Page 159 of Dawn Caravan
She didn’t speak for a long time. “I think we don’t have to be one thing. Humans try to classify everything because it makes life less confusing for them. But you are not human anymore.”
“No.” And Ben was learning to be okay with that. “Giovanni told me years ago that whatever we were, we were more alive together than we were separately.”
“Hmm.” Tenzin looked up and over Ben’s shoulder, narrowing her eyes at something only she could see. “I think he was right.”
He traced a finger along an old silver line that ran from her belly to her hip. “Are you going to tell me about them?”
She looked into his eyes and then away again. “Someday.”
He nodded. “I’m not going anywhere.”
“I know.”
* * *
By the timethey headed to Rome, he felt ready to meet the world again.
“We need a proper bed for that house.” Ben looked down as they left Venice behind. “I’ll call Silvio when we get back to New York.”
They flew above the clouds and out of the swarm of insect life that hovered over the lagoon. When the city lights were only a twinkle on the ground, Tenzin set a relaxed pace. After all, it was only an hour or so to Rome.
“Where do you want to stay in the city?” she asked.
Ben frowned. “Giovanni’s house of course.”
“Because you have options now.” Tenzin flew in front of him and turned, flying leisurely through the deep blue sky. “You should probably know about the safe houses now. Did Tai tell you?”
Ben knew there was probably nothing that would hit her while she was flying, but Tenzin flying backward still made him nervous. “Can you not?”
“Not what?”
“Um…” He was being ridiculous and thinking like a human again. “What are you talking about? Safe houses?”
“They’re a little like human embassies, I suppose. Consulates? I’m not sure of the word.” She shook her head. “They are little pieces of Penglai Island in different cities around the globe.”
“Oh right,” Ben said. “Yeah, like embassies.” And that was a bird barely missing her shoulder. “Tenzin, can you just—”
“There are safe houses with facilities in all the major cities of the world.” She completely ignored him and any random objects flying in her vicinity. The wind whipped her hair around in a riot while birds darted this way and that out of their path.
Ben asked, “So there’s one of these safe houses in Rome?”
Tenzin did a barrel roll before she answered. “Where did you think I stayed when we were in Rome?”
Ben had never really thought about it. He stayed at his uncle’s house near the Pantheon, and Tenzin was always just… around. Come to think of it, he’d never asked her where she stayed. “I always assumed you had a house.”
“I don’t have houses everywhere. How many houses do you think I have?”
“I mean, you have one in Venice, so I didn’t want to assume—”
“Seventeen.”
Ben blinked. “Seventeen what? Seventeen…?”
“Houses.”
Ben’s jaw nearly dropped. “You have seventeen houses?”
“More like twenty, but not all of them are houses. One is a cave in Bali and there’s one in Turkey that couldn’t be classified as—”
