with?”
“Well... I can clean. I don’t enjoy cleaning, so please don’t translate my saying this first into cleaning being my first choice or anything, but I can do it and do a good job.”
Jane chuckled. “We have people here who clean and do enjoy it. Don’t worry about that.”
“And I can cook, but I believe we’re covered there as well.” Although none of the young people had anywhere near as much experience in the kitchen as Riley, the camp had more older people in residence than younger, and many of them could cook circles around her.
“Yes. We have too many cooks,” Jane agreed. “In more ways than one.”
Ned chuckled.
Riley took a bite of her salad. “Alley told me that the women grow the crops here. I can’t grow anything to save my life — Reed’s the gardener in our family — but I can certainly help pick.”
“Harvesting is a committee, and they can always use more help. I’ll put you down for that,” Ned wrote something on a notepad. “Great! That will work for late summer.”
“I’m also good at painting. Rooms, not pictures,” she clarified.
“And decorating,” Jane told her husband. “I wonder if she could help James organize our collections?”
Riley’s heart sank as she pictured the enormous stack of relics in the chief’s parlor.
“There’s a thought.” Ned grinned as he made more notes. “And all the buildings at camp need to be painted, stained or refinished every so often. She can help with that, too.”
Jane raised her eyebrows. “You know, Riley, you might be able to help me. I have a lot of old patient information on paper,” she gestured to a corner of the cabin where several file boxes were stacked. “I’ve been trying to get it all scanned so I can get rid of those old hard copies, but I don’t have time to do it myself and see patients. Is that something you’d feel comfortable doing?”
“Sure. I don’t know anything about medical records specifically, but if you tell me where you want everything, I’ll scan it and put it there for you.”
“Great, ladies, great!” Ned beamed. “What else?”
Over dinner, the three of them came up with a list of twenty different tasks that Riley could do around camp.
Ned was pleased. “This is enough work to keep you busy — and safe — for quite some time. It’ll also mean working with several different clan members. That’s a great thing in your case since you don’t know everyone yet.” He put his pen down and began eating his meal.
Riley smiled. “Speaking of not knowing everyone, I can’t wait for you to meet Reed. Could you mentor him too? He could use it.”
Jane looked at her husband. “I’m not sure the elders will give Reed a mentor since he’s not a clan member. Ned, what do you think?”
“We haven’t discussed it, but I think we should give him one. I’ll bring that up at tomorrow’s meeting.” Ned made another note on his pad. “It won’t be me, though. He’ll be with Peter. Very few warriors grow up with a parent of the same animal, so when young people move here we try to provide them with that type of relationship. It’s important to spend time with someone who’s already been through what you’re going through.”
“I understand, but I want...” Riley blinked and swallowed. “I want him with me.”
Jane squeezed her hand.
Ned frowned. “Things are different in this case. I could mentor him unofficially, I suppose? I’ll see what James has to say.”
Riley bolted out the door after dinner, desperate to talk to Reed. As she ran past the Elder Lodge, she saw him stalking uphill with Xander in his wake.
“I came here to spend time with you.” Reed looked at her face and nodded. “And you were hoping for that, too. You’ve been crying.” He turned toward Xander, looking for the second time that day as though he wanted to rip someone’s head off his shoulders. “Are you keeping me away from her on purpose?”
“Not in the way that you imply.”
“Can we talk now? Please?” Riley asked Xander.
“Come with me.” Xander started walking across the field, heading toward the prayer circle.
Reed frowned at Riley. “Can’t we go wherever we want?”
“We could, but camp is full of people. And I can’t make you invisible. He’s taking us somewhere private.”
Xander did lead them to the prayer circle, then he morphed into his panther and went back down the hill. He sat at the base of the trail, guarding it so that no one else could join them.
“Best we can do,” Riley said with a shrug.
“We?” Reed scowled at her. “You drank the Kool-Aid.”
“Look, if I drank Kool-Aid by accepting these people’s kindness when I had nowhere else to go...”
Reed sighed and sat down on one of the benches. “This is the biggest clusterfuck that ever was! You in one clan, Jack in another, and I’m sneaking secret messages back and forth between you two, trying not to get anyone killed. Now Jack wants me to move in here so I can keep an eye on you, and the ‘Intelligence Committee,’” Reed made air quotes, looking irritated, “wants me to stay with the fire clans so I can keep an eye on them. Personally, I’d rather be here, but I think I’ll do you more good out there.”
Riley shuddered. “I don’t want you interacting with the Poxinosa.”
“Well, it’s no picnic, but there’s no one else in a position to do it.”
“Tell me this is not just you getting off on playing spy.”
“Playing? I am a spy.”
“Reed, this is serious!”
“No shit. I know you’re worried. You have a reason to be. That’s why this is necessary.”
“I think you should just stay here with me. Jack and Will aren’t going to tell you anything important unless you join their clan.”
“No, I’m not an insider to them. But there’s two things to keep in mind,” Reed said as he looked up at her. “First, they want me to look out for you. They are desperate to keep you safe, and they don’t trust the Greenwoods to do it. And second, because they’re Terrapins, they’re as much outsiders to the Poxinosa as I am to them. No one will ever let me in on everything that’s going on, you’re right. But I may be able to see enough when I’m with them to make a difference.”
Riley stood back a little and looked at him. “This is a different role for you... Reed the Crusader.”
“Don’t tell anybody,” he whispered.
She gave him a reluctant smile.
“Jack is ready to kill every one of these people.” Reed pointed around them as he spoke. “And Will has gone around the bend. You wanted him to be interested in you? Well, you got your wish. He’s obsessed. He’s been sleeping in your bed because it smells like you, he says. Cried his eyes out when he saw you’d put that picture of the two of you in a drawer.”
Riley flinched and looked away. “Tell them I miss them. I’ll talk to them as soon as I can.”
“As soon as your friends let you?”
Something like that. “Is Jack angry with me?”
“Of course not, Riles,” Reed said gently. “More than anything, he wants to know that you’re okay. Which reminds me,” Reed dug around in his pocket and pulled out a credit card. “Take this.”
Riley stared down at it. “It has my name on it.”
“That account has fifteen thousand dollars in it. It’s yours now.”
Her jaw dropped. “Where did Jack get that kind of money?”
“It’s not from Jack.”
Riley’s hands began to shake. She thrust the card back at her brother. “I can’t take Will’s money!”
“Then put it away somewhere!” Reed looked troubled. “I can’t give it back to him. He needs to know that you have it available if you need it. The idea of you being homeless, with no money and no way to support yourself, has had him in tears.” He paused, then added softly, “Us too.”
“I’m fine. Please tell them I’m fine! They have work for me here, and I…” Riley trailed off.
Someone was screaming. And a second later, they heard shouts coming from all around camp.
“What’s going on?” Reed asked her.
“I don’t know.” Riley shoved the card into her pocket. “Xander?”
“Come with me to the dining hall! Now!” Xander yelled. Still a panther, he raced in that direction.
Riley and Reed followed him across the field. Screams echoed through the valley. People were gathering in front of the dining hall, some of them crying. Many stared at Riley and Reed as they approached.
“Who is that?” Lady Nancy demanded, glaring at Reed.
“This is my brother, Lady Nancy. What’s going on?”
“There’s been another kidnapping!”
Xander, now in human form, burst back out of the dining hall. He looked wide-eyed and frantic. “Pash has been taken!”
“What? How?” Riley asked.
“She was lured past the edge of the shield,” Susanna replied as she stepped outside too. “One of the widowers felt the shield and confirmed it. Three men took her; two more were nearby. Katrina’s gone to the site to confirm the kidnappers’ identities. She knows what all of them smell like now.”
“She isn’t tracking them?” Lady Nancy roared, flickering briefly from human to bear and back again.
“There’s no way to catch them. They took her four hours ago. By now, they’re back at the Cut.”
Xander whimpered.
We can’t reach her, but Jack can! “Susanna, where’s your father?”
“Down at the chief’s house.”
“Come with me! Reed, Xander, you too.”
They all followed Riley down the hill as fast as she could go. When she got to the chief’s house, she opened the front door and went straight to the office.
Colonel Matthew was sitting at the desk. His face was streaked with tears. “Why are you Veiled?”
“Let me call Jack. He may be able to rescue Pash. If they took her to the same place they took Clarinda, then he knows where she is and how to get to her.”
The Colonel shook his head. “We know where she is. A rescue attempt won’t work.”
“Please! We may be able to prevent this! You’ve never had someone on the inside before, have you?”
“Even if you could persuade your brother to... by now they will have...” He shook his head. “There’s no time. And the only thing that will happen if we storm the Cut is that more people will die.”
“Are you saying we should just give up?!” Riley shouted at him, infuriated. How can he not at least try?
“I love Pashika!” The Colonel’s voice broke. “I watched her grow up. If I thought we could save her I would be the first in line to do it, even if it meant sacrificing my life. But there is nothing we can do. We know how they work. They act immediately. And it has been too long.”
No! “What if we call the Veiled police?”
Susanna stepped forward. “The Poxinosa took one of the Chillicothe after a bar fight last year,” she said. “But when the police got to the Cut, they couldn’t find it. The Poxinosa concealed the entrance with their powers, and the Chillicothe were investigated for making the 911 call.”
“We are on our own.” Colonel Matthew slowly stood. “No matter what we do now, by the time we got to her, Pashika would already be dead.”
Xander sucked in a ragged breath.
The Colonel clapped his much taller nephew on the shoulder. “You are now Head Warrior. I need you here, looking after these kids. We can’t stand for any more of them to go missing.” Colonel Matthew glanced over at Riley and Reed. “That includes you two.”
“Thank you, sir,” Reed murmured.
Colonel Matthew jerked his head toward the door as he wiped his eyes. “Get out of here. Stay away from the shield! Susanna, a word.”
Xander didn’t move. Riley took his arm and pulled him toward the doorway. He followed her outside. When they stepped off the porch, she heard him whisper, “Make us invisible.”
“Reed, go sit on the swing. I’ll be there in a minute.”
“Got it.”
Once Reed was far enough away that Riley’s light came back on, she made herself and Xander invisible.
He fell to his knees with a groan.
“She’s so innocent and gentle. All she has ever done is care for people!” He clutched his midsection. “She’s scared of everything, and they’re torturing her! They’re beating her and raping her and cutting off her fingers—” Xander’s voice broke.
Riley's heart stopped in terror.
“My best friend is dying right now and there is nothing I can do!”
Xander put his head in his hands, and he screamed.
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