"You took a photo? When?"
"When we landed in the cabin. I don't know her, and she isn't in any of the Hand's roster available to me. I would've recalled that face, but I need to identify her, and I can't simply patch myself through the Mirror's network." Kaldar waved the photograph around to dry the ink. "Any magic contact will be intercepted, and given that we're in the field, we're under strict orders to limit our communications."
He took the insect out of the box, flipped it on its back, and gently pressed the thorax. A bronze panel slid down, revealing a small, clear crystal. Kaldar held the photograph to it, rattled off a string of numbers, and said, "Activate."
Tiny gears turned within the insect with a faint whir.
"Scan."
A ray of light stabbed through the crystal from the inside. The light slid over the photograph, and the crystal went dull.
"Encode," Kaldar ordered.
The insect's long legs moved and trembled. The panel over its thorax slid closed, hiding the crystal. Kaldar flipped it back on its feet.
"Home base."
The insect's back split. Gossamer wings emerged, shook once, and blurred into movement. The insect rose from the box, hovered above the grass, and streaked into the sky.
"We'll get an answer in a few days." Kaldar stood up. "Gaston, you and I have to see to the wyvern."
A moment later, Kaldar and Gaston went to get some water to mix some sort of special food for the wyvern.
Jack walked up to Audrey, holding Ling. "Could you please put her in the cabin for the next hour?"
"Of course." She took Ling from him. "Why?"
"Because I need to change, so I can hunt, and I don't want her to freak out." Jack went behind the cabin. Audrey took Ling inside and deposited her into a large wicker trunk where the quilts had been stored.
"Now stay here."
She shut the lid. Thin tendrils of magic extended from her hand, and she clicked the lock shut and went back outside.
A lynx trotted out from behind the wyvern on massive paws. As big as a large dog, his fur thick and luxurious, the big cat glanced at her with green eyes.
Audrey held very still.
The lynx's large ears with black tufts on the ends twitched. The lynx opened his mouth, showing her his pink tongue, winked, and took off for the trees.
Wow.
She turned to George, who was unrolling the sleeping bags. "Was that Jack?"
"Yes, my lady."
This was getting weirder and weirder and not in a good way.
Audrey perched on top of a heap of blankets. "You know, you really don't have to call me 'my lady.' I'm just an Edger."
George gave her a small smile that lit his angelic face. "I'm just an Edger, too."
"But I thought Kaldar said you were a blueblood?" That wasn't exactly what Kaldar had said, but fishing for more information never hurt.
"Our sister married a blueblood. We're just Edgers. People in the Weird remind us of where we come from quite often. In case we forget."
Ouch. They must've had a bad time of it. "I'm sorry."
"It's fine," George told her. "We're well taken care of. We go to a very good school, we have a large allowance, and Rose, our sister, and her husband love us very much. Someone would dislike us because of all that one way or another. The Edge is a convenient excuse."
Audrey sat next to him on a quilt. "If you're so well taken care of, why did the two of you stow away in Kaldar's cabin?"
"Because of Jack. The Weird has problems with changelings." George smoothed the sleeping bag in place. "Jack is difficult. He cares about other people, and he's kind, but he doesn't always get how people think. And he's very violent, which scares people. In Adrianglia, changelings like him are sent off to a military school. It's a very bad place. Jack is in a lot of trouble right now since he almost killed someone, and he thinks that Rose and Declan - that's her husband - are getting ready to ship him off. He thinks that Declan's best friend, who is a changeling, can convince them otherwise, but he's gone on a trip. We're buying time until he returns."
She caught the faint hint of disapproval in his tone. "So that's what Jack thinks. What do you think?"
George grimaced. "Jack is spoiled. Things are hard for him, but he isn't the only one who doesn't have it easy. He gets away with crazy things because he's a changeling and he's different. Jack could behave better, but he stopped trying. He decided that he's worthless and that nothing he could do would make any difference."
George rose and reached for a large cooler sitting by the wyvern. The muscles on his arms bulged. He strained. Audrey got up and took the other handle of the cooler, looking straight ahead without meeting his eyes. No need to make the boy self-conscious.
The weight of the cooler nearly toppled her over. The stupid thing was huge and likely full of ice. Eighty pounds at least. They dragged it over to the patch of clear grass.
George knelt by the cooler, and she sat in the grass across from him. Neither of them mentioned dragging the cooler, as if it hadn't happened.
"When we were little, Rose worked a really crappy job," George said. "It made her bone-tired, but she did it because she wanted us to have a better life. You asked me what I thought. I think Rose would work herself into the ground just so she wouldn't fail me and Jack. My brother misinterprets things. I don't know what he heard, but I doubt he's getting sent off. My sister loves him too much, and Declan never came across a problem he didn't attack straight on. He wouldn't palm Jack off on someone else. It would mean giving up."
Talking to George was almost like talking to an older wise adult. At fourteen, she supposed he was almost an adult by some standards, but still, his maturity was startling. Was there a fourteen-year-old boy somewhere in there, hiding behind all of that logic?
"I get why Jack ran away, but why did you?"
George popped the cooler open. "Because he needs someone to look after him. We barely know Kaldar, and Gaston and Jack don't care for each other."
She grinned. "You don't say."
"Jack baits him all the time until Gaston loses his patience and hits him, and then it's on." George rubbed the back of his head. "Gaston hits very hard."
"Speaking from experience?"
"Yes. I don't take it personally. We are a pain in his . . . head. I came because without me, my brother would do something rash and stupid. Wouldn't you do the same for your brother?"
Audrey shook her head. "No."
"Why?" George reached into the cooler and pulled out a big bird. It was black and very dead.